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Though, even as the words left his mouth, Bill doubted them.
The man’s scoff proved he was thinking along the same lines. “We don’t lose track of our females, and we certainly wouldn’t let a full-blooded pup grow up on the outside.” A growl edged his words. He wasn’t lying. But…
Bill decided to take a chance and reveal what little he did know. “You were right. Fred Connors was a made from Black Mountain, and he’s the one listed on her birth certificate. I thought her mother might have been a human, but there is no record of her ever living in our territory. Not even on the outskirts. Connors was only exiled seven years ago and turned over a decade before that. If he had sired a child, the woman couldn’t have lived far away. We didn’t allow outsiders unfettered access back then, and Connors wasn’t high ranking enough to have traveled outside the territory unaccompanied. Though…”
Bill hadn’t made the connection before, but something Sonia dredged up came back to him.
“Connors was supposedly attacked by a rogue who rampaged in your area twenty years ago. From what I know, the Eislanders dealt with that situation. Did you know the lycan responsible?”
He was rambling, but he couldn’t help it. When said out loud, the mystery of Loren Connors was more perplexing than ever. It was as if the girl had come out of nowhere. In fact, that would make more sense than where the facts seemed to lead—in circles.
“I don’t see how a rogue has anything to do with this. It seems as though you got your information wrong,” the other man replied. “The mother could have changed her name to avoid drawing notice. Sometimes, humans who stray too close to our kind feel the need to take drastic measures if they decide our ways no longer appeal to them.”
“I thought of that,” Bill snapped. “But with every search in every goddamn database, Eveline Connors is the only name that turns up—”
“Eveline?” The man’s entire demeanor shifted on a dime. His eyes flashed, his jaw clenched. “That was her name? Eveline?”
“You recognize it?” Bill asked. “Someone from your pack?”
He couldn’t be sure. Already the man had schooled his expression into a blank mask.
“You mentioned Connors was turned by a rogue. You think it was connected to the attacks twenty years ago. Why?”
Bill felt his eyes narrow. “Connors might have been a victim. If your pack dealt with the rogue, then you know who it was. Could he have been Loren’s father?”
A crazed murderer wasn’t ideal, but it was better than the alternative. Loren needed answers, and Bill was willing to entertain any avenue to find them—even if he had to beg an enemy outright.
“Tell me.”
“The girl should know her upbringing. Have you asked her?”
Bill couldn’t silence an exasperated snarl. “She doesn’t remember—”
“Or she doesn’t trust you enough to tell you.”
“You think I took her forcefully as a mate, but you don’t think I’d take advantage of my access to her memories?” Bill laughed coldly. “That doesn’t make very much sense, does it?”
The man hid his disappointment well—but not all of it. A hint of alarm flitted across his gaze before vanishing. “Either you’re lying or…”
“Or someone hid her memories deliberately.” The prospect sounded insane out loud. And yet… Fuck, it made sense. Too much sense.
“If that is the case, there are ways to recover those memories,” the Eislander murmured, seemingly to himself.
Bill didn’t bother to suppress his disgust. “You turn up your nose because I mated her, but now you casually suggest I break into her mind to satisfy your curiosity. That tells me you know more than you’re saying.”
The man turned away. “We’re done here.” He surged forward, continuing toward the property’s boundary. Whatever he knew, he was choosing to keep it to himself. “If you care about that girl, you’ll release her. Soon. Her presence here is the only reason we’ve shown you mercy until now, but we won’t extend that grace for much longer. Sparing her the pain of your death would be ideal—but not a deciding factor. You can have two days to break the bond and send her to a pack. No more.”
He sounded so damn smug. As if he were offering him a lifeline.
If anything, the bastard had just given him more of a reason to act on the very course of action he’d been trying to talk himself out of.
“In two days, I’ll be on your doorstep. You can take up my punishment with Lukka right after I’ve dealt with him,” Bill spat without parsing through the consequences of revealing that part of his plan.
It was too late.
The intruder stopped short, his head cocked as if he didn’t trust what he’d heard. A slow, rich laugh echoed back, and Bill scoffed in return.
“I thought you were brazen, rogue—but this is outright foolish. You aim to challenge your Alpha? As if they will accept you now.”
