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Before I could say anything more, Mark was in front of me, eyes blazing, hands frantically running up and down my arms and shoulders. “Did he get you?” he demanded. “Did he hurt you too?”
I thought I was going to burst. “No. He didn’t. Mark, he didn’t. But he got—”
You.
He’d bitten Mark.
“It only matters in wolves,” Michelle said tiredly. “Not witches. Even if Gordo had been bitten, it wouldn’t have affected him. Not with his magic.”
“What is this?” Ox said, stepping toward the monitor.
“We don’t know where it came from,” Michelle said. She wasn’t even looking at us. Instead she was staring down at a tablet, typing furiously onto it. “Or when it started. The first that we know of was a wolf in South Dakota shortly before Thomas died. He couldn’t hold his tether. He turned Omega. We thought it was a fluke. An anomaly. We had no way of knowing at the time if there were others. Not every wolf is registered or even known to us. There are outliers, packs that operate outside of our control. Omegas, too, that are packless. Loners.”
“And you didn’t think to tell us?” Joe demanded. “You didn’t think this was information we needed to know?”
“We did,” she retorted. “Thomas knew. And it was only days later that Richard came and Osmond betrayed us all. Whether or not it was intentional, it served as a distraction. And it certainly didn’t help matters when you left, Alpha Bennett. You were meant to take your father’s place, but you decided revenge was more important than pack.”
Of course Thomas knew. Of course. “And there was nothing he could do about it?”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Mark said, voice flat. “All of us were injured at one point or another by Omegas. The wolves. The humans. Gordo. All of us.”
Michelle glanced up from the tablet, eyes narrowing. “And nothing?”
“No,” Ox said. “Nothing.”
“Thomas fell years ago,” Robbie said. “And Richard Collins died last year. Why haven’t you said anything since then?”
“Because I didn’t know who could be trusted,” Michelle snapped. “A human Alpha? A Bennett Alpha who refuses to accept his place? You, Robbie. You who were sent to do a job and ended up joining the pack you were to investigate. For god’s sake, there are humans in the pack. They hunt us. Tell me, exactly, at what point was I supposed to give information to a pack who seemed to exist to only serve themselves? You made a mockery of the Bennett name.”
Joe’s hands were in fists at his sides. “Say that again. I dare you.”
Ox put a hand on his shoulder, fingers digging in.
Michelle ignored him. “And then there’s the fact that your witch is the son of Robert Livingstone.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What does my father have to do with this?”
She sighed. “Do you think it’s a coincidence that when Robert Livingstone escaped custody, Richard Collins followed shortly after? Or that the wolf in South Dakota became infected? I believe in many things. I believe in pack. I believe in the strength of the wolf. I believe in the superiority of our species. I don’t believe in coincidences.”
“You think my father did this.”
“Yes. I do. I think he’s been playing a long, slow game. After the first wolf, we didn’t see anything like it for a long time. It’s only been… recently that there has been a rise, and it has become a much quicker process for an infected wolf to turn feral. Add in the fact that your father has all but disappeared. That being said, I have no proof. And since I can’t be sure you haven’t had contact with your father, you can see why I would be hesitant to share information with your pack.”
“Don’t you dare try and put this on him,” Mark growled.
“By process of elimination, it’s the only possible explanation. Occam’s razor says—”
I was pissed. “I don’t giv
e a flying fuck what you think. I would never turn on my pack, you goddamn bitch—”
“You didn’t trust me?” Robbie said, sounding hurt. “You were like my family. I never did anything to give you reason—”
“How long?”
The voice came from behind us.
I glanced over my shoulder.
