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I nod slowly.
“Providing doesn’t always mean giving the easiest or most obvious thing,” my wolf continues. “This is the decision she needs, so this is the situation we’ll provide for.”
“We weren’t the ones to kill him, Maia,” Edward says gently. Maia flinches, and I growl once more, not liking how personal he is being. “We didn’t do that to you or to Phoebe.”
“You chose not to or your plan failed?” my mate whispers, but we all hear it anyway. Her sorrow is so obvious in her tone, the depth of her pain stinging my nose as the orange in her scent is so acidic.
Edward opens his mouth, likely to try and pretty up whatever plan they did have, but he’s beaten out by his mate, who has the most disgusting sneer on her face as she glares at my mate.
“Ryan Grey is a disgrace to wolf kind, and I wish my plan was a success. I wish it were me who managed to end his worthless life,” my mother hisses, and it’s clear to see for everyone now that those tears from earlier were fake. The disgust in her tone as she talks is so clear to see, the fury radiating from her inner wolf.
Her face scrunches up, her eyes darkening, and my true mother comes out to play. I’ve seen this side of her far too many times to count, and if she wasn’t such a vindictive bitch, it could be pretty powerful and a good asset for our pack.
Maia likely would never have seen this version, the deep hatred my mother harbours, but my brother’s and I all knew it was there.
“Envy is a deadly sin for a reason,” Kane says, eyeing our mother with as much distaste as I am. We’re ready in case she tries to attack. She’s never got violent before—not with us, or even the twins, but that doesn’t mean she’s not got it in her.
My mate will not be put in harm’s way.
My daughter will not be around this violence.
“It keeps me up at night, knowing that we were not the ones to rid our family line of that toxic boy,” she continues. Her eyes are focused on Topher, so I don’t need to intervene, but if she dares insult Phoebe—even indirectly—I won’t be held responsible for my actions.
Kane doesn’t argue, knowing that, in this instance, it’s a waste of time.
Topher’s face changes, and he hides the anger that’s brimming in his scent, as he softly asks, “I understand why you’d feel that way. What was your plan, Mum?”
Maia doesn’t react at Topher’s change, likely since she can still feel his anger through their bond. She rests her head back on me, her fluffy hair like a cushion.
George snarls, but Topher’s is louder as he gives our father a warning look. George is silenced, unhappily, and crosses his arms in front of his chest.
Edward and Charles exchange looks, but neither of them are a concern. They’re both far more level-headed, far less impulsive, and honestly, so weak that I could kill them both without breaking a sweat.
“You mean they love their pups and wouldn’t hurt them, so you’d have an easy advantage,” Kane says.
“Weak, yeah, that’s what I said.”
“What do you know about what Ryan has been up to since our Morgan died and he left the Grey pack, boys?” Edward asks as my mum regains control of herself.
She’s pushing her wolf down, locking the murderous urges back in her little box, as she delicately pretends that she’s not the unhinged one.
“You definitely got your sociopathic traits from her,” Kane says.
“Not much, outside of his life with Maia and Phoebe,” Topher says, causing Maia to flinch once more. Ben reaches over for her other hand, and whilst she doesn’t relax, her heart rate does begin to slow down.
“Ryan was a founding member of a company called Fresh Fur Creations,” Charles says, and I make sure to keep breathing in from my nose to see what their scent has to say about their words. “From our records, he started it when he was nineteen and somehow secured funding not long before his twenty-first birthday”—Maia releases a soft gasp, but based on the way nobody else reacts, I’m the only one who heard her—“which helped boost it off the ground. As it started increasing in size, we, of course, looked into it as a potential threat.”
She knows where the funding came from. I’m wondering if she gave it or if she was the one to organise it for him.
“Why would it be a threat?” Ben asks, leaning back in his chair, as he keeps a tight hold on Maia’s hand. “We’re familiar with it, but it’s nothing. A shitty little biochem company focusing on medications that help our kind, whilst advertising all of their human-led products.”
“What?” Edward asks.
Ben sighs as if the inadequate intellect of our parents is a burden on him. “Their whole business premise is hidden from the human eyes, but their goal is to alter human medications to work with our chemistry and make them work for us, too.”
“That was their cover story, sure,” Charles says dismissively. “But we know the truth. They’re not trying to help our kind, no, Ryan was trying to destroy it.”
“And likely, us,” George grunts out.
