It was so strong that even I had to take a breath, and as I did, I wasn’t surprised when the wolves made an appearance.

I felt their power too, sensed their ties to the totem, even though I didn’t particularly understand how that was possible, and as they circled us, I couldn’t even find it in me to care.

Peering up at the heavy full moon, I howled, seeking Eli Highbanks’ presence, and when he replied, when his snarl sounded close by, I stopped fighting the totem’s power, and instead, embraced it.

Sitting back on my haunches while the upper echelons of my pack did the same, some even going as far as to lie down, I waited until Eli was running toward us.

Having met him before after I’d become alpha, I was unsurprised by his size, but what did surprise me? The two matching bookends that were beside him. To the left and the right. Where his beta and enforcer would be.

The sight of the trio, no council at their back, had my ears pricking up high, as I called on my senses to figure out if this was a set up, but when I sensed nothing, no subterfuge, I slipped out of my wolfskin and back into my human self.

My clothes were in shreds, but that came as no surprise, and I twisted around, easily showing the Highbanks that I meant them no harm as I gave them my back, and laid my hands down and gently palpated them, telling my people to stay calm. To stay as wolves.

When I twisted around, I saw the alpha, beta, and enforcer had shifted, and I recognized the twins more in this form than the other.

What I only just figured out was that, somehow, Eli was related to them. It wasn’t like we had cousins, so I didn’t know how that was possible, but before I could comment on their similarities, Eli snapped, “You dare approach my land without an invitation?”

I could feel his dominance. It was like a wave that had my people on the ground cringing in the face of it—even my beta. But then, I hadn’t picked Nancy for her strength. I’d picked her for her wisdom.

I was well aware that of us all, I was the only one who didn’t cower in the face of Eli’s dominance.

Nor did I cringe as he stalked toward me, aggression in every line of his naked body.

That he wanted to hurt me was clear, but that I wasn’t afraid of him registered a scant second before he breached the circle of wolves that surrounded us.

“You have something that belongs to us,” I told him calmly.

“He doesn’t belong to you,” one of the twins ground out, and from the wisps of power curling around him, I knew he was the beta. “He belongs to no one after you cast him out.”

“Evidently, you think he’s yours. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be protecting him,” I replied, straightening my shoulders. “We were well within our rights to cast him out. His father was an evil man, arrogant and cruel, and his child was going to be the same. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. At least this way, he’ll learn decency and won’t be complicit in the same moral turpitude that his father was—”

“He was eight years old when you threw him out, Rainford,” Eli snapped.

I merely cast him a glance. “My name is not Rainford. My name is Choi. Soon, after my fifth anniversary, the pack will be renamed as is the way of our people.”

The enforcer tipped his head to the side. “You come in peace, so why did you illegally enter our land?”

I moved my hands, placating them all as I replied, “I have no desire for further bloodshed. What I spilled to reach this position is more than I ever wanted to spill, but I had no alternative.

“Neither does Daniel Rainford. He must answer for his father’s crimes.”

“And you have to know that I’ve brought him under my roof for a reason. You can’t honestly expect me to let him go, to relinquish him to you so that you can cast him out again and return him to human society?” Eli growled, his shoulders bunching with aggression. “You’re insane if you think that. He’s ten now, and he shifted a year ago, Choi. He’s already a shifter, and if you send him back into that world with no pack to guide him, you’ll be creating the monster you’re trying to avoid.”

“It’s within our rights—”

The wolves parted like they were the waves and he commanded them as he surged forward, not stopping until he was in my face.

“He isn’t my son. He isn’t my blood. But I choose him,” Eli spat, enunciating each word. “He isn’t my heir. He isn’t my pack’s future. But I choose him.”

His phrasing had me tensing, because even though the child was of no importance to him, he still claimed him. Those hard words were proof that he had no need to fight for Daniel, but need or not, he would.

Outrage whipped my insides. “You can’t just adopt him.”

“Why can’t I? He needs a family, and my woman loves him like he’s ours.”

“She does,” the beta rasped. “We all do. He’s a good kid.”

“I met his father. He was a real fucker, and I’m glad you sliced him from throat to gut, Choi, but the way forward,” the enforcer insisted, neither he nor his twin having moved an inch in the face of Eli’s sudden surge of aggression, “isn’t to make Daniel pay for his father’s sins.”

“I’m a son. My father’s life was robbed from him by Kingsley Rainford. Don’t I deserve justice? The justice that is pack-given?” I ground out, and for the first time, I broke free of the totem’s sway over me. “I’ve broken no rules, no laws. Challenges and their legalities have been set in stone for centuries—”

“What kind of justice is it that sees a small kid tossed out on his ass and forced to deal with the humans?” Eli ground out.

My fists balled at my side, but even as the desire to smack the shit out of the sanctimonious prick hit me, even as I wondered if he knew how it goddamn felt to lose both parents thanks to a cruel leader, the wind whispered between the trees and began to swirl around us all.

Many scents bombarded us with the trickle of air flow. Everything from the pungent earthliness of the natural wolves, to the strange ‘otherness’ of the supernaturals. Eli and his advisors scented of dominance, and all around me, I could scent the essence of my pack, each of them weaker than leaders ought to be, but good. Pure of heart. They scented lesser, and I knew the Highbanks pack might judge us for it, but we were strong where it counted.

And then, from out of nowhere, I scented them.

Suddenly, everything was illuminated, and things started to make sense.

Two females. Blood relations. One shifted, one in humanskin. Both wolf children? And a child. A baby. Not Daniel. Too young. I could smell milk on him and diapers and the soap or liquid used in baby wipes.

Eli whipped around at the scent, revealing a path that led straight to the odd trio.

The woman wore her power around her like a mantel. As if it were a cloth. I could scent that she was originally human, but more than that, I could taste her unusualness. It was as prevalent as the ozone. Rich and pure, almost salty like we were close to the sea, only we weren’t. The ocean was a good three hours’ drive away. Her power was strong. Rich. Fecund. It wasn’t like Eli’s or his advisors, who scented of brute strength and authority.

Hers was a strength that came from…

Love.

For a second, I could only blink at the realization, of the power that throbbed through her which was purely positive, and then the she-wolf shuffled her feet in a way that told me she was newly transformed and unused to walking on four paws.