Page 110 of The Alpha’s Unclaimed Mate

“It means she needs a pack.” He watches me take it in. “A pack grounds a shifter, keeps the wolf steady. Since she’s mine, she belongs to mine.”

“The people who hurt her.” I make myself ask it. “Did they know what she is when they handed her that candy?”

“No.” He shakes his head. “Nobody knows. Just me and one friend you haven’t met yet. Adrian.”

“You trust him.”

“I’d trust him with Mia’s life before my own.”

“And your uncle?” I’ve met the man once, and once was more than enough.

Marcus’s jaw tightens. “He doesn’t know.” A beat passes. “He’s been trying to push Sloane at me for ages now. If he learns about you and Mia, I don’t know how he’s going to react.”

“Charming.” I pick at the wet label on the bottle. “Is he going to be a problem?”

“He’s a good man. Stubborn, set in his ways.” Marcus breathes out. “He’s also the alpha.”

“Which means what, exactly?”

“He leads the pack. Makes the calls, holds the whole thing together.” His expression sobers. “Ask me whatever you need. There are no more secrets now.”

I roll the cold glass between my palms. “So you’re not human.”

“Biologically, I am.” He tips his head. “My blood just runs different.”

“That’s why you wouldn’t let me take her to a hospital.”

“A doctor would’ve seen it in her blood.” His thumb moves along the seam on his ribs. “Right now, hers sits close to a human’s, though it isn’t quite there. Once she begins to shift, it turns into what mine is. Human technology is good. We don’t tell humans about us.”

I ponder over that. An owl calls somewhere out in the trees, and I flinch, then feel foolish for it.

“The men who came after her.” My throat closes. “They’re not finished, are they?”

“No.”

“Then why her?” I lean toward him. “If they didn’t know what she was, why my daughter?”

He’s quiet for a beat. “Because they wanted to get at me, and somewhere along the line, they worked out that she matters to me.” His hands curl on the chair arms. “I’ll always have enemies. The ones who put poison in her hands are hunters.”

“Are they wolves too?” I look at him.

“No.” His face hardens. “They’re human, born to hunt our kind. Someone has to keep the balance or wolves would overrun the world.”

“And they hunt you.”

“They used to, wherever they found us.” His thumb finds the seam on his ribs again. “Now they run as organizations, keeping us in check. They don’t kill us now for sport at least.”

“But somebody’s trying.” I nod at his ribs.

“Somebody is.” His mouth thins. “A poison came back into circulation. Wolfsbane. It was wiped out generations ago, maybe centuries, and now it’s moving again.” He looks off at the tree line. “I think hunters killed Bella’s parents with it. My brother and his mate. At least my brother was poisoned with it.”

The bottle stops halfway to my mouth. “You think, or you know?”

“I’m close to knowing.”

“Is Bella in danger from it? Now?”

“Not from that. I don’t believe so.” He drags a hand down his face. “But someone inside the pack had a hand in how they died, and that’s what I’ve been chasing these past weeks. It’s why the three of you are under my roof.” He nods at the dark. “Nothing crosses that tree line without me knowing.”