Page 56 of The Beta's Heart

And Goddess have mercy on them if they did.

“I’m Luna Posy Briggs of Five Fangs,” she called out, shaking a little harder, but meeting the man’s eyes, and my heart swelled up with pride. “How may I help you today?”

Alpha Bellamy made some insulting remarks before he finally got around to why he was here. When he looked at them and snapped his fingers, the shifters with him got out of the truck, went around to the bed, and dragged out a large dog crate, then carried it over and set it on the grass near Mr. Price.

What in the blue blazes?I scowled in confusion.

“Emerson made his mother promise we wouldn’t kill the thing,” Alpha Bellamy said, “or I would have done so long ago. Tell Emerson it is now his responsibility and he may keep or dispose of it as he wishes. I will bear this burden no longer and wash my hands of it.”

Then they climbed back in their truck and were gone.

“Mr. Price?” luna quavered. “Is there a shifter in there? I smell one, but neither Lark nor I can sense a wolf.”

“Same,” I added.

“Wait there until I look,” he said, then hunkered down in front of the crate. “Oh.”

“What is it?” I demanded, ready to tear it apart if it was something dangerous.

“A boy. He looks the same age as Archer and Wayne.”

“How old are they?” luna asked me in a whisper.

“Fifteen.”

“Why would that alpha put a teen boy in a dog crate?”

“He said he was Emerson’s,” I reminded her with a shrug.

“Is Em old enough to have a son?”

“Not one that old!” I snorted. “He would have been a dad at five! And his father is a horrible man. Why would he have left a child with him?”

“Do you think—” She gasped and cut herself off, then yelled, “No, don’t do that!”

Dragging me along again, she ran toward the crate as Mr. Price tried to crawl into it.

“It will make him feel crowded and trapped if you go in there with him. Let’s sit on the grass and coax him to come out.”

It took a while to get the boy out of the crate and, even though my rational brain could see he was no threat, my beta instincts were riled up, and I kept myself between luna and the boy as we talked to him and fed him PB and Js with a glass of milk. He reminded me a little of River in how he acted and talked, and it was clear that he’d been starved and beaten for longer than I wanted to think about.

I was just wondering why his momma named him Row when he curled up into a ball and laid his head on luna’s legs, shoved his thumb in his mouth, and fell asleep.

Poor little fella’s all tuckered out.

Pups need sleep lots and lots,River told me earnestly, then tilted his head.Why dis pup smells bad and all bones, Ty-Ty?

I think, wherever he came from, they were very, very mean to him.That made my wolf madder than a wet hen, and I hurried to distract him before he had a hissy fit.Don’t wake him up, buddy. You just said pups need lots of sleep, remember?

Yes, yes! Me hush my mouf!he said, his golden eyes wide and serious.Me not wake pup!

Good boy, Riv. And don’t worry. Em will be here soon to take care of him.

True to his self-assigned hushing of his mouth, he only nodded and focused all his attention on the boy.

Shortly after, Crew and Tris arrived, then Matthew, and finally Emerson, who looked devastated to see his little brother in such bad condition. He took the boy from luna, and Mr. Price helped her stand as Row talked a bit about how his parents had been hurting him.

Once Angelo got there, Em introduced the boy and explained that his full name was Thoreau, and I suddenly understood his nickname was actually Reau, not Row.

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