“Wait,” Angus ordered, his words clipped. “We need to wait for the others.” His lip curled up, his hands fisted, making his biceps bulge. “I want them to see. They need to see.” He cracked his neck. There was a desperate edge to his voice I’d never heard before. He hid it well, but my wolf had been watching carefully, pouncing on the detail.

I realized that my dad was afraid. Not of me, really, but what I was—a challenge to his authority. To his strength. I’d taken him down before. Not in a fight, but I’d still knocked him from his position of power. He needed to prove he was strong, that he was alpha, and it wouldn’t mean a fucking thing if his pack didn’t witness it. He really did need them to see.

Inside me, my wolf bared his fangs.

Eva’s lip pushed out in a pout. “Fine.” She took out her phone. “Smile!” After she snapped the picture, she straightened, her fingers flying across the screen. “Technology has changed so much since we’ve been gone.” She waited until her phone chirped. “He got it. Our new friend knows that we’re ready to go.” Eva put her phone away in her pocket before wrapping her arms around Angus. “What would you like to do now, my love?”

Angus’s eyes flashed as he stared down at me. “Maybe it’s time for a little reunion while we wait?”

A chill went through me at her words. Who did she have? Zoey and Sid? Lou?

“I’ll have Tom bring the others out.” She took her phone back out and texted someone, presumably Tom. Then she frowned down at me. “I wish your new little master were here, watching as I tear your bond apart. It would make everything so much better.” She sighed wistfully. “Oh well.”

Angus wouldn’t feel completely in power until he taught me a lesson, and he’d have to do it with an audience. Otherwise, what was the point? But Eva? She’d have been perfectly happy with her revenge alone. Angus needed more. As I watched, he paced, his fingers tapping along his thigh. He was wound up tight, ready to explode.

I wondered what his new pack was like, and I felt a little sorry for them, even if they were partially responsible for what I was going through. A lot of them probably didn’t know any better. Alphas were strong, yeah, but it wasn’t a power trip, or an empire. A pack was a family. An alpha’s strength was in protecting that family, not shoving their noses in the dirt in an act of dominance.

My dad was a shitty alpha. I’d never really understood that until now. Wrong, yes. Depraved, for sure. But when I thought of him, he’d still been this strong, dominant wolf in my mind. My dad wasn’t strong. He was weak. That was why he’d had to rule as he had.

We are patient hunters, my wolf whispered, his hackles up. When it’s time, we’ll take his throat.