“I’m being serious,” she said softly, but there was a light bounce of amusement to her tone, which told me even if it had started off seriously, my initial reaction to her question was enough for her to know she was nuts. That I thought she was batshit.

“Well, you need to scrub that thought from your head, because nothing about what we have together is forced.”

“Not all mates can want to get together, surely? Look at your mother and her second mate.”

“They wanted to be together,” I said sadly. “It was my father who wasn’t happy about it.”

Her nose crinkled. “I know. But you see, things don’t always work out, do they? Things don’t always function just because it’s how the Mother willed it.”

I rolled my eyes. “Are you sure you haven’t played chess before?”

She grinned at me. “We played backgammon when I was a child, not chess.”

“Well, either way, that was a grand master move right there. Wheedling me into handing out information.” I snorted. “Yes, some mates aren’t always happy to find their ones.”

“Why?”

“Is now really the time when your sister is on her way?”

She tugged at my lapel. “Tell me.”

Heaving a sigh, like I was the most put upon man in all the world, I muttered, “Because sometimes, when the covenant gives us nothing, when we’re left in a world of solitude knowing that we have to make our own fate, or hope that She’ll provide us with that person at some point, we know we have to find a partner like a human does.

“That isn’t easy for a wolf shifter. Not only because two wolf shifters rarely get together unless they’re mated. Mostly, non-mated wolf shifters will be with humans, but what if you start a life with that human? What if you create a family—”

“They can get humans pregnant?”

“No,” I countered. “Not a natural family. But, first, remember, this is just us—wolves. There are plenty of other crazy cultural rules for all the different types of shifters out there. So with us, even though we can’t get a human pregnant, that doesn’t stop people from adopting or from taking on the partner’s child or children as their own.”

Her lip plopped in between her teeth as she started to gnaw on it. “I don’t think I like where this is going.”

“I wouldn’t either if I’d been in their position,” I told her gravely. “What if a man is happy with another woman, pleased with his lot in life, and has more than he ever expected for himself, and then the Mother throws him a curveball?”

She gulped. “What happens?”

“Sometimes, a mate can be rejected. It happens rarely, but it does happen. Especially in those situations. The Mother, as you so rightly surmised, isn’t always right.” Before she could get any ideas, however, I told her gruffly, “But where we’re concerned, everything about what we have together is perfect. I never expected to have you, Sabina. You’re a gift I thank Her for every day, and the way you’ve united me with the twins, making them not just friends, but tied to me through the bonds of blood, is more than I could ever have anticipated.”

Her eyes gleamed with happy tears this time, but she whispered, “You could have told them you were their brother, not just their alpha yourself.”

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t have. I wouldn’t upset the status quo, not when it could only cause expectations to shift and not in the way they needed. Bound together as we are, their rightful places were easy to ascend to. But without you to tie us all together, it would have left us with pockets of discontent. That’s no way to manage a pack. You’ve changed our worlds for the better, not just your mates’, either, but the pack itself.

“They’ve no idea how grateful they should be for you, and maybe they’ll never truly appreciate you and everything you do, but that doesn’t matter because you have to know that I do. That Ethan and Austin do too.” I reached up and tapped her bottom lip, the one she’d been sucking on and nibbling. “You’re ours, but we’re yours. Never forget that.”

She swallowed. “I never could, and I never will.”

I smiled, knowing the light of joy shone in my eyes as I told her, “Well, remember that. Remember it if Lara gives you a hard time, if she gives you shit about your past. She’s entitled to at first, because she thought you were dead! She’s got some things to come to terms with. But equally, if she can’t forgive and forget after a while, then she’s not the sister you need.”

“That isn’t how family works,” she argued.

“Maybe not. But I won’t have you put down by anyone, not even a blood relative.” I reached down and pressed a kiss to her now sulky mouth. “She’s here. I can hear her, so stiffen those shoulders and accept that the first few minutes might be awkward, but that everything will work out for a reason. Hmm?”

She sniffed a little. “Bossy.”

“And you love me for it,” I joked, grinning when her nose crinkled in agreement.

She bopped up onto her toes, kissed me quickly, then darted around me, all signs of her nerves having disappeared.

I followed after her, tracing her footsteps as I wandered out to the front veranda to watch her greet her sister.

I had expected things to be awkward, that was the truth. It was why I’d warned her over it.

But it wasn’t.

If anything, it was the opposite. The pair of them darted together like they were magnetized the second that they saw one another, and both of them instantly opened their arms, spreading them wide as they shot into each other’s embrace.

I felt Austin and Ethan crowd me as they spanned out behind me.

“That’s a good portent of things to come,” Ethan murmured.

He was right.

It was.

So I nodded, and said, “Let’s hope it means she can help us help Seth, hmm?”

When all I received were grunts of agreement for my pains, I merely grimaced. I’d never liked Seth and had always been grateful that his father rarely brought him to the pack meetings for chastisement. Now, however, I felt bad for that. He needed discipline, but it was somehow too late.

I wasn’t sure how Sabina thought Lara could help him, but we needed to do something before we had a second Hitler on our hands.

Five

Sabina

The smell of her, the feel of her, the look of her—it was my baby sister. All Lara. But equally, she was different. Which, of course, made total sense. Thirteen years had passed since the last time I’d seen her. Over a decade of her having time to grow into the beautiful woman standing before me.

She looked drawn and exhausted, not that I could blame her, not after what she’d been through. But equally, I could see our mother in her. She was dark like me, but with a few more golden and reddish tints to her hair than I had. Her skin was the same caramel as mine, and her eyes were a rich green that sparkled in the sunlight. Where I was all dark, she had a mix to her, like she was a—

My mouth worked at that, as I processed my thoughts and tried to shoo them away.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”