Never one to doubt his instincts, Tristan took off at a run, shifting half way through his first steps.
"Stop him, Theo." Summer's voice caught his attention and he swung his head around to stare at her. She was doubled over on the ground, her right hand covering her forehead while her left one grasped at her pregnant stomach. Cullen gripped her back, holding her to him. Her voice sounded frantic. "This is wrong. This is not as it should be happening."
Cullen raised his eyes to stare at Theo's wolf form. She's having a vision. Stop Tristan before he kills Rex.
Theo turned around, sprinting towards his two fighting brothers. Both in their full animal forms now, Tristan's dark wolf attacked Rex's smaller black one. Relieved to see that Rex barely fought back--Tristan was their Alpha and fighting with him would only enrage him more--Theo jumped into the middle of the fight. It wasn't the first time he'd broken up a fight between his brothers, it was just the first time so much had been on the line.
Tristan's teeth sunk into his neck and Theo screeched. His wolf had gone into high alert and the need to either flee or fight was almost uncontrollable. Inside, Theo roared, demanding he be left in control of their higher senses. Tristan growled and backed off trying once again for Rex who whimpered and clearly bled in several different places, one particularly rough looking wound on his ear that Theo hoped didn't leave a scar.
Theo threw himself between Tristan and Rex. Behind him, he heard a commotion but couldn't take his attention off of his brothers to focus on what caused the hubbub. If he let up for even a second, he wasn't sure Tristan wouldn't kill Rex. They had to at least speak to their younger brother before any more violence took place.
Rex, can you hear me?
What the hell is going on? Even in his wolf state, his brother sounded terrified. Theo couldn't blame him. He'd be terrified too if Tristan turned on him.
Did you betray us, Rex? Is it you?
Ashlee's scream stopped Tristan's assault. Whirling around, Theo saw Faith swoop down from the sky like a hawk capturing a field mouse and within seconds pull someone out of the woods a distance away. Theo narrowed his eyes and sniffed the air. He couldn't make out a scent. His ears flattened on the top of his furry head.
That was the connection he'd missed. When he'd been in the woods, the traitor had been scentless, as whoever Faith had was now. He could smell Rex--who always, even in wolf form, managed to be a combination of the forest and the city, as clearly as he had the day Rex had been born.
Stop, Tristan. It's not Rex.
Theo, out of my way. This is our brother and he has betrayed us in the worst possible way.
It's not him, my Alpha, look behind you. Silently, Theo hoped he reached the part of Tristan that wasn't lost in the animal madness and could still be reasoned with. Otherwise Rex was doomed and they would all have to live with the consequences. Theo wasn't prepared to ask himself how far he would go to protect Rex. There was Faith to consider. If he died, she died too.
Tristan sniffed the air and turned in the direction where Faith held their soon-to-be revealed traitor five feet above the ground. Whoever it was struggled in her grasp and tried to shift. Theo sucked in his breath but his worry was for naught.
Faith simply readjusted her hold and held tighter around the man's neck preventing the shift. He should have known there would be nothing she wouldn't be able to handle.
Tristan called the shift on himself. A warm white light filled Theo's senses and he followed suit, hoping Rex would do the same.
Their Alpha stormed in the direction where Faith held the still-unknown person, giving Theo a moment to regard Rex.
"Randolph, what were you doing here? You could have been killed." Almost no one used Rex's real name and Theo hoped it made an impression.
"Evidently." Rex looked up at the sky and Theo followed his gaze to where Faith set down the man in front of Tristan. He turned back to Rex.
"Answer my question."
Rex shrugged getting up from the ground as if all was well but Theo caught the scent of pain on him and knew whatever casualness he pretended to possess was just an act. It was hard being a wolf-shifter surrounded by wolf-shifters. No one ever let you get away with any bullshit, which was why Theo made the decision not to mention the pain Rex was obviously in but trying to hide.
Theo cleared his throat. "Rex?"
Rex sighed. "Look, I heard you guys were having some sort of secret pow-wow we weren't invited to. It pissed me off. I'm sick of the whole 'we're mated so we're special' vibe Tristan and Cullen have going on around here. As if you can only be trusted if you've been lucky enough to find your love. It's not like the rest of us haven't been looking and now you're part of the 'in' club. It used to be enough to just be a Kane."
Theo rubbed the stubble on his chin as he took in his brother. How was it possible they'd all been through relatively the same traumas and Rex was still so damn young?
"So you thought you'd come and spy, is that it?"
"I thought I should know what was going on." Rex had the good sense to look sheepish looked anywhere but in Theo's eyes and winced as he tried to take a step.
"Do Gabriel, Michael, or Azriel feel this way?"
Rex's eyes flared wolf for a moment before returning to their normal near black. With his long hair down past his shoulders, Rex looked positively wild. Truth was, his wolf was so strong, and always had been, that had he been born before Tristan it was questionable which one of them would have been Alpha.
But as Theo had discovered the day his cheek was burnt off, life had a way of presenting things just the way they were meant to be, even if they were uncomfortable and miserable.
"No, they don't seem to be as bothered. But who the hell knows what goes on with them? Michael's been pretty much a zombie since Kendrick betrayed us and he sucked at being Alpha, Gabriel is all about conducting covert missions and disappears for months at a time, and much as I love him I have no idea what Az is talking about most of the time."
Theo nodded. As the brother chronologically below him in age, he knew better than most how odd Az could be. Brilliant, but odd. He shook his head. They were getting off the point.
"See that?" He turned around to point at Tristan who had the man pinned on the ground as he growled in his face. Ashlee, Summer, and Cullen stood in a circle, the older man in between the two women, a bemused look in his eyes was the only indication he wasn't standing at the beach or in line at the drugstore. Nothing fazed Cullen.
"What is going on? Why is Tristan attacking whoever that is and why did he attack me? He wouldn't even answer me telepathically."
Theo looked up at the sky where Faith hovered. He wished she'd come over to where he stood with Rex but he couldn't reach her telepathically to tell her he needed her help.
"Our brother the Alpha is in a rage. We have a traitor and we just flushed him out. When you showed up, we assumed it was you. That made him more nuts because you're his brother."
Rex's eyes changed to their wolf form. Theo knew when his brother spoke, his intonations would be two tones lower. "He thought I would betray you?" Rex turned his back on Theo and he knew the youngest of the Kane's only had eyes for Tristan.
"It seemed a reasonable thought that whoever was hiding in the bushes was our traitor."
"Reasonable, perhaps." Rex whirled on Theo. "But I'm your brother and all of you--especially him," he pointed at Tristan, "should have known better."