Ryan certainly didn’t seem worried. If anything he looked passively entertained. Much the same way as people did at the zoo, standing and staring at an animal with vague, condescending interest. “I didn’t need Neil to tell me about all that,” he said as if the idea was ridiculous, then shook his head. “Well, that’s not fair. I might have known about your secret little world, but he is the only way I found out about you, Cooper. He was so excited to meet someone who ‘actually also believed in werewolves’ that it only took a month of guys’ nights out and he was showing me his creepy altar. What a jackpot.”

“Neil wasn’t a wolf traitor,” Cooper said softly.

“Yeah, no, that one’s on me.” Ryan shrugged. “Dude had literally started to believe you were some kind of magic moon fairy and was stalking you nonstop. No way he wouldn’t have noticed when you died and I took your place. Get this: he even thought you were the one who’d killed James and suspected you were going after Arthur next. I barely even had to say anything! Talk about a perfect test run.”

Ryan sighed heavily. “I was going to let him live longer, too, but the big doofus showed up here last night rambling about how he’d tried to talk to you and that you’d refused to let him in on whatever you were planning.” He dragged his finger across his throat while making a rude sound, and Cooper couldn’t help flinching.

“Aw,” Ryan said, watching him. “Don’t look sad. Honestly, you should probably be thanking me. He also said you were keeping two werewolves as pet monsters and how he couldn’t wait to do the same thing to you soon. I swear, half the time I couldn’t tell if that guy loved you or hated you. He was so...creepy. And mean. But I don’t need to tell you that.”

He made a face and went back to filling a syringe with something from a small glass bottle. “Whatever, I’ll figure out some way to explain it so it doesn’t affect our brand.”

“So this is just advertising, to you?” Park said, sounding sick. “You’re doing all this for money?”

“Oh, boo freakin’ hoo. Someone did something bad to make buttloads of money. Hello, journalism? Have I got a scoop for you.” Ryan snorted. “I’ve been making money off of animals my whole life. The bigger the animal, the more money they bring in. Getting zookeeper credentials opened a lot of doors for me in animal trafficking, and a lot of wallets. But when I found out there’s a whole animal species walking around with their own bank accounts?”