Beyo muttered something. “How the fuck were we supposed to get evidence? You think Loren didn’t fix things? Didn’t arrange things just so to cover his tracks? He was the last one to see Paisley alive, and then she was dead. He has a reputation around here, you know. For getting whatever he can from the women of the clan and taking what he can’t get willingly.”
Connor didn’t ask for evidence this time, presumably because he had expected the same answer. “So you decided to get even,” he said.
“We decided to get stronger,” he said. “Cash, Everett, Loren, they’re all old. Their time is done. We were going to work together, take the lead.”
“Because none of you were strong enough to take him individually. None of you alpha enough to challenge him for the clan. So you decided to cheat.”
Beyo rose up, strained against his bonds with enough force to make the metal creak in protest. “What the fuck do you know about it? You’re in Chicago, living it up. We’re out here. Pack but not really, right? Barely making it.”
“We are Pack,” Connor said, each word bitten off as his anger and frustration grew. “Pack takes care of Pack—if we know there’s a goddamn problem. You could have come to us. You could have come to me.”
“Whatever,” Beyo said. “We did what we had to do.”
Connor pulled a hand across his jaw, visibly worked to maintain his control. “You learned about the Sons of Aeneas.”
“Zane was screwing around online, trying to find a way to make us stronger. He learned about the SOA, how werewolves were descended from Romulus and Remus. They founded Rome. That just proved we were powerful. That we were supposed to be leaders. That we weren’t supposed to be in goddamn hiding. We did some more digging, found they had this spell that got passed down from generation to generation to turn humans into wolves. Hybrids. Since we’re already shifters, we figured it would just make us more powerful. So we went back to the shop. Told her what we needed. At first, she didn’t want to. Said she didn’t do that kind of thing, didn’t have magic, but we knew that was bullshit. She’s a sorceress, right? And she had a book on the SOA, even. She eventually made the stuff.”
“Did she know why you wanted it?” I asked, curious how much of what she’d told us had been the truth.
Beyo went silent.
“Answer her,” Connor said.
“She knew we were pissed at Loren. That’s why Zane picked her—why we went to her. He’s got a friend who’s a friend of hers. Said he’d tried to hurt her one night. So he mentioned we had some issues with Loren, wanted to be able to face him down. She gave us the potion, and we drank it.”
“And transformed,” Connor said.
Beyo closed his eyes. “It was fucking amazing. First time we shifted, boom! We were huge. Strong. Fierce. Had all this energy, all this power. That was a few weeks ago. Only takes a drop of the potion each time, so we were careful with it.”
“And you made a plan to kill Loren.”
“We destroyed him,” Beyo said shamelessly. “Left his body at the waterfall so it would be found. So Cash and Everett and the others would know they weren’t invulnerable. That there was something out there stronger than them.”
“We already know you attacked Beth because she saw you.”
“We didn’t want to hurt her,” Beyo said. “She didn’t do anything wrong. But we had plans, and we didn’t want anyone to know about them.”
“And the Stone farm?” Connor asked.
“Zane told us what they were doing—encroaching on our territory. Trying to take our woods a few yards at a time. He heard them partying, and he lost it. We figured he knew best, so we went with him. And he went crazy.”
“Did he?” Connor’s tone was flat, unimpressed.
“At first, we were going to scare them off. Douse the fire. Make sure they’d leave our land alone next time. But there was blood in the air, and he just lost it. John and Marcus just lost it.”
“And did you lose it, Beyo?” Connor moved a step closer. “Is that why Carlie was ripped to shreds? Because you couldn’t control yourself?”
“Zane did that.”
Connor’s laugh was hard and mirthless. “You’re all fucking cowards.”
“We’re not cowards. We’re doing what needs to be done.” Beyo shifted his gaze, now furious, to me. “We found out you bit Carlie. We went back into the woods, could read the blood on the ground. You changed her and still didn’t get punished for it. That was more of the same—more bullshit by the clan that refuses to stand up. So we went for the shutters. That didn’t work, and the next night the clan went fucking easy on you. I was going back to the store, was going to scare that woman into giving us more potion, fixing it so the transformation was easier. And then saw you.”
“And saw an opportunity,” I guessed. “But couldn’t control the transformation, fell out of the hybrid form too quickly.”
“Yeah.”
“Cowards,” Connor said again. “You all nearly killed Carlie, and Elisa saved her, and you want her punished for that? What kind of fucking sense does that makes, Beyo? And then—and then—because you’re cowards, instead of calling Elisa out and fighting her, you tried to kill her in her sleep. And when you saw me, you just ran away. Wouldn’t face me, either.”
“We’re the only ones who can fix the clan,” he said, but without much conviction.
“You’re killers,” Connor said, disgust in his voice. “You hurt people because you’re too weak or cowardly to call a challenge, call a vote, or call the Apex.”
He moved forward again, until his shins grazed the edge of the bed, until he leaned over Beyo. “Loren was a predator and a disgrace. And I’d have liked to get my hands on him, to explain to him—very clearly—what it meant to be Pack. Now I can’t do that. The Pack can’t do that. He should have been made to understand what he’d done. To make amends for it, to be stripped of his Pack membership and turned over to the humans. Because you played judge, jury, and executioner, he won’t get the years of punishment he deserves. Do you know how that makes me feel, Beyo?”
Beyo just looked away.
“Angry,” Connor said. “Very, very angry.” He walked away, put space between him and the bed.
“Where are Marcus, John, and Zane?” I asked.
No answer.
“If she has to ask again,” Connor said, “we’re both going to regret it.” There was a threat in his words—a danger—that I hadn’t heard from Connor before. A ruthlessness that said he understood that leadership often meant unpleasant things in order to protect the collective.