Tristan squeezed his hand even tighter. “He won’t touch you again. I won’t let him,” he said, low and fierce.
Matt didn’t respond immediately. His gaze drifted toward the window, thoughtful. “Could be. Or perhaps Cale sent him off on a job. We don’t know enough yet.”
He looked around the table. “Either way, we play it safe. Karl, I want double patrols starting now. Everyone, stay alert—a single wolf’s easier to overlook than a pack.” Then he turned to Colby. “And you stay away from the perimeter. If Nicoiscircling, the last thing we need is him catching sight of you and deciding to come onto our territory.”
Colby swallowed, emotion rising in his chest, too tangled to name. He’d brought this threat down on them, yet Matt wasn’t punishing him. He was trying toprotecthim. And for some reason, that made Colby’s throat ache.
“So we have a strong possibility about who ordered the hit and why, but it doesn’t mean it’s the right answer.” Matt continued. “Any other thoughts, ideas that come to mind—come and talk to me. And in the meantime, we get on with normal life, and for fuck’s sake, we knownothingabout what happened to Cale’s pack.”
“Because if we do, we become a threat, someone who can point fingers in the right direction,” Karl concluded. “And just when we find out someone on the Council is a homicidal megalomaniac with their own private army, we’re about to host a crowd of them like a charity brunch. What could possibly go wrong?”
Colby stared, frozen in place. Had Karl seriously just said that to Matt? Out loud? In front of witnesses? He braced, waiting for the fallout.
But Matt just rolled his eyes. “Always a ray of sunshine, Griffin,” he said. “Now clear out, all of you, and get on with what needs doing around here.”
Chairs scraped on the tiled floor as people got to their feet. Not sure what to do next, Colby welcomed Tristan’s hand in his, tugging him toward his room. But then Tristan hesitated in the middle of his room.
“I need to put my clothes from this morning in the washer,” he said apologetically, squeezing Colby’s hand before letting go. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
He picked up the clothes that were still on the bathroom floor, and held them away from him, carrying them as if they were poison.
Colby sat on the edge of the bed and waited for him, trying to ignore the sick pit in his stomach that had opened up at the thought of Nico coming after him. That fear was more emotion than he’d felt after hearing what had happened to his pack, and he wondered how it could be that Tristan was more upset about their fate thanhewas.
Chapter Thirty
TRISTAN
Tristan got to the mudroom to find Bryce there on the same errand. He shoved his clothes into the washer along with Bryce’s and stood there feeling awkward as Bryce set the machine going. Until Colby, Tristan would always have gone to Bryce for comfort.
He realized now he hadn’t even wondered how Bryce was holding up, when he’d actually seen what had happened at the camp and not just imagined it, which was bad enough.
“Are you okay after, you know?” he blurted awkwardly.
Bryce turned to look at him, and the fine lines at the corners of his eyes were more pronounced than usual. “Karl took over the body count,” he said, neatly sidestepping the question. “He’s seen so much there’s no room left in his head for new nightmares, or so he says.”
And then there was an uncomfortable silence, so unlike their usual interaction that Tristan hurt with it. As he looked at Bryce,saw the tightness in his face, for the first time he wondered if Bryce was hurting just as much as he was. But for as long as Bryce kept judging Colby, Tristan couldn’t pretend everything was the way it used to be.
“Colby’s okay,” he said pointedly, because Bryce hadn’t asked and it had beenhisdamn pack that had been slaughtered.
“Yeah. Kind of hard not to notice that,” Bryce said.
“What do you mean?” Tristan demanded.
“I mean he just sat there like nothing had happened. It’s not natural, Tris.” He folded his arms, his eyes serious on Tristan’s. “It’s what I said about him before. I’m not saying it’s his fault after what he’s been through, but he’s not okay. I don’t know if he ever will be. And I just want you to see that, before you get so deep in trying to save him that you forget to protect yourself.”
“You don’t talk about him like that,” Tristan said, and his voice fuckingwobbled. “I won’t let you.”
“Letme? I’m still beta of this pack.” Bryce’s voice lashed the air with uncharacteristic temper.
Tristan’s throat ached, and he wondered how it had possibly come to this between them. “You are,” he said quietly. “And I respect that. I respect you.” He drew a shaky breath. “I could never forget the way you took me in and everything you’ve done for me. But you can’t treat him like this. Matt doesn’t.”
“Matt’s too caught up in what’s going on with Jesse right now to see in front of his nose,” Bryce snapped.
“Is that right?” Matt’s voice, cold and deadly and very, very quiet, sliced through the air.
“Matt—I just—”
“I heard what you said, Bryce.” Matt prowled into the mudroom. “This is my pack, and Ineverlose sight of it. You want to challenge that?”
