As humans, we had so much to prove. In wolfskin? Things were simpler. We were who we were, and our wolves loved each other, regardless of the crap that gnawed at us about the other’s personality.

The tumbling and playing slowed down as we sensed the clearing where Eli had taken her.

It surprised me to note it was close to the council meeting grounds. The energy from the totem slalomed through the ground with the force of a pneumatic drill that made my paws vibrate, even though we weren’t that close. I heard Eli chuckle and the she-wolf keen…sounds that had my ears pricking high and sharing my surprise with Austin.

Very little surprised him, and his eyes were narrowed as he slouched forward, slinking quietly toward the clearing in an effort to get closer to the scene without disturbing things.

In my other form, I’d have rolled my eyes.

Eli had to know we were close, so Austin trying to pull one over on him was just amusing.

From between the stark, stripped trees, I saw Eli holding the she-wolf, who was shaking a little. But before I could absorb more of the scene, Eli’s head twisted toward Austin, and his face twisted too, but the expression morphed too quickly for me to recognize what was going on with him.

I saw exasperation and acceptance before I really knew what else I was seeing, so I stepped toward my alpha and the newest member of our pack with little to no shame.

Ambling forward so I didn’t frighten the she-wolf, I lowered my haunches and kept myself springy. Yeah, I knew that sounded weird, but I didn’t want her to think I was stalking her.

I was, sure, but she didn’t need to know that.

Her head tilted to face me, and Mother, it was rammed home once more just how beautiful she was. Not only was her fur glowing in the dim morning light like a precious metal, but her eyes? I hadn’t seen the gleam in the darkness, but now I did, and the power of them struck me in the gut.

She had bright blue eyes.

Bright. Fucking. Blue.

I’d never, not in my entire life, seen a wolf with eyes that color. Bland colors were for the humans who’d been transformed. Naturals got all the beauty…as well as the power. So with her coloring, everyone would know she was one powerful beast.

A keening sound escaped me at the sight of those eyes, and her ears twisted like she knew what I was saying.

Beautiful.

She dipped her chin coyly, and if I’d been a man, I’d have laughed at that.

“No need to laugh at my expense.”

I broke to a halt at that. My paws skidding in the leafy loam as the words filtered into my mind. It was on the same channel that my brother communicated with me on, but in this form, we didn’t really talk that much, except for in emergencies, and with her, the connection seemed faulty. Like a poorly tuned radio station in the car. Slipping in and out of clarity with every second.

I didn’t see Eli’s expression change, but I felt his body spring into an alertness that hadn’t been there before.

Had he heard her too?

What in the Mother’s name was happening here?

Austin recovered first, and he padded through the trees, no longer trying to be stealthy, rushing over to Eli’s and the she-wolf’s sides.

He butted into Eli until the alpha grunted and rubbed his hand over his ears before scratching them. I huffed when the she-wolf did the same, mimicking Austin, butting her snout against Eli’s other hand until he scratched her too. When the alpha laughed, my heart stuttered a little. He did that so rarely, and on the morning after we’d lost his mother? The omega? The natural balance in the pack? It came as more of a surprise.

Cautiously, I stepped forward, not wanting to intrude, but also feeling a need to be a part of something I didn’t understand. I didn’t want to be on the outside looking in. Austin and I existed on the outside, and it was a cold and lonely place to be. Here, in this small circle, I knew there was no cold.

Only warmth.

When I pressed against the she-wolf, she grunted slightly, twisting until her hindquarters rubbed against mine.

Eli muttered, “What the hell is going on?” even as he patted me on the head too.

Why I wanted that, to be treated like a damn dog, I had no clue, but to be included felt like heaven. Christ, it felt like a kiss straight from the Mother’s lips.

My throat almost closed at that, and because it was too weird, too powerful, and made me feel raw inside, I shifted. It put me in close proximity to Eli, but he didn’t mind. Neither did I. We were pack. We were used to being this close and being naked at the same time. The she-wolf? Not so much.

The pair of us laughed as she sprang up, jolting with her surprise at the speed of my shift, before landing. Badly. She tumbled back onto her rear with an inelegance that really didn’t suit her.

Every inch of her was elegant. She oozed it, just like Eli oozed power. But her lack of dexterity wasn’t unusual, not so close to her transformation.

When Austin shifted back too, the three of us sat around in a circle with her.

“I’m surprised she hasn’t shifted back.” Being around powerful shifters triggered the change in weaker wolves.

Eli cast me a look. “She’s my mate. She’s strong in her own way.”

My throat closed at his statement. Austin’s, on the other hand, didn’t. “What? She’s your mate?”

Eli reached up and rubbed his chest like there was an ache there. “Yeah. She is.” He blew out a breath, and I got the feeling his next words pained him to say them.

When he uttered them, I totally understood why.

Eli

“Is she your mate too?”

I couldn’t look at them, couldn’t take them in when I was feeling this fucking vulnerable.

I was alpha, not just the alpha, but alpha to my marrow. Right in my very soul, I was dominant. Being vulnerable wasn’t something I did on the regular, not at all, but fuck me, I knew my life was changing, and not just by my mother dying yesterday either.

I could feel my world shaking from the inside out, and even though I hated change with a passion, how could I hate it when this beautiful she-wolf was a part of the transformation?

Neither Austin nor Ethan put me out of my misery. Instead, Ethan—ever the clinical bastard and always the fucking thinker—muttered, “Only omegas have multiple mates.”

I bit my bottom lip to stop myself from snapping at him. Instead, I glowered, and his eyes widened as he muttered, “Oh. Of course.”

“Oh, what?” Austin questioned. Unlike his brother, he was as slow as fucking frozen maple syrup some days.

“Oh, he thinks she’s the next omega, dumbass.”

Austin’s mouth worked. “Omegas are always naturals.”

He wasn’t wrong. “I know. But she’s mine. I can feel it. She’s my mate, which means she has to be the omega. She’s different than I expected though.”

“More ways than one,” Austin mumbled.

“Well, that’s just rude.”

The three of us froze, and I knew the twins had heard that too.

“Am I losing my fucking mind?”

The boys cut each other looks before, slowly, Ethan murmured, “No, I heard that too.”

Licking my lips, I focused on the she-wolf, and questioned, “How are you doing that?”

“I don’t know.”