Page 117 of The Wolfing Hour
“Question for you, Floyd. Why’d you kill Zuri?” I wasn't asking to hurt Rory. I believed his answer would give her what she needed—the truth. She deserved to know what had happened to her mom.
Floyd’s smile stretched widely across his face, wedging pockets of fat under his eyes and pushing them closed. He was an opposite-world Santa Claus, lit from within by maliciousnessinstead of joy. “You know, my wife was a lot like you. She couldn’t resist prying into my business.”
“What business?”
“She found out about some plans I had for Aurora and became unmanageable,” he said with a shrug. “All I did was promise the girl to the alpha leader of the Riverside County pack when she came of age. You’d have thought I shot the kid or something.”
My voice shook with rage. “Rory couldn’t have been more than ten or eleven at the time of Zuri’s death.”
Neither of the wolves beside him appeared surprised or bothered by this. Dickheads.
However, there was a crack in Floyd’s blustering. A sliver of guilt that brought the corners of his mouth crashing down. “Are you deaf or stupid? I said, when she wasof age. Not even eighteen, like some alpha leaders do. Twenty-one. Drinking age. It was a fair deal. Daughters are for building alliances, sons are for building empires—notmyson, but, you know, in general.”
“What happened then?” I prodded.
“She tried to leave with my kid. I’d already made the deal. Riverside had been gearing up to take my territory, so I made an alliance.”
“Zuri tried to protect her daughter—yourdaughter—and you killed her for it?”
“Protect her from what? It was advantageous all around. My pack, his pack. Are you too stupid to know what an alliance is?”
“Advantageous for everyone except me,” Rory said from the doorway behind me.
I ached for her. To lose a mother who loved you so much she was willing to die to save your future had to be one of the worst kinds of anguish in the world.
And yeah, the arrow landed right in my heart.Mom.
“What hurts the most is that had you made your case to me as an adult, told me it was to protect our wolves, I would’ve done whatever you asked, Father. Even allowed myself to be sold to your enemies—for the good of the pack,” she finished bitterly.
Still in human form, she moved out of the doorway. The silver wounds were visible on her arms and legs, even in the weak yellow light pouring through the door of the room.
“Aurora.” Floyd’s eyes—fat, pinched slits only moments before—widened to the size of silver dollars in his reddening face. “Iknewyou stole her.” He jabbed a fat finger at me. “You conniving bitch.”
Rory tapped a finger against her chin. “Also, that was Alpha Milner, wasn’t it? The guy who died in a pack challenge five years ago? That nasty man was grandpa age when you sold me to him—late forties, early fifties?”
Krane and Nameless stood at attention, hateful gazes drifting from me to the young woman behind me. I didn’t care for the way they were positioning themselves.
“I didn’tsellyou to him. I was creating an alliance between our packs.”
“Right.” Her tone dripped with disdain, yet not a single drop of the hurt I was sure she was feeling showed. Definitely Ronan’s sister. “Alpha Grandpa is dead, which means you killed Mom for nothing. Or have you sold me off to some other gross old man?”
Floyd actually looked uncomfortable. “Aurora, you know I love you and want what’s best for you, but I have the pack to consider.”
“Fuck your love,” she said, “and fuck you.”
“You’re upset.” He held up his hands as if in surrender. “I understand that. But, in time, you’ll see that what I did was for the good of the pack.”
“It was for the good ofyou,” Rory snapped. “Everything you do is for you. You don’t have a selfless bone in your body. You’re the evilest, most selfish person I’ve ever known.”
That was The Moment.
Because it was then Floyd—a wolf who’d prided himself on his win-at-all-costs strategy—made the wrongest of moves, the slightest of head nods, the barest of eye flicks, that would seal his fate, mine, and that of the pack.
Floyd’s wolves paced toward us in a circular movement—Krane to the left, Nameless to the right—slow and steady, eyes flashing with their wolves.
“Also, I’m not upset,Alpha,” Rory said, with a discordant laugh that made even me wince. “I’m vengeful.”
Something wet hit me from behind, but before I could see what it was, Nameless was on me. His claws sank into my sides, and I screamed?—
