I laid my head against the steering wheel, the leather cool against my forehead. My thoughts were chaotic, a storm of Mark and Mark and Mark. All the things I could have said. Like how the sound he’d made when Pappas had latched his teeth into his leg caused a red sheen to fall over my eyes. How I could have killed Pappas right then and there without a twinge of remorse. How I would have done it to anybody who tried to hurt him. Nobody hurt Mark Bennett. Especially right in front of me.
Philip Pappas was lucky I hadn’t boiled him from the inside out.
If the Alphas hadn’t come when they had—
I took in a breath. And then another. And then another.
There was a thrumming along the tangled web.
It came from Ox. Always Ox.
It said home pack safe home gordo home.
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered. “I hear you.”
THE HOUSE at the end of the lane was brightly lit for the late hour. Jessie’s car was parked next to Ox’s. Someone must have called her. She wasn’t going to be happy. She had a class to teach in the morning.
I turned off my truck and opened the door. The air felt colder. I could see my breath. I wanted a cigarette, but Elizabeth didn’t like when I smoked near the house. She said it made her nose itch.
Speak of the devil.
“Okay?” she asked as I came up the steps on the porch.
I nodded. “Mark get back?”
“He’s inside with the others. Rico? Chris? Tanner?”
“Handling the SUV the wolves came in.”
“That’s good.” Then, “Philip has a handprint burned into his flesh. It’s not healing. I’m told that’s your doing.”
“I had to get him to stop.”
“From hurting Mark. You must have been very angry.”
Oh, she was good. “I would have done it for anyone in the pack.”
She smiled serenely. “I believe you. Still. The skin is charred.”
“It’s magic. It always takes longer for a wolf to heal. You know that.”
“Of course. Thank you.”
“For?”
“Protecting Mark.”
“I didn’t—Jesus Christ.”
“He was worried about you when he left. I don’t know that I’ve ever seen him run as fast as he did then.”
“Not the time, Elizabeth.”
“Merely recounting our side of the events that transpired in your absence. In case you were wondering.”
“I wasn’t.”
Her smile widened. “I don’t believe you. Isn’t that wonderful?”