He said, “He’s going to come.”
I said, “I know.”
Joe sighed. “He wants to be an Alpha.”
“Thomas.”
“Or me. To get to Dad. He tried it once. He could try it again.”
“Why? Why you? Why Thomas?”
Joe said, “There are things. Ox. I swear… I just. There are things you don’t know. I never….”
I tried to keep my anger in check. I did. He didn’t deserve it. Not after everything that’d happened.
But knowing I was kept in the dark. That Joe had….
I didn’t want to get angry.
I said, “Oh?”
Joe looked upset. “It’s not like that.”
“It sounds pretty clear what it’s like.”
“Ox.”
“I’m part of your pack.”
“Yes.”
“And I’m your mate.”
He said, “Yes.”
“But you’ve kept things from me.”
And Joe said, “Not by choice.”
“There’s always a choice,” I said, throwing his words back at him.
He whined low in his throat. “It’s not—”
“What is he? Thomas, I mean.”
“I would never lie to you.” Joe sounded like he was begging.
I put my hand on the back of his neck and brought our foreheads together. His bright eyes were on mine, never looking away.
I said, “I know,” because I did. I told myself I did.
Joe rubbed his nose against mine and said, “He was the highest-ranking Alpha out of all of us. He was the leader. In charge of all the wolves. He stepped down when I was taken. And for years there have been interim figureheads. But it’s the Bennett bloodline. It’s a birthright. And it is supposed to be mine.”
THEY LET him go after what happened to Joe. He told them, for the sake of his family, he needed to go, and maybe one day, Joe would be ready.
They didn’t want to, of course. Osmond and the men like him in positions of power. There were councils. And organizations. Meetings of werewolves. Alpha gatherings.
They went on even though Thomas did not.