Page 100 of Feral Werewolves
My mates and I went into the kitchen, where Red, Griff, Madrigal, and Noah were all sitting at the kitchen table, drinking beer. Red’s lower lip was bleeding and Griff looked like he was starting on a black eye.
I guessed maybe it had all descended into some kind of physical fight between the two of them after all, but they hadn’t done a lot of damage, it didn’t look like.
When we came in, Griff got up and got us all a beer. There weren’t enough seats for all of us to sit down, though, so we all ended up on a screened-in porch that hung off the back of the house. It had obviously been built on to thehouse later. It didn’t look good, but it was functional and large, and it had a fire pit in a corner that Red lit up. The heat began to fill the space immediately.
“Should have realized,” Griff said as he settled down in a chair next to the fire pit, “that you were angling for it back then.” He nodded at Paladin. “You were saying things when Madge and I came to your place. I should have seen it then.”
Paladin was standing up near the doorway back inside the house. He shook his head. “This wasn’t a plan. I would never have done a damned thing if he hadn’t acted.” He gestured with his beer at Red.
Red was seated in a chair with Noah perched on his knee, one arm looped around Noah’s waist. He looked exhausted.
“Look, Red and me, it was about us,” said Griff. “I mean, he brought the mates into it because he was trying to pissmeoff, but he didn’t really think it through—”
“You know, this is exactly what I’ve been talking about,” said Red quietly. “This is the way that you treat me.”
Griff turned to look at him. “We just finished talking—”
“And now you’re talking for me, and you’re acting like you think that I’m anidiot,” said Red, his voice growing more and more heated. “This is what you’ve thought of me all along. Here, I thought we were friends, that we were brothers, but you have always just used me.”
Griff sighed. “Are we seriously having this conversationagain?”
“Apparently so,” said Red. “I thought I punched you hard enough that you heard me before, but apparently not.” He pushed Noah out of his lap and started to stand.
Paladin slid across the porch and intercepted him, hand on his chest. “Red,” he said softly. “It’s over.”
Red gestured at Griff. “If he doesn’t—”
“If you incite any more violence of any kind, I will have to end you,” said Paladin.
Noah bared his teeth at Paladin. “You know, I don’t like you.”
Paladin rolled his head on his shoulders. “Nothing personal, Noah.” He nodded at Red. “Red. You either.Nothing personal. Just. It’s done. We’re here to talk about what happens this evening, and that can go easy for you guys or it can go hard.”
Noah snorted.
Paladin glanced at him and then back to Red. “Your mates aren’t part of this. I won’t punish your mates. They can choose whether they want to be near you if I decide to lock you up, though.”
“Lock us up?” said Griff. “So, you are taking over, then, just like I was saying. You didn’t plan it, so you say, but you’re taking advantage.”
Paladin sighed heavily. He looked back at me and he looked at Kestrel and he looked at Lazarus. “I don’t know what I want. I don’t think I can run this place, but I’m beginning to think…” He turned back to Red and Griff. “It’d be better to be me than either of you, that’s what I’m starting to think. I might be good at it, even if I don’t know if I’d like it.”
Griff scoffed.
Red rolled his eyes. He sat down, shaking his head.
“I want to understand,” I said. “And maybe Noah’s owed that explanation, too, Red. Why is it that killing men, rounding up all of us mates, and having us raped by a room full of wolves, why was that aboutGriffexactly?”
Lazarus and Kestrel were immediately standing behind me.
When I said the word rape, Paladin’s expression changed.
Red spread his hands. “You know, Griff said it was about him, not me.”
“Okay,” I said. “So, why’d you do it?”
“I want to know, too,” said Lazarus. “You get it. You’re mated. What reason could you possibly have to visit that on us?”
“On the mates themselves,” I said.
