As the wind brought her scent to me, my mouth dropped open.

She was such a pure white that she gleamed like silver, so clean and free from color that in the dead of night, she’d be visible. Her eyes were a rich green, deeper than emeralds, more milky like jade, but with a strong gleam that made them seem jewel-like. She was small for a she-wolf, dainty, and her scent was tied to the omega at her side, but somehow, unique too.

It was as if I’d scented her before.

Or, as if I’d been waiting to scent her since the day of my birth.

Like I’d been hit with a cattle prod, my body flashed hot and cold. My muscles overheating, my skin prickling with gooseflesh as she waddled toward us.

“What are you doing out here?” Eli snarled, but though his anger was clear, there was a softness to the demand. A softness that another alpha might exploit.

All mates were beloved. That was the point of being mates, after all. But this was different. The connection between alpha and omega was as tangible as Nancy, who lay panting at my side.

“If you have to ask that, you don’t know our mate,” the beta told Eli wryly, his arms rising so he could fold them across his chest.

“Screw that, who’s the wolf with her?”

My attention split in two ways at that. One, that the omega was shared by the three leaders of the pack. Unheard of, except for incredibly powerful omegas… Somehow, they’d managed to keep that under wraps. Because being the closest neighbor to the Highbanks, I’d have learned about that before anyone else, except maybe for their twin pack. That I hadn’t, meant she was under fierce guard, and I sure as hell couldn’t blame them for that.

Two, that the she-wolf was unknown to the leaders as well.

The omega cleared her throat. “It’s Lara.”

“That’s impossible,” Eli rasped, then he seemed to remember himself, and he turned back to me and snapped, “I understand why you’re here, Choi, but I’m going to formally ask you to leave my pack’s territory and ask that you only approach it in future after applying for, and earning yourself, an official invitation.” His chin jerked up. “As I’d do if I wished to transfer onto your land.”

“I’m here for the boy,” I rasped. “I’m not going anywhere without him.”

The omega’s shoulders hitched at that. “He’s not a package that you can pick up and deliver wherever you want,” she called out, her tone rising with anger as she stared at me. “He’s a small child with needs. He has a family now. You can’t expect us just to give him up.”

“I expect you to follow basic pack law,” I returned, though my voice was softer because I heard her pain. Heard her earnest desire to protect the child. But that wouldn’t deter me. “His father lost in a challenge. A bested alpha’s child is banished from the pack. It’s how it’s been for centuries—”

“And that makes it okay?” the omega cried, her arms tightening about the baby nestled against her chest. Which, did she but know it, was a slight against my pack.

No mother would bring their child to a confrontation such as this… not unless they knew that infant was one-hundred per cent safe.

Not that she wasn’t right. But still.

My voice was cold as I rumbled, “No. It doesn’t. But that’s justice.”

The she-wolf at her side lumbered onward, and I watched her as she trotted unsteadily forward, her head tipped to the side as she approached the circle of wolves. There was no threat from a beast who could barely stand up straight without falling over, but I watched her with a wariness nonetheless.

Pure white wolves were incredibly rare, ones that glittered like precious metals? Rarer still. And her scent was like nothing else I’d ever smelled before either.

The second she crossed the circle, however, she shifted back, revealing a woman who was fully dressed, complete with a long cardigan, heavy duty jeans, and eyes that were so tired, it was a wonder she could stay awake.

More than that, more than any of those things, my gut told me who she was.

I knew her like my mom had known my father. Like my grandparents had been blessed with their own mates.

And of course, I had to meet my one and only while trying to tear a child from the loving embrace of a family who wanted him.

Karma truly was a bitch.

Sabina

I had no idea how she’d done it. No idea how she’d tapped into my she-wolf and had… Kali Sara. What? What had she done? Piggy-backed onto my beast’s spirit?

I was well aware that sounded crazy, and yet, she’d done it.

She wasn’t a shifter.

Wasn’t even a wolf child.

She didn’t have the scent. She remained fully human. Yet she’d walked through the woods with me, clumsily rambling along the route on four paws. Why? I had no idea. But after a lifetime of living with her as a child, I knew that sometimes, Lara acted on instinct. I knew that she didn’t exactly act on impulse, but that she’d definitely behave without a care for proprieties if her gut told her what to do.

That was the reason for many of the times our father had slapped her, I was sorry to say, and in our household, even though I’d tried to protect her, it was no good. I’d just get punished at the same time as she had.

My jaw worked at the memory, at all the times we’d been beaten, that we’d suffered at our father’s hands, and I wouldn’t lie—I was glad he was dead.

Was glad he was in the ground somewhere, his body nourishing the earth because that was all he was good for. He’d never fed us, not like I wanted to feed Knight all the wisdom in the world. He was more than just a child to me, after all, he was my future. But our father had never looked at things that way. He’d never thought further than the next dollar to be earned, the next drink to have in his fist, and the next meal our momma could put in his belly. Even though Cyrilo was in his image, even he’d never come up to his standards.

A man like Draga Krasowski was impossible to satisfy. Impossible to please.

And Lara, for some insane reason, had agitated him more than any of us.

She’d often worn bruises on her cheeks, often sported the miserable proof of a father who felt no shame in hurting his children. It shamed me that I’d allowed it to happen, but it shamed me even more that, when my time had come, I’d gotten out of there.

I’d left her behind.

But I wouldn’t leave Daniel.

I released a shaky breath at the thought, years’ worth of guilt and teenaged angst hitting me square in the chest.

I’d left her behind.

Left her with them.

How could I have done that? How—

“You were young, my love,” Ethan soothed, whispering the words into my mind, soothing me with his love, gifting me with his affection.

“Never too young to allow what happened to happen.”

He shook his head at me. “You’re too hard on yourself. You’re not to blame for your father’s actions. Only he’s to blame for that. Just like I’m not to blame for my roots.”

“Me either,” Austin grumbled, nosing into the conversation with an ease that pleased me.

The walls between us weren’t as strong or as high as I’d like, for their sakes. They were powerful men, used to owning their own thoughts, and I tried to respect their privacy, but the open door to their souls was infinitely comforting.