“Force?” Trevor said.
“That’s…” By some reflex April looked toward Malachi, not for permission but for…support? He dipped a single encouraging nod, and she nodded back. She could talk about it while he was here. To Trevor and Kelsey she said, “That’s how it’s done in the other pack.”
“The pack that doesn’t allow platonic friends to hug each other,” Kelsey said.
How to explain? She wanted them to understand the truth. She stared down at her bare feet and laced her fingers together, the only way she could talk about it.
“In Drew’s pack, there aren’t friends. There’s Alpha, and there are the five wolves under Alpha.”And for forty-seven days there was me.She couldn’t voice that part.
But then Trevor said, “Drew is the wolf who took you?”
April froze. She couldn’t look up, couldn’t nod, couldn’t speak. Malachi had told Trevor. Of course he had. He didn’t owe her the keeping of this secret from his own pack. Safety first, and the others would be safer knowing they might be invaded by a vengeful pack of rogues. She should have figured herself as the topic of discussion. She should have just told Kelsey.
“Wait—took? As in, like, kidnapped?” Kelsey said.
April drew herself up straight and nodded.
“Oh, April. I’m sorry. That’s horrible.”
“I—I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“Of course. I’m sorry.” Kelsey tugged on her ponytail as if trying to find something shecouldsay. She swung around to Malachi. “What kind of alpha lets one of their pack do something like this?”
“He is the alpha,” Malachi said, and his voice rasped as though he’d just swallowed a mouthful of gravel.
Trevor growled, and Malachi growled in agreement, but the two sounds were different. Malachi’s was lower, rougher, while Trevor’s held a sort of extra vibration not unlike the purr of a tiger. It was unlike any other wolf’s growl April had heard.
“What’re we going to do about it?” Trevor said.
Malachi’s rumble deepened. “I don’t know yet.”
Of all the words in the world, those four cracked the cage around April’s spirit. Admitting before one of his underlings, before even the underling’s mate, that he wasn’t omniscient. It was open vulnerability, and it touched something deep inside her though Malachi said the words as a simple matter of fact.
Trevor crossed his arms. “Okay, but you’re actively working on knowing what to do, so we can go and do it.”
“Obviously.” Malachi cocked one eyebrow, unthreatened by Trevor’s posture.
“Trev, ease up,” Kelsey said, but her words held no nervousness; she didn’t slant worried looks between the wolves as if expecting a fight. Instead her tone was gently chiding.
Their discussion went on while April stared back and forth between them. They didn’t seem to realize how incredible they all were—their ease with one another, the lack of violence in the room. Were these wolves the odd ones, or…might Drew and his pack be?
“Look,” Trevor said, “this Drew guy is obviously a problem for a whole lot of reasons, not just for April. I mean, what if this is a hobby for him or something? If he’s got some wolf gang going around kidnapping women, then we’ve got to—”
Malachi raised one hand. “I won’t ignore it, Trevor. Now leave it with me until I say otherwise.”
“No one-man missions.” Kelsey bumped Trevor’s arm with her own. “Isn’t that right, Mal.”
Malachi growled confirmation.
“Yeah, okay.” Trevor lowered his arms to his sides, shoved his hands into his jeans pockets. “Okay.”
Malachi turned to April. “Are you all right?”
Her scent must have betrayed her upwelling of emotion—a whole lot of feelings she couldn’t name or make sense of. “I just… If y’all are real, if you’re being real right now… You’re more than I hoped I’d find here.”
“We’re very real.”
“Always,” Trevor said with a little smirk.
