Yeah, corralling us.

She prompted us with howls and snarls, growls and yips, even though she always stood beside the circle, never entering it fully.

I was the only one who truly understood her, but I figured she communicated with the men somehow too, because they only thought I was safe with her.

At her howl, I muttered, “Austin, baby, do you have the bag?”

His nose crinkled. “I do. Not sure why I had the honor of carrying it though.”

My lips twitched. “Because you woke me up with that horror movie last night.”

He rolled his eyes. “You make one mistake.”

“That’s enough to earn a kindness.” I laughed and then held out my hand for the bag.

I’d wrapped my placenta in linen, then had placed it in a paper bag.

I wasn’t that enamored of the prospect of having to get it out, so I was hoping the Mother accepted biodegradable materials, because touching bloody goo? Even if it came out of my vajayjay?

Not my thing.

I wasn’t surprised when the men hung back, letting me step toward the totem.

As I did, I heard hundreds of whispers.

In the year we’d ruled, the pack had begun to grow, and with it, my skills.

From this place, I could hear them all, all their individual voices, sense their miseries and their joy. I could target one, commune with them, ease them, or I could work on the pack sentiment as a whole.

It was the reason why my men revered me.

Why they let me lead any walk to the totem, because I spent most nights here until they came for me.

Where, as a unit, we deepened our connection by our mingled seed that sowed the circle, making it more fertile with power.

It tied the totem to me in ways that I couldn’t describe, and that strengthened the pack, preparing us for the day when we had more than five hundred in numbers.

My lips curved at that prospect as I leaned down and placed the bag on the worn platform at its base. I didn’t want to bury it like instructed, and was hoping this would work.

When nothing happened, I pulled a face then, cupping Knight’s head, I reached down and plopped the linen covering onto the footwell instead.

Relief hit me when the magic of the totem surged into being, whipping it away like it was nothing. No burying required.

“Thank you, my child.”

The words had me swallowing. I hadn’t expected to hear from her, not when I communicated with Berry who, I knew, was my direct line to the Mother, but to hear her now?

It felt like a blessing.

But it was her next words that floored me. As a surge of magic swept around me, I felt it encompass me in what was, essentially, a hug.

“You will bear many children for the mates I gifted you. And I promise you this, you have lost too many in your life, too many who owned a piece of your heart. Never, I vow to you, shall you lose another as long as you live.”

The promise had my entire being shaking.

“Thank you!” I gasped out, my arms and legs tingling as adrenaline set in. But there was no answer.

No answer she could give me that was worth more to me than the promise she’d settled on me.

My fear for Knight, for the future children I’d carry and hold in my arms, it wasn’t needed.

She would keep them safe for me.

I’d never have to lose—

My throat grew tight, and when I burst into tears, I wasn’t surprised when my men gathered around me, huddling close like we were on a football field about to start a play.

I shuddered, shared the promise with them, and I felt their bewilderment too.

We’d been honored, and I knew all four of us were just as perplexed by it.

Why we were so lucky, I’d never have the answer to, but I didn’t need it.

We made our own luck, settled our own futures in stone, and we were blessed for it.

Sabina

The next evening

“Well, that was irritating.”

I hummed under my breath. “What was?” If I wasn’t focusing all that much, I figured I could be forgiven.

I was tired. It was nearly eight PM, and before Knight, that had been early. Now, it felt as late as midnight.

Daniel had only just gone to bed after far too much homework for me to help him with. I had a baby now, and I’d only given birth a few days ago. I needed one long nap that would last a year, and I figured I’d be set.

Sadly, whenever that nap looked like it was going to happen, Knight would start screaming for milk.

My lips twitched, though, when I thought about how wonderful it was to nurse, and I sighed with joy, even as I rolled over and saw that Eli was leaning against my bedroom door with his arm on the jamb, his features carved in a cocktail of confusion, annoyance, rage, and concern.

Oddly enough, it was the concern that had me arching a brow at him—not the anger. I was used to that now. He wasn’t as controlled as before, and when you had a pack as large as ours? Anger was always at our fingertips.

“What is it?” I asked softly.

With that question, I was not only inquiring why he was angry, but also why he was hovering there like he didn’t have as much right to this bedroom as any of us.

We’d long since stopped having separate rooms. Instead, Eli’s bedroom and mine had been ripped through, and we’d carved out space for us all.

Ironically enough, the bed we shared?

A queen-size.

Nothing massive. Nothing awesome in stature. Why? Because when we slept, we all slept in a frickin’ pile.

I woke up sweaty and sticky, but fuck, I slept well.

And when it came time to join? The other two tended to watch, but mostly, we mated by the totem. Before I’d gotten too big to do anything other than waddle around, not a night passed where the circle didn’t witness kinky stuff it probably wished it didn’t need to see.

The bedroom was about the size of a house now, but we each had our own space.

Austin’s place was in front of the fire. He had a massive armchair that he watched TV on, which hung above the fireplace.

Ethan had a nook by the windows where he’d made a space for himself and his books.

Eli, unsurprisingly, had a desk in one corner with a sofa in front of it for us all to sit on.

Me? I tended to borrow theirs.

Not because I didn’t need my own space, but because their space was mine.

What they needed, I found I did too.

Some days, I wanted books. Other days, I wanted the TV and to snuggle in front of the fire on a cold night. On another? I liked to sit on the sofa and argue with Eli over pack politics before I clambered over the desk to kiss him, to make him see sense when he was stubborn.

The pack had a lot to thank me and my kisses for, that was for certain.

My lips twitched at the thought as I stared at Eli from the bed. Knight was there, kicking and cooing, and I was melting as usual, but even though Eli was commonly the first to turn to goo, he didn’t.

If anything, I could see by his eyes that he’d just gone full wolf on someone.

It hit me then that I hadn’t sensed anything amiss in the house, and I felt immediate guilt because I’d been so focused on Knight, I hadn’t really thought about—

“Stop it!”

I jolted at that, then jerked when I saw Ethan glowering at me from behind a pile of books.

“You’re a new mom, Sabina. You’re not supposed to be doing everything at once. We never asked for supermom. You’re supposed to ease into this. What did we make you promise?”