I shrugged. “Even if we tried, I’m not sure it would work. I mean, the courts don’t have to grant it, right?” From what I’d gathered when I looked it up myself, that wasn’t a guaranteed outcome.
“I still vote for killing him,” Zev growled. “No one should get away with this. You’re pack. He’s threatening you, and therefore he’s a threat to all of us. End of story.” He shrugged as if it meant nothing, and I arched a brow.
“Okay then, cause that’s not creepy,” I replied dryly. Well, it should have been creepy… Surprisingly, though, it made me feel protected rather than scared. I was blaming it on being a wolf now. From the way he smirked at me, I was sure he could tell what direction my thoughts were going in.
“His temper is bad, isn’t it?” Shannon mused, tapping a finger against her lips.
I blinked at her, momentarily distracted. “Huh?”
“His temper. He seems to get angry easily. Especially when things aren’t going the way he wants.” She reached up to adjust her glasses as she studied me.
“Um, I guess so?” I glanced between everyone, unsure where this was going. “I mean, I don’t really know the guy. We saw each other a few times after my mom died, and I didn’t even really know he had a temper. He was cold, if anything. He snapped at me a bit if I didn’t do what he wanted, but he was more, I don’t know, passive aggressive?” I struggled to find the words I needed as I searched my memories. “He liked to say negative things about my mom, about how he knew she wouldn’t amount to much, or how he wasn’t that surprised she’d ended up leaving me an orphan and a burden on him.” My friends growled, and I patted Chann’s knee absently as I thought. “He got really ruffled when Raff was around.”
“He was reacting to Raff?” Ian questioned, leaning forward to rest his arms against his knees, his eyes sharp behind his dark-rimmed glasses.
I considered that, chewing on my lip as I thought. “I don’t think so…” I murmured. “I think—I think he was responding to me at first. I mean, when he first showed up after Mom died, I was basically a zombie.” Tears pricked at the back of my eyes as I remembered those first few weeks after my mom’s death, how I’d withdrawn from everything and everyone. “I barely existed, barely went through the motions.”
“You were submissive. Compliant. When he made comments or told you to keep the heat off, you didn’t object, you just wanted to be left alone to mourn,” he surmised, studying my face.
“Exactly. Then, that morning, it changed. I’d cut and dyed my hair. He was so irritated. He said I was embarrassing him. Raff showed up, and he expected him to be different, I guess. Like him, maybe?”
“He expected him to be controlling. Abusive, even,” Alarick realized, sitting up ramrod straight. “He thought he’d have someone to dump you on and, if he was lucky, he’d end up with someone who he could work with to manipulate you.”
“It makes sense,” Ian murmured.
“He kept going on about how he expected me to fail,” I murmured, remembering his warnings about my grades and my socialization. “About how it wouldn’t be tolerated.”
“He expected he’d be able to use it against you.” Ian tapped his fingers together as Chann wrapped an arm around my waist, hugging me against him. “Raff would have at least kept in basic contact. When he realized you were doing well here, that you were excelling in your studies, it would have gone against what he was trying to do. Selling the house, the belongings, it had nothing to do with money, and it had everything to do with punishing you, with breaking you.”
“But why?” The question echoed in the room, and I let the twins’ body heat soak into me as they pressed me between them. “I didn’t even know him. I know my mom didn’t like him, but even she didn’t think he’d do this.”
“So let’s think it through linearly,” Shannon piped up. “We may not know the original catalyst, but we know that when he was brought into Pixie’s life, he decided to punish her for some unknown sin he believes her mother committed. He tried to break her down emotionally, thinking she was submissive. When he realized she wasn’t, he changed tactics. He’s playing a long game here, but he’s also greedy.”
“I could give him my pack money,” I suggested, thinking of the salary I drew as beta. “It could hold him off for a bit.”
“No,” Alarick and Ian said in unison.
“It won’t change anything, kitten,” Ian told me gently. “He won’t see it as enough.”
“Besides, he’d still see that the car is yours. He’ll begrudge anything you own. He’ll still want your mom’s jewelry. Anything he could ask you for, he will.” Zev brushed a gentle kiss over my cheek.
“We could grab him somewhere?” Alarick proposed. “Find a way to suggest that you’re left alone without revealing who we are. I’d use my command powers, but they don’t last indefinitely, especially not on humans.”
“I think it’d be pretty obvious that I’m related if you’re saying to leave me alone while giving him a beating,” I pointed out with a laugh. “Not that it wouldn’t be satisfying.”
“Ugh, dealing with humans is complicated,” Zev groused.
“It also won’t change his threat to have her declared a danger to herself.” Chann grimaced. “I still don’t see how we can get around that one.” My heart squeezed as my wolf growled inside me. I had to agree with him there.
“Easily,” Shannon declared with a sweet smile. “Stop thinking about what you can do to attack, and instead think about what you can do to defend.” The men froze, turning to look at her as she shrugged. “We prove he’s the danger to her. His impetuousness is getting ahead of him now. He’s stopped thinking, letting his temper control him. We currently have a text and call record. Save those. She has the phone you got her. Use it. Any time he calls her, let her actually answer it and record the call. Meet with him where he wants to meet. Let him talk. Direct the conversation where you want it to go. We’ll be there, shifted, which he’ll never expect. One of us will be in the trees recording. We’ve just shown he can’t handle her when she’s more dominant than he is, so he’ll lose his temper and say something he doesn’t want heard. If he doesn’t, then I can use my powers and raise his temper enough to make him.” A light flush worked over her cheeks as everyone remained silent.
“That’s brilliant,” Zev breathed out, his green eyes wide as he stared at the female. “How the hell did you come up with that?”
She ducked her head. “It makes sense. You need to defend her against a future problem, so you need something to defend her with. It seems unlikely he’d even follow the threat through since he doesn’t want the responsibility. It’s more likely it’s just a form of psychological torture. This way, we have our own torture. He sees you’ve got friends and a backbone, and it forces him to move on.”
I dove across the couch to press my lips to hers, heedless of our audience as I fisted my hands in her hair, taking her mouth in a deep kiss, my tongue sliding across hers as I claimed her mouth. “You’re a genius,” I panted when I finally released her lips. “An absolute, gorgeous genius.” A blush stained her cheeks, and her lips were swollen from my kiss as she held my hips, keeping me balanced as I straddled her lap so I didn’t fall off.