"And maybe the bear shifter who had to go to the hospital," Ezra finishes, voice small now. "We were just making conversation. We didn't think—"
"You didn't think." The words come out as a snarl. "You didn't fucking think."
I'm already grabbing my phone, already pulling up Toby's number. It rings once, twice, three times.
Voicemail.
"Fuck." I call again. Voicemail again. "FUCK."
"Knox, what—" Jason starts.
"He's human," I snarl, spinning to face them. "He's never been with a shifter before. He doesn't know how this works. He doesn't understand—"
"Doesn't understand what?" Vaughn's voice comes from the back door. He walks in wiping his hands on a rag, takes one look at my face, and stops. "What happened?"
"These idiots told Toby about every person I've ever fucked." My voice is shaking. I don't care. "Made him think he's just another warm body. Another name on a list."
"He's not?" Ezra asks, and he sounds genuinely confused, and I want to put my fist through the wall.
"Of course he's not! I claimed him. Ibithim. That mark on his shoulder is going to scar."
The silence is deafening.
"You claimed him," Jason breathes. "Actually claimed him? Like, mate-claimed?"
"Yes."
"But you've never—"
"I know I've never." I'm pacing now, phone clutched in my hand, willing it to ring. "All those others—they were nothing. Bodies. Stress relief. I never claimed any of them. Never wanted to. Never even considered it."
"How were we supposed to know that?" Silas asks. "You never said anything. You never told us he was different."
"I didn't think I had to! I thought it was obvious!"
"Knox." Vaughn's voice is calm, steady, the voice of reason he always uses when I'm losing control. "We didn't know. You're right, you should have told us, but we genuinely didn't know. What can we do to fix it?"
"I don't know if it can be fixed." I call Toby again. Voicemail. "He won't answer. He won't—fuck, he probably thinks I saymineto everyone. Thinks the bath and the fruitand the—" I break off, throat tight. "He thinks none of it meant anything."
"So tell him it did," Jason says. "Go to his apartment. Explain."
"And say what? 'Sorry my pack made you feel like a cheap hookup, but actually you're special'? He won't believe me. Why would he believe me?"
"Because it's true," Vaughn says.
"He doesn't know that. He just knows I've fucked half the shifters in the city and apparently one of them ended up in the hospital." I round on Ezra. "Why would you tell him that? Why would you think that was an appropriate thing to say?"
"I was just—it was a joke—"
"A joke. You made him think I hurt people. That I'm dangerous."
"You are dangerous," Silas points out quietly.
"Not to him! Never to him!" I'm shouting now. Can't stop. "I would never—he's mine, don't you understand? He's mine and I would die before I hurt him and now he's gone and he thinks—"
The front door slams open hard enough that it bounces off the wall and nearly hits the person coming through.
Robin.
