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What if that was what we were looking at? Not a coup. Not someone trying to take control. Someone trying to make the packs tear themselves apart.

“The Ironwoods thought we were moving in on their construction contracts. The Vanes thought we were coming for their hotels. Dante thought we were embarrassing him with Addie's marriage to Vidar, after rejecting Valentino. The Volki thought we were coming for their trafficking operation. Everybody was fed different information, just enough to make them see a threat and react. And every reaction set somebody else off. We thought we were looking at a coordinated coup, but what if there was never a plan to take over? What if the plan was to make us tear each other apart?”

Magnus tipped his head back, clearly thinking this through.

Vidar pushed away from the railing. "We've been over this. Why don't you leave the thinking to Magnus and me and stick to what you're good at?"

My hands curled. Sometimes I wondered if my brother actually thought I was stupid? I got the same grades he did in school. My interest veered away from numbers and into bones. Didn't fucking matter. I took a step toward him. He took one toward me.

"For fuck's sake." Valentino moved between us as he came up the stairs. "Do you two need to take this to the ring? I've got a paying crowd downstairs. If two Blackwoods are going to beat the shit out of each other in my gym, I'm selling tickets."

Vidar's jaw worked. I held his gaze for another second before stepping back. I returned my attention to the floor below us.

Valentino followed my gaze. "I don't need cops sniffing around again."

"Problem?" Magnus asked.

"Not since my sperm donor left this Earth."

"Maybe somebody wants you answering for what Dante did," Magnus said.

"Then they can dig him up and arrest him. That asshole left enough shit behind for us to clean up. He spent the last couple of years of his life convinced his sons were his greatest weakness."

Vidar frowned. "You were."

Valentino turned dark eyes on him.

Vidar shrugged. "You took his pack."

"Yeah. After he died."

"You would've taken it, eventually."

Valentino's smile held no humor. "Dante used to say a wounded wolf gets eaten. He saw weakness everywhere. Especially in himself. He just couldn't admit it."

My attention snapped fully to the Lupetto Alpha.

A wounded wolf gets eaten.

I'd heard that before. Blood on the floor. The stench of fear. Corin talked because he knew I was going to take him apart if he didn't.

"Something wrong?" Magnus asked.

I didn't have time to answer. The women returned. I found Rosalind immediately. Or maybe she found me.

She wasn't wearing her sunglasses. Those pale eyes moved through the room until they landed on mine. Almost. Her gaze settled just to the right, somewhere around my ear.

She walked straight into my arms. "Back safe and sound."

I grinned down at her. Her fingers came up to my face. The pads of her index fingers traced my cheek before settling into the dents on either side of my mouth. My dimples.

"How do you know I have dimples?"

Around us, the conversation continued. Astrid was telling Valentino something. Addie and Vidar were talking over each other. Magnus had pulled Nell to his side. Nobody was paying attention to us. I was paying very close attention to my wife.

"I saw them."

For a second, I thought I'd heard her wrong.