“Actually,” I whispered. “I think he’s been trying to stop us from figuring out the truth all along.”
“I’m sure there’s plenty of things Domingo doesn’t want discovered.”
I hummed while grabbing the other photographs. One of them was the medallion. “This,” I said while holding it up. “Do you know what it is?”
“Likely an award for performance in battle.”
“Really?”
He shrugged. “Your alpha says no one else can touch it but me, so it might be a charmed medallion meant for battle purposes.”
“Oh, Donovan isn’t our alpha. He’s just…” How was I supposed to explain this to a wolf who spent all his time in the mountains? “Not every pack has an alpha.”
“I don’t understand.”
I motioned for him to sit down and then grabbed a plate, piling it with whatever caught his attention—one muffin, three doughnuts, two jelly-filled pastries, and a heaping cup of coffee. All that masked concentration couldn’t hide his hunger. But it guarded everything else.
Something had changed about him since we last met. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it yet.
“Donovan is the alpha of the Beaufort pack,” I explained. “He’s mated with my girl, Sasha, but we’re not necessarily part of his pack.”
“Why not?”’
I shrugged. “Well, I guess we’re about to be part of his pack since Charlotte mated with his beta, Adam.”
“Alpha, beta…” Matéo bit into a pastry, chewing as thoughtfully as he had minutes ago with the pie. “What about your family?”
“My wolf sisters are my family.”
He licked his lips. “But not by blood.”
His attention flickered briefly to my mouth. It was the most subtle movement of his eyes, but I caught it—and I liked it so much that I leaned toward him. “No, not by blood.”
“So, you’re not a pack? With your wolf sisters?”
“Column A, Column B...”
Amusement glittered in his eyes even though he wasn’t smiling. “Interesting.”
“So, you can touch the medallion, but no one else can.” I slid into the chair next to him, squeezing my legs together. My core ached viciously. If he noticed, he didn’t show it. He was a conundrum of mood swings—and I just couldn’t figure it out. “Why?”
He shrugged. “No idea. The name on the medallion is Beauchamp. That must have something to do with it.”
“Beauchamp?” I frowned. “I’m not familiar with that name.”
His expression darkened. “It’s an old wolf family.”
“An old wolf family?” I tapped my chin while staring at the pictures on the table. The empty crypt, the strange altar to the betrayed bride, and the cliffs jutting into the air like they were climbing toward the sky were more alluring than they had been before. “I don’t understand. I thought the Beauforts were one of the oldest wolf families?”
“They must be a branch of the Beauchamps.”
I rolled the name around in my mouth, tasting it like it was one of Henry’s baked creations. “That makes sense now that I hear it.” I shook my head. “Wait, how do you know all this stuff?”
Matéo shoved the picture away like it was infected with poison. His demeanor shifted drastically from partially open to sharing to completely closed off. Even his energy had retreated into himself, absorbed by his form—or his wolf. The eucalyptus scent around him thinned like I had climbed a mountain.
It wasn’t like him to shut me out.
And what was weirder was the fact that I thought it was strange at all.