“Did he do this to you? Did he force you into the Pleasure House?”

“For heaven’s sake, no one forced me anywhere. I promise.”

Avani couldn’t believe that. Why the hell would Julie voluntarily do it to herself? Again. She’d earned the protection of all the females in the pack when she'd borne children. There was no other benefit to debasing herself like that.

Julie sighed, gracefully lowering herself to the ground right there in front of the forest and tapping the grass next to her. “Come, sit. I’ll explain what’s going on. I’ve never said anything because I could see how much you judged my choices. But you need to believe me right now.”

Startled, Avani ignored Mikar’s obvious disapproval, and sat next to her friend, taking her hands.

“When I was eighteen, my mother died during a hunt. She challenged the alpha female, and lost. As is often the case with fated mates, my father followed her into the grave at the same time. Their bond was too strong for him to contemplate living without her. I was of age, so no one needed to take care of me, as such. But I had siblings who were sixteen and fourteen. Besides, our house was one of the largest in the village, you remember?”

Avani nodded; as the beta female, Julie’s mother had been housed well.

“When they died, my mother’s brother, who was head enforcer, became beta. Draiden decided to assign him as my siblings’ guardian—I was considered too young to do that. Besides, they’re both dominant; a submissive eighteen-year-old wasn’t the ideal candidate to raise two strong-minded wolves.”

All of that made sense, and matched what Avani knew of Julie’s upbringing.

“When Yves came, he made it clear that he expected me to act like the woman of the house, in every way. I won’t paint you the whole picture, just know he was violent and abusive. I was too scared for my little brother and sister to say much, so I played along until Anna turned eighteen. Then, I joined the Pleasure House to get away from his influence altogether. You leave the conversation as soon as we talk of the House. You don't understand it’s not bad, Avani. I get to choose whom I want to play with. I get days off, and I preapprove my appointments. They’re all very sweet to me. And honestly? Consensual sex is fun to me. I know it’s not for you, but it truly has always been my choice.”

Speechless, and rather ashamed of her own bias—she’d never stopped to wonder why her friend had been so eager to claim a position that disgusted Avani—she could only hold her hands tighter.

“As soon as Yves was named alpha, I knew he’d try to get me back. He’s hinted at it for years. So I returned to where I’d be protected by the alpha female. Draiden’s mate can be rather disinterested in pack politics when it comes to most things. With us, she is very much the protector. She was one of us once, you know?”

Avani hadn’t known at all.

She tried to smile. “What about the boys?”

Julie grinned back. “Their father is taking care of them while I work.”

That was a new one. They had a father?

Julie laughed. “Just because I had multiple lovers doesn’t mean that I didn’t recognize my own fated mate, you know. It’s only possible for one of us to procreate with someone we’re officially bonded with or our mate.”

Another thing Avani hadn’t known. Well, she’d heard about it, and had dismissed it as a legend. It didn’t make an awful lot of sense.

“What…does he feel about all this?”

Julie’s smile widened and her eyes brightened. “Oh, he’s very much into what I do. When destiny assigns you someone, it’s normally a person who fits you in every way. He’s a sharer.”

Too much information. Avani tried not to grimace. “I’m glad you’re okay.” That was the only thing that mattered.

Now Julie grew somber. “I am, and I will be. You? Not so much. Yves sent me to you with a message. He demands you present yourself to be judged for the crime of killing a fellow wolf and disobeying your alpha. Otherwise, he says that you, and everyone protecting you, are in violation of our most sacred laws—laws Fenrir himself cannot deny, as he wrote them.”

Avani blinked, confused. “Wait, aren’t I supposed to just fight a female assigned by the alpha to determine my guilt or innocence?”

If so, she wasn’t worried.

Julie nodded. “Yes, Avani. And everyone in the pack knows you’re twice as fast as any other female.”

Which meant she’d win the contest; it made no sense that Yves would demand that at all.

Mikar was right. It was a trap.

“Fine. I accept the challenge. Seeing as I’ve left the pack, I refuse to set foot on your territory. He can come to me—at the lake.”

Right between the woods and the hill.

“Avani—” Julie’s tone was cautioning. She wanted to add something, but she visibly couldn’t. She’d been ordered not to.

