“Good things. They talk about you. The wolves. They say you’re a human, but that you’re just as strong as us. Trust me when I say it’s hard to impress them. But you’ve done that.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I said.
“Maybe,” Robbie said. “Or maybe you just don’t understand exactly what you’ve done. It’s really rather remarkable.”
I said, “I don’t know you.”
“No,” Robbie agreed.
“I knew Osmond. A little.”
Robbie frowned. “It was a surprise. To all of us.”
“Was it?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“A surprise.”
“Yes.”
“Your surprise ended in my mother’s death. In my Alpha’s death.”
Robbie blanched. “I’m not—”
“I don’t know you. I didn’t know you were coming. You’re a surprise. And I don’t like surprises.”
“I’m not here to hurt you,” Robbie said. “Or take anything away from you.”
“Osmond would have said the same thing,” I said.
Robbie looked at Elizabeth. Then at Mark. They both remained silent at my sides.
I waited.
He dragged his gaze back to me. “Curious,” he said.
“What?”
“You. You’re not what I expected.”
My father’s voice whispered in my head, saying people were always gonna give me shit. “I get that a lot.”
“Do you?”
“Why are you here?”
He blinked several times, as if coming out of a fog. “Osmond was Thomas’s liaison to the interim Alpha when one was necessary. I’ve assumed his position.”
“Thomas is gone.”
“He is,” Robbie said. “But Joe is not. And the Bennett line is very strong. Where is he?”
“Do you know who I am?” I asked, leaning forward.
“Oxnard Matheson,” he said promptly, looking a little surprised to be giving the answer.
“Did Osmond tell you? Or his other wolves? What I am. To Joe.”