“So you know I can hear what you’re thinking? Even if you don’t say it?”

He gulped. “Yes.”

“That means I can tell when you’re lying, doesn’t it?”

Another gulp. “Yes.”

I hummed. “So, with that being said, do you want to tell me why you wanted to be naughty and take candy from the store?”

“I’m hungry.”

My eyes narrowed. “Didn’t you eat lunch today?”

He shook his head.

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t.”

I frowned. “Why can’t you? Doesn’t your mommy or daddy give you a lunch for school?”

“I don’t go to school,” he whispered.

I blinked, wondering what the hell was going on, but of course that was the moment the tampon situation became critical.

Huffing a breath, I held out my hand as I stood up, muttering, “Come with me, Daniel. Let’s get you some real food.”

When I made it to the counter after I picked up a box of cookies as well, I paid for my things and the tab Daniel had run up, ignoring the manager’s mean-spirited scowl as he watched us leave.

The sight of the she-wolf didn’t have Daniel tensing in fear, which I’d almost expected, because I knew from Eli’s and Austin’s reactions that she was a lot bigger than they were used to dealing with.

As it was, Daniel stuck his hand in her scruff and tugged on it, holding on like he was holding my hand.

My lips curved, but my smile died as the she-wolf grumbled in my head, “Smells of death.”

I frowned, uncertain how to respond to that, especially when the bitch didn’t move away. If anything, she moved closer.

Did that mean his folks had died?

Wondering what was happening, I made it to the car in record time, because I really needed to get to a bathroom, stat.

When I opened the SUV Eli had given me to use, the she-wolf cruised in like she’d been riding in cars all her life, but Daniel needed help scampering up the step toward the seat.

When I set off, I’d admit to rushing and going a little faster than I ought to, but time was going to wait for no man, and I needed a bathroom.

Now.

When I made it onto our land, the she-wolf scared the shit out of me by howling, which triggered a wave of howls that almost had me crashing the damn car as I swerved off the road and back onto it.

When I growled under my breath, unapologetically, the bitch said, “Visitors. Smells like same males.”

That meant ‘twins’ in her talk.

She had a very limited vocabulary, but for a goddamn animal, limited was pretty fluent, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to complain, because I’d yet to figure out what howls meant in this form.

I could understand everything else like I had an automated Google Translate running inside my head.

When I righted the car, and got us back on the drive, I cut a look at Daniel, whose grin was beaming on his face.

Apparently, he liked a little excitement in his life.

Well, he was coming to the right place for it, I thought wryly.

When we rolled down to the end of the drive, and I saw the cars backed up there, I tensed some.

“See?” the she-wolf muttered.

I frowned, wondering how the visitors could smell like the twins, then I decided now wasn’t the time to worry about it. Now was the time to hope I didn’t have a bloodstain on my jeans.

As I pulled up, the gravel made a sloshing sound as I did so, then I raced out of the car, opened the door for the bitch, and then helped Daniel out too. Scurrying us across the porch and through the front door, when I pointed to the door at the end of the hall, I told him, “If you go in there, Elsa will get you something to eat.”

“Elsa? Like in Frozen?”

I pulled a blank at that, then gaped at him. “Who’s Frozen?”

He sniffed, a tad superior for my liking, before he muttered, “Never mind.”

I wafted him away, then rushed to the downstairs’ bathroom.

Just in time.

When I was all sorted out, I peered at my ass again, checked there was no blood on the seat of my pants, and made my way out into the hall.

There was a tension in the air I could sense now that I wasn’t panicked.

Anger too.

The combination had me wondering what was happening, especially when I heard Ethan growl, “Motherfucker.”

He wasn’t exactly the swearing type, so the curse came as a surprise. Not that I minded. Especially when he growled, “Love fucking you, mate,” in my ear as he’d done last night.

I hummed at the thought, trying not to get turned on as I wandered over to Eli’s office, where I knew he would place the visitors for a meeting.

As I slipped inside, I saw their heads turn to the left to face me, and as they did, I was granted a full, frontal view of the visitor in question.

Well, two visitors. Men, shifters. Not of the pack.

And both of them stole my heart. Not in a good way, either.

One, well, he looked like Ethan and Austin combined. He had their long nose, the wide brow. He had the soft lips and the beautiful eyes.

He was gorgeous, but he was a helluva lot older.

He had to be either their father or, maybe, their uncle? Only he didn’t scent like them entirely, just of them. And yes, there was a dramatic difference between the two. You had to have the she-wolf’s nose to get it. So, maybe uncle…even though uncles weren’t exactly a thing in the pack, were they?

And the other man?

On his knees? His wrists bound to his ankles?

My brother.

I swallowed at the sight, swallowed again when I saw the hatred in his eyes when he glared at me.

And like that, it came rolling into my mind.

The memories.

Not just ancient history, but the recent past too.

Cyrilo had never liked me. He’d always said I was too weak to be Papa’s favorite, but I had been that because I looked like Momma. Just because he beat her and treated her like crap didn’t mean, in his own way, he wasn’t proud of her beauty.

My defection, as it were, had hit him harder for that reason.

I knew that, knew he’d had plans for me, to marry me off to one of the Lindowiczs who ran some shady dealings over on the East Coast, and who the clan had been battling for what seemed like decades. Plans I’d ruptured by bearing Kian a child.

But here Cyrilo was.

And out of nowhere, the flashback hit me. That hatred…a twin to the hate in the wolf’s eyes when he’d leaped onto me like I was sport for him. My attacker. Who’d torn out my throat like I was so much prey to be hunted.

I remembered it, those gleaming eyes filled with loathing and burning anger that, even then, I’d known couldn’t be animal. It just couldn’t be.

There was too much human emotion in that gaze, and I was right.

It was my brother.

He’d attacked me.

He’d been the one to transform me.

My mouth trembled as I whispered, “How did you find me?”

Cyrilo didn’t answer, he was mute as he tipped his chin down and stared stonily at the floor.

“Sabina, I presume?” the older Ethan/Austin murmured, striding over to me with his hand held out for me to shake.

It was such a human gesture that I wasn’t sure how to respond for a second. I hesitated so long he started to drop his hand, but mine snapped out, and I whispered, “Sorry. I’m just shaken.”