Even I rarely questioned Eli when he spoke with that tone of voice, but apparently, Brandon was an asshole with an inability to discern whether or not he should shut the fuck up.

Not that I minded if Eli tore his ass crack wide open… Brandon was a douche.

Had been since middle school, when he’d had his first rite and his wolf had presented itself as being powerful enough to be beta.

Not all powerful wolves were assholes, but unfortunately for the Highbanks pack, a lot of the powerful men and women here were.

I wasn’t sure if it had something to do with the water, some mass chemical spill that put us in line to be surrounded by more idiots than usual…

“Anyway,” I inserted when Brandon stood there, head bowed in the face of Eli’s irritation. “Not sure when you stopped being able to count, but there’s only me here.”

“Tweedle Dee and Dum are rarely separate for long,” Conrad sniped, twisting around to find Austin. “Where is he anyway?”

“He’ll enter when I ask him to.”

If they didn’t hear the forbidding note in Eli’s tone, then I wasn’t sure what hope they had. He was seconds away from his anger snapping. I could literally feel his wolf’s outrage throbbing through his damn skin.

I stared at him, wondering at that. Wondering how I could feel his wolf, even though he was still in his human skin…

Had I never felt that before?

Or had I always felt it, and it was just more powerful at the moment because I was so close to him?

I wasn’t sure which was true, but I figured it had something to do with Sabina.

Knowing she was in the outer chamber with Austin filled me with a kind of strength I’d never had before.

She was as in the dark as we were, but really, her confusion went to a whole other level than ours did. At least we understood how our society worked. It was totally new to her. But the link between us was as alien to us as it was to her, so in that, we had a level playing field. But…

Always a but.

Her presence fired me on, giving me strength as I leaned against the edge of Eli’s desk, perching myself there as I folded my arms across my chest.

I was a strong wolf, powerful, and if I hadn’t been a twin, if I’d just been a regular man, I’d have probably been able to take Eli on in a challenge. I wasn’t sure who’d win. Maybe Austin would even whoop my ass first, but there was a fire in us all that burned at a similar heat.

Even while Eli was bristling, I felt it but wasn’t affected by it. Unlike Conrad and Brandon, who were cringing at Eli’s displeasure. That they were still questioning things told me how annoyed they were to have me here.

Pedants.

Pissants.

Someone slipped behind Conrad, and a quick glance revealed it to be his wife, Larissa. She blanched at Eli’s dominance, then quickly muttered, “Everyone’s here,” before tugging on Conrad’s elbow and slipping away to avoid the alpha’s evident outrage.

“He should leave. You know it’s bad luck to have him here.”

“Well done, Scrappy,” I remarked drolly, “you have a voice.”

Conrad glared at me. “You shouldn’t be here.”

“You’ve made my welcome quite evident throughout the years,” I murmured, priding myself on the lack of intonation in that statement. He’d tried to make our lives hell on a regular basis.

“Conrad, get over with the others,” Eli barked.

“But, Alpha, they shouldn’t—”

The growl snapped through the room like a whip of fire lashing through the atmosphere. When the scent of urine floated through the air, I smirked, perched my ass harder on the desk, and settled in for the show.

“Well, that wasn’t embarrassing, Connie, was it?”

The councilman didn’t even look at me. His eyes were trained on Eli’s like an electromagnet had turbocharged the link between them, making it impossible for Conrad to look away.

“Do you purposely challenge me?” Eli grated out, his voice like silk slithering over broken glass.

“N-No! Of course not, Alpha,” Conrad stuttered, and before my eyes, I watched as he tried and failed to break the hold Eli had on him, wriggling around like a mouse caught in a cat’s paw as the alpha forced him to shift.

All around us, there was the throbbing hush of people who couldn’t believe their eyes. I could feel that pulse in my veins, could feel it tunneling down into my being.

Most had scuttled away to the far end of the room, just out of range of the wrath-fueled dominance Eli was pouring out in waves. Even Brandon was starting to quiver in the face of it, but me?

It rolled through me, charring me but not hurting me.

When something inside Eli clicked, I felt it. I felt that click like it was my own control being attacked, and when another growl rumbled along the air, I wasn’t surprised at the wave of shifts that occurred.

From a room filled with twenty-four fawning councilors in their human skins, to a mix of humans and wolves suddenly cowering against each other.

The sight filled me with amusement, for these were the ones who’d treated us so badly all our lives.

But even as I let their shame fill me, even as I bathed in it somewhat, I twisted around and murmured, “Eli? We have things to discuss.”

The alpha, in the brink of releasing a growl that would probably have more than one shifted beast in the room peeing themselves too, adding to the growing puddle emanating from Conrad’s feet, blinked and cut me a look.

I stared at him, let him see that I was unaffected by his wrath, and murmured softly, “Sabina.”

The word had him jerking back, and I wondered if, in the haze of his wolf raging against the verbal challenge from men who weren’t strong enough to clean his boots, never mind help him lead the pack, he’d forgotten exactly what it was she meant to us.

With that singular mention of her name, however, it secured his attention.

He straightened his shoulders and muttered, “Conrad, shift back.” As his anger ceased rumbling through the room like storm clouds in the night sky, I could feel them start to relax, could feel them lessen their holds on their wolves.

Conrad shifted back, but his face was a ruddy red. On another man, in another world, I’d have probably seen hatred on his features. Hatred and the urge for revenge. But because I was looking for both, hoping for both, I was disappointed to see only shame.

He wasn’t behind Sabina’s attack.

And his shame was focused on the fact that the alpha had debased him so utterly.

Conrad had, it seemed, lost the pissing contest between them.

“What are you chuckling at?”

Austin’s words slithered into my brain. I could hear nuances, could hear moods, and all without him uttering a word.

I wasn’t sure why we had this ability, but it made it damn handy in situations like this one.

“There was a real-life pissing contest in the council chambers,” I informed him. “Conrad lost. He’s standing in a puddle of pee.”

Austin snorted, but it was Sabina who stunned me by muttering, “Gross.”

She sounded clear as a bell tolling through a valley, and it stunned me because, even a few hours ago, when she’d accidentally transmitted her appreciation for my brother’s ass when he bent over to pass her a paper she’d knocked off the table at breakfast, it had been faintly rusty.