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Titus nodded, and he gestured with his head to Miles to lead the way. “Pizza. Meat lovers combos? Extra-large, lots of them, coming up,” he said dryly.
The promise of food seemed to straighten up the young shifters — they really were hungry. Benny frowned. “So when did you feel the bonds snap?”
They looked at each other. Benny sat down on the floor with his legs crossed under him. “Get comfortable,” he advised. “We’re going to talk.”
By the time the pizza arrived, Benny had a disturbing portrait of what had been going on here. Ryder squatted down beside him, handing him a piece of pizza. “What do you think?”
“They had employment bonds, not pack bonds, which makes sense actually,” Benny said. “And probably explains the men in Vancouver too. With employment bonds, they could be transferred to Chen or his designee without issue. And that explains why that assassin team who came for Geoff talked about becoming pack — and we couldn’t figure out why they weren’t already pack.”
Ryder nodded. He was listening, but mostly, he was watching Jessie-wolf circling among the men. They didn’t touch her. Good thing, Ryder would probably kill them if they did. And Benny would help him. It wasn’t done to treat a wolf like it was a big dog wanting its ears scratched.
“They’re clueless,” Ryder observed.
Benny snorted. “Yeah, even more than usual for that age — and don’t argue. Youwereclueless. I remember. You ran away on a motorcycle.”
Ryder chuckled. “I did.” He swallowed some pizza. “And it’s about all I can do to not do it again.”
Benny glanced at him, amused. “Don’t you dare,” he said. “Besides, you’re now attached to 700 people. At least one of them has to be a tracker.”
“I’m sure at least one,” Ryder agreed. “Do I have it right? From your questions, they were attached to Bjorn Hansen —and their bonds broke at lunch, not dinner.”
“Sounds like it,” Benny agreed. “So they’ve been here, getting all worked up, but not having any place to go. Miles gets off work, comes home and realizes there’s a problem. He felt the pack bond transfer. Smart enough to not tell these yahoos that though.”
“They would have torn him to bits,” Ryder said soberly. “So now what? I have got to get some sleep.”
Titus leaned over. “Want me to stay? You all could go back to the motel.”
Benny shook his head. “I’ll stay,” he said. “I’ve got more questions. You get the Alpha and Second back safely to the hotel, get some rest. Come back here after breakfast, and I’ll turn them over to you.”
“Joy,” Titus said. Benny grinned.Wheredid the man get his slang?
“Before breakfast,” Ryder corrected. “We’re meeting Duncan McKenzie for breakfast, and you need to be there.”
Benny shrugged his agreement. Jessie padded out the door with Ryder, then turned back and looked at him. He knew a call when he saw it — he followed them out and waited for her to change and dress.
“They’re actually physically in pain,” she said softly. “I think it helped for me to move around the room, but they’re hurting, Benny. Can you do something?”
Benny nodded. “I’ll try.”
Back inside, he looked around the room. He was starting to attach names — Miles, of course. The soft-spoken man was David. Trevor was the belligerent one. Mike had a southern drawl —how had he ended up here? Benson was Black — the only Black recruit he’d seen, now that he thought about it. Andrew was Chinese, and that was rare too. He frowned. Well, Canada, and the northern USA were White. But the shifters in Washington state were actually more diverse than the state itself. He set that aside.
“All right,” he said easily. “I can see that you’re still hurting. I know. I was a lone wolf for a long time, and I will never forget the pain of being separated from the pack. So I’ve got some tricks that will help. And then we’re going to call it a night.”
He made them stand and taught them to center themselves. He wasn’t surprised when Trevor protested ‘this girlie shit.’
“Come at me,” Benny invited. “You think you’re too manly to do what I tell you, come at me. Go ahead. You won’t hurt me. Hell, you won’t even lay a finger on me.”
Trevor hesitated and then came at him with a rush. He probably outweighed Benny by 50 pounds and was 4-5 inches taller. It didn’t matter. Benny put him down on the ground before Trevor could even touch him. There was a murmur of surprise.
“So we’re going to do some Tai chi,” Benny continued as if nothing had happened. Trevor got up and went back to his position in the circle. There had to be someone, and Trevor was the kind of man who didn’t respect someone until they’d been defeated. Benny had learned a lot from watching Ryder run the MC.
“Tai chi?” someone said, bewildered.
“Tai chi.”
“Is that what you just used to take him down?”
“Yes,” Benny said. “It’s a discipline used for fighting for centuries, although I use it more for settling myself.”
