He knew what I was trying to say. I couldn’t feel him yet, not like I used to, but I didn’t think it would be long. The packs were going to come together. They had to. I didn’t really see any other way it could be.
“I did what I had to do,” Joe said.
“And your pack,” she said.
“They did as well. We were all in agreement.”
She glanced at me. “Were you?”
“Yes.”
“Where is Richard Collins?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you came back.”
“It was time.”
“It had nothing to do with the King clan, then?”
Joe said nothing.
Michelle sighed. “I can’t help you if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
“We didn’t ask for your help,” Joe said.
“You’ll need it. If he comes again.”
Joe snorted. “He’s already come twice. He’s already taken from me. Where were you then?”
She didn’t even flinch. She was very good. “Things are different now.”
“They are,” Joe agreed. “But that doesn’t change anything between us. You and I both know that my desire to lead ended when my father was taken from me. I don’t care about that. Not anymore. You can have it. Do with it what you will.”
“You don’t trust me,” she said.
“No,” Joe said coolly. “I don’t. I don’t trust any of you. You did nothing to help my father. And, in fact, you sent someone who betrayed us. So forgive me if appeasing your guilt isn’t one of my first priorities.”
“I’m not asking you to appease anything,” she said, that hardened exterior cracking just a little. “This doesn’t affect just you, Joe. Richard Collins is an enemy to all of us. We’re supposed to work together. To stop him. To end this.”
Claws pricked my fingers as Joe’s grip tightened. “You should have thought of that when you had the chance to end this after he took me when I was a kid. You had him and you—”
“I wasn’t even part of this then—”
“It doesn’t matter,” Joe interrupted. “You are the Alpha of the wolves now. Everything that has come before you now rests on you.”
“I could send someone there,” she said. “Multiple someones, if I was inclined.”
“Actually, you couldn’t,” I said.
She glared at me. “And why is that?”
“Because I’m the Alpha of this territory,” I said. “And you are not welcome here.”
She laughed. “Mr. Matheson, I assure you, I don’t need your permission. If anything, you answer to me now.”
“I don’t answer to anyone except for my pack,” I said. “And I assure you, if you think otherwise, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”