Page 106 of Unforgivable

"I'm going to write my report. Say that there's no way of knowing who struck the blow that rendered Todd incapable. But... I can't promise that it will end there. I'm going to head home to my birthpack soon. It's time." He fiddles with the latch of his briefcase, for the first time looking bashful. "Rebecca is pregnant with our second pup. It's a female," he says, smiling.

"Congratulations," we all chime in together. It sounds a bit creepy, but Gamma Brett just thanks us.

When we see the taillights of the truck leaving, we all sigh in relief.

"You OK, angel?" Rhet kisses Lyri on her mouth. She nods, her hair rubbing against my chest.

"We have to pitch some hay in the barn. Sarj wanted you to read him a story, pretty."

"OK," Lyri murmurs. She untangles herself from my arms and turns to kiss my chin, then Ezra gets a hug and kiss before she walks out of the kitchen with a distant, sad look on her face.

"She's going to run," Rhet announces calmly as soon as she's out of earshot.

My head jerks in his direction. I need to think faster, damnit.

"Why do you say that?" Ezra says quietly.

Rhet looks at him. "She's panicking. She's sad. She's protecting us from being 'cleansed.' Pick a fucking reason, Ezra."

"You're a dick," Ezra mumbles.

Rhet narrows his eyes on the walls between Lyri's room and us. "I know," he agrees.

I clear my throat. "What do we do about her mate?" I ask.

"Is it... is it true?" Ezra croaks out. "Is our Lyri's truemate, Daan Cristorsen?

"I think so," I say softly.

Rhet just nods, the muscle in his jaw ticking away.

"Penny told me that Daan watched our female," Ezra adds in a quiet voice. "All the teens seem to agree that Lyri and Cloe were constantly fighting. It fits... it fits."

"He did this to her," Rhet says softly. "He's going to bleed."

"If it's true, then the entire pack will hemorrhage," Ezra says.

"I won't let him hurt Lyri anymore," Rhet says quietly.

"What do we do?" I ask, helplessly.

He brings out his cell and pushes a few buttons.

"Yea," he says into the phone. "How's it with you?"

He looks at us with red-rimmed eyes, "he's good, but we have a problem, Carm. It's... ah... we have a female."

He pauses, a faint smile touching his lips. "Yeah, we. Ezra, too." His smile falls. "Amazing, she's everything you'd imagine, but... there's a problem with her mate."

I can hear Carmichael, Rhet's cousin, curse through the earpiece. Rhet winces and pulls the phone away from his ear. When the steam finally seems to run out on Carmichael's end, Rhet puts the phone back to his ear. "He rejected her... No! He does not want her back... Listen, Carm, you know me... Yeah, she was Shamed."

There's silence from the other end of the phone, and then one barked word that I hear clear as a bell, "explain."

"He has a replacement female. Been with her for years, since before he shifted. He rejected our female three years ago when she first shifted. He fucked her about five months ago. He... he lied, Carm. RustClaw believes the replacement is his true mate. Our female was called a rankwhore and Shamed."

There's silence, then just one question that I can't make out. Rhet responds with a soft, heartbroken "yes. She knows I was there."

A moment later, he hangs up the phone. "Carmichael is coming here in three weeks. We'll have to pick him up in GhostMaw. He's not allied with any of the packs around here, and an alphason can't just jump around territories," he says.

"It's dangerous," I caution.

Rhet nods, looking conflicted. "We need my cousin. We need help if this gets ugly, and it will." He puffs out a breath, closing his eyes.

"We can't bring Lyri," Ezra says quietly. "She's safer here."

Rhet nods. "Right. This is how it'll work. Thjis, you and I will go. Ezra, stay here with Lyri. In and Sarj go to school as normal. No one in RustClaw will know that we're gone. We'll come from the south, avoid the mountains and Alpha Argus. We'll be gone two, three days tops."

Rhet looks a little pale at the end of his speech. It doesn't sit right to leave Ez and Lyri here; to split the family, even for a little while.

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