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Rylan’s attention settles on him. “Tell me why.”
“Say you’re with a group and one of them starts bothering a shewolf. Getting too close. Saying things she clearly doesn’t like. She keeps backing away or looking for a way out. Everybody knows she’s uncomfortable.”
“And nobody says anything?”
“Sometimes.”
“Because then you’re ruining everybody’s fun,” someone calls.
“Or they call you soft.”
“Whipped.”
“Or say you only defended her because you want her.”
The younger wolf nods. “So you stay quiet because you don’t want the group turning on you.”
Another male wolf lifts his hand. “And sometimes it’s more than wanting them to like you. Groups protect each other. If another group comes after me, I want wolves behind me. What happens when my friends decide I’m not one of them anymore?”
“They stop backing you,” someone says.
“Or start bullying you.”
“Or make you the next target.”
Another male wolf leans forward. “Sometimes you laugh at shit you don’t even think is funny because everybody else is laughing. Standing there alone while ten wolves look at you isn’t easy.”
Rylan listens.
A seasoned warrior speaks next. “And sometimes the group starts talking about you.”
My stomach tightens.
“Rumors,” another wolf says. “Lies. Enough wolves repeat the same story, everybody believes it.”
The trial flashes through my mind. Wolves I trained beside refusing to meet my eyes. Accusations repeated until the truth didn’t seem to matter anymore. My family watching me lose everything while my brother fought to prove my innocence.
My wolf goes silent.
A male wolf near the front raises his hand. “Alpha?”
Rylan nods.
“What if the whole group lies?”
My stomach tightens further.
“If fifty wolves tell the same lie,” Rylan says, “it’s still a lie. Numbers don’t turn an innocent wolf guilty. Evidence matters. Truth matters.”
My wolf presses hard against my chest. Alpha.
“You can’t stop every wolf from lying,” someone says.
“No. But I can investigate before I destroy somebody’s fucking life.”
The trial refuses to leave me. Damian’s small hand settles over mine.
Dad?
