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He blinked. “No, like, legitimately forced. He was told that if he didn’t return, he was going to have to give up his title to another. Abdicate his throne, if you will. The only reason he was able to come back to Green Creek was because of what happened to Joe. And then… well. You know what happened after that.”
History I didn’t want to have to think about. “What’s your point?”
“Yeah, it’s like… okay. You’re an Alpha, right? Power and pack and blah, blah, blah. But when you’re Alpha of all? It’s… more. It’s incredible, or so I’m told. You’re the most powerful wolf in the world. You rule over all, hence the title. Why would anyone want to give that up?”
“You think she’s trying to stay right where she’s at.”
Robbie grimaced. “I’ve been thinking about it, okay? Why else would she keep the rest of this from us? Why would she send Philip here over and over again to get the Omegas, only to have us kill the last one?”
“Enlighten me.”
“She’s testing them,” he said excitedly. “Or us. Joe. And Ox. Joe’s a Bennett, so she thinks she knows what to expect from him. But Ox? She has no idea. None of us do. There’s never been someone like him before. He was a human that somehow became an Alpha without being a wolf. And Richard was able to take that from him. That shouldn’t have been possible.”
“Nothing about Ox should be possible.”
I rolled my eyes at the dreamy quality to his voice when he said, “Right? He’s
just… awesome.”
I snapped my fingers in his face. “Focus.”
He jerked his head. “Uh. Sorry. What were we talking about?”
“Michelle. Testing Joe and Ox.”
“Yeah. Yeah. She wasn’t… lying. About what happened with Richard turning into an Alpha.” That caught my attention, because they rarely spoke about those few moments. His gaze turned downward. “It… wasn’t right. Feeling him. Ox is… light. Like the sun. Richard felt like an eclipse. It was wrong. Everything about it was wrong. But we could feel him. And them. All the other Omegas. They were… I don’t know. It didn’t last long, but it wasn’t good. And now, with this—this thing. She’s pushing, I think. Maybe she’s using Ox. To bring all the Omegas out of hiding. Because we’ve been hurt by them before, and we’ve healed fine, so it can’t be all of them. I think she knows that. She wants to see what they’re capable of. What they’ll do.”
“In order to what?”
He looked frustrated. “I don’t know. I haven’t gotten that far. But it’s something. I never—” He shook his head. “Power does funny things to people. It gets in their heads. Makes them change. She wasn’t… she wasn’t always like this. Okay? She used to be… different. Better. I don’t—I thought, after she sent me out here, that when I came back, maybe I could be in her pack, you know? That I’d finally stay in one place. Be part of something real instead of forming these pseudobonds that were only meant to keep me from slipping.”
I reached out and wrapped a hand around the back of his neck. He closed his eyes and leaned into it, humming under his breath. “You have that,” I told him quietly. “Here. With us. She didn’t have a damn thing to do with that.”
He trembled as he opened his eyes. “I know. But what if she’s trying to take that away?”
I shook him a little. “What do we do when someone tries to come for us?”
His eyes blazed orange. “We fight back.”
“Exactly. They don’t think of you like that. Your Alphas want you here. Your pack. Even Joe, now that you’ve stopped trying to slobber all over Ox’s dick.”
He jerked his head back. “I wasn’t trying to slobber all over—”
“Though,” I said with a frown, “you are making crazy eyes at his brother. I don’t know if that’s going to help things.”
He squeaked again.
I took a step back. “We’ll figure this out, okay? But if this is Michelle pulling the strings, then you need to prepare yourself for that. Because she will need to be stopped.” Another thought struck me. “Do you think she would have done this on purpose?”
He blinked. “What?”
“The infection. If she sent Pappas here, knowing he was already on his way to turning Omega. As a way to get to us. To Joe and Ox.”
He shook his head. “I don’t—that seems too grand for her. Too big.”
“You’re the one that said the Alpha of all isn’t something to give up lightly,” I reminded him.
He looked frustrated. “I know, it’s just… if that’s the case, I can’t make it fit. Why would she run the risk of infecting others? It’s already spreading. Why would she want it to spread further? It could turn around and bite her in the ass.” He gnawed on his bottom lip. Then, “What if it’s your father?”
