Corb’s mouth twisted to the side. “I’m nothing like my cousin. He’s an ass.”

I agreed that Himself was an ass. I wasn’t sure yet about Corb.

“You mean you don’t lie and manipulate people?” I asked with as much innocence as I could muster that early in the morning.

He had the grace to flush. “Not to take advantage of them.”

“Oh, that makes all the difference,” I drawled, and Eammon gave a rather obvious coughing guffaw.

Corb cleared his throat. “Sarge and I were working under cover. We were supposed to get close to Hattie. Darv was the one who set us on to her.”

Eammon folded his thick arms across his chest. “Why didn’t you tell us? We could have helped.”

Darv stepped forward. “Information is at a premium, and it is not for the weak. And we weren’t sure that she,” he tipped his head at me, “wouldn’t side with Hattie. They were close when she was younger, and there was a chance that she’d get sucked into the witch’s web.”

My jaw tightened. I could see the concern, and if they’d accused Hattie in front of me, I probably would have defended her before last night.

Louis, Tom, and Eammon started shouting all at once, and I knew then that there would be no reconciling these men anytime soon.

I sat on one of the thickly cushioned chairs, sinking into the pillows and wishing I could sink back into my bed, pull the covers up, and then just ignore the world for a good long while. I noticed the other trainees were saying nothing. “And the group of you?”

“We had no idea,” Suzy said. “Sarge came in with donuts, we all had one and then we passed out.”

“And the attack on Luke?” Again, I could feel my head spinning as I put the pieces together. “You were going to do it anyway, weren’t you? That was why he was so afraid of you, Sarge.”

Sarge shrugged. “Wanting to be a werewolf is a whole lot different than actually getting there. At least he was drugged so he didn’t feel the wounds as much. By the way, you haven’t apologized for sticking me with your knife.”

I glared at him, annoyed by his audacity. “And I won’t. You’re lucky I don’t stick you again.” I paused. “Darv, you just took Corb and Sarge out of there. Why didn’t you tell us they were undercover then?”

“Because we still weren’t sure who was helping Hattie. We knew Joe was, but we also knew you were close to Hattie when you were a child. There was a chance that we could still flush you out.”

My jaw dropped. “You thought I was one of the bad guys?” Then it hit me. Of course they did. I’d been friendly with Crash and Hattie.