“Mm-hm,” Desandra said. “I have their blessing to take over the clan. Can you believe that bitch threw me under the bus?”

• • •

WE FINISHED CROSSING the bridge and jogged another quarter mile along the forested road, then turned off the barely visible trail to the left. Trees choked the path, their roots thrusting across the dirt, all but invisible in the night shadows. Perfect. Maybe I’d trip, break my neck, and save Hugh the trouble of hunting me down.

“It’s not that Jennifer shoved me off the cliff,” Desandra said. “I understand. It’s that she was so ham-fisted about it. The woman has been an alpha now for what, six months on her own? It’s fair to expect some subtlety.”

“When did you go to see Orhan and Fatima?” Robert asked.

“A few days ago,” Desandra said.

“They don’t want to be involved in the Pack’s operations,” Robert said. “They’ve made it abundantly clear. An alpha who steps down surrenders all right to meddle with their clan. You’ve put them into a difficult position.”

“They invited me to meet with them. I didn’t ask. You want to know why Orhan and Fatima sent for me?” Desandra pointed at me, then at Robert in turn. “Alpha, alpha . . .” She pointed at herself with her thumb. “Beta. One of these things is not like the other. Jennifer should be here instead of riding with her bodyguards in a comfy car. That’s why.”

“I’m not an alpha,” Derek said.

“You’re like Curran’s baby brother.” Desandra waved her hand. “You don’t count. So no, I didn’t break the rules and go and bother Orhan and Fatima on my own. Give me some credit.”

Robert tried his best to look quietly unapproachable. His best was pretty good, but it didn’t stop me.

“So, Robert, how does that foot taste?”

Robert looked at me, clearly unsure how to react.

“Oh, and one more thing,” Desandra said. “About Hugh having planned all this. You’re right.”

She shrugged the jacket off her shoulder and turned her back to us. A bright red bullet wound, still wet, marked the skin above her shoulder blade. The bullet must’ve penetrated from the front and torn straight through the top of her chest to the back. A dark gray stain bordered the wound. She’d been shot with a silver round. As the toxic bullet passed through the body, the Lyc-V in the surrounding tissues died. When the other wolf had cut her back, she must’ve bled gray.

Nobody carried around silver bullets unless they meant to fight shapeshifters. Silver was too expensive and there were better and more accurate rounds available.

The eardrum-bursting roar of enchanted water engines announced the Pack vehicles passing along the road behind us. We kept moving.

The last echoes of the engines faded.

“Where are we going?” Desandra asked.