“Why do you think he wants the packs united so badly?”

Greta huffed. “Darryl’s problem is that although he was born an alpha, he was a weak one – too weak to be a Pack Alpha. His little brother, Rick – Trey’s father – on the other hand, was very strong. He was also a horrible bastard. Darryl spent his life walking in Rick’s shadow, overlooked. But that didn’t stop him from lodging himself so far up Rick’s ass that he ended up being made Beta. Then Trey was born and even as a little boy you could tell he was a powerful alpha. Both Rick and Darryl saw him as a threat and treated him very badly.”

Taryn couldn’t help that her upper lip curled in anger. “Yeah, I heard a little about that.”

“When Trey almost killed his father, Darryl was ordered by Rick to beat him, punish him. But Darryl wouldn’t – he knew he couldn’t. That was why talk of banishing him started. My guess is no one in the pack forgot Darryl’s fear of a fourteen year old boy and so he’s not being respected or obeyed as Alpha.”

“Makes sense. If he had been, half of his pack wouldn’t have turned up here to check on my welfare.”

Greta nodded. “Unless he shows his pack that he can overpower Trey and fix the divide in the pack, he’ll be challenged soon enough and lose his position.”

Greta said more but Taryn couldn’t make any sense of the words as her hearing suddenly went weird, like she was underwater or something. Seconds later it returned to normal, but then her vision went blurry again.

“Taryn, Taryn, you alright?”

She wasn’t sure who asked and she didn’t care as the sudden urge to vomit had her ready to dash for the nearest bathroom. But she didn’t make it. She hadn’t even gotten halfway out of the room when she doubled over with pain and projectile vomited all over the kitchen floor. Then again. And again. And again. Then she flopped onto her side, panting, moaning and sweating. Worse, she was way beyond woozy and close to passing out. She felt Brock pick her up.

“Go get Grace,” he told Greta. “I’ll take her to lie down in her room.”

She retched again, but this time nothing came out. She doubted there was anything left in her stomach, especially since she’d hardly eaten anything that morning. The feeling she now had wasn’t all that different from when she had hit her head. It was a little like she was weightless, like a dream state was creeping up on her. Her vision alternated from being fuzzy around the edges to being totally blurred. Her head seemed so unbelievably heavy and she felt sort of detached from her body. This could not be good for the baby. Fear shot through her as she wondered if this somehow meant she was losing the baby.

Shit, that sun was bright.

Wait, what? It occurred to her then that, hey, she was outside. And she should not be. “Where are we going?” she slurred. Her body jolted crazily and she realized they were descending the steps of the mountain face.

“Sorry, Taryn, but this is just the way it has to be.”

His voice was sharp, clipped, cold. This was not the Brock she knew. “It’s you. You’re the informant.”

He peered down at her, clearly surprised. “So you knew. Doesn’t matter now. All that matters is getting you to Darryl quickly.”

“What did you do to me?” she moaned as a spasm wracked her stomach.

“It’s just a drug to make you sleep. I slipped it in that weird juice. I’ve no idea how you can drink that stuff Grace makes.”

Another retch. Still no vomit.

“I’m not sure why it’s making you sick.” Not that he sounded concerned.

“Why, Brock? Why help Darryl?”

“I couldn’t care less about him. Trey, however…now that’s a different matter.” The degree of anger and loathing in his voice was unsettling.

“If you were unhappy here, you could’ve left.”

“No, I couldn’t have. Not without Kirk, and he’ll never leave. I know you don’t think much of my son, but he’s a good man. He is. A lot of people look down on him because his mom was human and he’s not as strong an alpha as the others – a little like they did with Darryl. But he has good principles, has honor, he’s a loyal wolf. That’s why he wanted to leave with Trey when he was banished.”

“You could have stayed behind.”

He shook his head. “No. And not just because of Kirk, no. I couldn’t have let her go alone.”

“Who? Greta?”

He looked at her like she was insane. “Louisa.”

The name tickled her memory. “Trey’s mom?”

“You must’ve heard how I found my true mate but she was already in love with another man. Oh yes, Trey’s mom. By the time I met her, she and Rick had imprinted on one-another. I hadn’t told anyone because I knew Rick would have exiled me to keep me away from her. I hated seeing them together, hated it, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave her life. So I became good friends with her and let that be enough. I know she felt the pull between us. She never even came close to acting on it though. She was a loyal woman. Then Trey was banished and, for once, she stood up to that bastard Rick and she left him. There was my chance. My chance to have her as I should have done. And I would’ve done...but Trey killed her.”

“She turned rogue,” she reminded him.

“If I’d have been there when she slipped into that state I could’ve pulled her back from it. I could’ve.” No he couldn’t have – a wolf gone rogue was beyond all help. “But he executed her. Snapped her neck like she was a twig. I wanted to kill him, but just like Rick and Darryl, I knew I couldn’t take him.”

Her head swam again but she fought the pull of sleep. “Why stay?”

“So one day I could make sure he knew the pain that I went through. The pain of losing a mate.”

Oh f**k. It suddenly hit her just how dangerous her situation was. She’d thought that maybe Darryl wanted to use her as collateral – a kind of ‘give me what I want, Trey, and your mate goes free’ scenario. But this…well hell.

“It made the whole thing even better when I realized you were true mates. You should thank Darryl, really. If it wasn’t for him telling me to hold off, I would have killed you at some point. The car and the raven…that was just for fun, just something to keep me going.”

What a weird, sick bastard. “That day on the stairs?”