Christian gave Lucille one last scratch behind the ears and stood. “We should probably head out. Don’t want to overstay our welcome.”
“Nonsense,” Frank said, waving a hand. “You saved my knees and Lucille’s dignity.”
Sara rose to her feet. “Let me wrap some cookies for you to take. Least I can do.”
“That’s really kind of you,” Dave said. He meant more than just the cookies. The easy warmth they’d been welcomed with, the familiar, looping conversations between Sara and Frank—patterns formed over decades together—left his chest aching a little. He hoped he and Christian would have that one day, that deep, abiding knowledge of each other. The gentle tolerance and quiet affection.
“If you stick around, come by again,” Frank said, standing with them. “Sara’ll bake something fresh.”
“We’ll hold you to that,” Christian said, his smile a little wry as he glanced down at the dog still glued to his side. “Assuming Lucille lets us leave.”
He took a step and Lucille went with him, tail waving hopefully.
“You’ve got ten seconds to go find a chew toy,” Christian told her. “Otherwise I’m filing for a restraining order.”
Frank held her collar, and she stared longingly after them as they headed down the path, Dave clutching a small paper-wrapped parcel containing cookies. He hadn’t told Sara he was vegan and had claimed a large breakfast when declining them earlier, not wanting to risk making things awkward. It wasn’t as if Christian would object to eating them all.
Chapter Ten
CHRISTIAN
They turned left at the end of the road, heading back to the center of town.
“I’m not sure it gets us any further forward, but it’s interesting that things with the pack changed right around the time Jesse’s pack was murdered,” Dave said. “Did you see Barton last night?”
A coldness crept down Christian’s spine, out of proportion with the threat the alpha had posed. At least, he hoped it was.
“Yeah,” he said slowly. “Didn’t talk to him, but there was something about him… Like Matt, only doesn’t use his powers for good.” He flashed a quick grin, letting Dave know he didn’t mean that seriously. Maybe. “He was only watching, but he came across like a mean fucker.”
“D’you think he sent half the pack away, or they left because they didn’t want to be part of his setup?”
Christian sighed. “How the fuck wouldIknow?”
It came out sharper than he meant, because he hated uncertainty. But Dave didn’t flinch. He knew the frustration wasn’t aimed at him.
“Maybe he just kept the mean ones,” Dave said. “Maybe that’s why he’s isolated them, turning them half-feral so they’ll fight for him.”
They’d been having such a good day, and he didn’t need this. Dave didn’t understand fighting, what made a man want it, and sometimes he cloaked that lack of understanding in what felt like unearned judgment.
“Being feral or isolated has nothing to do with choosing to fight,” he said, and he tried to make it calm, not to lose the sense of peace they’d had between them just a moment earlier. “No, I figure he doesn’t like non-shifters. He’s not exactly alone in that, is he?”
He cut a sideways glance at Dave, who grimaced. “Guess not,” he admitted. “Though if Justin had the chance to get out, I’m not sure why he’s still sticking around.”
The scent of fresh peanut butter cookies was too much for Christian, and he dived into the package Sara had given them. “Sure he has his reasons,” he mumbled through a mouthful of sweet, chewy goodness, not knowing who Justin was but not really caring either.
“The other thing is,” he said indistinctly, as he reviewed the conversation with Sara and Frank, “it’s a hell of a coincidence the Council had its attention on the town about the same time.”
“Shit,” Dave said. “I didn’t pick up on that. You don’t think…”
“I don’t know,” Christian said honestly. “Just, there’s a member of the Council after Jesse and involved in the murder of Cale’s pack, and now we know thatsomeoneon the Council had something to do with this town. It’s not like a councilor would have come down here themselves to sort things out, but if their eye was drawn here and…”
He paused and blew out an impatient breath. “Honestly, I have no idea how they might have come to know about Jesse’s pack, given how carefully it was hidden away. But even if it’s just a coincidence, I don’t like it.”
Dave didn’t like it either, from the way he shoved his hands in his pockets and stared at his feet. Then he pulled out his phone.
“We should let Matt know anyway,” he said. “He might know who West is and get a fuller story from him.”
He sent Matt a text as they walked, and had only just put his phone away when Christian squinted at something up ahead and came to a halt.
