It was no wonder that the Rainford pack hadn’t wanted his spawn there.

Except, the kid was little.

And he was scared.

I could sense that from here.

He was hungry too, bony, and if he’d been living in an actual house for a while, I’d be surprised, because it looked to me like he’d been sleeping rough, maybe in the forest.

“I know you were fostered, Daniel,” I rumbled softly, squatting down in front of him. “Why aren’t you with that family?”

“They’re mean to me,” he whispered miserably. “Everyone’s mean to me now.”

I tipped my chin, understanding how fear could lead to cruelty, even if I hated the truth of that.

Rubbing my chin, I murmured, “We won’t be mean to you. Do you want a sandwich?”

“The lady already made me one.”

I hummed. “But you’re a growing boy, ain’t you? You need more than one sandwich.”

He peeped at me from under his lashes, his bright blue eyes staring back at me. “I’m still hungry,” he whispered.

That was clear to see.

A kid his age shouldn’t be so small, especially not when he was alpha stock, and he was.

That was another nail in his coffin.

Though it was young, I could see it in him.

He was going to change soon.

It was in the air around him.

My wolf sensed it.

As I got to my feet, moving toward the refrigerator for some fixin’s, I asked, “How old are you, Daniel?”

He gulped. “Nine.”

A year older than Eli had been when he’d shifted.

It fit.

I blew out a breath, then I felt her settle behind me, her hands coming to bridge over my belly.

“What is it?”

“He’s powerful.”

“I can feel that, I think.” Her mind wandered off as she tried to figure out what was happening, things that I wasn’t explaining.

That was the trouble with our life.

Some things just couldn’t be explained. Some things just had to be bred into you. Cultural shit was hard to pass on, but this? Impossible.

How did you explain that some packs felt no compunction in tossing little kids out into the human world to survive on their own if they’d lost their family to a pack challenge?

It was evil, I knew, wrong on so many levels, but what an alpha could do to a pack when they were cruel enough to be challenged?

Not worth thinking about.

I thought about all that as I made a PB&J for the kid, then I muttered, “You need to ask Eli if he can stay.”

She tensed a little. “Why?”

“Because if you ask, he won’t be able to say no.”

“And he’d say no if you did?”

“Yes. He would. Without compunction. We don’t meddle in other pack’s politics, and Daniel is one big Gordian knot of trouble. Especially as he’s going to shift soon.”

She pressed her forehead to the center of my back. “I didn’t mean to pick up trouble, but he was being scolded, and I couldn’t stand it—”

She knew what it was to be alone.

To be left adrift.

I sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Just make sure you explain what you know to Eli and plead with him if you must. Otherwise, he’ll be returned to the foster system, and he’s far too strong for that.”

I could sense her confusion. “You really think I’ll be able to convince him?”

“Of course.” I snorted. “He’d lay down his life for you, Sabina. Just like Ethan and I would.”

She sighed. “You don’t need to. I’d prefer you to live.”

“Yes, well, that’s the goal,” I said, amused by her answer. She hadn’t taken it as a compliment, more of an irritated perk of being mated to men as powerful as the three of us.

That was probably going to be very good for our egos. Sabina wasn’t the only one in our unit who was going to be grounded, it would seem.

We were going to be leveled out too.

I’d already seen how Cyrilo’s unfeeling responses to Sabina’s distress had ruptured my icy brother’s control.

We were changing.

I just wondered how I was too.

Was I getting softer?

Something about the boy’s plight just didn’t sit well with me. I didn’t know if that something was triggered by being newly mated, or if it was just a broader understanding of how fate worked.

Sometimes, things happened for a reason.

Sometimes, bad shit had to happen for the good to be allowed to flourish.

If Kingsley had lived, for example, that meant Daniel would have been a lost cause.

As Sabina’s father had bred Cyrilo for sin, Kingsley would have done the same.

But under our roof?

He’d be an alpha to look up to.

I reached for the hand she’d pressed to my belly, and squeezed her fingers before murmuring, “Just speak with Eli. Okay?”

She hummed, and the sound soothed me in a way I wasn’t about to question before I grabbed the sandwich, traipsing across the kitchen to hand it to Daniel, who hadn’t moved once.

At least if we had to live with a kid, he was a good kid.

Probably too fucking terrified to squeak without shitting himself, thanks to that cocksucker of a father of his.

When I heard movement in the hall, I listened in, taking note that Frank was leaving.

Ethan and I didn’t even need to talk to one another, didn’t even need to discuss Frank and who he was to us.

We wouldn’t be exploring that side of our family.

Roots were roots, but we were who we were, and we made ourselves into the men we clawed our way into being.

Just like Daniel.

His past tarnished him, but his future would make him.

Ethan’s and my past didn’t tarnish us, but we weren’t going to be digging into the family history, making connections, not unless the pack needed them.

You never knew when you needed another pack on your side, but Frank’s was from the South, and we were high up in the North. I highly doubted we would be able to use those ties between us to any gain.

Ethan’s voice was polite, Eli’s sharp at the same time, both were grateful as they ushered Frank out of the house.

When I heard a car start in the distance, only then did my shoulders settle as tension released from them.

“You don’t have to have a relationship with him if you don’t want to,” Sabina told me gently, reading my mind but answering out loud.

“I know. I don’t want one.”

“I figured as much.”

“I want to focus on the future, not the past.”

“That’s what we’ll do.” She pressed a hand to her stomach, reached for mine, and smiled. “That’s what we’ll do.”

I arched a brow at her, and teased, though I knew she had her period, “You trying to tell me something?”

She grinned, shook her head. “Nope. Just, you know, preempting things.”

I rolled my eyes. “You never heard of the phrase ‘you don’t borrow trouble’?”

She arched a brow at me, darted a look at Daniel, and repeated, “Nope.”

I laughed a little, then hauled her into me so I could kiss her on the brow.