Page 30 of A Pack of Lies and a Big Bad Wolf

"Okay," he says, his voice strained and far away. "Okay. That actually explains a lot." He tosses a pebble down the slope. "So I spent my whole life getting punished for something I had no control over.”

“I’m sorry, Stephen.”

His eyes go a little shiny. "And Mom knew."

I nod. "She must have."

"And she never said anything. Because she knew Dad would dump her and she’d be broke. She knew why I couldn’t shift and she never defended me.” His lips press together, and his body is stiff with anger and hurt.

"No."

He picks up another pebble and turns it in his fingers, staring at it blankly.

"Okay. Does this change anything for the wolf? Can Amaryllis still help?"

"I don't know. I think so. The wolf is real, Stephen. It's just faint because of the genetics. The ley lines and whatever Amaryllis is doing — it's working. You said yourself you've been feeling something."

"Yeah." He's quiet again. “Ironic. I’m finally close to shifting and Dad – I mean Jeremiah Cromwell - will never get to brag about it.”

“Serves Jeremiah Cromwell right. I’ll never call him dad again.”

He bumps my shoulder with his, which is Stephen for a hug, and we sit on the boulder and watch Rose practice her kicks, and neither of us says anything else for a while, because some things don't need more words after the right ones have been said.

Chapter 13

Kieran

Dinner in my kitchen has become a lot more social since Olivia started spending every night with me. I want my mate all to myself, but since it seems to make Olivia happy, I tolerate it.

Tonight Olivia is at the table with her feet tucked under her, reading one of the lorebooks she brought down from the library.

Rose is sitting cross-legged on the counter, which I've told her not to do roughly nine hundred times. Ass off my counter, I said. And does she listen?

Amaryllis stopped by twenty minutes ago to drop off a salve for Rose's training bruises and somehow ended up staying for the roast, eating her third helping. She has circles under her eyes and as I look at her, I realize that she’s actually losing weight, despite how much she’s been eating.

She’s told me repeatedly that she’s fine, nothing’s wrong. She’s lying to me. I’m going to have to call in Gemma or Peyton and demand that they examine her.

Before I can open my mouth to try one last time to get her to tell the truth, Stephen walks in with his jaw set and his shoulders squared.

“Alpha, I would really like to take Rose to the dance,” he says. “Please. Respectfully.”

Not this again.

I stab a piece of roast beef with a steak knife as I stare at him with a hard gaze. “I already told her no.”

"She really wants to go," he says. "She's been talking about it for weeks. She's never been to one."

I pin him with the heat of my glare. His gaze drops. "I'm aware of what Rose wants. The answer is no."

He looks up at me again. "Alpha, she is almost an adult. Younger girls than her go to the dance all the time. The dance is very safe. There have never been any incidents at a tri-pack dance.”

I give him a look which has made much stronger men whimper and cry. He swallows hard, but his feet don't move.

Olivia is sitting at the kitchen table watching us, wincing.

"She'll have an escort," Stephen says. "Bram already said he'd go. And Olivia and I would be there."

"The answer is no."