When I burst out of the maze, I released a deep breath but then sucked in air anew when I caught sight of my welcoming committee.
Liam, Lucas, and Frank stood there. All of them had their arms crossed.
“What? No applause?” Apparently anger made me snarky
“You had help,” Lucas said.
I shot my gaze to Liam who met it straight on. He didn’t even flinch. “Perhaps I did, but as far as I can remember, that wasn’t forbidden.”
Lucas whipped his head to shift his hair off his forehead. “That’s cheating.”
“I didn’t come up with this test, Lucas. The elders did.”
“Frank, come on…” Lucas said, untying his arms and waving his hands around. “You can’t let her win.”
I fixed my gaze on Frank and dared him to disqualify me.
Slowly, his chest rose with a sigh. Even more slowly his lips parted, and he said, “Let me see it.”
“Can’t you smell it?” I was pretty certain the odor would never wash away from my skin, even if I dipped my hand in bleach.
“I need to ascertain it’s whole.”
I raised my chin up a little higher and walked closer. I held out my palm and opened my fingers. When he tried to pluck it out, I snapped my fingers closed around the noxious wood and hid it behind my back. “I’m not giving it back.”
Frank cocked a bushy eyebrow. “If you don’t give it back, you’ll be disqualified.”
“I know what it does,” I said, shaking with anger.
He dipped his chin into his neck. “I assumed as much.”
“How could you use this? How could you perpetuate such savagery?” I murmured disgustedly.
Liam and Lucas turned their attention to Frank.
“Could we discuss this in private, Ness?”
“Why? Are you afraid of how your boyswill react, Mr. McNamara?”
One of his eyes twitched. “No. Actually, go ahead and tell them. This shouldn’t be a secret anymore.”
He was bluffing. He had to be bluffing. The Alphas and elders had kept this a secret for a century.
“It’s too late anyway,” he said. “For their generation at least, it’s too late.”
“What does it do?” Liam asked.
Frank raised his gaze to me. “Shall I tell them, or should I leave you that honor?” When I didn’t move my lips, Frank said, “A trifling amount of the wood is mixed into your pledge drinks. It destroys female sperm.”
Both Liam’s and Lucas’s eyes widened. Both their mouths gaped. They’d really had no idea.
“Genius,” Lucas said.
I balked at his answer. But of course he’d find it genius. I looked at Liam, waited to see his reaction, but besides a slackening of his stance, he didn’t utter a single word.
“Not the reactions you were expecting, are they?” Frank said.
To think my father had had to answer to him as a boy.
“Do you also find it genius?” I asked Liam, loathing how desperate I was for him to say no.
He blinked but didn’t speak.
“I don’t think the pack could’ve dealt with more girls,” Lucas said, which made Frank’s lips quirk up.
I wanted to whack the smile off his face and almost swung the yellowed fossil into his cheek, but I held myself back.
“At least,” Frank said, serious again, “we don’t kill off female embryos like they do in the other packs. Because that’s what happens in the other packs. Women interrupt pregnancies when they find out their offspring is female.”
“Not the Pines.”
“Eventhe Pines. Why do you think there aren’t as many females to males in their pack? They just cover it up better than the other packs.”
“That’s a lie.”
“No, Ness. It isn’t a lie.”
I wanted to growl, and I did.
Frank held out his hand. “Last chance to stay in this contest.”
Shaking my head, I slapped the rancid stick against his palm. He could have his evil gender selection tool back. If I became Alpha, I’d destroy it. And if I didn’t rise to the top, I wouldn’t have to worry about the damn thing, because I would no longer be part of the Boulder Pack.
“Did Callum not drink it, Frank?” Liam asked. “Is that why he had Ness?”
I held my breath.
“He drank it,” Frank said, “but it made him sick. We believe that’s why it didn’t work on him.”
I released the captive air, hating how much relief Frank’s explanation brought me.
“Aw, man…” Lucas grumbled. “I had a bet going that Ness wasn’t a Boulder.”
“You bet that my mom cheated on my dad?”
“Lucas,” Frank chided him. “Not only is that inappropriate but-”
“Oh come on, Mr. McNamara. Wasn’t that one of the reasons Heath didn’t accept Ness’s pledge? Because he wanted to spare her the heartache of uncovering her heritage through a communication glitch?”