As Peter and Derek walked down into the basement Erica swallowed deeply as she saw the frown on both the ex-alphas’ faces. Neither of them were her boss and she couldn’t let them hurt this girl anymore. “What the hell do you two think you’re doing with her? She’s an empath, not a nogitsune! And if you’d actually asked her you would be able to hear her heartbeat and know she was telling the truth. So what are you doing?” Both the wolves looked at her blankly, surprised by her outburst.
Not even conscious of the action anymore, Summer pressed herself backward in the cage, as far away from the men as possible. Her eyes went huge at Erica’s outburst — she hadn’t believed the female werewolf would challenge the elders of her pack like that, or that quickly.
The light one — Peter? — said, in a tone of exaggerated patience, “Stiles was able to lie to us when he was possessed.”
“That point is irrelevant. If she was a nogitsune, she would’ve been able to get out by now or at least be trying out some form of psychological torture on us, and I mean something worse that Peter’s constant presence.” She looked over to Derek as she said that, sure that he’d see her logic and be the better person. “Derek, come on. You know something about this isn’t right. She’s not who you think she is, she’s just a girl who is terrified because two werewolves locked her in a cage.”
Peter sighed and folded his arms. “You’re too trusting, Erica. There’s a reason we weren’t letting you down here with it. But you seem to have disregarded that instruction.”
Summer swallowed hard. The dark one — Derek? — didn’t seem inclined to argue, and the use of ‘it’ was a sharp reminder of how the men thought of her. She tried to catch Erica’s attention, shaking her head. She didn’t want the blonde girl getting hurt on her account.