“Because it was my fault she ever got mixed up with them anyway,” Eli snapped. “Because the first time I ever saw James, I became so ridiculously infatuated and believed he was everything a werewolf was supposed to be that I begged her to come with me. Begged her to break the promise we’d made to each other as children and show someone else what we could do. Because when I was finally free of my imprisonment”—Eli kicked out at the fencing that clanged and shook—”the entire pack was dead and I thought she was too, and it was my fucking fault.”

He emphasized each word with another kick. The wobbling metal hummed long after Eli fell silent. When he spoke again, it was a whisper. “Why on earth would I ever want to tell you about that? I was already enough of a monster in your eyes, and mine too.”

“Eli—” Park said, sounding like he was in almost as much pain as Eli. “I never thought that. I still don’t.”

Eli sniffed, turning his head to the side and wiping at his nose. Ideally, Cooper would just let them sniffle it out. But ideally, they wouldn’t be doing a three-man reimagining of the Count of Monte Cristo either.

“But she wasn’t dead, was she?” Cooper prompted as gently as possible. “She’d wound up in the WIP.”

“Yes,” Eli said. “Eventually. She thought I was dead too. It was Daisy actually who reconnected us in the end.”

“Daisy?” Park asked a little breathlessly.

“Mmmm, they were in the same WIP group for a while. I guess after she showed up in Cape Breton this February, she put two and two together, realized we were related, and my sister found me a couple of months ago. But she was in trouble.”

“She was the one James Finnigan was blackmailing,” Cooper said.

“I live in the middle of the woods of Nova Scotia watching soaps all day; he never had a chance of finding me again. And even if he had, the Park pack would have protected me.

“But Alice...my sister, she lives right here in DC. Her partner is human. She has no pack protection. Has nowhere to turn. I knew Helena would never help. Friend of Daisy? WIP? Part of the very group she blames for the death of her son? I left the pack before she’d ever have the opportunity to tell me no. With the debt I owe Alice, I had no choice.”

“So you hired us, told her when it seemed like Arthur had the phone, and she showed up at the gala to steal it,” Cooper said. “Why would she attack us, though?”

“She was just scared,” Eli said quickly. “She saw you standing over Arthur and thought you’d killed him. She thinks you’re the...” He trailed off, and the silence sat awkwardly as Eli studied Cooper very carefully, warily.