“She started feeding them intel about us,” Curran continued. “In return, they supplied her with panacea and other favors. Do you remember when Foster and Kara’s business burned down?”

Foster and Kara Hudson served as Jennifer’s betas for a while. She’d inherited them from Daniel. They had owned a small textile mill and clothes shop until it burned to the ground while we were gone on our “let’s get panacea” trip. “Arson? Against her own betas?”

Curran nodded. “For a while it looked like Foster might challenge Jennifer, but after the fire, he took a loan from the Pack and both he and Kara stepped down from the beta spot to focus on rebuilding. Jim had thought it smelled bad so he checked it out, but neither Jennifer nor anybody else from Clan Wolf was anywhere near the fire at the time.”

Wow. I didn’t think she’d sink that low. Kate Daniels, brilliant judge of character. Not.

“Then we came back with Desandra, she took the beta spot, and things got worse and worse, until Jennifer demanded they make her go away. Before the Conclave, Jennifer was given the bottle and told that either she dumped it on you in the morning and Desandra would be taken care of, or evidence of her betrayal would be presented to the Pack.”

“You can have everything you want if you do what we say, or we’ll take away everything you have?”

“Yes. According to her, she couldn’t do it, so Brandon did it for her. She didn’t ask him. He volunteered.” Curran grimaced.

Robert shrugged. “I can’t decide if her failure to completely betray us was to her credit, because she still had some scruples, or if it was the ultimate sign of her cowardice, because she’d manipulated someone else into doing it.”

“I don’t care,” Curran said.

“What happened next?” I asked.

“Next I dropped Jennifer down and told Desandra that if she wanted to lead the wolves, now was a good time. To her credit, she didn’t drag it out. Jennifer put up a good fight, but in the end it was a quick kill.”

I should’ve hated Jennifer. If she had somehow escaped discovery, I would’ve killed her when I returned, not because I disliked her, but because she was a traitor and a liability. I should’ve been angry, but Hugh had a monopoly on all of my anger lately. All I felt for Jennifer was sadness. Two years ago everything was great for her. She had a husband who loved her and a job that fulfilled her. They were planning on having children. Her life held so much promise. Instead it all went sideways and ended in a tragedy.

“What happens to the baby?” I asked.

“Winona took her,” Curran said.

One of Jennifer’s sisters. She had five. “Are they going to cause a problem?”