“Ain’t it, though? One thing about Josephine is, she’s a damn fine hand in the kitchen. Too bad she doesn’t spend more time there.”
By “Josephine,” Logan assumed MacDuff referred to Honor’s cousin Joey. She had introduced herself that way when Logan first arrived, and as far as he could tell, she seemed to spend most of her time doing domestic chores. Of course, there could be another female in the pack with the same name.
He decided to be cautious. “Josephine?”
MacDuff grunted, scraping up the last crumbs of pie with the edge of his fork. “Josephine Tate. Honor’s first cousin. Girl can cook like nobody’s business. If you ask me, she ought to spend more time at it, and less at watching what everyone else is doing. Takes after her mother that way, if you ask me.”
The old man pushed aside his plate with a sigh, and Logan observed him with renewed interest. He looked to be in his late sixties, at least—easily one of the pack elders. That could make him a valuable source of information, if he proved willing to share.
Logan finished his pie and slid the plate to the side to join the chili bowl. “Let’s say I did ask you, MacDuff. What exactly would you tell me?”
The Lupine’s hazel-blue eyes glinted with appreciation, as if he’d been waiting for just that question. “I’d tell you that Josephine isn’t half as big a problem for you as Honor is, son. And, I’d tell you that in spite of that story she just tried to spoon-feed us, I’ve been around in the world long enough to know that you didn’t just come to tell her the Silverback Clan says ‘hello.’ I know it’s not exactly Manhattan around here, but you could probably figure out we’ve got mailboxes and telephones, and Internet service, same as you, if that’s all you boys had to say.”
“We probably could.”
“Which means that you were sent here because Graham Winters isn’t exactly sure whether he approves of the White Paw Clan having a female alpha.”
MacDuff delivered his summary of the situation, then sat back in his chair, folded his arms across his stocky chest, and waited for Logan to make the next move. The younger Lupine had to admire the man’s ability to cut right to the heart of the matter.
“And let’s say that’s true. What would your reaction be?”
“Hell, say it or not, we both know it’s true, son. No need to dance around it. I’m not saying the rest of the pack see it, but you might not want to lump me in with the rest of the pack.”
“Why not? Because you’re older than the rest of them?”
“Barney Andrews is closing in on me pretty fast. He turned sixty-eight last month. This ain’t just about me being an elder. The years tell me a thing or two about how packs operate, but that’s not what tells me about how our girl is going to react if you try to hand this pack over to someone else.”
“No one said that’s what’s going to happen,” Logan explained, for what felt like the hundredth time in the past twenty-four hours.
MacDuff snorted. “You can’t fool me, son, and I don’t imagine you got away with fooling my niece, either.”
“Niece?”
“Yup. Sadie, Honor’s mama, was my little sister. That makes me ‘Uncle Hamish.’”
“And you didn’t think to mention that when you told me how Honor and Josephine are related?”
“Wasn’t talking about me back then. Josephine is Joseph Tate’s daughter. Joseph mated with one of Jim Pritcher’s daughters. The girl is no blood relation to me. Joseph and Marie died before either girl even started school, and the Pritchers brought up Josephine. Honor, of course, stayed with Ethan, not that he paid her much mind. Sadie died giving birth to Honor, and Ethan didn’t make much secret of the fact that he’d have grieved less if Honor had been born a son. When Joseph died, it was another blow. Joe was Ethan’s beta, and everyone assumed he’d take over when Ethan kicked the bucket.”
“What about you? Why weren’t you in line for the job?”
“I’m not a Tate.” Hamish’s lip curled. “My brother-in-law was big on family. Plus, I’m no submissive wolf, but I don’t have the drive it takes to lead a pack. Never have. I’m not much for politics, and most of the time, I’d rather keep to myself. Loners don’t rise too far in a pack, you know.”
Logan digested that information, trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle still made up mostly of blank space. “Honor said she became her father’s beta when she was fifteen.”
“Yup.”
“So who took over after Ethan’s brother died?”
The old man’s bushy brows pulled together. “Why? You think that might be someone you can look to as alpha instead of Honor?”
“I never said that.” But apparently, no one in this pack was ready to give him the benefit of the doubt when it came to the decision he still had to make. “Obviously, if Honor took his place, either she’s stronger than he was, he left the pack, or he’s dead. I just want to know which it is.”
“He’s dead. Got drunk and fell through the ice on the lake about fifteen years ago.”
Just when Honor had become the beta. “So Ethan appointed Honor in his place.”
MacDuff guffawed. There was just no other word for the belly laugh that surged from his mouth on a gust of breath. “Hell, no! That right there tells me you never met Ethan Tate before he died and brought you here. Might as well have written it out for me.” He dropped his hands to his knees and leaned into the table. “Ethan Tate was just about the biggest bastard the Goddess ever whelped, Hunter. He never gave anything to anybody without making sure they went through hell to get it. He tried naming three young males to the beta spot before Honor. She had to hand each and every one of them their asses, and do it while her father watched, before she could claim that position. And even then, he made her go a round with him before he gave in. Whipped the ass of his own daughter on the pack’s ceremonial ground. If she weren’t so fast, he’d have killed her, too. The fact that she survived longer than any of the boys she’d beaten is the only thing that saved her.”
Logan tried to picture the scene. He couldn’t imagine any father treating his own young that way. Even when a son unseated his own father for the alpha position, it was usually more of a show than a real battle. Graham and his father had nearly laughed themselves silly at their ceremonial challenge. The elder Winters had been more than ready to hand over his position, but most important, he had loved his son.
How had Ethan Tate felt about Honor? If that was how he demonstrated it, Logan hated to even speculate.
“So, you’re trying to tell me that Honor has already paid her dues, and I need to just rubber-stamp her turn as alpha. Is that what the pie was about? Usually when someone is trying to tell me what to do, they find threats more effective than desserts.”
“No, the pie was because you looked so sour when Honor walked out on you, I thought you could use sweetening up.” MacDuff laughed. “I’m not threatening you, Hunter, or telling you how to do your job. I don’t know you, but you strike me as the sort of man that even if I tried, you’d still go ahead and do things exactly the way you intended all along. I don’t believe in wasting my breath that way. I imagine you plan to take the next couple of days to check this pack out for yourself. You’ll probably talk to the females and the pups to see what they think of the new alpha, and then you’ll likely go check out each of our males in the prime age group and see whether you believe any of them looks like he’d make a better alpha than my niece.”
It was like having someone read Logan the contents of his own day planner. That was exactly what he planned to do between now and the Howl. It was the logical course of action. So why did Hamish MacDuff manage to make it sound like such a mindless exercise in futility?