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“Against Elijah, you mean.”
“Yes.”
“Who you apparently knew about.”
Goddammit. I should have known this was going to bite me in the ass. I opened my eyes again and turned my head. Mark stood near the window to his room, silhouetted against the dim light coming in. Frost covered the glass. Outside, snow still fell in fat flakes. His eyes glittered in the shadows. A thought struck me, harsh and biting. “I wasn’t—I didn’t know about Michelle. I didn’t know about Pappas. Elijah. I’m not my father. Mark, you gotta believe me. I’m not my—”
“I know. We know. Joe… wasn’t happy. But Elizabeth got through to him, I think. Aside from her, and you and me, no one else knew about Elijah. What she was capable of. But she told the others. About what happened last time.”
I pushed myself up to a sitting position with a groan. I was shirtless, my skin pebbling in the cool air in the room. Someone had gotten me out of my clothes and into a pair of sweats while I’d been unconscious. I had a good idea who it was. “The guys?”
Mark tilted his head slightly. “Bruised. A little bloodied. But nothing serious. They got patched up. They were very lucky. All of you were.”
I popped my neck, stretching the stiff muscles. “And the hunters?”
“Haven’t approached the house. They’re staying away. For now.”
“Of course they are,” I muttered, sliding my feet to the floor. “Fucking melodramatic assholes.” Elijah said she was giving us until the full moon. I didn’t know what that meant. But it didn’t matter. She would be dead by then. I would see to it myself. “I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming. Michelle. She betrayed us.”
“I don’t know that you could have,” Mark said slowly. “Wolves working with hunters? She’s playing a dangerous game.” He paused, considering. “But she’s not the only one keeping secrets.”
I winced at the dig. I deserved that. “David King.”
“What about him?”
“He’s the one who told me that his sister was still around.”
“And you didn’t think to say anything?” There it was. The first hint of anger.
“I didn’t think—I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“You never do.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re not funny.”
“I’m not trying to be.” His eyes flared orange briefly. “And whether or not we should have seen what Michelle would do, you still should have told us.”
“I know.”
He scoffed. “Do you? Because I don’t believe you.”
I glared up at him. “I fucked up, okay? I know that.”
“You don’t trust us. You don’t trust your pack.”
Now I was getting angry. “Go to hell, Mark. You don’t know what the fuck—”
“It took me a little bit to figure out why.”
“And now you’re going to tell me, aren’t you.”
He ignored me. “You don’t trust us. Even after everything we’ve been through. You don’t trust us because you think this is all temporary. That your pack is going to leave you again.”
“Gee, I wonder where I’d get that idea.”
He scowled at me. “Can you be serious for once?”
I laughed. It wasn’t the nicest sound. “Bullshit. You brought it up, Mark. If your pseudopsychobabble bullshit was true, if I didn’t trust my pack, it would be because of people like you.”
