Running Wild

and five other wolves all died of poison, internal hemorrhaging.”
Pete had liked to cook, Seamus thought dimly.
“Six wolves dead,” Trey said, clearly astonished. “And Pete took over the pack. Of one. Himself. He killed his own pack and he’s the only survivor. If you dig in the news back almost seven years, you’ll find this odd report of a bunch of dead wolves that were assumed killed by a farmer’s poisoning them. The men would have tried to shift to survive. Pete, I imagine, dragged them out of the house once they were dead.”
“There’s only Pete?” Ri zeroed in on the upshot.
Trey nodded.
“That explains so much.”
Jonah agreed. “It explains why they never hunted you again.”
Seamus tried to make sense of this, with difficulty. “Pete and I didn’t meet until second year.” He didn’t know why this was an important point, but it felt like it.
“He waited,” Trey acknowledged. “As if his meeting you would then have nothing to do with his pack and their violent history. I’d guess he knew he shouldn’t meet you at all, but he got lonely.”
“How do you know this?” Seamus demanded.
“Pete told us some of it, with his half-truths,” Jonah said. “We’re guessing the rest. Did some research, there are some lone wolves up north we contacted. It was always a small pack here in and around Winnipeg, and violent. Everyone stayed away, and Pete would send out occasional missives to imply he was in charge of a few members.”
Trey added, “I’m not some super alpha. I’m not someone packs have to make an accounting to.”
Seamus supposed his expression might have suggested he’d thought just that.
Ri spoke. “What’s happened to Pete now?”
“He’s gone missing,” said Trey.
“You think he might come here and harm Seamus.”
Trey shook his head. “Pete will never harm Seamus. In his head, Seamus is his mate. That’s the problem. You, Ri, are the one in danger. Pete sacrificed a lot for Seamus, before they ever met, and that has built up a rather one-sided loyalty.”
Ri’s mouth twisted. “Seamus is loyal too, believe it or not. He keeps saying Pete would never hurt him, keeps making excuses for his strange behavior.” He sighed. “What happens to wolves who are rejected by those who they believe are their mates?”
“Usually nothing,” said Trey. “But Pete is more erratic than most wolves I’ve met, given his history. I would be very, very careful.”
“He wouldn’t kidnap Seamus, would he?” asked Ri.
Trey didn’t answer, but his eyes were dark, somber. It was Jonah who said, “He just might.”
Chapter Fourteen
    “I have to go to work on Monday,” Seamus said. It wasn’t the most profound thing to say about these profound revelations, but he was having trouble coming up with anything beyond the mundane.
    Trey and Jonah looked at each other before Jonah spoke. “I’ll accompany you.”
“Excuse me?” said Seamus.
Meanwhile Ri rose and shook his head. “ I will accompany Seamus.”
All at once the situation struck Seamus, inappropriately to be sure, as funny. He turned to Trey. “Aren’t you going to offer as well?”
“Nope. I’m going to look for Pete.”
Seamus’s humor died. Despite everything, despite Pete’s apparent idea that Seamus was his mate, he found himself saying, “Please don’t kill him.”
Trey blinked once, and though his expression was difficult to read, Seamus thought something softened there. “That’s not my plan. I intend to take him to Wolf Town. But, I’ll need some cooperation on Pete’s part for that to work.”
“We’ll need to find Pete.” Jonah looked over at Trey and clearly considered this a big obstacle.
Ri, not so much. “Unless he finds Seamus first.” He turned to Trey. “Pete’s been sabotaging every relationship Seamus has attempted before and after.”
“Oh, fuck,” said Trey, as if this made Pete more dangerous. Seamus supposed it did.
“So,” Ri concluded, “stick to Seamus, and Pete will come to you.”
In the end it was Trey who accompanied Seamus. Trey was the most comfortable in the city, and the one most driven to make contact with Pete. Maybe it was a wolf thing, Seamus wasn’t sure.
Ri stayed in Cornfield with Jonah who apparently—not that Seamus could tell—was chomping at the bit to get out of the city. He’d been raised in the wilderness and was comfortable with few people and wide-open spaces. He would also watch Ri’s back.
In the city, it was tricky explaining Trey’s