"I — that's—" Torres looks at Jake with a betrayed expression. "You weren't even in the room."
"Jim told me."
Everyone looks at Jim.
Jim looks up from his tray. "He was scared," he confirms, and goes back to eating.
The table does various things with their faces. Leo's is not subtle at all. I press my lips together and look at the ceiling.
Torres points at Jim. "I thought you were supposed to be the quiet one."
"I am quiet," Jim says. "That doesn't mean I'm not observant."
"I nearly wet myself," Torres says, with the sudden energy of a man who has decided that honesty is the best option now that denial has failed. "When she shifted. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I have been through some things in this facility and nothing prepared me for — whatever that was."
"What did it look like," Leo says, with the genuine interest of someone who was behind me and missed the view.
"Like—" Torres gestures expansively. "Large. Very large. And then everyone stopped fighting and it was extremely quiet." He looks at me. "How are you that huge?"
"Alpha," Leo says, as if this is a complete answer. "She's our alpha."
"I gathered," Torres says dryly. "I gathered that very clearly when she was standing on the table being enormous."
"It's good," Leo says. "You want your alpha to be enormous. It means nobody messes with the pack."
"I am not in the pack."
"Torres," Leo says, with patient warmth. "You eat at our table."
Torres opens his mouth. Closes it. Looks at me.
"Alex," Torres says. "Am I in the pack?"
"No," I say. Then I go back to eating.
Torres stares at me. "That's it? No?"
"Yep," I say.
Torres looks at Leo. Leo spreads his hands in a gesture of helplessness.
"Then why do I keep ending up at your table."
"Because Leo steals your food and you come back anyway," I say. "That's how it is."
Torres considers this. "That's a terrible how it is."
"It's yours," Leo says warmly.
"I nearly wet myself," Torres says again, mostly to himself, and drinks his coffee.
"Whatever that was," Leo says, "is our pack alpha, and you should feel extremely safe."
"I felt extremely not safe."
"You should work on reframing."
"I was in the room, Leo. I was part of the situation."
