Kingsley had, not unlike me, shifted at a young age. But whereas I’d worked hard to contain my wolf, he’d let his reign free.

That was why his body would have been torn to shreds by the natural wolves on Choi’s land once the challenge was done, and why I still ruled over my pack.

Choi didn’t have the instincts of an alpha, but neither did he scent of beta or anything lower. He wasn’t a regular wolf, and that wasn’t something my own beast appreciated.

Packs worked by pigeon-holing people. It was the only way to bring order to our society. We all knew who someone was by scent alone. Maybe we didn’t know name and social security numbers, but we knew where someone was in the pecking order.

More than anything, that mattered to our beasts.

Choi? I couldn’t put him in order—not by scent alone.

But he presented no threat, so what was there to get riled up over? Why couldn’t I just be intrigued by a man like him, capable of the impossible?

When Elsa had come to me to tell me there was someone at the door, I’d invited her to let him in as was usually the way now with members of the pack who wished my counsel. She’d told me, ‘the gentleman insists on waiting outside, Alpha,’ and begrudgingly, I’d gotten off my ass and gone to see who this gentleman was.

Now I knew, and I could see the odd kind of honor in what Choi was doing, so I rumbled, “How did you do it?”

“Kingsley was egotistical. Prideful.”

“He was a fool,” I agreed simply.

“Yes. And all three combined makes for a man who’s easily bested.”

“Hardly,” I retorted, moving so that I could fold my arms across my chest. “He won many challenges.”

“But never against someone like me. I had righteous anger on my side too. He killed my father, I lost my mother, so he had to pay.”

“I won’t let you take Daniel,” I ground out, well aware that was the perfect moment for a segue.

“I’m not here for that. I’m here for her.”

“You’ve just forgotten about Daniel, have you?” I asked dryly.

“No.”

“But you know it’s not going to impress your mate if you rob a child of his home?” When his mouth tightened, and his eyes narrowed, I smiled at him. “The Mother works in mysterious ways, doesn’t She?”

“Apparently,” he grunted. “Now, would you let me in to speak with her?”

“She isn’t of this world, of this life,” I cautioned. “She knows very little of what we are, and her introduction to things wasn’t friendly.”

His shoulders bunched at that. “Someone attacked her?”

“Yes. But not how you think. She ran over a hyena, killed it.”

“A shifter?”

“Yes. A mated one.”

He hissed out a breath. “They came for her?”

I nodded—we all knew how insane hyenas were over their mates. Ironic considering they weren’t soul-bound like wolves were.

“Where was this?”

“Montana.”

His brow puckered at that. “Hyenas in Montana?”

“Yeah. I told the local pack, and they’re looking into things.” We both knew hyenas were more likely to be found in the southwestern states, where it was warmer.

“Is the hyena dead?”

“Yes. Or I have no doubt he’d be roaming my land like another unwelcome alpha.”

Choi grunted. “I’m here for my mate.”

“Wrong answer. Are you here to court her?”

“Yes.”

I arched a brow at him. “Are you sure about that?”

“Very.”

There was protocol for dealing with human mates, and that was a protocol I was excessively grateful I hadn’t had to follow with Sabina. Although, considering how she’d been transformed, I considered myself a selfish bastard for even thinking that.

I’d give my left nut for her not to have been attacked by that bastard brother of hers, but that didn’t diminish my gratitude in being able to claim her swiftly.

Choi cleared his throat. “I wish only to speak with her. She needs to understand what she is to me.”

“The reason I knew you were here for Lara, is because Sabina already sensed what you are to her. I’m sure she’ll be explaining some things to her too.”

He pressed his lips together. “All of it bad, I presume?”

“You didn’t exactly make the best of first impressions when you tried to steal Daniel’s home out from under his feet, did you?” I said coldly.

“Like you wouldn’t have demanded the same—” His surge in temper might have aggravated another man, but not me.

“I wouldn’t, actually.”

“That’s because your father, while a prick, was nothing like Rainford. You have no idea, no possible means of even beginning to understand what it was like being under his thumb.”

Because he wasn’t wrong, and because I was happy to test Choi’s control to see where his strengths were, I replied, “Daniel isn’t Kingsley.”

“There’s nothing to stop that from happening, though, is there?”

“In a human foster home, no. Here? Around people who care for him? Yes.”

“One day, he’ll come and seek what he believes is his,” Choi rasped, but his tone shifted.

“Not if you treat him well now,” I told him firmly, needing him to listen.

Nothing was set in stone, not unless he began bricking Daniel into a corner.

“It’s been almost two years, and I still can’t gather a pack circle on a full moon night. Everyone’s too scared. Rainford’s memory casts a heavy weight,” Choi argued.

“Daniel isn’t his father. He was scared of him too,” I said, my tone softer than it might ordinarily have been.

I got the feeling this wasn’t Choi making the demands, more like he was a spokesperson for the pack.

That meant I could convince him.

I hoped that was what it meant, anyway.

When Choi didn’t reply, I rasped, “If Daniel could best you in a challenge, then he deserves to be alpha, Choi. But I’ll do everything in my power to help forge him into the kind of man you want as a leader. He’s a good boy. He was as oppressed as you. Scared of his own shadow for far too long. If you want to sow the seeds of bitterness into him, then make him hate the Rainford, soon-to-be Choi pack.”

I sensed the tension in him, and though it wasn’t my place, I knew I was asking a lot of him, so I reached forward, gripped his shoulder and gently shook him. “You avenged your parents’ deaths on the man who rightfully earned it. Don’t waste bitterness on a boy who still piddles on the floor every time he shifts.”

Choi cleared his throat, but I saw the whisper of amusement flash in his eyes, and it gave me hope. “I hated that phase.”

“Me too.”

He snorted. “As if the mighty Eli Highbanks did anything so—”

“I did. Father was so ashamed, I was held back from school for an extra two months until I managed to reign it in. Daniel’s different. He isn’t as secure. He still does it, and we’re trying to get him to stop. We both know it’s easier said than done.” Just like a human child might pee the bed until he was eleven, newly shifted pups might make a mess when they first turned.