Roy shrugged. “Worth a try. So here’s the deal,” he said. “New terms. Before you turn me in, I want to talk to a Truthmaker, and not from the Washborn Pack. And I want an Alpha from another pack as witness. I want them to compel me, and question me about what I’ve done since my pack fell apart. I did not kill the family of hikers.”
“Why do you care what anyone thinks of you all of a sudden?” Austin asked, scowling at Roy with suspicion.
“Something your much, much, much better half said to me.” Roy flicked a glance at Savannah. “I will not dishonor the memory of my mate anymore. I accept that I may be put to death, but I will not have false accusations tarnishing my name, because it tarnishes her name as well.”
“Did you kill the poachers?” Austin asked.
“Oh hell, yeah.” He grinned fiercely, his eyes gleaming with enjoyment at the memory. “I’d do it again, too. It was stupid of me to let myself be seen in wolf form, but my head wasn’t in the right place at the time. I caught them torturing a deer they’d wounded, making it scream, taking selfies while they were doing it, and I just ripped them to pieces.”
“It doesn’t sound like you’ve actually committed any death penalty offenses,” Savannah said slowly. “Letting people see you in your wolf form was bad, but you could argue your case on that one. You could have escaped any time, couldn’t you? This entire trip.”
“Well, the tranqs really did work on me.” He shrugged. “And I probably couldn’t have knocked out all three Alphas. But other than that, yes.”
“So why did you spare our lives?” Savannah looked at him narrow-eyed and put her hands on her hips. “I know why. You’d given up. After losing your mate, you just didn’t care. You were basically using us to help you commit suicide. Trying to provoke us into killing you because you couldn’t do it yourself. Asshole.”
She moved quickly out of her mother’s way. “You do not get to hit me more than once per day!” she said, ducking behind Austin.
Austin frowned at Roy. “Why should I trust your word?”
Roy snorted. “Seriously. You think you have a choice? It’s that or I head for the hills again.”
Austin shook his head in frustration. Roy was right. He wasn’t capable of forcing the big, crazy wolf back into his truck.
“I’m going to go buy myself a coffee and a sandwich and hit the head,” Roy informed him. “If you’re still here when I come back, I’ll assume we have a deal. You know what I want. Truth-maker. Alpha. Waiting for me in town near the Crescent Hills Pack headquarters.”
“How do you know you can trustme?”Austin demanded. “What if I say yes but then call in backup to have you killed?”
Roy snorted again. “You? You don’t have it in you to be a back-stabber. You like to think you’re all badass, but underneath that wannabe stone-cold killer facade, you’re just an oversized wimpy Boy Scout.”
“How do you even still have your wallet?” Savannah asked, looking at his shredded, dirty jeans and filthy T-shirt.
“I found it on the floor of the car. Seriously, everything that’s going on here, and that’s your question for me? You’re weird, lady.” He looked at Austin. “Your mate is weird as fuck. Hey!” he barked as Laurel’s arm twitched. “Do not hit me again. You get one free shot per day.” He pulled out his wallet, opened it, and dropped a five-dollar bill in her hand. She stared at it in confusion. “Start a swear jar,” he said. “You can use your purse for now. And every time I fucking swear on this fucking trip, I’ll put in another five dollars.” He dropped two more fives in her hand. “But for your information, lady, your little girl’s all growed up, and she’s probably heard the word ‘fuck’ a few times in her life.” He dropped another five into her palm. “Anybody want anything from the store?” He bared his teeth at Laurel in an alarming grin. “Can I buy you a soda?”
“After the way you spoke to my daughter a couple of days ago? You can kiss my furry behind, is what you can do,” Laurel growled at him. She held her hand straight out, looking at the five dollar bills as if they were dead rodents.
“You’re right. Again, I apologize.” He strolled off towards the store as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Oh God. I think a crazy wolf just flirted with my mother.” Savannah clutched at her chest. “And I am not sure how I feel about that. Pretty sure I hate it, though. Mom? Your thoughts?”
“I’m trying to think what kind of soap I’ll buy with this money. I need it to wash his mouth out.” Laurel glared down at the five-dollar bills.
Austin threw up his hands in despair. They were contemplating a road trip with a psychopath, and his mate and her mother were talking about buying soap.
Roy was right, his matewasweird as fuck. He loved her, he couldn’t wait to leave his claiming mark on her, but she was so weird she almost made him look normal.
He watched the big, crazy wolf trotting across the parking lot, calm as could be. Then he realized that Roy hadn’t answered one very important question. He yelled out after him, “If you didn’t kill the hikers, who did?”
Roy paused and glanced back over his shoulder. “Jason Washborn.” Then he ducked his head to get through the doorway of the rest stop convenience store.
Jason Washborn?
“What the hell?” Savannah gasped in horror, and her mother didn’t even smack her. “Why?”
“I can guess,” Austin said. “I think Jason did it to frame Roy, so he’d have an excuse to send me after him. And so it would paint Roy as an out-of-control killing machine. That would make it easier to kill us and make it look as if Roy did it.”
“Over my dead body,” Laurel said fiercely. She glared at her daughter. “I can’t believe this. You’re grounded until you’re a million.”
Austin pulled his phone out.
