I narrowed my eyes. “Then I will handle it myself.”
He nodded slowly. “That bugs me too.”
“What?”
“How did he escape?”
To that, I had no answer.
Robbie smiled weakly. “We—I like being here. I feel… safe. I’m not Osmond. I’m not Pappas.”
“I know.”
He sighed. “Good.”
I turned and headed inside. Before I shut the door, I heard, “Thanks, Gordo.”
I HEARD movement in the kitchen. I looked in to see Elizabeth hugging Kelly. His head was on her shoulder. He was shaking. Carter was leaning against the counter, arms crossed over his chest, brow furrowed, mouth thin. He was staring off into nothing.
They knew I was there.
I left them be.
Mark wasn’t in the house. I just knew. I didn’t know how that made me feel. Maybe he’d changed his mind. I’d actively avoided thinking about how he’d said I was his tether, even after all this time. It didn’t matter. Not now. We had other things to worry about. I would deal with that later if I had to.
I didn’t know when I’d become such a proficient liar.
I made my way down to the basement. I saw Joe first. He was propped up against the wall, an eerie approximation of how his brother looked standing upstairs. He glanced at me and nodded before turning back toward Ox.
Ox stood in front of the open doorway. The line of powdered silver remained along the floor.
Pappas sat cross-legged in the center of the room, hands on his knees. He was nude. His eyes were closed, and he was breathing in deep breaths and letting them out slowly.
Neither of them acknowledged me.
I went to Joe first. He reached out and ran a hand along my arm, fingers trailing as he left his scent on my skin. My tattoos glowed briefly under his touch. Ox was my tether, and our packs were one, but Joe, he… it was different. With him. Those three years had changed us.
“I heard what you said,” he told me quietly. “To Robbie.”
I scowled at him. “You know I hate it when you eavesdrop.”
“You’re in a house of werewolves. Everyone hears everything.”
“Which is why I don’t like any of you.”
“Lie,” he said, smiling quietly. It fell only a moment later. “Ox, he’s… trying.”
I glanced at them. It was only then I noticed Ox was taking the same breaths as Pappas, like he was trying to center him somehow. “Is it working?”
“I don’t know. There was a moment when I thought….” He shook his head. “His eyes. They’re violet now. He’s an Omega. I think last night was a slip. He hasn’t gone completely feral. At least not yet.”
“Unless we can figure out a way to fix it, it’s only a matter of time before—”
“I can hear you,” Pappas said without opening his eyes. His voice was deeper than it normally was, like he was speaking through a throat filled with gravel. But he sounded more in control than he had since he’d called me. I didn’t know how long it would last. If Michelle had been telling the truth, he was well on his way.
Ox sighed as he looked back at us. “Thanks for that. We were getting somewhere.”
Pappas opened his eyes. They were violet. “No, Oxnard. You weren’t. This is a lull. I’ve seen it before.”