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The fact that she could look at me and have a physical reaction was good news. It meant that she might hate me a little less, it was a small step in the right direction at least.
“Thank you for coming,” my uncle concluded, and I blinked, having missed the whole speech.
Bear slapped my shoulder, and it felt as if he was swinging a paw like an actual bear. I could feel his pride toward me, and at one point I’d have given anything for it, but now, it made my stomach queasy. There was something not right about him. I’d sensed it before, and it was overwhelming now.
“Let’s get some breakfast,” my aunt Tamra suggested, gesturing to the house.
I nodded my head, keeping the treeline in my sights for as long as I could before I had to reenter the pack house.
The private dining room was smaller than the hall and gave a semblance of privacy. I heard my uncle had installed soundproofing equipment to keep prying ears from listening in. The paranoia wasn’t unusual, but I could tell that it had reached a new level since I’d been away.
“What are your plans for today?” my uncle asked, his shrewd gray eyes focused on Ledger and me as we sat down.
“I’m going to the archives,” Ledger replied, grabbing a plate and starting to load food onto it from the dishes in the middle of the table.
“I have to do some paperwork,” I muttered, trying to be as vague as possible.
“Paperwork?” Tamra asked me with an overly penciled eyebrow raised.
“It’s one of his duties as beta,” my uncle answered, scooping hash browns onto his plate.
“Ah,” was her response before she too started eating her food.
Tamra didn’t bother herself with pack affairs. She was good at putting on a show, and my uncle let her do as she pleased. I wondered if she knew the old lady was her husband’s true mate. I also had to wonder if she cared.
“Tell me, Rylan,” my uncle asked around a big bite of eggs, “was the program a waste of time?”
His question annoyed me since it was mostly his idea to send me away. At first, I thought it was a good idea to learn everything I could since I wasn’t born into an alpha family. However, the events of last night proved that there was definitely something more going on.
I needed to figure out who exactly that woman was. The future of this pack depended on it, and I wouldn’t rest until I got to the bottom of it. Her death was suspicious and kept me awake all night. She smelled healthy, despite being in the cage for who knows how long. Not to mention the proximity to Pearl’s home.
My gut told me that her appearance at the pond where Pearl and I spent every summer wasn’t a coincidence. The thought made me uneasy, as did anything that pertained to Pearl.
“I don’t think so. I learned a lot,” I answered my uncle, grabbing some bacon with my fork.
Ledger snorted in disbelief. I ignored him, but my uncle nodded at him with the ghost of a smile tugging on his lips.
“What exactly did you learn?” my uncle queried, but I could tell from his tone he wasn’t really interested.
“Boring beta stuff,” I conceded, making a point to chuckle.
Ledger joined me then got back to shoveling food into his face.
“What are you doing at the archives, Ledger?” Tamra asked, doing a poor job at acting interested.
“There was a cage breach last night,” Ledger announced and then took a bite of his food. “I’m going to research how to fortify our section.”
I took a drink of coffee, thinking that wasn’t a bad idea, actually. Figuring out why she escaped would go a long way to understanding what happened.
“I can do that since I’m going to the archives anyway. That way you can go inspect the cage.” It was a reasonable solution, but I should have known my cousin wouldn’t see it that way.
“I’ll go with you. I need to see the blueprints.” He waved away my suggestion, making me grit my teeth.
The cage was an underground labyrinth that touched every packs’ land. The section on each territory was what they used to punish or contain threats to the pack. The different sections were all connected, but only someone with a map or an understanding of its patterns could navigate the place.
“Good idea,” I complied, getting a strange feeling that someone was poking at my mind through the pack bond.
My wolf was powerful enough to stop the intrusion. Though I didn’t immediately recognize who was probing, I had a good idea who it might be.
