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“The witch inside the house. The prisoner.”
Ezra laughed. “Oh. Oh. Dear, there is no witch inside the house. It’s a wolf. A great and terrible wolf who wanted something that did not belong to him. But he can no longer hurt anyone. He’s… empty. A husk, hollowed out and dim.”
A wolf? But I’d felt…. I c
ould have sworn there was magic, and it was leaking from inside, leaking until it— “A wolf,” I said weakly.
“Yes, dear. One whose name we do not speak because he lost the right.” He looked grim.
“What did he do?” I asked, sure I wasn’t going to get an answer.
Ezra sighed and looked down at his hands. “He took a boy once. A little boy. A princeling, or as close to one as we have these days. This wolf hurt the boy terribly, and it was only by the grace of the moon that he was saved. But not before the wolf forced upon him unbelievable torture that no child should ever have to know.” He looked terribly sad. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand such things. You would never hurt someone who didn’t deserve it. And while the boy wasn’t exactly… innocent, what was done to him was madness.”
“What the hell?” I asked incredulously. “What do you mean he wasn’t innocent? He was a child.”
“I know, I know,” Ezra said, holding up his hands as if to placate me. “But even children are capable of things we wouldn’t expect. And when you come from a family like his, one needs to exercise an abundance of caution. His family… they’re… well. Let’s just say they want something they can never have. Something that doesn’t belong to them.” He stared at me hard. “Something that will go against the very nature of the wolves.”
Alarm bells were going off in my head. I thought the walls were closing down around me. “What? What do they want?”
He reached out and pressed a hand against my arm, fingers circling my wrist. I could see the bruise already starting to form from when I’d grabbed him earlier, the dull ink on his arm red and inflamed.
“To see your Alpha gone,” he said. “To see the Alpha of all come tumbling down and to send our world into chaos. To integrate humans into the wolf pack. You of all people should know the danger of humans and what they’re capable of. This family does not care. They would take all that we’ve worked so hard for and enforce their will upon the wolves. And I cannot stand for that.”
“Why did you never tell me about this?” I demanded. “How the fuck am I supposed to protect her if I don’t know about any of this?”
He looked frail and weak. His hand shook against my wrist. “Forgive an old man,” he said quietly. “All I wanted to do was to keep you from all the darkness. To give you a life where you would only know peace after all you’ve been through. I made a mistake. I underestimated you, dear. I shouldn’t have. You deserve better from me.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t know what’s coming. I don’t know what the future holds for all of us. But if we are to survive, it’s important that you know who our enemies are. The man in the house. The prisoner. He is an enemy, but he’s been declawed.” He looked thoughtful. “But even then, he seems to be capable of some kind of hold. I wonder why that is? Tell me, dear. Why now? Why did this come about now? Did someone say something to you?”
Dangerous ground. “It’s all secret,” I said. “And I don’t like secrets.” It was a deflection, careless and rough.
But it worked.
He nodded. “I know you don’t. But it’s for your own protection. And for the protection of us all. He won’t be the last. I feel we are in for perilous times ahead.” He looked older than I’d ever seen him before when he said, “It’s time you know who the real enemy is. The ones who would take everything from us.”
“Tell me. Tell me. Tell me.”
Ezra said, “They are the Bennetts. And they will destroy everything if given the chance.”
He left me after securing a promise that I’d rest. He took my glasses from his coat pocket and set them on the nightstand next to the bed. Silly wolf, he said. You don’t need these. I love you, I love you, I love you.
I didn’t reply.
He was at the door when I said, “Omegas.”
He stopped. He didn’t turn around. “What about Omegas?”
“Have you ever seen one?”
He didn’t hesitate. “Oh yes. Poor creatures. Feral and dark. I can only imagine what it would feel like to have everything ripped from you, to have your tether shredded until it hangs in tatters. I think I would lose my mind too.” He glanced back at me over his shoulder. “Why do you ask?”
“Just wondering what else I haven’t been told.”
He winced. “I deserve that. And no, dear, I promise that you know everything I do. I won’t keep these things from you any further. You aren’t a child.”
“No. I’m not.”
He nodded. “Sleep, Robbie. We’ll talk more in the morning.” He closed the door behind him, leaving me alone.
I collapsed back down on the bed, trying to focus.