“It’s okay. I know it’s a trap. I know they plan to drug me, or cut me, or drag me back. But I’ll have people who won’t allow any of that around me.”

She was entirely certain of that, and Mikar grunted in agreement.

Julie closed her eyes, and after a long moment of silence, she finally nodded. “All right. The next full moon, then, at midnight.”

Her voice broke as she spoke.

There was more to this challenge.

And she had a month to figure out what.

Threads

“You did what!”

Alexius returned to his home to find his drawing room packed full of people gathered around Avani, wearing expressions ranging from worried to determined.

Then she’d told him about her crazy afternoon. Not only had she met up with a damn Elder Pack wolf, she’d also agreed to a fucking challenge for the crime of saving the human they’d been hunting— oh, and the crime Alexius had committed when he’d stopped the male wolf after her.

“I didn’t even kill the fucking punk!” he screamed.

Avani blinked. “You didn’t?”

He shrugged. “I drank a fair bit. I was thirsty. Plus, my skin had been burned off, give me a break. And I knocked him out. But I wasn’t about to start a war on my territory.”

All gazes were now on him.

“What?” he growled.

“It’s just, well…” Chloe tilted her head, visibly trying to find her words. “You’re a lot more balanced than I thought you were.”

“I would have killed the punk,” Levi added casually, shrugging.

“Ditto,” Ruby said cheerfully.

No one doubted her.

Alexius rolled his eyes. “Well, I have a body count a lot higher than most of yours. You have to do what you can to catch up. Besides, we weren’t talking about me. You can’t accept that challenge, when it’s clearly a setup.”

“I have to,” Avani protested. “I’m a dominant wolf. That’s what we do. I just figured I could take Cat, Ruby, and Greer as backup.”

“And me,” said every single person in the room, all at once.

The argument that followed was so stupid he didn’t even bother to take part, keeping his attention fully on Avani. “I’ll be there.”

There was nothing else to it. She met his glare and nodded her agreement.

Only then did he bother to listen to everyone else.

“You can’t go, you have patrol. I’ll go.”

“You can do my round of patrol,” Mikar grumbled to Blair. “I want to see the wolves fight. It’s boring in Oldcrest.”

“I want to see them fight too!” Cat’s boyfriend moaned.

And on and on they went.

“Why didn’t you invite me?” Chloe whined. “I’m your friend.”

“You have class, darling,” Levi reminded her. “Don’t worry, I’ll take a video.”

Avani got to her feet and waved until silence fell in the room. “Sorry guys, you can’t all come to the lake with us. Not when it’s clearly a trap, remember?”

Alexius grinned. His girl was smart.

“I don’t know why they’ve issued this challenge. I don’t know why they waited a fortnight. But it feels like there’s a plan in motion. Julie did everything she could to warn me. She knew I would pay attention to her expressions, her scent. She was telling me things will go badly. For me, for the rest of you. We have to be on our guard. You have to guard the hill, Oldcrest, Adairford, the borders…”

Alexius nodded. “You’re right. It’s likely a diversion. Since the bloodhunt, I’ve wondered if our issues may be related. It’s entirely possible that the pack could have gone on that hunt in the first place because they’ve ceased to respect Knox’s authority as their overall leader. We all know that the only way that could happen is if they’d elected another overall ruler. Given the timing, we have to assume our enemy is behind this. The queen could be preparing her next attack.”

He hated that there were so many could, likely, and assume in his sentence. They needed certainty. They needed answers. They needed…

“Eirikr.”

All eyes turned to Greer, who was looking out the window, in the direction of Cosnoc, the eastern hill of Oldcrest, forbidden to most of the Institute students or Adairford inhabitants, where Chloe’s ancestor was locked away.

Greer’s ancestors had sealed him in a deep cave before creating the walls that separated Oldcrest from the rest of the world.

“We have questions. We’ve had questions for months about that queen. We know she wants Chloe out of the way. We know she wants me out of the way. We know she wants into this territory. The only thing that links all three data points is him. We’re dealing with demons and zombies and greater magic. The sort of things that belong to his world more than ours. For all we know, it could be one of his fans, trying to do what they can to free him. We have to ask him what he knows.”

She turned to Chloe when she said that—the only person who actually spoke to the insane, vampire-hunting elder.