Apparently Richard had been gone a good hour before Joe had found David. There were two other wolves and a witch. They’d patched him up, asked him questions. Joe had been angry.
“Why?”
“Because he’d been so close to Richard,” David said. “Apparently, it’d been the closest they’d gotten to him. Or so they said.”
They left almost immediately. But not before Joe had pulled him aside, eyes burning red, asking him to deliver a message.
Not yet.
I scowled at him. “And it took you three months to get here?”
“You try being almost gutted by a crazed werewolf,” David snapped. “I needed time to recover. And I needed to make sure he wasn’t going to find me again. I didn’t have to come here.”
And he was right, of course. Though part of me almost wished he hadn’t. Because not yet wasn’t enough.
“How did they look?” I asked. “Did they look… were they okay?”
David smiled sadly at me. “Tired,” he said. “They looked tired. Didn’t t
alk with the others, not really, but they were all tired.”
I nodded, because I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
Then, “He doesn’t know. Does he?”
“What?” I asked.
“About you. How you’re an Alpha.”
“No. I don’t think so.” Then, “How did you?”
“I grew up in this life, kid. There are some things you learn. Tricks of the trade, I guess. The red eyes give it away, mostly.”
“I don’t have red eyes.”
“That’s why I said mostly. When you’re in the presence of an Alpha, you just know, okay? There’s this sense of… power. Of something more. Especially with an Alpha in his own territory. I’ve met one other Alpha, aside from you and Joe. Back when I was a kid. You all felt the same.” He cocked his head at me. “How did you do it?”
“I didn’t do anything,” I said, feeling scrubbed raw. “It just… happened.”
“Jesus, kid. I don’t envy you.”
“Why?”
“Because people won’t understand.” He sounded like the gruff man.
“I don’t give a shit about those people.”
“They don’t care about that either.”
“As long as they leave us alone, they can do what they want.”
“Do you really think they’ll do that?”
“Let them come,” I said, voice low and dangerous. “We’ve dealt with worse.”
David squirmed in his chair, just enough that I knew he’d gotten the point.
“Do you have a place to stay?”