“Justus is eleven years my junior. He was a freshman in high school when our parents died.” He’d been devastated, and being there for him had let me defer my own mourning until he’d left for college, which had turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. “Now he’s a sophomore at Millsaps. In Jackson.”
Her frown deepened as the location sank in. “Where Corey Morris was infected. Do the guys know?”
“That Justus exists? Of course. There are pictures of him all over the house. His bedroom is the one across from mine and next to yours, but he never comes home anymore, and Drew’s the only one who’s met him.” A very deliberate decision on my part.
“So they’ll assume Morris is carrying a trace of your scent for the same reason I did,” Robyn said, clearly thinking it through. “Because they’ve never smelled your brother. But if Drew’s met him, why doesn’t he recognize Justus’s scent?”
“He’ll figure it out eventually. But so far, it hasn’t occurred to him that my brother could have infected Corey Morris because Justus is human. At least, he was when I saw him over the holidays. I’ve been very careful to keep him out of all Alpha-related business. He didn’t even know shifters exist. Though he clearly knows now.”
The thought of what my brother had been through—the inevitable trauma of his infection—made me want to put my fist through the wall. I’d jumped through every hoop imaginable to keep him safe and in ignorance of the violence that had become my life since my own infection. In ignorance of the struggle to protect the strays in my territory, often from each other and from themselves.
But obviously my efforts had been spent in vain.
“I should have told him.” I leaned forward with my head in my hands, devastated to realize that my attempts to keep Justus safe had actually put him in more danger. “If he’d known we existed, he would have come to me when he realized he was infected. He would have known how to handle his own transition.” I sat up and met her gaze with an anguished one of my own. “Robyn, if I had let him meet the guys and see what we’re doing, he wouldn’t be out there infecting other innocent people.”
Corey Morris’s infection was my fault, even though I’d never laid a single claw on him. In that sense, what I’d told my men was true.
“Second guessing yourself now won’t help,” Robyn insisted. “Hindsight is worthless unless you can learn from it, and what could you possibly learn from this? You can’t just announce our existence to the world so that the next person who gets infected understands what’s happening. That’s against the council’s rules.”
Which was one of the reasons I hadn’t disclosed our existence to Justus—telling him would have been violating one of the Shifter world’s most important prohibitions and likely would have kept me from being acknowledged as Alpha.
Had I sacrificed my brother’s safety for my own ambition?
“Titus, I don’t even understand this.” Robyn’s frown became a wide-eyed look of confusion. “How could you possibly keep this from your brother, logistically speaking? Doesn’t he come home on school breaks? How do you explain the parade of totally ripped men walking around half-naked in your home? Some halfway house for reformed male strippers?”
A laugh snuck up on me, and when I saw her small smile, I realized she’d startled me out of self-pity.
“Justus used to come home during his breaks, but when I decided to turn my home into Pride headquarters, I started sending him on trips during the holidays, instead. I can’t go with him, unless we vacation in one of the free zones, so we’ve rented this cabin up in the Montana free zone for the past two Christmases. And there are no shifters native to island nations, so in the summer we spend a couple of weeks in the Bahamas or the Caribbean, before I send him to Europe for the rest of his break.” I shrugged. “I don’t know how long that routine would have held up, but it’s worked so far.”
“But did you think that for the rest of his life he’d never make a surprise visit? Did youtrulythink you could keep this from him forever?”
“Of course not. I knew I’d have to tell him something once the Pride was recognized.” But in addition to it being against the rules, jumping the gun felt like jinxing myself—a superstitious end to the possibility that the Pride everwouldbe recognized.
“Okay. So if Drew will eventually figure out the truth about your brother, why bother hiding it? Or stepping down? As Alpha, wouldn’t you be in a better position to help Justus?”
“I don’t think so.” I’d thought about little else in the past hour. “And trying to help him might endanger my position anyway. Creating a stray is a capital offense. A mandatory death sentence.”
“So is killing a human, yet I survived. And Abby said that Faythe infected someone years ago, and she’s in charge of a whole Pride now. They found her guilty, but gave her a light sentence because the infection was an accident. It could go the same way for your brother.”
I shook my head. She still didn’t understand. “You’re both women. The council values your lives over male lives. Especially overstraymale lives. Most of the members will take any excuse to execute a stray, and I can’t let that happen to my brother. I have to find out what really happened before anyone else figures out that he’s involved. Thus the suitcase.” I stood and flipped open one of the hard shell cases, then began folding the clothes draped over the back of my chair.
“Okay.” Robyn stood and headed for the door. “Let me get my stuff. Which is pretty much the extra toothbrush you gave me yesterday.”
“Whoa, wait,” I said, but she kept walking, so I had to jog past her to block the bedroom door. “You have to stay here.”
“Why? Do you think the council will keep its word, now that you’re not the Alpha? BecauseIthink they’ll use this as an excuse to make me go to Atlanta immediately. Especially now that Abby and Jace aren’t here. They’re not going to leave one of their precious tabbies in the hands of a bunch of strays they’ve never even met and have no reason to trust.”
“Robyn, I gave them my word.” Breaking that now would only make things worse for both of us. And for Justus.
“But you never told them I’d stay in this house for two weeks. What you told them was that you’d protect me, and you can’t do that if I’m here and you’re in Jackson. What if something happens to me while you’re gone? They’ll hold you responsible. Youhaveto take me with you, Titus.”
Son of a bitch. Robyn had me. And it waspossibleI didn’t try very hard to convince her otherwise.
“Fine. Go get your…toothbrush. I have to make some calls.”
Robyn looked satisfied, if not happy, as she raced into the hall and closed my bedroom door behind her.
I called Jace first, while I packed. He answered on the third ring. “Hey, Titus, what’s up?” Highway noise and the use of a hands-free speaker made him difficult to understand, but cat’s hearing gave me an advantage. “Robyn driving you nuts already?”
