40

He nodded. “That was why I was worried one of them would try to kill you when you were alpha.”

“But they didn’t. And that was because they weren’t inherently bad people. The Redwolfs made them awful, angry people. The environment ruined them.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry I scared you. And I’m sorry I was so cryptic. I…to be honest, it had been such a long time, and the first chance I had to talk to you was at the market. I wanted to help you, to show you I wasn’t a bad guy, but I feel like all I did was creep you out.”

I remembered how he’d haggled down the price of the bracelets I’d bought for Tavi and Night. I laughed.

“You definitely confused me, to say the least.”

Chuckling, he rubbed the back of his head. “When you became alpha, I thought, ‘Shit, this is what our mom was talking about. I need to protect Bryn from the whole pack.’ It was so important to protect you because you were in the spotlight as alpha, and I thought you’d just painted a huge target on your back. But you had Night and T