“He couldn’t do anything,” she said hotly, unable to let the attack on Boyd go on without defending him. Boyd had been the key to her getting out of Chicago, to her finding Charles. “Leo was his Alpha—and he kept everyone under his control. Boyd was not dominant enough to challenge him or disobey a direct order. Boyd protected people when he could. Without him, more bad things would have happened to people who couldn’t protect themselves.”
“You really believe that,” Charles said, as if he didn’t. “Good for you.” He sighed, his gaze focused somewhere in the darkness outside. Another car pulled into the Marrok’s driveway, pack members coming to gather with the others. That they were coming here instead of going home spoke to the unease that Hester’s death had caused.
The wolves who got out looked away from Charles’s truck with studious care.
Charles spoke after they were alone in the darkness again. “I sometimes think that you could be right. But mostly I believe that any dominant worth his hide protects those who cannot protect themselves. I expect that’s how Boyd looks at things, too.”
She, personally, had quit thinking about her first pack a long time ago. From the sound of it, she had been the only one. She used one of Charles’s grunts to express herself.
“A dominant wolf protects his own with his life, Anna,” Charles told her. “That means from everyone. If he felt Leo was too much for him, Boyd had Da’s number. He could have called it at any time.”
“He couldn’t disobey Leo,” she said doggedly—she’d watched him try. “Leo forbade it.”
“His wolf couldn’t disobey a direct order,” agreed Charles, so mildly that Anna flinched even though it wasn’t directed at her. She knew that mild tone.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. When he spoke again, the killing quiet was further away, and his eyes had returned to their usual almost-black.
“We are more than our wolves, Anna,” he said. “Boyd is also a man—and the man is in charge. He could have disobeyed by shutting down his wolf. It would have been difficult, but he is not a newly Changed wolf. He has the control to do it. He just didn’t try.”
She bit her lip. Did that change things? Knowing that Boyd could have stepped in earlier? No, she thought, with something approaching relief. There had been things that she could have done, too—if only she had known. One of the things she’d learned from being a wolf in Bran’s pack was that all the ability in the world did her no good if she didn’t know how to use it.
“He knows better now,” her mate continued in a low growl, as if he’d been following her thought path.
“Charles?” she asked, honestly unhappy. Charles wasn’t exactly tactful. Being in Leo’s pack had scarred her, no doubt, but it hadn’t been a picnic for anyone else, either. Boyd had been as close to broken as she had been, though she hadn’t seen it at the time. Boyd didn’t need her forceful mate telling him how he’d failed his pack—he already believed it.
“Not me,” Charles said. “It was Da. He educated him—then he put Boyd in charge of the pack. Boyd wasn’t strong enough to control the territory, not in his condition, especially when that pack was so broken. But Da thought that Boyd would heal better if he were put in charge for a while, so Da made it happen.” His phone had long since quit ringing. “As it turns out, Boyd rose to the occasion, and Da left him in charge.”
“That sounds . . . odd,” said Anna, feeling off balance. “Bran is all about the good of the many outweighing the good of the one.”
Charles smiled grimly. “We failed that pack, too. Failed you. Da or I should have noticed the situation sooner. In retrospect, both of us noticed oddities that we should have looked into and did not. Rather than let Boyd break under the weight of his inability to protect his subordinates from his Alpha, Da left him in a position where he could work out his guilt with action. Boyd needed to know he could take care of his pack, that what he had been and who he was now could be different, better.” He pursed his lips, and said thoughtfully, “I have no doubt at all that Boyd Hamilton will never again stand aside while someone is being hurt.”
Clearly, Anna noted, that didn’t keep Charles from being very angry with him anyway.
“So,” he asked Anna, in a suddenly brisk tone, “are you going to punish him by making him talk to you about how much he failed you? Or are you going to let him talk to me about it?”
She gave him a shrewd look. “Which one is better for him?”
“You’ll make him feel guilty. I’ll only make him mad,” Charles assured her.
She laughed—and it was only a little strained. She should insist, but she didn’t really want to have that conversation, either.
“Okay,” she said. “Go for it.”
And she left him alone in the truck to make the call where she wouldn’t overhear it.
* * *
• • •
BOYD ANSWERED AS soon as Charles called him back.
“Hamilton,” he said, his voice wary.
“You know who our dead body is?” Charles asked, watching Anna until she closed the front door behind her.
“Yes.” Boyd’s tone was brisk—and relieved. He wasn’t stupid—he’d probably been expecting Anna to call him back even though he’d used Charles’s phone. “His name was Ryan Cable. Before . . . very early on, in the dawn of Leo’s troubles, Leo brought in five military men to be Changed in secret. It was highly implied, though never spoken outright, that they were special forces. Only the old second—Harvey Adler—plus me, Jason, and a couple of others knew . . .” There was a pause. “I think out of all the pack members there that night, I’m the only one who is still alive.”
Charles thought that it might be a good time to get the conversation back on track. There was something in Boyd’s tone that indicated Boyd would have been happier to be among the dead. “Ryan Cable.”
“Sorry,” Boyd said, his voice unapologetic. “I’m trying to get the details right. It was a long time ago. I think it must have been in the early nineties. The Gulf War had just broken out, and patriotism was strong in all of us. Leo told us that there were people in the military who knew about werewolves and that one of those men had asked him for help. Leo had agreed, and his contact sent us these five men to Change. This was hush-hush stuff, both on our side and theirs.”
Brother Wolf grumbled. This was exactly the kind of thing that had driven Bran to bring the werewolves out to the public. Blackmail was less useful now—either as an incentive or as an excuse.
Boyd made a pained sound back. “Believe me, I know. But Leo had been a good Alpha up until that point. It’s only looking back that I can see that he was starting to change, and that was probably the turning point. We all have done things against the rules now and then. All of us.” Boyd included, that meant. “Leo said it was for the war effort, and we could tell he was telling the truth.”