I loved him, and he was a great dad, but as an alpha? He’d been fire and brimstone. That wasn’t my style.

“What do you remember of the attack, Sabina?” I asked softly, rupturing my own thoughts, which were painful. Memories and grief swirled together to form a clusterfuck that made me want to go to bed and just sleep for a week.

Instead, I had someone posturing on my territory. But this level of posturing far outweighed a challenge.

It spoke of an alpha who knew he couldn’t best me in a fight. Which made him a Mother-damned coward.

“It was dark. I didn’t see them.” The reception was spotty, and I knew that phrasing was crazy, but it was how it was. I felt like I wanted to turn up the volume in my head.

“It wasn’t a ‘them,’” Sabina,” Ethan pointed out softly. “It was a wolf.”

She shook her head. “No. There were two.”

Austin groaned. “Motherfucker. They’re really going to think it’s us now. We were the first on the scene, and I know Annalyn and Jessalyn knew we were at the carnival because they asked me about it at the diner yesterday when they served me breakfast.”

I pulled a face. “Think they’re trying to frame you?”

Ethan raised his brows. “Could be.”

Austin grumbled, “Wouldn’t put anything past the council.”

He wasn’t wrong.

“You’ll want to smack the shit out of me for this, but I’d prefer this to be a challenge over you than my position.”

Ethan grunted. “Thanks.”

My lips twitched. “The former is easier to handle.”

“Your hold on the pack is absolute,” Austin stated with confidence.

“I thought as much to be honest, that’s why this came as a surprise.”

Ethan dipped his chin. “If they are trying to frame us—”

Before he could say another word, I muttered, “Who have you pissed off lately? More than most, I mean?”

Austin hummed under his breath. “You know that’s our job, right? To piss people off on your behalf?”

He didn’t sound too upset about that.

“True. So, who have I sent you after of late that would be willing to go to these extremes and who’s powerful enough to transform someone?”

“The old Rainford alpha would have, but we all know what happened to him. Other than that bastard though, I don’t know anyone in the pack who’d want to go up against you.”

As I pondered that, Sabina shivered. My attention immediately reverted to her.

“Are you okay?”

“C-Cold.”

I frowned but said, “We’re about a mile away from my home. Can you walk it? It will warm you up.”

She shivered harder.

“I’ll take that as a no.”

Austin’s dry remark had Ethan snorting. For me, I wasn’t altogether shocked. Just walking across the clearing had been hard enough, but women liked to be asked, didn’t they? So I’d oblige. Especially when it came to an unclaimed mate…

Just the prospect of her rejecting the bond made cold sweat bead down the length of my spine.

I straightened and muttered, “This might be uncomfortable.”

“K-K-Kay.”

Wincing at just how damn cold she sounded, and the deep shudders that racked her small form, I reached for her and hefted her into my arms. The second she was settled, I sucked in a breath, asked the Mother to make this easy on my woman, and set off for home.

Three

Austin

When Sabina didn’t puke all over Eli, I had to applaud her, even if it was only silently. If a wolf could look green around the edges, she did, and when he put her on the floor in the house, she trembled so fiercely, it made me feel dizzy just watching her.

“Is she just trembling because of the run or because she’s cold?” Ethan asked, addressing no one in particular.

I rolled my eyes. “Could you sound any more like an asshole?”

“N-N-No.”

Unable to help myself, I laughed at Sabina’s insertion, then crouched down on my knees and said, “Ignore Ethan. He can be a stickler, a pain in the ass, and a dick, but he’s good people.”

“You’d never tell from that description of me,” was my brother’s droll retort.

I ignored him and focused on the she-wolf. She nuzzled into me, and I knew why. Warmth, plus I was solid ground she could use as support.

“Why’s she so cold?” I demanded, even though I knew they were in the dark as much as I was.

“The fire will be roaring in my office,” Eli stated. “I should have taken her straight in there, but I wanted to be able to dash out in case she felt like puking.”

Not waiting on him to agree, I hauled her up into my arms, ignoring her whine of distress, before I elbowed into the council room and over to the hearth.

This room was, technically, Eli’s office, but it was also where the council met, hence the name.

There were a few remnants from last night’s party, proof that the staff hadn’t come in yet, but I ignored it all to head over to the fire.

The room was elegant, exactly the opposite of what a room like this should be. But I got it. Different times and all that. We were no longer focused on survival of the fittest, just obsessed with maintaining our wealth because, in this world, money afforded the most protection.

We owned most of the town for a reason—and that meant our territory was safe. We’d always have land to roam around on, woods and forests to run over. Our land also enabled us to have a twin pack in the city. Double the protection. Double the territory.

The council room consisted of a three hundred square foot space. With an oversize hearth at one end, Eli’s desk—four times the width of him—was an imposing statement beside the fireplace. The wooden mantel had wolves carved into it, so the Chinese-style desk looked all the plainer for it, and yet its size and the throne-like chair were a statement no one could deny.

Along the length of the room, which was like a tunnel and utterly lacking in character, there were overlarge, overstuffed sofas that ran parallel to the walls. They weren’t shitty sofas either. Down-stuffed and with a price tag that went above my pay grade, it was more indication of the level of snobbery the council was capable of. What with the antique cabinets that also took up the space, loaded down with pack treasures, and fancy ornaments here and there…it was a room I’d never been comfortable in.

It probably had something to do with the fact that this was where Paul, Eli’s father, had reamed us a new asshole when we were kids.

He’d always disliked us, and we’d expected that hatred to pass onto his son. Hate begat hate, after all. But Eli had been the exact opposite. Supportive, helpful, encouraging.

Always had been.

Was the woman in my arms why?

Had the Mother been waiting to tie us together all along?

I didn’t usually believe in superstitions. Mostly because I was a living, walking one. The pack, on the whole, hated me and my brother because we were twins, so I knew most of the lore in our world was bullshit since I wasn’t evil. I wasn’t this obnoxious abnormality that should have been put down at birth because I’d dared to share a womb. So why would anything else be true? I’d never expected a mate of my own, nor for Ethan, and I’d never been granted one at our covenant just like Eli, but the mate bond was something I had faith in.