Coveney made his way to Rye’s office as soon as he was done taking care of Ava, knowing the Alpha was running out of patience.

He’d looked at him without uttering a word when he’d brought the naked woman into the pride house. Rygan was kind like that. He could have just told him to get out, or to let her bleed out on their doorstep.

Rain had offered to take care of her, of course. He’d shaken his head.

“I still have some of the salve left that you made for me. I can do it, it’s the same poison,” he explained, all the while knowing it wasn’t actually an explanation.

In the absence of a healer, now that Ola was gone to hell where she deserved to be, their witch ally was indubitably the best person to take care of a wounded patient. But Ava didn’t know Rain.

She doesn’t know you, either.

He shut up the voice in his mind and got to work, cleaning her wound until she woke up.

Coveney didn’t have an explanation. He should be done with her. Now that she was safe, she should be inconsequential to him. Everyone else was. He owed Rye, Kim, Christine, and Ian. He’d spent enough years with Daunte and Jas to have developed some sort of affinity with them. He liked the kids. That was it.

Yet this stranger made him pace and mutter, wonder and worry, like nothing and no one else ever had, even before he’d become the cold, single-minded motherfucker he was.

Maybe he should let Rain have a crack at her. Witchcraft could very well be the issue there.

The Alphas were waiting for him; Rye sat behind his desk, Ace standing at his side. They hadn’t doubted he’d come, because, well, that was just who he was.

Rye was still glaring in silence, his eyes bright, and the mating marks peeking from under his clothing blazing. Yeah, he was pissed. Ace, however, just seemed curious.

“I gave you a clear order,” the Alpha male finally said, an edge to his voice.

Coveney bobbed his head, taking a seat. “And I willfully disobeyed.” Which did support his theory: some witchcraft may be going on here. “I will accept the consequences. Demote me if you have to.” His heart practically gave out, but he also added, “I’d understand if you banished me.”

Aisling snorted. “Yeah, that’s not going to happen, Coveney. Neither. You’re the best at what you do, and Rye and I know just how lucky we are to have a workaholic like you at your post.”

She said all that while pointedly looking at her mate, who sighed, dropping some of his glowering.

“That’s right,” he admitted. “Which is why acting like that is definitely not like you. Speak.”

He wanted an explanation. Great. How could he spell it out for his Alphas when he didn’t even know what made him act like a bloody lunatic?

“I told you she saved me,” he replied. “I figured she might have been hit. I couldn’t…” he stopped talking, knowing how lame it all sounded. “There’s no excuse. I disobeyed.”

Ace rolled her eyes.

“Oh, drop the crap. Rye was in an overprotective mindset, or he would have sent you after her right away. Without her warning, we might all be dead right now. She helped us save our son, and the rest of our pride. I’m sorry I hadn’t heard about all this before, or I would have intervened.”

The Alpha male’s shoulders finally relaxed, and he nodded curtly.

“I’m not used to you challenging my authority,” he told him, pausing for a beat before he carried on. “But it’s good to see you’ll do it if you think it’s right.”

Wait, what? He messed up, and got praised for it? Today was so weird. Rye didn’t hand over compliments every other day; on the contrary, he always looked at Coveney with something akin to disappointment.

“Still,” the Alpha went on, “It doesn’t change the fact that we don’t know nearly enough about that girl to have her in our pride house, under the same roof as our kids. There’s a reason why I sent the rest of our potential members to Ace’s old place.”

“She’s wounded,” Coveney pleaded, tense.

He thought about banishing Ava to one of the outer homes, by herself, vulnerable. Now that the potential members had been fully accepted in the pride, they’d be living with them, which meant she’d be well and truly alone there.

“Shifter healing is pretty quick.”

“This poison will slow it down. I cleaned my wounds after minutes; hers have been festering for hours. I’ll take responsibility for her. If you need to send her away, I’ll go with her. But I’d prefer to have our resources at hand while she gets better.”

Whatever Rye was about to say was cut off by Ace. “I’m good with that. If you’re happy to take responsibility for her.”

Coveney couldn’t recall ever having been responsible for a person, on a one-on-one basis. He had a responsibility to the pack, and he saw to everyone’s safety, but this seemed so different. Still, he acquiesced.

Before he left the office, he glanced at his Alphas again, and felt a little weirded out. He didn’t chat away like everyone else did, and he stayed at a distance from the rest of the pride, but he saw and understood more than he let on. After what had happened to him, he’d started to pay a lot more attention to people: their expressions, the things they didn’t say.

He’d seen Daunte’s thing for his new mate, Clari, long before either of them had seen fit to do a thing about it. He’d wondered whether Ace could be Rye’s mate very early on, catching something eerie about the way they glanced at each other.

Now, he saw something, too, as easily as if there had been a dialog bubble atop Ace’s head. The Alpha female was cooking up something. She had a plan in mind, and it involved him.

He narrowed his eyes. He didn’t think the woman had any reason to dislike him, so he might be overreacting.

But he’d been wrong before.