“Anyone abuse him last night?”
“No.” Jensen shook his head. “I was here the whole time. He got fed, watered, and was allowed to use the bathroom. He even got to take a shower this morning.”
“Fed, watered, showered. That’s good.” He laughed, and Jensen’s eyebrows furrowed downward.
“Sir, I didn’t mean that to be funny.”
“I know.” He patted Jensen on the arm, and Jensen stared at the spot he’d touched as though he couldn’t believe the contact.
“He thought your phrasing was funny.” Betsy walked up next to him and handed him the coffee she’d purchased across the street.
“How so?” Jensen followed the conversation. .
“It’s like you were talking about a dog, sort of.” Betsy shrugged. “If you’d said you let him outside, it would have fit perfectly.”
Cyrus smiled into his cup. Betsy understood his sense of humor perfectly. Bizarre, really. Very few people ever followed the direction of his thoughts.
“Sir, if I may say, the whole pack is thrilled by your true mating. We look forward to your moon ceremony.” Jensen smiled broadly. Cyrus wasn’t entirely certain he’d ever seen that particular expression on the other man’s face before.
“Thank you.”
“What’s a moon ceremony?” Betsy sipped her drink.
“Kind of like a wedding. But better.” He’d get into the specifics with her later. Someone would have to preside over it since he couldn’t do it himself, and she’d have to be comfortable with the nudity.
“My mate is looking forward to the movies tonight,” Jensen continued.
“Movies tonight?” Cyrus regarded at Betsy. “This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“Oh.” Betsy shook her head. “Lake asked me if I’d like to get together with some of the women sometime to do something. Very vague. I had no idea she’d planned it for tonight. This is a lot sooner than I expected.”
“Sounds like my sister.” Cyrus grinned. Leave it to Lake to disrupt the evening he had planned. “You should go. I have Alexei to deal with and this fool here. You’ll be safe with the pack, and after the movies, we’ll meet up back home.”
“Oh. Okay.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder, and it was everything he could do to not to tug at her shirt to look at his mark there. He salivated to see it. Betsy turned to Jensen. “What are we seeing?”
“I’m afraid I don’t know, ma’am. I didn’t think to ask.”
“You,” Nathan called out from his cage noticing Betsy for the first time. “You’re with them now. I should have known it. A leopard can never truly hide his spots. My father warned me you’d always be mostly animal, even if you hid it better than the other abominations. You’re an animal. We should never have thought to save you.”
Betsy jerked as though he’d struck her. “What did you say?”
Jensen growled, launching himself at the cage. Nathan screamed like a woman and darted to the back of the bars. “You will not insult the Alpha’s mate.”
“Oh, the Alpha?” Even as he shrieked, Nathan continued his insults. Stupid boy. “You’re fucking the Alpha, you slut. Can’t you ever keep your legs closed?”
“I never slept with you.” Betsy sipped her coffee, and he could smell her fighting for calm. It burned his lungs. He hated to smell her so stressed out. “Then again, I’d never sleep with a rat like you.”
Cyrus walked toward Jensen and nodded for him to get off the cage. This was one of the reasons he hadn’t left her within talking range of Nathan the day before. The pathetic excuse for a life form couldn’t be trusted to not hurt her in some way.
“How did you know she was a werewolf? How did you know when she didn’t?”
Nathan laughed, a hysterical whiny sound, but it did little to disguise the disgust in his gaze as he focused on Betsy. “Oh, everyone knew. We kill your kind. We do it when you’re babies.”
Cyrus almost gave in to the urge to claw out the man’s eyes. The human shouldn’t be allowed to look at Cyrus’ mate. Instead, Cyrus held onto his calm and took a sip of his coffee. It wasn’t time to kill Nathan…yet.
“But you didn’t change, and neither did your sister. So, even though we knew you had animal parents, my father—who is a great man—said it was our duty as true believers to give you the chance to be saved from the pit.”
Betsy had gone very pale. “So you all knew I was a werewolf this whole time? And my sister too? What did you do with her? Send her off to another true believer?”