He nodded. ‘That’s the last time anyone saw her,’ he whispered. ‘But no matter what you think, I didn’t hurt her. I don’t know what happened to her. I didn’t realise anything was wrong until later that day when her sister came at me.’
He ran a hand through his hair. ‘Becca wouldn’t believe that I had nothing to do with Anna’s disappearance. She kept on and on at me, then she attacked me in the middle of the street. I was passing her house and she came bounding out and threw herself at me. I got away, ran back here and she followed.’ He nodded at me. ‘That’s when you showed up.’
‘There’s been no sign of Anna since then?’
‘No.’
‘So what happened to Becca? What did Lady Sullivan tell you yesterday?’
‘Whatever Becca did,’ he said, without listening to my question, ‘she did to herself. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t my fault.’ He started to wring his hands, turning them over and over in his lap. From where I was sitting, it appeared that he was rocking. That didn’t bode well.
I put as much steel into my voice as I could. ‘Gregory,’ I said, ‘what has happened to Becca?’
His head snapped up. ‘She killed herself. Yesterday morning.’ He sank into himself. ‘Becca committed suicide.’
***
I was seething. Once Lukas and I were back outside Gregory’s house, I let rip. ‘Why didn’t Lady Sullivan tell us about Becca? Or Anna? You can’t seriously tell me that it’s normal for werewolves to vanish, or for young women to kill themselves! In the context of what happened to Tony, she was being incredibly reckless by not revealing that information!’
‘I doubt she thought it was relevant,’ Lukas said.
‘Could a more dominant supe with a lot of power have used Becca’s name and compelled her to commit suicide?’ I asked, horrified at the thought.
Lukas shook his head. ‘Not a chance. Compulsion will go a long way but, regardless of how much power you might have, you can’t use it to fight against another person’s inner soul and true nature. Think of it like hypnosis: you couldn’t hypnotise someone to kill themselves. It doesn’t work when someone is wholly set on a different path.’
I was only slightly mollified. ‘That’s good to know, but Lady Sullivan should have informed us about both women.’
‘I’m not disagreeing with you,’ he said gently. ‘It would have been better if she’d told us, especially considering that Brown’s last movements involved breaking up the fight between Becca and Gregory.’
‘He didn’t break up the fight,’ I said, curling my fingers into fists and damning Lady Sullivan to hell. ‘I did.’
‘Mm.’ Lukas’s black eyes seared into me. ‘That’s not the only thing you’ve done. Did you feel it when you said his name?’
‘What?’
‘The thrum of power,’ he said. ‘Did you feel it?’
I gave him a blank look. ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
‘Gregory is a delta – or at least hewasa delta. He doesn’t look like he’ll be retaining that position for much longer.’
‘I’ll repeat what I just said. I have no idea what you’re talking about.’
Lukas’s expression was patient. ‘Lady Sullivan is the clan alpha.’
‘Yep. Got that.’
‘Beneath her are a dozen betas.’
‘Okay.’
‘Then there are selsas, who rank below the betas. Below the selsas are the deltas. Then the gammas, who are the betas of the deltas, followed by epsilons, zetas and iotas. Iotas are the pups. That’s not including the omegas, those wolves who are on the periphery of the clan and outside the usual hierarchy for a variety of reasons.’
I stared at him. ‘Are you even speaking English?’
Lukas let out a short laugh. ‘I gave you the condensed version. It’s not difficult. I thought everyone knew about the wolves’ hierarchy.’
‘I knew there was a hierarchy,’ I muttered. ‘I didn’t know it was so complicated or that it was going to sound like an American college fraternity.’
