She was making it so much harder for herself. “Do you know Lyra was struggling to feed her children? She was struggling to sleep. She was exhausted.”
“Struggling to feed her…” Rowen looked bewildered. “Ialwaysensure we have enough to feed everyone in the pack.” Whatever she saw on my face only raised her ire. “Wolfe! You’ve seen me do the meal plans; I overprepare!”
“And if you have three young children, and you’re struggling, it’s not always possible to attend the pack hall every night.”
“Then why didn’t sheask?” Rowen snapped and instantly winced. “That’s not what I mean. I’m not angry at her…I’m frustrated. Why didn’t she ask for help?”
“Why didn’t you notice?” I countered, and an uneasy silence fell between us. “She asked for help, she now has that help, and she and the children are doing much better.”
“She could have asked me,” Rowen grumbled.
“She did.” I saw her scowl and felt it in the bond, but I couldn’t sugarcoat this for her. “And you told her that the best way to move forward was to contribute to the pack.”
I watched her as she thought about what I’d said, saw her thinking, no doubt rerunning every conversation she’d had with Lyra. I also saw the moment she recalled, and her eyes flicked to mine. “That’s not what I meant,” Rowen said, her tone unhappy. “The kitchen staff complained about her taking more than she needed and then the food being wasted. They asked that I talk to her.”
I listened with my alpha hat on, not my mate hat. “And perhaps a gentle rebuke from the alpha’s daughter made her think she wasn’t allowed more?”
Rowen sighed heavily. “It was not what I meant. Not at all.”
“I wanted to have this conversation with you when you were in front of me, but today’s events have pushed me forward…” I watched the guarded look in her eye and knew she wasn’t going to like it. “Your pack is not the pack you think it is. Your pack, not all of them, but some of them are unhappy. They present a happy persona to you, but your…”Fuck me, how did I say this?“But your father would have known. And?—”
“And did nothing,” Rowen snapped, as I knew she would.
“His health was declining for a long time, Rowen.”
“Starving children? Abuse?Rape?” Her eyes filled with tears. “He was dying, he wasn’t blind!” She pushed her hair off her face. “LikeIhave been!” She looked at me through the screen. “This is what Killian meant, isn’t it? When he said I was blind.” She was already nodding as if I’d answered. “Of course it was. This is why he hates me. He thinks my father chose to ignore it. Saw the suffering and did nothing.” Her hands dropped to her sides, my view changing to an extreme close-up of her bare leg. “And that I didn’t evenseeit.”
“Hey,” I called. “Put the phone in front of you,” I reminded her.
The camera jiggled, and then I was looking back into her moss green eyes. “I forgot,” she mumbled.
“It’s still new to you,” I consoled her.
She carried on as if she hadn’t heard me. “No wonder they were so quick to embrace you,” Rowen said with a bitter smile.
“We are shifters, Rowen. The spirit of the wolf is in each of us, and every pack, even in the wild, needs an alpha.” I shrugged. “It is our nature. A pack leader does not fill the void like an alpha does.”
Silence descended again, Rowen moving back and forth, not agitated, thoughtful.
“He beat her?” she asked me quietly.
“Yeah,” I sighed, the very thought abhorrent to me. “He threatened his son that he’d hurt his sister, his own daughter, if Aren didn’t deliver the notes.” I looked away, my gaze on the window toward the pack outside. “I don’t know if he would, but the threat was enough to get compliance from Aren.”
“You said he’s in a cell?”
“I will present him to the Pack Council for his crimes. At the moment, he could still be key to whoever is running the attacks. Although…” I returned my gaze to her, considering whether to give her this trust, and deciding I wanted to. “Brand and I have questioned him extensively; he knows not much more than Aren did.”
“You used your Will?”
“I did.”
“Good,” Rowen growled fiercely. “I hope you made the fucker bleed.”
My smile held no warmth. “He’s feeling it, trust me.” I had denied him his right to shift. When I left Hollis, he was on the ground, in a puddle of his own piss, sobbing for mercy. I had none to give him. I had learned that it was Simon, the dead shifter, who had been assaulting Solana. I’d told her, and while her nightmare may be over, her journey towards healing would take some time.
Rowen was quiet for a long time. “Are they okay?”
I nodded once. “Brand is with them. No one’s getting near any of them again.” I needed to tell her. “I’m sending them to Stonefang, with their consent; the family needs a change of scenery, time to heal.”
