“I almost want to let you try again,” I muttered as I stood over him. “I think I could punch you all day and never grow tired. Is that how you think when you beat your wife?”
“Alpha, my hus?—”
“Don’t lie, Solana,” I murmured, not looking at her. “I can’t stomach lies.”
You are a shifter,I said to her.Why did you not fight back?I heard her whimper.I’m not judging you,I added, and I hoped that I wasn’t.You are strong, healthy. Tell me why youstay?
I waited for a long moment. Hollis never moved, and Brand and Axel stood like silent sentinels on either side.
He would have hurt Annabel and Aren.
I glanced at the piece of shit on the floor of my office. “He will never hurt your family again.” I looked at Axel. “Get the boy. I know why he didn’t tell me.”
Axel nodded and slipped quietly from the room.
Aren lived with the threat of his father hurting his little sister every day. A note to betray his pack over the safety of his sister from the monster of his father. I wouldn’t have slept either.
Hollis went to get up, but Brand put his foot on his chest, not pressing, just a light touch, and the older man stayed where he was.
“Solana, tell me everything.”
“The bitch knows nothing; all she’s good for is cleaning and whoring.”
Solana winced as if he’d struck her again.
Rage pulsed through me, and for the first time, I didn’t hesitate as I used my Will.Don’t speak, lie there like the dog you are.
Much like I had done to Aren, I crouched in front of Solana. “Tell me everything.”
Her lips parted, trembling, but the words didn’t come at first. She glanced at Hollis, then back at me. Her hands twisted in her lap, fingers trembling as she fought the instinct to hide.
“Solana,” I said again, softer this time. “You’re safe. He won’t touch you, or your children, again.”
My Will pressed Hollis to the floor like the coward he was. Not enough to hurt him—just enough to keep him still. He grunted low in his throat, unable to move or speak, eyes wide with a hatred that didn’t intimidate me at all.
Solana swallowed. Then spoke. “The notes?” she asked softly.
“Yes.” Notes? Plural?
She sighed, and her eyes filled with tears. “He started to use Aren to pass the notes,” she told us quietly. “I think he did it himself before, but like everything withhim, he got lazy.” She glanced up at me. “He kept them hidden in the back seam of his jacket. Aren never read them, just passed them along like he was told.”
“To who?”
“I don’t know. I only saw one of them once—a man in a dark coat, who smelled like sour ash and wet stone. He wasn’t of this pack.”
My pulse picked up. Sour ash? That was rogue scent. Old rogue.
“How long has it been happening?” Brand asked softly so as not to upset her.
“Two moons,” she said. “That I know of. Maybe longer. I think it started in earnest after you came back. He said the pack was changing, with Malric on the way out. Said he’d make sure the old ways didn’t disappear.”
I stood slowly.Old ways. That was always the excuse the weak used when power shifted out of their reach, when the wrong people started to lead.
“Who else within the pack is working with him?” I asked her.
“Kirk,” she said, not meeting my eyes.
I’d already killed him, and his family had left the next morning. Still, it was worth checking out. “Anyone else?”
