Page 25 of Hunted

“Or that his human controllers won’t dispose of him the moment his usefulness is up,” I added.

“Oh, I think he might be exactly that arrogant,” Topher said dryly.

“Apologies, but I have another meeting,” Guillermo said suddenly. “River, you have your orders. Rossi is to be taken in alive.”

In the silence that followed him ending the call, I exchanged a look with Brody. Our uncle had devoted decades to safeguarding the security of all the werewolves in North America, an unenviable task that came with more gray moral days than black or white ones. He and his beta Alek had gambled by trading classified information with both the Vampire Nation and the feds over the years. No one in the room but the two of us knew the extent of Guillermo and Alek’s secrets.

Rossi had to be taken out. He was a critical threat. No one questioned this. But a small part of me silently wondered if Guillermo worried Rossi was a threat to his power, especially weakened as he was from the Blackout biologic attack. Rossi represented to the werewolves for all intents and purposes the same sort of young rebel leader Vlad was to the Vampire Nation. If Guillermo quietly disappeared, it might be assumed he'd simply gone underground. If he was killed after Rossi had time to gain enough of a following, it could spark rebellion within the pack.

“August,” I said at last, “I want you to check out Rossi’s family. He has a mother and brother that we know of. Find everything you can on them and see what else you can dig up. We need phone records, email, anything you can find. Even monsters call their mothers.”

“Okay.” Brody checked his watch. “I want to hear from you twice a day at a minimum. Check in on the group chat. In English please.” He shot West a look. “In case we’ve forgotten from last week, messages written in Elvish may be misinterpreted as a coded cry for help.”

“Y’all are no fun,” West announced, packing his lesson plans up into his teaching satchel as Topher leaned in to whisper something into his ear that made the tips of his ears turn pink.

Cal and Brody headed out to the front porch with Major on their heels.

West turned to me as soon as the screen door clapped shut. “I’ve finally figured out what the problem is with you and Brody.”

I scrolled through my messages, growling. “I haven’t slept in two days. I’m hunting a psychopath. Ellie Crowe’s protection detail just texted to say she ditched them while trying to rescue a squirrel she worried was going to fall out of a tree. Like, is that even a thing?”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure squirrels sustain injuries every year falling out of trees,” August interrupted. “UT had a whole blog article about it the other day.”

“Dude.” Topher smirked good-naturedly. “Read the room.”

“What? It was an interesting article.”

I continued, “But yeah, would you please tell me why it’s my fault that Brody can’t get off my ass for two seconds so I can do my goddamn job?”

“Sure.” West nodded. Like the best English teacher in Lindley County couldn’t recognize a fucking rhetorical question? “It's because you’re too much alike.”

“And, here we go,” Topher muttered, reaching for a doughnut.

“You’re way off the mark,” I said. Topher passed me the box and I swiped the last doughnut left, a chocolate glazed. “Brody’s the oldest. He’ll always see me as that little kid he can boss around.”

“You’re both Alpha wolves. Brody assumed control of the pack when Dad was abducted. And you stepped aside.” West held my gaze. “Don’t tell me it never crossed your mind that if circumstances had been different, you could have been Alpha.”

“Wasn’t going to happen.” I chewed my doughnut. Blair’s Bakery made the best doughnuts in the state. The old flare of anger this brought up four years later had caught me off guard. “Dad wanted the pack to go to Brody. That was always the plan. You know Dad had his favorites and I was never one of them.”

West frowned, instantly looking uncomfortable. “I never realized things were that bad between you and Dad, not like they were with Dallas or Ethan.” He swore. “I’m such an ass. Just forget I said that. I know how he was. I’m not trying to invalidate what it was like for you growing up.”

“Whatever. I didn’t even want to be Alpha. Leaving home was the right choice for me. It gave me the chance to develop my abilities, move up within the Tracer pack. It’s just… Dad was hardly subtle about it, you know? I would hear golden boy Brody talking with him in his study practically every night about how he would one day inherit the pack. And then of course he had to go and become a sheriff’s deputy, too.”

“Yeah.” Topher was frowning. “But you’ve got to wonder if there wasn’t some not so subtle pressure there from Ben.” When I raised an eyebrow, he shrugged. “Just saying, it’s not always so easy being the golden boy either.”

“And that’s another way you’re alike,” West said thoughtfully. “You’re both protectors.”

I rolled my eyes. “I think one Cal psychoanalyzing the family is enough.”

West softened. “I’m just saying to cut Brody some slack. Up until six months ago he wasn’t even officially Alpha, only acting Alpha because Uncle Guillermo was playing all these weird head games with him. Brody will never say it, but I think he looks at you with your off-the-charts neural manipulator abilities, Guillermo’s approval, which he’s never been able to achieve, by the way. Add in all this authority over the hunt for Rossi and things that impact his pack, and his wolf is feeling the teeniest bit if not… jealous, then at least territorial. Can’t you give him a little bit of grace?”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Okay. That was a lot to unpack. First, this idea that Guillermo and I are tight and I get special favors? Yeah, no. Were you even in that meeting we just had? Having him as an Alpha can be worse than Dad on his darkest days.”

I closed my eyes, feeling the tension of the room ratcheting up with every second the silence swirled. But no, I wasn’t going to go there. August stood, and I felt the silent question he threw towards my brother. He and Guillermo got together at least once a month for video game nights. But they’d always had a very different relationship than we had.

West stalked me to the door, Topher trailing a few paces behind, mind a quiet thunderstorm. “What aren’t you telling us, Riv?”

“Nothing,” I said tightly. “Drop it.”