Knight and I darted forward, sinking to the ground beside our mate, unaware that the fog which might as well have been a brick wall, disappeared as quickly as it came.

Instead, we reached for her and propped her upright. She moaned, drooping against me, and I tugged her tighter into my arms, holding her fast to my side. Knight nudged closer, not stopping until one of his hands was on her leg and the other tangling in her fingers until they made a loose knot.

He caught my gaze with his own, then asked, “What the fuck just happened?”

I knew he wasn’t asking for a play-by-play, because as much as I knew he wasn’t as smart as me, he wasn’t that much of an idiot. But I frowned down at the way he was holding her, not in disapproval, just focusing on that rather than the non-answers we’d received. Non-answers we were supposed to understand, and use as guidance.

A spirit, one sent from the Mother, didn’t commune with three teenagers for no reason at all.

A book didn’t appear out of nowhere to lead Grace to this exact place, and then disintegrate and morph into her, just for shits and giggles.

“We’ve always known she was different, that she had a purpose,” I said softly. “I think we’ve just found out what that is.”

“To fix the totem?”

“You were listening, then?” I commented wryly.

He scowled at me. “Fuck you, Cade. I swear, you’re such a smartass. It’s one thing to be smarter than everyone else, and then there’s letting everyone goddamn know it.”

I pulled a face, but didn’t bother to deny it. I wore my intelligence wrapped around me like a mantel of power. What alternative did I have amid a pack of shifters who could turn into a wolf at a whim and tear me to shreds?

I wasn’t like them. Just pretended to be.

The day would come, soon enough, when I’d have to pretend to go through my first shift, when I’d have to pretend to deal with the covenant.

Dad had been lucky. The Choi pack didn’t have a totem anymore—it was…

Shit.

It was dead.

“I don’t think her purpose is to repair just your totem, Knight,” I whispered softly.

He tensed. “Bring them back to life as well?”

“Maybe that’s where you come in.” I winced. “That’s kind of what you do, isn’t it?”

Knight swallowed. “I guess.”

The pair of us blew out a breath as we processed what we could only guess was true, without knowing for sure if it was or not. I noticed his hand tightened around Grace’s, and my arms did the same about her waist.

She was the reason for our being here, but there was no real blame to cast. We’d been born for this. Born to stand by her side and to help her achieve her purpose.

It was just a lot easier to think about that when you didn’t know what that purpose was.

“At least it’s not all that dangerous,” I muttered. “Fixing totems?”

He cast me a disbelieving look. “You and I both know it’s not going to be as easy as that.” Knight heaved a sigh. “Nothing ever fucking is.”

Though I’d have liked to tell him he was a negative pain in the ass, I couldn’t.

Because he was right.

If the Choi pack’s totem was dead, and Knight’s was damaged, how many others were in similar states around the country?

That meant traveling from pack to pack—which meant leaving our family. Which meant entering territory that was fiercely guarded. Which meant, perhaps, approaching enemies.

Not so safe, after all.

Chapter

Grace

I woke up with a horrendous headache. It was so bad that it felt as though I had someone hammering away at my temples—from the inside out. I wasn’t unaccustomed to migraines, but this one was worse than usual. I could feel my pulse beating in my eyelids, at my temples, at the back of my neck where it was like fingers forged of steel were digging into my nape.

A groan escaped me as a soft light flashed behind my eyes, and I twisted away, my poor head protesting the move as I tried to evade it, but when I did, my nose brushed against something soft.

And hard.

All at the same time.

Then, a hand was whispering through my hair, over my head, gently stroking me. I recognized the scent too.

Like mint and lemon verbena from the soap I bought him, without fail, at Christmas.

Despite the pain, a small smile curved my lips as I breathed, “Knight.”

His tension transmitted itself to me, and then, I felt someone on my other side. Only he smelled of bergamot and ginger.

When I was thirteen, I’d grown tired of their stinking like sweaty boys so I’d taken the situation in hand and made them smell how I wanted them to.

Mint and lemon verbena for Knight, because looking at him was like drinking a chilled glass of lemonade in the middle of July. He was acidic enough to make most people back away, but he tasted sweet and fresh. Enough to have my mouth watering.

Then, with Cade, I’d gone for bergamot and ginger because it was a strong, citrussy scent, and combined with the ginger notes, it was spicy enough to remind me of him. Even though he shared his soul with an animal he wouldn’t be in touch with until his ascension, when his grandfather died, somehow, he was more earthy than Knight whose wolf had been a part of him for longer than I could remember.

Even from before he’d been able to shift.

I could always remember the scent of it, and it had filled me with comfort, made me feel safe and secure because, even though we were only little, he’d be able to protect us.

And in my world, that was important.

I’d lost my parents, the only people who were supposed to protect me, and I had yet to understand that Knight was more than just an adopted brother. When I’d lost my mom and dad, the pack leaders had brought me under their roof, but none of them had declared what Knight and I were to each other. And I couldn’t blame them.

How did anyone explain to a preschooler that they’d already found the person they were destined to live and die with? The one person who was forged for them, born to share the world with them?

Even worse, how did they explain that I didn’t just have one such person, but three?

“Grace?” Knight asked, and his voice was gruff, just deep enough to betray his concern.

He’d been so distant of late, and I understood it. He’d been grating at the restrictions on us, on the limitations we had to deal with.

Even though his parents and Cade’s granted us a lot of freedom, for an alpha like Knight, even that was too much. Living with three alpha fathers was hard on him, even though they weren’t as bullheaded as they might have been.

When Knight stormed off after a row, I’d often heard Sabina chiding them, telling them they were pushing him away. I’d heard the desperate plea of a mother who was scared of losing her child, and the part of me that wished my mom was still around, the one who cared about Knight’s wellbeing in ways he didn’t understand because he was as much a bullheaded alpha as his fathers, well, I went out of my way to soothe him.

But we weren’t allowed to have sex yet.

And that was the only way to temper an alpha when he was pouting.

The thought of sex, of denying us both for another four months until I was nineteen, had another shard of pain echoing around my skull.