Isabella narrowed her eyes and looked me over slowly. “For a human in the den of beasts, you have a lot of arrogance. What makes you think you’re safe?”

I’m sorry, I was a human? I had no idea. What a surprise. “What makes you think I’m not?” And what an awesome comeback that was. Wow, I showed her.

Isabella smiled, her eyes cold like two chunks of coal. “When an alpha stands in front of you, the proper response is respect and fear, you human idiot. Were you a shapeshifter, you would know this.”

Name-calling, huh.

Derek bared his teeth.

“If I cringed every time an alpha of another shapeshifter pack showed his teeth, I would be you.”

Isabella glared at me. The woman at her side tensed.

Did you like that? Here, have another one. “Where I come from, we don’t give up our daughters-in-law just because Jarek Kral snarls. But I understand you do things differently. If Kral ever decides to take away your lunch money, let me know and we’ll help you out.”

Isabella blinked. The dark-haired woman said something in Italian. Isabella’s stare gained a deadly edge. “This will help you not at all. You are being replaced, and you are so stupid, you don’t even realize it. When a shapeshifter loves a woman, he doesn’t let another woman hunt next to him, nor does he let her finish his kills. When Lennart throws you away, I will be waiting.”

She turned around and marched away, her younger escort in tow. I waited thirty seconds.

“Did this happen?”

Derek paused before answering. “Yes.”

“So he let Lorelei finish his kills?”

“Yes.”

“Does this mean something or is she just blowing smoke in my face?”

Derek sighed. “He shouldn’t have done it. It’s something wolves do. It’s not like offering food, but it’s close.”

My chest suddenly acquired a heavy rock. It rolled inside me, hurting.

“It can also be taken a different way,” Derek said. “Parents let kids finish their kills. Older brothers let younger kids do it . . .”

I looked at him.

“He shouldn’t have done it,” Derek said. “But he never does anything without a reason.”

“When I asked you if you knew something I didn’t, you lied to me.”

“I didn’t lie. I just didn’t volunteer information. I didn’t want you to worry.”

I wasn’t worried. When Curran got here, I intended to trip him, sit on him, and shake him until he explained this thing to me. So far, he’d let her stand naked next to him, he’d let her hunt with him, he’d let her finish his kills—whatever the fuck that meant—and in the past twenty-four hours he’d spent more time listening to her than he had speaking to me.