I kissed her temple as I hugged her tight. “You’re safe here with me.”

Plus, the she-wolf.

She was outside, roaming around, and the howl she shot back at the running pack was just as annoyed as Sabina’s jolt.

How tied to each other were they?

I wasn’t sure.

It was strange though, damn strange, but so much about this situation was.

I didn’t think we’d ever get some answers to our questions, but maybe some questions weren’t supposed to be asked?

I hated that, because I liked to know shit, even if I wasn’t book smart, but you couldn’t question what was set in stone.

You could know that the big bang boomed the universe into being, but there was no knowing why it happened specifically when it did, was there?

Maybe, in the grand scheme of things, our little plot twists weren’t that big of a deal to the universe by comparison, but to us? They mattered.

Everything had been so strange since the very start.

We’d lost an omega, then we’d gained one.

We’d found our mate, and she’d been forged into a powerful wolf child when that just didn’t happen.

Wolf child and powerful were words that didn’t go together.

“Eli wants to know how it happened too,” she murmured, as she moved around my space, muttering, “Eureka,” when she found the remote control.

I watched as she flicked on the device, her head tilting as a football game blared on. When she turned the volume down, peering at me over her shoulder, she said, “He says he’ll get to the bottom of it. Eventually.”

“Some things you can’t reason away.”

“Sure you can. If you try hard enough.” She reached out a hand. “Come and watch TV with me until the guys get back?”

“Of course.”

So we did. We watched Next Gen straight from the beginning, and I sighed as she settled on my lap in my lounge chair, feeling whole and complete in a way that made me realize I’d been missing a part I’d never known I was lacking.

When, about three hours later, I heard shuffling outside the cabin, then a few yips and snarls, I felt Sabina tense.

She’d drifted to sleep, and when she had, I’d scented it.

Her period.

That was why she didn’t want to shift.

My lips twitched at the thought, even as she accidentally on purpose elbowed me in the belly for my thoughts—this shielding my thoughts shit was definitely high up on my to-do list—and I told her, “It’s Eli and Ethan. They want to run with you.”

She shrugged. “I know. I don’t want to.”

“Sure you do.”

“I don’t feel great,” she muttered around a yawn.

“Then the best way to feel better is to shift. The wolf processes all things differently than you, sweetheart.” Then, I threw down the big guns and wheedled as I kissed her throat. “Please?”

She huffed, twisted to me, and questioned, “You sure?”

“I’m positive.”

She winced a little as I helped her up, and as we walked over to a set of patio doors that led outside from my room, I watched her strip as she commented, “I like this shirt too much to ruin it.”

Fuck, she was beautiful.

And ripe.

Goddamn ripe.

Mouth watering, I watched her smile at me, that mysterious smile that all women were capable of granting their men and blowing their minds with, before I let my gaze drift down her.

The sight of blood on her thighs surprised me a little—it made sense that it was there, I just hadn’t expected it. Dumb of me, I guess—and when she peered down, her cheeks flushed with heat. “Oh! I didn’t think—”

I tutted her. “It’s okay.”

I could tell that it wasn’t for her, of course, and she shifted before I could say another word.

When she pawed at the door, I strode over to open it, let her out, then shifted too.

The second I was outside, I sighed with the joy of being back in my wolfskin.

It felt good.

What felt better?

For the four of us to be here, and even better still?

The supernatural wolf pack was here, in the vicinity, not getting too close but guarding us.

It was, I realized, quite clear that our family was important to them.

I just didn’t know why or what the implication would be for the future.

Sabina yipped as she and Eli tumbled about. The sight surprised me because even as a wolf, Eli was stoic to the nth degree.

“He attacked Conrad.”

My surprise had me staring at my brother’s lolling tongue. “Did he survive?”

“Nope.”

Eyes flashing, I muttered, “Shit just got real.”

“Shit was already real,” he replied. “But that’s one taken out to the trash that we don’t have to worry about anymore.”

“What happened?”

Ethan pissed on a tree by our door, then sniffed the scent marker to make sure it was strong enough. “He cornered Maggie May.”

I growled at that, my beast’s hackles rising at the thought. “Why the fuck did he do that?”

“Because he was stupid?” He turned to me. “The council will know things are about to change. It wasn’t a challenge, just Eli defending Maggie, but that’s a declaration of war in itself.”

I snorted. “They’re all chicken shit. They won’t do anything.”

He sniffed back. “Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. We’ll see, won’t we?”

With that, he took off, and I chased at his heels after I pissed over his scent marker.

That was what brothers were for, right?

When I saw Eli and Sabina playing, I had to admit to being warmed by the sight.

It made me want to dive right in, so I did.

This was my family.

My future.

And I’d never been so fucking happy about my status goddamn quo, even if there was trouble on the horizon.

In a strong pack, trouble was rarely an issue, but Eli’s father had run the Highbanks pack into the ground, and Eli, out of respect for his mother, hadn’t done that great of a job thus far either.

There was always dissension where there was weak leadership.

Only Eli’s power, and the fact that he wasn’t cruel and was just, had probably saved him from being challenged.

Well, that and the fact that the only two men who could have bested him were me and my twin, and we’d die for Eli.

Both of us would.

And that was before we’d known exactly who he was to us.

The thoughts running through my mind were too heavy, so I flung them aside. The trouble would be there until we got things on track, for however long that might be, and tonight wasn’t going to solve or resolve shit.

I had these moments with my mate and this time with my brothers to enjoy being a unit.

Because that was what we were—a pack within a pack.

Fourteen

Sabina

“It isn’t seemly to have that natural wandering around after her.”

I wanted to narrow my eyes at the bitch who’d made that statement, but what was the point?

They didn’t know how the she-wolf and I were tied. They didn’t know how Ethan and I had helped birth the pups who were back at the packhouse, snuggled up in bed.