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I grunted, not wanting to agree with him but knowing full well he spoke the truth.
“What are you so bent out of shape about?”
“I’m not!” I said, slamming down on the nail again. This time a crack formed in the wood.
“We’re going to have to—” Brandon began.
“I know! I know we have to replace the wood!”
“Oooookay,” Brandon said, holding up his hands and walking backward like I was a rabid beast. Which I was, wasn’t I? I couldn’t help that I acted like a beast when I got mad. That’s just who I was. There was no running from that, no matter how many times I’d daydreamed about it.
“Sorry,” I huffed.
“No big deal, but seriously, what’s eating at you? And is your thumb okay?”
“My thumb will be just fine, and I’m not sure what’s eating me.”
“I think you do and just don’t want to tell us.”
He was right. “I just . . .” I pushed myself up from a kneeling position and walked over to the wall of the house, slumping down till my head was resting on my knees.
Luc chose that moment to enter the room, two glasses in hand. “Here, have a drink,” he said, joining us on the floor and handing us each a tall glass of water.
I chugged the whole glass and gave it back to him. No need for me to break something else today.
“You seem restless,” Luc said.
“Whatever gave you that idea?” I raised an eyebrow at him, to which he had no response. Being the oldest of us four brothers, he was used to not being talked back to, but he also knew what battles to fight and which ones to leave alone, and right now I needed to be left alone.
But Brandon didn’t seem to get that message. “We’re not leaving till you tell us what is going on with you. Mom said you’ve only been finishing half of your chores too, with things left undone everywhere. That’s not like you. What happened to our meticulous, super-organized brother?”
I glared at Brandon, trying to tell him I didn’t want them here, but he and Luc just stared right back at me.
I heaved a big sigh. There was no need to tell them how my wolf was acting, so I said the next thing I was worried about. “How are you two so calm? Are you not worried about what Pac said about poisoning all of us?”
“I don’t think it’s true,” Brandon said.
Luc and I looked at him in shock.
“You don’t believe him?” I asked.
“I think he’s bluffing. There’s something else going on,” Brandon said.
I threw up my hands. “What else could be going on? What could be worse than poisoning his own family?”
“He’s not family!” Luc said, banging his hand against the floor and crushing the cup I had given back to him in the process.
We all jumped and looked at Luc.
He started talking, fiddling with the glass on the ground. “Pac barks more than he bites.” He chuckled at his own joke. “But he’s not family. Not anymore.”
We both nodded. We all knew Pac was out of the pack as soon as he’d tried to kidnap Sandy.
“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I slipped up using the ‘family’ word with him.”
Luc held up a hand. “It’s not your fault.” He sighed, taking a drink from his cup. “Jacob, you were too young to remember Pac. He was chased out before you arrived. I know we told you and Bruno stories about him growing up with us, but he’s not family. Never was.”
Brandon looked at Luc. “What do you mean? I was there. Dad relied on him the most. He treated him the same way he treated Dredge, Sandy, you, and me.”
