Free Bayou Blues by Sierra Dean Page B

was being groomed to take over the Atlanta pack. I’ve never asked.”
    “And?” Was this all because another Alpha was around? That seemed petty even for Ben. Something else had to have gone down for Ben to dislike Wilder so much. Part of me suspected this must have something to do with a girl, but the only eligible female their age was Magnolia. And she couldn’t keep a secret to save her life. If there’d been a man in her life at one point who wasn’t Ben, she would have told me.
    “There was a girl.”
    Ding ding ding ding ding . “Somehow I knew this would all boil down to jealousy.”
    Ben narrowed his eyes, clearly annoyed with me for interrupting him. In spite of us spending so many years apart, I’d learned how to push his buttons like an expert since I’d returned. Both intentionally to annoy him, and often without meaning to.
    “Would you please listen to me for a minute?”
    “Fine.”
    “There was a girl he and I went to school with. Her name was Holly.”
    Was. The burden of the past tense made my heart clench, and I swallowed hard, already not liking the trajectory of this story. Ben looked sad all of a sudden, which wasn’t typical of him. He liked to keep his emotions checked at all times, but memories of this girl were causing him to slip. It made me nervous enough to not want to hear the rest.
    But I had to.
    “What happened?”
    “She went missing. They found her a few days after the full moon, dead. Her stepfather was arrested and convicted, but…”
    I knew the rest of his sentence, even though he drifted off quietly. The kill hadn’t been right, not quite human. And a dead girl in the woods after a full moon? We were all lucky no one knew about werewolves then, because all fingers would have pointed at Callum and the pack faster than someone could say howl .
    A cold sensation crept up my spine. “Does she still have people here, Ben? Now that we’re out, are they going to start thinking the cops made a mistake?”
    He shook his head. “Her mom moved away years ago. Last I heard she died. The stepdad was killed in prison. No one likes a guy who kills kids, right?”
    I wanted his words to make me feel better, but instead I felt bad for the girl. No matter who or what had killed her, she’d never gotten her chance to grow up and get the hell out of this town.
    “You’re missing the point,” he said.
    I wasn’t. I was thinking like a pack ruler, and he was thinking like someone who was too emotionally attached to the girl’s death to see anything else. I felt for my brother and was heartbroken he’d been so hurt, but if he was going to be king, he couldn’t let his personal feelings get in the way of looking for the truth.
    For the first time it struck me that maybe I should be gunning to take over Callum’s throne. I hadn’t seriously considered it because Ben had been grooming himself for the job his entire life. He was literally born to be king. But wasn’t I just as good? We were the same age, the same rank, and all the claims he had to the throne applied to me as well.
    I’d never wanted to fight him for it, and I’d long convinced myself I didn’t want it. But things felt different. I felt different. And I was starting to wonder if I was more cut out for the role than I—or anyone else—had given me credit for.
    “What’s your point, then?” I asked.
    “My point is Wilder killed her.”
     

Chapter Ten
     
    I stared out my bedroom window, watching the sun fade from yellow to orange and the sky darken around the light like a closing fist. When all the light had vanished, I opened my windows and the double doors onto the veranda and let the night air waft in.
    The heat of the day was still heavy, but with the ceiling fan going and the cool evening breeze sweeping across the floor, soon my skin was prickled with goose bumps. I wasn’t cold. Werewolves rarely got cold. But I wasn’t feeling warm and fuzzy either.
    Thanks for nothing, Ben.
    My brother had