"Since day one," Dalton says.
"He has theories," Gray says. "About everything."
"They're usually wrong," Jake says.
"They're sometimes wrong," Leo says. "There's a difference."
"Statistically," Jim says, "sometimes and usually are doing very different work in that sentence."
Leo points at him. "Don't."
Jim looks at his food with the expression of a man who has said exactly what he intended to say.
RJ reaches across and takes a piece of bread from Leo’s plate without asking.
Leo watches this.
"He just—"
"Leo," I say. “You took bread from Torres at breakfast, RJ didn’t say anything then.”
"I wasn't going to say anything."
"You were," Torres says.
Leo subsides. RJ eats the bread. Cal doesn't react at all, which means this isn't new.
***
Jon sets his cup down. He looks around the table once — all of it, all of them.
He catches me looking.
"Dalton told me it was complicated," he says.
"It is," I say.
"He undersold it," Jon says.
"He usually does," Gray says.
Dalton pours more coffee and says nothing.
"I'm going back to Luftis," Jon says.
His jaw sets slightly, something shifting under the surface — the precision still there, but with heat behind it now.
"Latent wolves in Europe are presenting alone. No context. No one who understands what's happening to them. Families with resources track their bloodlines — their children are educated early, supported, prepared. Everyone else falls through."
A pause.
"I've been at the institution that benefits most from that gap." Another beat. "I'm done benefiting from it."
Quiet.
"You're going to start a fight with the entire European shifter establishment," Leo says.
"Several fights," Jon says. "Sequentially. With documentation."
