As Ethan approached, she didn’t tense up, just stared at him before her knees seemed to collapse out from under her. She slid forward, then slammed into the ground. When she rolled onto her side, tongue still lolling, I whined at her.

She was supposed to get up, go on a rampage.

Why wasn’t she doing that?

When Ethan whined too, rubbing his nose along the length of her body, snuffling as he tried to scent what was wrong, I felt his concern like it was my own.

When she just stayed there, panting like she’d been running for days on end, and then eventually closed her eyes and began to doze, I shot him a look, then shifted back.

The power in the air that came from the shift had her tensing a little, but not enough to awaken. When I saw Ethan staring at me, I whispered, “Why isn’t she hunting?”

“We need to get her to the alpha.”

“He wanted to be left alone. His howl told us that.”

“He’ll go home at some point,” Ethan muttered, running a hand over his head. Gnawing on his bottom lip, he stared down at her, studying her as intently as I was.

“We might get blamed for this,” I pointed out warily.

“If we do, we do. Our scent isn’t on her.”

“No, but if we carry her to the alpha’s house it will be. By then, our scent will be on her. There’s no escaping it.” Rubbing the back of my neck, I mumbled, “But we don’t have a choice, do we? She needs him.”

Ethan pulled a face. “Don’t we all?”

Bending down, I began to shuffle her into my arms. Ethan helped by tipping her slightly onto me, then bracing me as I hefted her upright. We were strong, stronger than the average human, but shifter she-wolves weighed a helluva lot. As deadweight? Sheesh.

Not wanting to associate the beautiful silver wolf with the word ‘dead,’ we began the trek through the woods toward the alpha’s home.

Eli lived in the big house, just off Highbanks forest. It was a mansion, somewhere even a rich human would want to live with all its swanky rooms, but essentially, it was the home to all the pack. Eli owned it, but it belonged to all of us.

So did this female now.

She was ours, even if she didn’t want to be. Even if one of us had forced her to be like this.

I had to admit, she scented good. Different. Kind of flowery, and that was saying something because she’d just been tossing around in a bunch of leaves. It was a wonder she didn’t stink of something else. But nothing marred her beautiful silver coat.

As we stepped through the forest, over fallen branches and the like, I relied on my senses and on my brother to keep me traveling in the right direction, because I couldn’t stop looking at her.

Something about her, her scent, the feel of her in my arms, the beauty of her gold-tipped silver coat, kept that awful ache inside me at bay.

That pain hadn’t disappeared, but my mind was focused elsewhere, on this new she-wolf who was going to be a part of our pack.

We were silent on our walk, which was unusual. Especially when it took forty minutes to get there. By silent agreement, we didn’t run, not wanting to disturb her too much, but I was relieved by the time we made it to the alpha’s den because her breathing had changed, turned raspy almost.

Tucking her closer to my chest, hoping the heat would help her, we crossed the drive to the estate. It was long, a mile down to the road that would eventually lead to the highway. In the distance, I could hear all the people in the den.

Their voices were only at a conversational volume, but to me, even at this distance, they were like whispers. I could hear every word and what I heard was enough to explain the distress I was in. Mother, that we were all in.

The omega had passed over.

That was why the alpha had howled. Why he’d sought solace in his other form.

Shooting my twin a look, I muttered, “He won’t be here for a while.”

“Do we take her to our place?” he replied warily, well aware that we weren’t flavor of the month with the council.

Eli liked us. We were good at what we did. But the council considered us mischief makers. Mostly because our duty was to watch over them and make sure they were sticking to the Mother’s path.

They’d just love to throw this at us. An unapproved transformation? We could lose everything if the council saw us with the she-wolf.

Twisting around without a word, I began to retreat down the driveway. At the bottom of it, right in the middle of the turn, I saw him. He was sitting there like he was waiting on us.

Maybe he was.

My throat grew thick at the sight of Eli in his shifted form. He was the only member of the pack who spent the least amount of time as a wolf, so whenever you saw him, it was always impressive.

Shifters were always bigger than their natural twins. We weighed three times as much as a regular wolf, for example, but Eli? He was five times heavier, and that much longer, stronger, and ferocious too.

But at the moment, he was quiet. Pain dulled him, I supposed. I could see the glint of grief in his eyes, saw it in the slow steps he took toward us. I didn’t feel threatened, there was only curiosity as to the she-wolf in my arms, and slowly, I crouched down, keeping hold of her but tilting her so he could scent her.

She looked small in comparison to the alpha, making me realize she was smaller than a regular she-wolf, but her silver-white coloring, with the golden tips that I knew would make her look blonde in the sunlight, contrasted sharply with the alpha’s pitch-black fur.

The pair of them were a sight to behold, and when Eli nuzzled into the female, I somehow wasn’t surprised when her breathing calmed, and her eyes sleepily opened to investigate who was touching her.

When Eli licked at her mouth, snout, and even her eyes, and began snuffling at her, running his nose down her body to comfort her, she let him. All the while, through heavily slitted eyes, she watched him, then, when he yipped at her, the noise almost a demand, she released a big sigh and slumped in my arms.

For a second, I thought the worst, but the heavy, dull pounding of her heart reassured me that she lived—she was sleeping once more.

I wasn’t startled when Eli shifted in the next instant, his naked body gleaming in the moonlight. Nor was I taken aback at his harsh command of, “Explain.”

Straightening my shoulders, I muttered, “We found her bleeding out at the carnival.”

“Someone bit her?” he growled, his eyes widening since it was forbidden for anyone other than Eli to transform a human. Essentially, this abomination, proof of mutiny in the ranks, was a challenge to his leadership.

“Yes. She was dying, and we feared the carnage when she shifted.” Ethan licked his lips. “But she never even ran. She started dozing almost immediately after the shift.”

Eli’s jaw clenched. “She’s—”

When he fell silent, I didn’t prompt him, instead, I whispered, “Is it true? About the omega? We feel her absence in our souls.”

He tensed. “Yes. My mother’s dead.”

“I’m so sorry, Eli,” Ethan and I muttered at the same time. “Anything we can do, just ask.”

The look he shot us was surprisingly wry. “Thank you, boys.”

I rolled my eyes at that. We’d been called ‘boys’ since we were children. Didn’t matter that we were turning thirty-nine soon, we’d always be the ‘boys.’