Page 42 of The Wolf King's Mate

It seemed pretty obvious. Gammas were usually the observant, careful ones. Betas were the friendly, outgoing ones most of the time. That wasn’t always true, but most of the time it was.

“Yeah.” He typed something into his phone, his fingers moving quickly.

Didn’t want to talk, I guess.

“Are people mad that he claimed me?”

He grunted.

It sounded noncommittal.

I was pretty sure that meant he didn’t know.

“No one’s angry.” The doctor prodded my ankle, and I sucked in a breath as tears stung my eyes. “Well, maybe a few. Not angry at him. Angry that he has you, and they don’t. We’ve seen many alpha wolves go insane because they’ve been mateless for too long.”

My forehead creased. “That’s a thing?”

“It’s what makes wolves rogue, and eventually, rabid.”

“What’s the difference?”

“Rogues are werewolves who have been lost to their wolves. They never shift back. They’re not any more violent than normal wild wolves, but they always turn into rabids. And rabids are out for blood. When they’ve turned, they kill quickly and without rhyme or reason. We hunt rogues to prevent them from becoming rabids, but there are too many.”

“How many?”

“We estimate at least five thousand. Ten wouldn’t be a surprise.”

Fuck.

“That’s why Enzo’s not here?”

The doctor nodded. “The Alpha tries to handle most of the killing on his own, to spare the rest of us.”

“And succeeds,” his brother said.

“What does the rest of the pack do, then? There are so many of you.”

“Us,” the doctor corrected, gesturing to my neck, and the mark there. “You’re one of us now.”

My throat welled with emotion. What emotion it was, I couldn’t say. I didn’t even know whether it was good or bad.

“I’m going to save us the trouble of larger scans and just use an ultrasound on this. It’s clearly broken, and will heal fine given what you are, but I’ll need pictures to show the Alpha when he gets back.”

“I really don’t think he’ll care that much,” I protested.

“He’ll care.” The doctor opened a cabinet and dug around for a moment before pulling the device out. He unpackaged a disinfectant cloth. “I’m sure you can’t get diseases any more than we can, but I don’t want to report to him that I wasn’t careful.”

“Okay.”

I eyed the machine. It was surprisingly small, and looked modern. “It’s going to hurt when you put that over my ankle.”

“Probably.” He brought it over. “I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

I squeezed my eyes shut as he pressed lightly but firmly to my skin. My eyes stung, and I bit my cheek.

“Most of the pack patrols the forest to watch for rogues and keep track of them. When one goes rabid, they hear about it immediately. Some members of the pack run the city’s police department. Most of them are the older, more trusted wolves. I’m technically an officer, but I work with the lab team currently.”

“Lab team?” I barely got the words out.

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