his mother’s name?”
Shawn looked puzzled. “E-i-r-n-y. She was from Iceland. It was some kind of Viking name, I think. Ally? What’s the matter?”
“What? Oh, nothing. Sorry, you just reminded me of something.” It couldn’t be a coincidence—Eir had said that Dylan’s line was precious to her. Ally resolved to learn more about Eirny MacDougall. “Never mind. You said you were in the pack?”
“I was born in it, like Cade.”
“Where’d he come back from?”
“Savannah. He and Carson went to live with Louis’ family after Louis and Eirny died.”
She wanted to know more about that but couldn’t think how to ask without looking even nosier than she probably already did. “So Cade came back and started calling the wolves he’d grown up with. Did they want to come back?”
“A few. But others started showing up—Lones, or wolves who were unhappy in their birth packs. They were all Cade’s age or younger, and all of them were unmated.”
He took another pull of beer. “See, a pack is really made of families. Until we have wolves with wives and kids, most packs won’t recognize us. Anyway. Nobody cared about the Lones, but the Pack Alphas didn’t like losing their youngest and strongest. They started talking about Cade luring their wolves away. He wasn’t—he isn’t, I mean—they just come because they want to.”
“So did the Pack Alphas do anything to stop their wolves from leaving?”
“I don’t know anyone who’s been, like, punished or anything. Besides, Cade’s loaned money to a lot of wolves for business. He’s like a—what do you call it—a guy who loans money to new companies…”
“A venture capitalist?”
“That’s it—he’s a venture capitalist. Even older wolves in the Ten Packs—they have business with him, and he’s helped them make money.”
“Cade sounds pretty smart.”
“Oh yeah. Not just head smart, but people smart too, you know? He just knows who you can trust and who’s no good. He’s always been that way.” Shawn’s voice faded as he walked into the kitchen to get another beer.
“So Stapkis’ son left his father’s pack to come out here?” she called.
“Huh? Oh yeah.” He sat back down on the large leather couch. “We’re getting bigger. We’ve got a couple of wolves in town who’ve gotten married. We’re the first new pack in over a hundred years. But until Cade came back, Stapkis was the biggest Alpha in the West. Aaron joining us makes Rufus look weak. He doesn’t want Rocky Mountain recognized. Cade’s supposed to go to Denver Friday to meet with Stapkis and two other Alphas.”
“So Stapkis’ son is here with Cade’s pack, and Cade’s supposed to meet Stapkis this week, and now Cade has to tell him his son tried to hang himself.”
They thought about that for a moment.
“Holy shit,” was all she could think to say.
“Yeah.” Shawn took another pull on the bottle. “Man, I hope Aaron makes it. I had no idea he was depressed or anything. Suicide’s a huge deal with wolves. We don’t kill ourselves much.”
They heard the front door open. Cade came in talking to a wolf Ally didn’t recognize.
“Michael’s going to stay there ’til three,” she heard him saying. It was just after midnight. “I want someone in the room with him at all times, so he doesn’t wake up alone. Anyone can go see him, but you need to make a schedule of four hour rotations and get people signed up.”
“Got it. I’ll check back with you in the morning.”
The door closed.
Cade looked surprised to see them when he walked into the living room. “Hey. I didn’t expect anyone to still be up. Shawn, you hear what I was saying about making sure someone’s in the room with Aaron?”
“Yeah. I want to go to the hospital tomorrow. How is he?”
MacDougall ran a hand through his curls, looking haggard and haunted. His formerly crisp white polo was wrinkled and dotted with coffee stains. “Aaron’s in a coma. Dylan found him
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