I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I guessed that made sense. Lucas was an old Alpha. But still, it was a hell of a coincidence. “Really? You can’t be serious.”

“Really.” There was a little lift in her voice. She sounded excited. “He was listening when you were talking. I’m sorry if I wasn’t—”

“Claudia. It’s fine. I’m a Were, too. Remember? I know how good his hearing is.”

She laughed softly. “Right. Sorry. Um, so he says that—”

“Hi, Meredith.” Lucas’ deep rumble came through the line.

“Hey, Lucas. What have you got for me?”

“I’m wondering what’s going on with Donovan’s home pack that this beast was able to kill his second inside the stronghold.”

“The pack’s a mess.”

“That’s not surprising. We’ve all wondered how he’s balancing so much.” Lucas paused, waiting for me to fill in, but I wasn’t about to gossip about my own mate. “The important thing to know is that Bhrunyz can transport.”

Fear chilled me to the bone.

“But even with that, he cannot enter quietly or leave without notice. The beast is loud. Bhrunyz was used to hunt enemies that the Lunar court wanted dead. He’s given a scent, and then tracks and kills his target. If not given the order to kill on sight, he takes his prey back to his lair and tortures the poor victim until fear floods their blood. But I was told that he never kills without an order to do so.”

“So, Bhrunyz had to have been specifically sent after John and Thomas.”

“Exactly. And if I were to guess, someone in the pack is giving him orders. Do you have ideas who?”

If only that question were easy to answer. “Donovan has some serious problems. We’re working on figuring that out, but it might take a while. In the meantime, I’m hoping to take Bhrunyz out of the equation.”

“That’s not going to be easy,” Lucas said. “I lost a lot of good fighters going after him. It’d be best if you find out who’s controlling him. Fast.”

More good news. I rested my head on a pile of books.

“Meredith,” Claudia called out. “Whoever it is, they have to be very close with the fey or else they wouldn’t have known about Bhrunyz or how to control him. If Lucas wasn’t here, we might not have known anything about this beast. That said, I’m still going to do some digging in the library.”

“Awesome. Thank you. Anything you can find will be a huge help.”

“My pleasure,” Claudia said, and then hung up.

I flipped open the closest book. Twenty minutes later, Claudia texted with a list of titles and a promise that she was going to start doing some reading, too.

It was a start. I could do this.

No. I had to do this.

If I failed…