Kamya made a motion as if to invite him to explain.

He sighed into his glass. "You think you can set them up convincingly enough that I can close the case?"

Kamya made a thoughtful noise. "Give me a few weeks."

Teddy pulled a face but didn't say anything. It was probably going to be a delicate operation on both their sides. "Can you promise me that you'll stick to things that won't hurt people?" he said instead.

Kamya rolled her eyes. "If I could make everything above board, it wouldn't be an illegal smuggling operations."

Teddy took a sip while kept eye contact, making it clear he was waiting for her promise.

Kamya looked up at the ceiling. "Teddy, I can't make a promise like that. The ones I'm involved with, I've been working with them for a long time to make sure the pack is okay. They seem to care enough to make sure we have the quality ingredients we need, but they aren't in it for charity either. The Ministry has made it so that is the best possible option. You are just going to live with that fact."

Teddy sighed. "Yeah, okay. You'll tell me when you've got something I can act on?"

She nodded, taking another sip of beer.

"And you really don't know anything about Lilith," Teddy started.

"Don't."

Teddy looked up, startled by how steely Kamya's voice had gone again.

"Leave it alone, Teddy."

Teddy angrily slammed his whiskey back. "I thought we had just established that I was the Auror on her case and I'm at least a little trustworthy?"

Kamya shook her head. "The Alpha doesn't want the Ministry on this case. Someone found her and contacted them before the Alpha could stop them."

Teddy made a little gesture to himself and then realized that it threw off his balance more than it should have. Maybe he should stop drinking. Still, Teddy couldn't let Kamya's point go. "I'm pack," he said.

Kamya snorted. "Really? You don't believe that any more than the rest of us. You've made it quite clear you hate it here."

Teddy felt like this was unfair. No one had made him feel welcome when he had joined as a teenager. He wasn't sure how he could pretend to like it after that or after all the harassment and bullying that had been directed towards him by the Alpha's son or the others like him. He found it too hard to try to explain any of that to Kamya so he didn't try. Instead he waved his hand, trying to indicate that that didn't matter.

"Teddy, stay out of it," Kamya said. "No one is going to talk to you because you look like a government snitch. Let the Alpha take care of it, because you know he will. The Alpha knows how to keep order in the pack."

Teddy frowned. "But it is Lilith," he tried to explain. But what could he explain? He missed Lilith. Someone had come into their forest, their pack, and murdered her.

"Teddy, the Alpha doesn't take well to people trying to sniff around him or the pack. Leave it alone if you want to stay on his good side."

"I'm on his good side?" Teddy asked in surprise.

Kamya snorted. "As much as you can be. Trust me, you want to stay there."

Teddy gnawed at his fingernail. "But Lilith. Was she? On his good side?"

Kamya's lips thinned.

"She wasn't. She was sniffing around."

Kamya shook her head. "The Alpha didn't kill her and would definitely not have killed her like that."

Teddy looked up, remembering again in awful clarity what Lilith had gone through. He grabbed for the whiskey again.

"You are already on your way to getting drunk," Kamya said as Teddy poured himself another glass.

"Good," Teddy muttered darkly but let Kamya tug the bottle from his hand.

"I'm putting this back," Kamya said and disappeared, presumably into the alcohol closet.

Not feeling ready to stop drinking, Teddy dragged the two remaining beer bottles over to him.

She returned and sighed as she saw his hoarded collection. "Your liver," she said in a dismissive tone.

Teddy grunted. "I'm going to find out who killed her," he said.

Kamya rubbed her temple. "I hope you gain your senses tomorrow morning, but I'm not in the habit of arguing with drunks and idiots."

"I'm not," Teddy told his glass. "I'm an Auror."

"Right. I think that we established Auror is synonymous with idiot. Make sure to drink water before you go to bed and stay out of pack business," Kamya said and then left.

Or probably did. Teddy only really noticed her absence when he finally remembered that he had wanted to ask why she had seen the crime scene. Then, when he saw she was gone, he slipped back into thinking about exactly what he had seen at that crime scene. Deciding he wasn't drunk enough, Teddy pulled his glass closer again.