Gavin looked pleased with himself.
“Carter,” Joe said.
I jerked my head away. “What? I wasn’t looking at anything. You can’t prove it.”
His lips twitched. “I didn’t think you were.” He nodded toward my bag on the floor. “That’s all you got?”
“Yeah. Travel light.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Kelly muttered. He crouched down, pulling the bag toward him. He looked disgusted as he rifled through it. I didn’t blame him. What remained in it didn’t smell very good. I hadn’t been able to wash anything for a long time, including myself. He lifted the bag off the floor and set it on the bed next to Joe. Joe didn’t look at it. He only had eyes for Gavin.
“Not leaving,” Gavin said. “Stay here. I have to stay here.”
“Why?” Joe asked.
Gavin was growing agitated again. He was twitchy, moving like a marionette, limbs jerking. “Why,” he said. “Why, why, why. Always why. Bennetts. Always questions. Always talking. I hate talking.”
Gordo looked startled. “Well fuck me. I guess we do have something in common after all.”
Gavin bared his teeth at him. “Not your brother. Don’t want you. Don’t need you. Never have. Witch. Magic. It stinks. Hate it.”
“Yeah, I don’t know if you have any room to talk about smelling bad—”
“Gavin,” Joe said. “Look at me.”
He did, though he looked as if he tried to fight it.
“You can’t leave,” Joe said slowly. “You have to stay. Why?”
“Father,” Gavin said. “Big. Strong. Powerful. I hear him. In my head. He says stay, stay, stay. He’s wolf. He’s beast. I stay, he stays.”
“You’re keeping him here,” Joe said.
Gavin nodded, head jerking up and down.
“Away from everyone else.”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
“Because he has you, and that’s all he ever wanted.”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
“Is he your Alpha?”
And Gavin hesitated. He looked confused. Unsure.
Joe stood. “He’s not, is he? He thinks he is, but he’s not.”
Gavin was breathing heavily, chest rising and falling.
“You know he’s not,” Joe continued, sounding sure of himself. I was in awe of him, how different he was. Oh, he was still Joe, but there was more to him now. “He’s not your Alpha, because you already have one. Two, in fact. Isn’t that right?”
Gavin bumped into me, and he turned his head to look at me. He grabbed my hand, his grip crushing. I didn’t try to pull away.
“Gavin,” Joe said, voice deeper. His eyes filled with fire, and in my head, I heard the faint whisper of pack and pack and pack. “You were never his. No matter what he told you. No matter what he did to you. You were never his.”
Gavin hung his head, mouth slack as he panted.