“I’d look forward to it, if it weren’t for Sabina,” I muttered grumpily. “Do you always have to be so antagonistic?”

“Do you really think he’d have answered your questions if you hadn’t bypassed the bullshit? There’s a reason I’m the people person, Ethan. Remember? You go and do your Data shit and read, and leave me to deal with folks with pulses.”

I shoved him in the side as he made to stand from his leaning position against the desk, and when he twisted around to glower at me, I snapped, “You pissed him off when we could have asked him more questions.”

“Questions he can’t answer.”

“You know that, how?”

“Because he was uncomfortable. He liked that we owed him a favor for his help in bringing Lara home, and now we know that, essentially, he did diddly squat to protect a female from hyenas who were on the hunt for her—which never bodes well, does it? Vindictive bastards that they are—that favor is null and void.”

“Eli doesn’t work that way,” I muttered, uncaring that I was being mulish.

Austin didn’t take enough care sometimes, and things were different now.

We were no longer just rogue enforcers doing what needed to be done. We had a position in the pack, and we had a mate and a child. We couldn’t just dick around anymore.

And when I said ‘we,’ I meant he.

I pushed away from Eli’s desk, something I’d taken to using now he preferred working upstairs in our room as the pack had more access to him. This room promised me no distractions, because the pack still distrusted Austin and I. Like everything at the moment, it was a work in progress.

Sighing at the thought, I got to my feet.

“Why would the hyenas be looking for Lara?”

“I don’t know,” I replied, pausing on my way to the door. “She doesn’t seem the type to get involved with money lenders.”

“Everyone needs a loan from time to time,” he said softly. “Maybe things got tight—”

“Maybe. We need to talk with her.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “I don’t like that the hyenas were there for her and the male still went ape on her.”

“That’s because they have no self-control.”

“Like we would if anything happened to Sabina,” I snapped.

“We’re sensible. We die after our mates pass. We’re not left to linger on in misery,” he retorted. “That’s what happens when you choose your partner and the Mother doesn’t.”

“Merinda lingered on in misery,” I said softly, catching his eye and watching as he immediately ducked his head. “Not just after our father died, but after Eli’s did too.”

“Probably being punished,” he muttered.

“For what? Being a shit parent? I don’t think that’s how the Mother works.” His obstinacy had me gritting my teeth. “So many things have been going on of late. Everything from Lara arriving, to finding out Berry is Merinda reincarnate, what with Seth and that weird power transference and then Choi turning up?” I shook my head. “Barely a minute to think about what’s actually happening.”

“Ever since Sabina showed up, it’s been like that. I figure we just need to adjust to the change of pace.”

“Merinda’s been protecting Sabina since she came to this realm,” I murmured, and even though it astonished me to be defending my biological mother of all people, there was no hiding from that particular truth.

“What’s going on?” Austin asked warily. “Why are you talking like this?”

“I’m not talking any which way. Just saying…she endured a lot for a reason.” I hunched my shoulders as I dug my hands into my pockets. “Seeing as you’re the people person, you can go and talk with Lara, see if she knows why hyenas might be looking for her.”

He sniffed but didn’t argue, and I strode on out, heading straight for the kitchen. It was empty, with most of the staff about their business somewhere in the house, so I peered in the fridge, found the tray that I’d asked Elsa to prepare for Seth, and grabbed it, before heading for the central staircase.

As I loped up the steps, I bypassed the wing where we slept, where our quarters were housed, and headed for the guest wing. Maribel’s door was open—unsurprising, she was like that. Open in nature too—and I saw her napping on the bed.

She was barely even showing, but she was sleeping something fierce.

The second pup was wearing on her, that was clear. She’d lost weight, and I knew that might be because of her circumstances, what with her and her mate being separated and that not being good for either of them, but I just got the feeling it was the baby.

Sleeping more, eating more…throwing up more. It fit.

When I stepped past her door, and she didn’t awaken, it confirmed two things. One, she was resting so deeply that her defenses were down. Two, she knew Seth was a strange boy. Any other mother would have slept with one eye open, well aware that someone could be approaching her child.

That level of detachment wasn’t great.

Even if I got it.

Seth, before the other day, had made it hard to like him. Now? It was a whole other kind of crazy.

I went to his door and turned the key in the lock. When I opened it, I saw him sitting on the bed, staring at the wall ahead.

Like usual, he creeped me out, and in my time as enforcer, I’d dealt with all kinds of criminals. Anything from some human POS who’d been using a corner of our land to grow pot and who’d killed some of our pack while defending his farm, to some jacked up douches from the city who’d been riding down our streets drunk. I’d had guns shoved in my face, almost had my ear blown off by bullets, and as a wolf, I’d almost been shot by a hunter—until I’d torn his face off.

This wasn’t my first rodeo, but this kid?

Sheesh.

“Seth?”

He didn’t turn to look at me, just carried on staring at the wall, and call me the crazy one, but I got the sense that he’d been looking at the damn wall ever since he’d been locked up in here.

I stepped deeper into the room and placed the tray on the desk.

It was decorated simply, but then, most of the bedrooms were like that. The Highbanks had spent most of their fortune in making the public areas swank, not bothering to make a fuss of the guest bedrooms, so this one contained a simple bed, a couple of landscape oils, and a table and chair we’d brought in so he could do his homework. Maribel had also brought in a bean bag, which sat in one corner, and he had a small chest filled with toys.

The room was sparse, but you’d never know a young kid lived in this one.

Daniel’s, a few days after he’d arrived, had been chaos itself.

Maybe it was because I wasn’t the most fastidious guy in the house that his neatness put me on edge, but either way, I stated firmly, “Seth, eat your food.”

“When will I be able to leave my room?” he asked, his tone calm. Too calm.

Too old.

Too everything.

Wariness loading me down because I knew why he sounded so old now, I stared at him and stated, “When the alpha decides what to do with you.”

“And what if I don’t recognize his judgment?”