“Karl’s patrolling,” Tristan said. It was a simple enough answer, but something in the way Tristan said it made Dave suspect there was more that he wasn’t saying. Before he could follow that up, Tristan continued, “Matt and Jesse are still in Washington, and Bryce is there too. With Tom.”
“Who’s Tom? And why’d everyone go to Washington?” Christian demanded, dragging out a chair and sitting down opposite Dave.
“Tom is Bryce’s mate,” Tristan said. His grin grew as he saw the looks of incomprehension on Dave’s and Christian’s faces.
“Wait—Bryce has amate?” Christian said, blinking. “We’ve not even been gone a week. And where’s the rest of the pizza? I’m starving.”
“You can have mine if you want,” Colby said, sliding his box along the table to Christian.
Dave looked at him sharply. Colby still got confused about what was teasing between members of the pack and what was real. Sometimes he did something because he thought it was expected, not because he wanted to. Dave hadn’t forgotten the time Matt had wanted another helping, and when Jason had said there wasn’t any more, Colby had quietly passed his unfinished meal to Matt. But as he looked at Colby now, he thought that he wasn’t doingit out of fear. It was like he was trying to make some sort of connection with Christian.
Christian’s eyes on Colby were just as piercing as Dave’s. He couldn’t have failed to notice the way Colby had hunched in on himself when Christian sat beside him, but unless Dave was mistaken, it wasn’t as pronounced as it used to be. Maybe their absence had changed more than just them.
“Thanks,” Christian said, and Dave was the only one around the table who understood what it had cost Christian to say that.
Christian took a slice, then looked around. “Where’s the vegan one?”
“Well, you didn’t actuallytellus you were coming,” Tristan said. He grimaced at Dave. “Sorry.”
Dave gave a tired shrug. He hadn’t thought past getting Christian home in one piece.
“No worries,” he said, suppressing a weary sigh as he pushed his chair back.
Christian stopped him with a hand on his arm. “What d’you want? I’ll get it.”
And that was new. Before, Christian would have done it in an instant, if only he’d thought about it. The thing was, hehadn’tthought. Not then.
But now… God, Dave must be exhausted, because he had to swallow a sudden lump in his throat at this evidence of how much attention Christian was paying. How much morethinkinghe was doing.
“I’m okay,” he said, but he gave Christian’s hand a squeeze, letting him know he appreciated the offer. “Your head’ll probably fall off if you move too much.”
He crossed to the freezer, thankful his ankle was better than it had been. And that Christian’s bare-bones jeep wasn’t a stick-shift,or they’d probably still be stuck at the airport, waiting for one of them to be well enough to drive.
As Dave stuck his vegan mac’n’cheese in the microwave, Christian slid the pizza back to Colby. “Seems Williams here is the only one who knows how to treat a packmate. If the rest of you could just see your way to doing the same, none of you would be going hungry, and I’d be getting a meal.”
“Tell us who you made so mad in New Mexico they rearranged your face, and you can have all of mine,” Tristan said. The kid never did have a sense of self-preservation.
Except, Dave saw with a sense of wonder, the new softness in Christian was still there. Yeah, he leaned over and snatched Tristan’s pizza, but there was the suspicion of a smile around the corners of his mouth when he did it.
As he and Dave ate, they gave them an edited version of what had happened. In return, they got to hear about this Tom guy. They also learned that Justin’s information regarding Duane Jaxom had led to the person responsible for ordering both the slaughter of Cale’s pack and Jesse’s, all those years ago.
With the mention of that, they all lost their appetites.
“You sure they got the right person?” Christian asked. “Cause we’re not so sure now that our source is trustworthy.”
Dave bit his lip. He wanted to defend Justin, but he had to accept that he didn’t know for sure. Though the way he’d seemed to be hurting… No, Davewassure of him. He hoped he found peace and a new life, far away from Silver Rock.
“That guy you identified has confessed to it, Matt says, and he told them which councilor ordered the killings. She’s admitted it, arguing that she had no other choice,” Riley said. “She caught wind of Jesse’s pack and panicked. She thought the old stories would resurface—that Argents were destined to lead, that they were chosen. And if that happened, shifters might start seeingthemselves as one community, a tribe, almost. And if non-shifters felt threatened by that? Hundreds of shifters might die at the hands of bigots. Shifters might even lose their rights again or end up in camps or something.”
He scrubbed a hand through his hair, leaving vexed-looking spikes behind. “I can’t believe any of that. I mean, yeah, finding out there are silver wolves that glow in the dark would freak some people out, but jumping from that to thinking shifters were going to take over? The thing is,shebelieved it would end in disaster for shifters, and that’s why she did it—for the greater good. Or so she says.”
It seemed odd that the only non-shifter among them was suddenly the expert on shifter politics, but maybe that was because Tristan was looking heartsick, Colby was concentrating more on him than anything else, and Jason never did like to say too much in a group.
“So she had themmurdered?”Christian’s outrage spoke for all of them. It was all the more powerful for having seen the last remains of what had been a peaceful pack home.
There was nothing any of them could say to that, and before long, Christian and Dave headed to their bunkhouse. Laughter rang out from the kitchen as the door closed behind them. It seemed that the younger members of the pack were well on their way to forming fast friendships.
He bumped shoulders with Christian on their way across the moonlit yard, more than ready to celebrate their own friendship in private and at length. He couldn’t wait to get Christian behind a closed door, away from everyone and everything. No threats, no blood—just the two of them.
