Lucas exchanged a look with Liam who nodded, probably to okay the explanation he wasn’t giving me.
“Shewasbitten, after which your brother stashed her up here and chained her up.”
“Because he’s afraid we’ll make her overdose on Sillin . . .” I whispered, finally understanding why my brother looked like someone had dragged him across a minefield.
“No. Because he’s afraid Liam might order him to end her life.”
I whipped my eyes toward Liam whose arms were still firmly tied in front of his cast-iron torso. “Why would he do that?” When neither of them spoke, I curled my fingers around the fleece comforter. “For Lycaon’s sake, one of you spit it out. Please.”
“Bea’s Shifter Zero.” Liam’s voice was so low I almost missed his words.
“What?” Static rustled against my eardrums. “I thought—What about the male from the Glacier pack?”
“We didn’t want to spook your brother. We were afraid he’d move Bea if he caught on to our suspicions.”
Only my head was resting on the baggie of snow, and yet my entire body felt covered by it. “How?”
“Lori Morgan apparently bit her, and her unusual venom made Bea shift. Or rather, half-shift. And then Bea went ahead and took a chunk out of the hiker, who ended up ODing on Sillin, although if you ask me, I wonder if she didn’tOD”—he added air-quotes—“on your brother.”
Outrage electrified my spine. “My brother would never kill someone.”
“People do questionable things in the name of love, Knickknack. The girl was the missing link to Bea. The only—”
“My brother isn’t a killer.”
Nate was gentle and fair. He’dneverharm another person.
Liam finally unglued his molars. “We’ll know soon enough. He’s on his way over with bags of Lori’s blood.”
That explained her paleness. She wasn’t just supplying two halfwolves but three. “How do you know?”
“She called to inform Lucas.”
“You see, those two got a little deal goin’,” Lucas drawled. “He keeps the fact that her bite can pass on our mangled gene under wraps, and she plays the part of agreeable blood bag.”
What had my brother gotten himself into? “Was Nate trying to make Bea a werewolf?”
Lucas raised his gaze to Liam. “According to Lori, whom I had a little chat with this morning, Bea came to her after your dear brother spilled a closely-guarded pack secret, which he found out when he and Lori canoodled.”
My eyes went wide. “My brother hooked up with Lori?”
Lucas’s black eyebrow, the one slashed by the white scar, arched up. “You weren’t aware?”
“No,” I blustered. “No, I wasn’t aware. When?”
“A couple years back.”
I pressed the heels of my palms into my eyes. This was all so crazy. “How much trouble is my brother in?” I asked, not daring to remove my hands and look at our Alpha.
“Not life-threatening trouble . . .” Liam said. “But he is facing pack expulsion.”
My hands fell away from my face. “You just said he didn’t make Lori bite Bea.”
“No, but he lied and kept a hazardous secret from me.”
“To protect someone he loved!” Anger beat back my worry.
Both males were silent for a long while.
