“If Xen’s involved in something—and I still think it’s a bigif—do you think Elliot knows about it?” As Xen’s beta, I’d expect Elliot to know almost everything Xen did, but I didn’t want to believe he knew about this. IlikedElliot.
“No.” Max shook his head. The lack of hesitation in his answer and the conviction in his voice gave me hope that he was right. “I’ve known Elliot since we were kids. He’s one of the reasons I stayed in this pack when I could’ve joined Rys’s when he became alpha. And he was the one who told us about Xen looking into the old pack laws. I trust him with my life.”
The implication that he didn’t trust Xen the same way should’ve shocked me, but it didn’t. What did shock me was that I didn’t think I trusted him either, and what the fuck did that mean?
“Elliot keeps Xen from making rash decisions,” Max added. “Calms him. He loves this pack, there’s no way he’d be involved with anything illegal.”
Yeah, I couldn’t see it either. “Should we talk to him?” I asked, more thinking aloud rather than looking for an answer. “Or maybe wait? On the very slim chance he knows what—ifXen’s been up to anything, we don’t want to tip them off that we know.”
“Ugh.” Max groaned, once again closing his eyes as his fingers tightened around the steering wheel. “This is not how I saw my day going. At all.”
“Me neither.” Although to be fair, the second I admitted to myself that I believed my dad was innocent, it was always going to go downhill.
“Are we really doing this?” Max asked, not looking at me. “Are we going to go up against our alpha and at best try to prove that he’s a liar? At worst…” He held out his hands. “I don’t even know.”
I took a deep breath, surprised that I felt so calm. “My dad didn’t do it, Max. I should’ve believed that all along, like I know you did.” I’d let myself feel guilty for that later. “So yeah. I’m in if you are?”
His expression softened, those lovely brown eyes telling me everything I needed to know. Reaching over, he slid his hand along my jaw, drawing me to him. Warm breath teased my lips as he stopped just shy of kissing me, and whispered, “I’m with you all the way.”
