For the first time in my life, I knew I understood how my mother felt.

The sun rose and set on my mates, but the truth was, if any of them so much as laid a hand on Knight, I’d stab them next. I was of her blood, but I was not her.

And Lara proved she wasn’t either, wasn’t like our father, because she whispered, “Just because something is the way, a part of your culture, doesn’t make it right. Doesn’t mean you have to abide by it.” Her hand smoothed over his chest, up to his jaw. “He deserves a second chance. The chance to not be his father. To be raised by good, strong men, who’ll make sure he doesn’t repeat his father’s mistakes.”

Choi’s mouth firmed, but he cut me a look. “How can you promise that? How can you say that he won’t turn into his father and that he won’t seek vengeance on the Rainford pack?”

I frowned at him. “Surely, the way to have him look for revenge is to toss him out of the place he calls home?”

His eyes narrowed, and the skin on his high cheekbones pulled taut as he glanced at Lara. “I wish the child no harm.”

I knew that was more for her benefit than mine.

But I’d take it.

If Lara could use her guile as a mate on him, I’d take it all the way to the bank, because losing Daniel would be like losing Joshua.

And I couldn’t go through that again.

Austin

I stared up at the ceiling as Sabina stretched a little, her body tensing as her arm moved the barest fraction before she immediately settled down.

In the ‘C’ of her arms, the open part of the letter bridged me, and as was always the way, it amazed me how she never moved, how she always kept Knight clasped to her without it interfering with her sleep.

A more natural mother I’d yet to meet, and that was confirmed tonight when she’d unofficially claimed Daniel as her own.

Of course, the words hadn’t been spilled, but I wasn’t a moron. I didn’t need to hear them to know that they were the way of it.

Daniel was, in her eyes, hers. She’d taken him under her wing from the start, seeing to him in ways that few she-wolves would ever do for a child who wasn’t their own.

I didn’t like kids. Not really. They were noisy and bratty, took up a lot of attention and were hard work.

But the kid in me who’d been tossed out like yesterday’s trash? Whose mother didn’t love him enough to hold onto him? Whose adopted mother hadn’t given that much of a shit about him, even if the alpha had to have been paying her a lot of cash to keep Ethan and I fed and watered?

That part was rocked to its marrow by her actions.

The sweetest, purest gratitude for her, for everything that she was, had me restless as my brothers dozed, as my mate slept, and my son wriggled between us.

Knight was on his back, but in the faint light as dawn approached, I saw his eyes were open. Heard his coos. It was impossible not to reach down to have him tug on my finger, impossible not to watch over him as though he were the crown jewels and a cat burglar had threatened him.

When he was quiet, I could admit to being fascinated by him. The chubby, bright pink cheeks, the strange way his skin bunched on his arms and legs as his body began to grow, and the mop of silky hair on his head.

He was perfection.

Even if he did crap a lot.

A snicker whispered into my mind, and because I recognized the source, I sent my gaze higher to my mate.

“Thought you were sleeping.”

“I was, but…” She shrugged.

I heaved a sigh. “I was thinking too loud, huh?”

Her lips twitched, but it was a happy sigh as she cupped the back of Knight’s head and carefully rolled him so that he was cooing beside her. “They were beautiful thoughts. They made me happy.”

My brows rose. “They did? Why?”

“To hear your love for him, to feel it, is an honor.”

I’d admit my cheeks grew a little red at that. “I’m not as patient as Ethan or Eli.”

“Which is truly saying something, as neither of them are, what you could say, patient by nature, hmm?” She laughed softly. “But you’re you, Austin. I don’t want you to be anything other than that. Just you. And that’s all Knight needs you to be.” She cast me a look. “He’s too strong-willed for his own good.”

I winced. “He’ll shift when he’s young.”

“Eli already told me that he thinks that too. It concerns me.”

“Why? He’ll be safe here, and when he has his covenant, hopefully he’ll be granted a mate early so that he isn’t plagued with all the crap Eli had to go through.”

“No, that isn’t what worries me. What bothers me is that you four might butt heads.”

“It’s a rite of passage, Sabina. That’s how it works.”

“In my world, we have those too, and they never end well,” she whispered worriedly.

Anger hit me because I knew what she was talking about.

Something about me made it easier for her to open up, to talk about this kind of stuff, but it left me dealing with the repercussions of her insecurities. It was, I’d admit, hard on me to think she might believe us capable of hurting our son.

“You have to know we’d never hurt him.”

She gulped. “I know you wouldn’t. But I saw it every day with my father, Austin. And it happened even more after Lara came into her powers. She was strong, he saw that, and he hated her for it. I tried to defend her, but it was no good.”

Though her words pained me, I just said, “It never is.” I thought about what Lara told the Rainford alpha earlier this evening, about how just because something was the way of it, that didn’t mean it was right, and I commented, “Your parents had an unusual dynamic.”

“She was his slave.”

“Like in a BDSM way?”

Her snort of laughter came as a surprise. “No! My dad wasn’t a Dom, he was just a sadist,” she said dryly. Sadly. “He was so much older than her, and did things to her that kept her under his control. She was still young—he married her when she was barely sixteen. She’s not even in her fifties now.”

“What kind of things did he do to her?”

She peered up at me. “I know if I asked her, she’d lie, but there was a reason my father was so much harder on Lara than he was on Cyrilo, Jana, and me.”

“You think he saw something of himself in her?”

“No. I don’t think she was his.”

Whatever I’d expected her to say, it wasn’t that. “Wouldn’t she have been too scared to cheat? Or do you think she was just looking for kindness from someone?”

“No, she adored him. To the point where she’d do anything for him. Anything he asked.”

Her somberness made me reach over and cup the back of her head. Encouraging her to look at me and not Knight, I asked, “I’m not Eli or Ethan, mate, I can’t read between the lines as well as they can.”

She crinkled her nose. “You know I hate it when you compare yourself to them.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to hide a grin. “Sorry.”

Sabina heaved a sigh. “It’s okay. Just this once.”