Page 46 of Secret Wolf Baby

“Why don’t you tell us what happened?” I prodded.

Pete didn’t respond at first. He looked the three of us up and down, as if trying to size us up, determining whether or not he could trust us. “Any particular reason you want to know? It’s pack business.”

“We’re part of the Gold Wolves,” Chris answered, cutting to the chase like he normally did.

Pete looked us up and down, one eyebrow raised. “Thought you guys retired.”

“So did we,” Chris retorted.

“Anyway, we’re looking into Reacher at the Wolf Council’s request,” I explained. “We found out he used to be the alpha here before he left suddenly. We were hoping to know the story about that.”

Pete didn’t say anything at first as he scrutinized us again, mulling over our words. For a moment, I thought he might refuse. After another moment, though, he gave a short nod.

“All right, but not here, if you don’t mind,” he said. “Why don’t you three come up to my office?”

He jerked his head toward the stairs, and we followed him in silence.

“Right,” Pete said once we entered the office. He closed the door. “So you want to know what happened?”

“Yes,” I said.

“It’s important,” Will added.

Pete nodded, chewing the inside of his cheek. I waited, not wanting to break his train of thought as he tried to figure out how to begin.

“It was a while ago, at least fifteen years, maybe even closer to twenty, so only us old-timers remember him. But he certainly sticks with you once you’ve met him.”

“That’s putting it mildly,” I muttered. Pete cracked a grin and nodded his agreement.

“You’ve met him, then,” Pete said. “Reacher was a strong alpha. He kept people in line. The problem was, the way he did that was basically by bullying everyone into listening to him. He was ruthless. And since no one wanted to get on the wrong side of him, everyone fell in line. People were afraid to cross him, so no one tried to fight against him or his cruelty.”

I raised an eyebrow, tilting my head. “But people clearly did fight against him. Otherwise, he would still be in charge of the pack.”

Pete gave a half-grin. “Yeah, well, he went too far, and a few of us decided to take matters into our own hands.”

“What did he do?” Chris asked.

“He tried to take over the nearest pack.”

The silence following Pete’s words was absolute. I didn’t need to look at Will and Trent’s faces to know that we all had identical expressions of shock. Being ruthless to the point of cruel was bad enough. Trying to take over another pack violated council laws.

“Yeah, that was about how I felt,” Pete remarked.

“He actually tried to take over?” I asked.

“He was planning a whole coup. Had people stationed in the other pack, ready to put things in motion the second Reacher said go. The only reason it didn’t happen was because a buddy of mine and I overheard a couple of his inner circle talking about it.”

“And I’m guessing your group wasn’t going to let him get away with that,” Will said.

“Hell, no,” Pete said, scowling at the memory. “So we rounded up a few guys willing to go after Reacher and his guys. There was a pretty nasty fight, but we managed to run them out of town. We warned the other pack what might happen, I became the new alpha here, and that was the end of it.”

“You haven’t seen him since?” I asked. “Or any of his group?”

The alpha gave a feral grin. “We made it known that if he ever showed his face here again, he wouldn’t make it back out alive. So, no, we haven’t seen him since. That was several years ago.” He gave us all a speculative look. “I’m guessing that, based on the fact that you’re asking around, he’s shown up somewhere else and is making trouble?”

“You can safely assume something along those lines,” I confirmed.

Pete frowned, something flickering in his gaze. I could tell that what I’d said bothered him, as if he understood the implications there.

---