Austin snorted. “Least she’s honest.”

The she-wolf grunted at that, then butted his arm with her nose.

However I’d anticipated spending the morning after my mother’s passing last night, this wasn’t it, and yet, I couldn’t complain.

My mate was here.

And the men who’d always had my back were too.

Brow puckering, I asked the one question that plagued me. “What’s your name?”

She tilted her head to the side, those glacial blue eyes glinting like frozen stalactites in the sun. “Sabina.”

Austin and Ethan shot each other looks, and though I was accustomed to seeing those glances, ones that were a silent communication, it pinged into my head like a true eureka moment. “You’ve always been able to communicate this way, haven’t you?”

Ethan’s eyes widened, but Austin answered with a shrug. “Since we were kids.”

Shit. For so long?

I frowned at Sabina, who whined and pressed her face into my chest again, not stopping until her nose was tucked under my arm. My lips twitched as her breath huffed into my armpit, but I understood. In her wolf form, not only was she seeking and offering comfort, but to her senses, that part of me was the most powerful. Loaded down with all my pheromones.

And she was my mate, after all.

Even if she didn’t know what that meant. Or the repercussions that came with not only being newly transformed, but also with her position as my other half.

Or was she?

Maybe half wasn’t the right word.

I dug my hands through the thick fur on her head, stroking her, gentling her, then addressed the twins. “Tell me the truth.”

“I feel a connection to her,” Ethan muttered, not beating around the bush. But that was his way. He wasn’t curt, just abrupt. Which might be synonyms, but there was a difference. He wasn’t rude, just quick to get to the point, and in my position, I appreciated that. The council was made up of wafflers. All of them. They used words as weapons and as a means to inveigle their way into my inner circle.

The only people who’d been in that were the twins and my parents—neither of whom I’d seen eye to eye with most of the time.

I’d lost two of my confidantes, but the twins were still here. I knew they always would be as well.

“I feel something tying me to her,” Austin confirmed, sighing as he rubbed a hand over her flank. “Mother help me, she’s pretty. I’ve never seen a human with this coloring.”

“I’ve never seen a natural with that coloring either,” Ethan stated firmly, and in his eyes, I saw a question he wasn’t voicing.

“What is it?” I prodded, wanting to know. They were smart, both of them. Even if Ethan did get a little arrogant from time to time. Austin was smart in his own way. It wasn’t all about books, but Ethan had a habit of forgetting that.

“There has to be a reason she’s like this, that’s all.”

I shrugged. “You know what it means to be omega.”

“I know that omegas are naturals. Not transformed. I know that—”

“Nothing about this is usual. You know I didn’t have a mate. I wasn’t blessed that way.”

Ethan tensed. “True.”

“Merinda sacrificed herself last night to the Mother.”

Austin gaped at me, his body twisting so he could face me fully. “That’s what the council meeting was about?”

It always galled me that, because their positions weren’t official, they had no right to attend the meetings.

“Yes. She’d found some piece of nonsense in a tome or other.” I blew out a breath. “Only, it wasn’t nonsense. She believed in it, and she was right to.”

Ethan gulped. “What happened?”

“Exactly what I said. She gave the Mother a sacrifice, and the Mother answered.” My fingers tightened briefly in Sabina’s fur. “A mate. An omega to replace her. A future for the pack.” I blew out a breath. “I just never thought—”

Austin reached over and squeezed my shoulder. “We know to expect the loss of our parents, but we can never anticipate it or how we’ll deal with their passing.”

Surprised by such a serious and somber response from Austin, who was usually the more lighthearted of the two, I nodded. “Thanks.”

He shrugged. “It’s true.” He speared the she-wolf with a look. “Now what do we do? This is unprecedented.”

It was, and in all honesty, I should involve my beta, Brandon Wright, in the discussion, considering my mate was the new omega of the pack, but somehow, I couldn’t find it in myself to even think about that.

“We just have to wait until she’s ready to shift back.”

Ethan’s brows rose. “Don’t you think we should try to force the shift?”

“Why force it? She’s on this path for a reason. And now that we can communicate with her, even if it isn’t perfect, we can make sure we start on the things that really matter.”

Austin frowned. “What’s that?”

“Finding the son of a bitch who thought it was okay to transform a woman at a carnival.”

Rage swirled through me at the thought.

“There aren’t any other alphas in the pack.”

“No. Not except for you two.” I scrubbed my chin. “You know the council is going to point fingers at you, don’t you?”

They tensed beside me, and I shot Austin then Ethan a glance. “You know I don’t think you did it, right?”

Ethan frowned. “Why don’t you?”

“Because you’re not that way. Plus, you’re loyal and, as far as I can see, have no inclinations to be the leader of the pack.”

Austin snorted. “Fuck that.”

Ethan simply quirked a brow. “They wouldn’t answer to us anyway.”

There was that.

The pack was incredibly shortsighted where litters were concerned.

They treated Ethan and Austin like they were the second coming of Satan, not a pair of boys who’d been cosseted in the same womb at the same time.

“Appreciate your faith in us though,” Ethan said gruffly.

“Me too,” Austin chimed in. “Brandon wouldn’t have believed us.”

I grunted. “Might be time for a new beta.”

Ethan’s eyes flared wide. “Why would you say that?”

“His prejudices are starting to piss me off.” And that was no goddamn lie. He was also a superstitious motherfucker, which drove me insane.

We had our customs, and I was fine with following them, even if, sometimes, they felt a little crazy to me—case in point, last night, which, fuck me, had worked—but Brandon always wanted to take it to the extreme.

There were some progressive thinkers like me, who didn’t need to go to the totem every time they couldn’t decide whether to go for a shit or to take a leak.

“Been thinking about it for a while,” I told them. Had been thinking, in truth, of making one of them beta, and leaving the other as my enforcer, which wasn’t an official role, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t make it one.

For the past two years, I’d tried to follow in my father’s footsteps, wanting the transition to be easy on everyone, my mother included. With her gone, I could do whatever the fuck I wanted without fear of besmirching my father’s memory in her eyes.