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Benny sighed, and Ryder steeled himself. He knew that sigh. Benny had something to say that wasn’t going to make any of them happy.
“You just killed the Second of the Penticton pack,” he said bluntly. “What happens when someone kills a pack Second in a challenge fight?”
Jessie stared at him. “I can’t be a pack Second,” she protested. “I’m female.”
“They said women didn’t become pack Alphas six months ago,” Benny pointed out. “And now there are three of them in this region. And, if I’m right, one pack Second.”
“And those are the voices in my head? Penticton pack?” she demanded.
Benny nodded. He was chewing on his lower lip. This was not good. Ryder just waited him out.
“But there’s a problem with you becoming the pack Second that Abby, say, didn’t face when she became pack Alpha,” Benny said finally. “As pack Second, you answer to a pack Alpha, Jessie. A pack Alpha who doesn’t want you in that position, but who can command you. An Alpha you’re supposed to protect and obey.”
Jessie turned to the side of the path and retched. Ryder glared at Benny. He reached for Jessie and stroked her back. “Remember?” Ryder said gently. “I said we face this together.”
“Yeah? Like Bjorn did when the Vancouver Alpha commanded something?” she said bitterly. Ryder jerked back, appalled. “Sorry,” she muttered. “I know you’re not Bjorn. But you really don’t have any say in this. You’re not even Penticton pack.”
Ryder glanced at Benny. He looked tired, and you could see he wasn’t really a carefree 20-something. Might not guess how old he was, but you knew. He’d been through some shit.
And Ryder thought they might be getting ready to go through some more shit.
“So I don’t think McKenzie knows who is the new pack Second,” Benny continued. Ryder squatted down so that all three of them were hunkered down beside the path. Less noticeable to the club below them. Ryder never forgot that they were watching. Get complacent and someone will decide they could take him. He’d picked these men because he trusted them, as much as he trusted anyone, but even with them, it wouldn’t do to turn his back.
“He had to have felt Bjorn die, and that the bond transferred,” Benny was explaining. “But we got that screen up pretty fast. And most shifters —hell, all shifters —wouldn’t think that it could go to a woman. And I doubt that those men are going to tell him either. My bet is they took Bjorn’s body back to town, and then got the hell out of there.”
Ryder snorted. He would, for sure.
“So Ryder? You’re going to have to go in and challenge McKenzie for the Penticton pack,” Benny said as if that was the most reasonable thing in the world.
Ryder rocked back on his heels and stared at the man. “What?” he demanded. “Are you kidding me?”
“Do you want your mate answering to another man? One who hates the very idea of her?” Benny asked. “He’s fighting for a return to traditionalist packs, remember? How do you think he’s going to take a female pack Second? An outsider at that?”
Not well, Ryder conceded. Not well at all. “I’m not Alpha material,” he protested.
Benny rolled his eyes. Ryder winced. No one could put more disgust into an eyeroll than Benny Garrison.
“Suck it up, Ryder,” Benny said. “You’re Alpha in all but name to the 40 members of your motorcycle club, and you know it. You’re running a group of wolves that include lone wolves, Okanogan wolves, and a few who belong to other packs, and you’re making it work. I don’t know of anyone who’s running a mixed group like yours. You’ve even got humans in it!”
“It’s Dad,” Ryder protested. “He’s the Alpha.”
“He makes itlegaland keeps the Powers That Be off your back,” Benny countered. “But that’s all. Look, if he was the real Alpha of your club, you’d be having the same disruptions that the Okanogan is having. And you’re not. Yet, most of the people in your club are as unstable as any in the Okanogan hills.”
Hard to argue with the last. Ryder thought about it. Had his club experienced an uptick in problems? Not that he could think of. He heard someone and whirled. Titus Black was making his way up the hill. Maybe Titus could knock some sense into Benny.
“He thinks I’m capable of being a pack Alpha,” Ryder told Titus when he reached them. “Make him see sense.”
Titus shrugged. “Your Dad thinks you are,” he said. He knelt down beside Jessie. “What’s wrong, girl?”
“Benny says I’m pack Second for the Penticton pack, to an Alpha who will hate me and want me dead,” Jessie said, with a laugh that had a touch of hysteria in it. She wasn’t throwing up, any more, but she wasn’t standing up either. Ryder rubbed her back and was rewarded with a smile.
Got it bad, boy, he told himself.
Titus considered that, and then he nodded. “Sure looked that way,” he agreed. “I mean about being pack Second. Did you notice that the Penticton men didn’t obey about leaving until you repeated Benny’s order? And it wasn’t because Benny wasn’t dominant. He was in full force.”
Titus looked at Benny with some disapproval. “You’ve been hiding that dominance,” he observed. “Even from us? Not nice.”
Benny snorted. “If people knew how dominant I really am, I’d have even more work to do.”
