Raised by Wolves(73)

Scrappy? Scrappy?



Some people could see the future. Some people could loosen other people’s lips just by looking at them. And me?

I was scrappy.

Lucky me.

“Will the alphas stop in the restaurant on their way through?” I asked.

Mitch’s smile hardened. “Some will.”

“Will Keely … use her knack?” The phrasing sounded ridiculous, but I wasn’t sure how else to put it.

Mitch took my meaning and shook his head. “Keely’ll take tomorrow off. I’ll man the restaurant myself.”

I got the feeling he didn’t want any of the alphas to know about Keely or what she could do. Especially since the Wayfarer played host to some of their peripherals.

“And Lake?” I asked. I still didn’t understand why she was running or what exactly she was running from.

“Those alphas won’t see hide or hair of Lake, Bryn. She’ll stay far enough away, they won’t even smell her.”

There was something in his tone that made me think that if Lake hadn’t been inclined to stay away on her own, he’d have seen to it that she did. Given my own mixed feelings about the Senate, I understood the impulse, but not the hardness around Mitch’s eyes.

“Why?”

Mitch sighed, and I wondered if he’d tell me I asked too many questions. Finally, he looked down at the ground and then, as if his shoes had given him the answer, he turned back to me. “Some Weres, especially the dominant ones, get real funny around females, and Lake’s not a kid anymore.”

Our pack had three females. Sora, who was mated to Lance. Katie, who was a baby.

And Lake.

“Usually isn’t too bad, unless there are a bunch of men and only one female,” Mitch continued.

But of course, in our world, that was the way it always was. Most Weres took human mates. Whoever ended up with Lake wouldn’t have to worry that she’d die in childbirth. If she married a werewolf, her children would be pure-blooded Weres.

“She’s fifteen,” I said.



Mitch nodded. “That she is.” He didn’t say anything else, and I felt an overwhelming urge to change the subject and an abject inability to do so. After a long, torturous silence, Mitch patted my shoulder again and then shoved me back toward the restaurant.

“It’s almost dark, and if I know Ali, she’ll be worrying.”

Just like Mitch would, waiting for Lake to come back.

“Go on,” he said gently. “Git.”

With one last glance at the forest and Lake’s shredded clothes, I did as I was bid, and got.

When I got home, Ali didn’t harass me about what I’d been doing all day, because I preempted any questions on her part by throwing some of my own at her.

“Did you know Callum sees the future?”

Ali opened her mouth and then closed it again. “Mitch?” she said finally, her mouth settling into a tense, straight line that told me she’d be giving him a piece of her mind in the near future.

“Peripheral from another pack,” I said, figuring that I’d save Mitch a confrontation or two.

Ali nodded and after a few seconds of silence, she spoke, “I’ve always known. Callum told me the day I decided to join the pack.”

“Before or after you decided to join?” I asked.

Ali didn’t answer me, and I read the meaning in that. Callum had put his cards on the table and told Ali he saw the future before she’d chosen to become a part of his pack. The only reason he would have done that was if something he’d seen played a pivotal role in causing her to stay.

“What did he see?” I asked her.

Ali shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. I changed it. It didn’t happen.”

“Ali?”

But she wouldn’t budge, and I filed the exchange away as a mystery for another time. Right now, I had other questions.

“Did everybody but me know?” I asked, trying not to sound as put out as I felt. Ali had earned herself a few buys. I’d given her enough venom she didn’t deserve over the past few months to forgive her for keeping this a secret.

The rest of the pack, however, was another story.



“Most of the oldest wolves know,” Ali said. “None of the wives do. Devon doesn’t.”

She knew me well enough to know that Dev was the one who mattered the most.

“I take it Lake knows now?” Ali continued.

“Maybe.”

Had Lake even heard that part of Tom’s confession? The moment he’d mentioned that foreign alphas would be passing through the Wayfarer, she’d gone quiet and pale.

“The Senate is meeting,” I said.

“Senate,” Ali scoffed, purely out of reflex. “There’s nothing democratic about werewolves. Nothing.”