Moon Child (The Year of the Wolf #2) - Serena Akeroyd Page 0,28

here. I can hear her, so stiffen those shoulders and accept that the first few minutes might be awkward, but that everything will work out for a reason. Hmm?”

She sniffed a little. “Bossy.”

“And you love me for it,” I joked, grinning when her nose crinkled in agreement.

She bopped up onto her toes, kissed me quickly, then darted around me, all signs of her nerves having disappeared.

I followed after her, tracing her footsteps as I wandered out to the front veranda to watch her greet her sister.

I had expected things to be awkward, that was the truth. It was why I’d warned her over it.

But it wasn’t.

If anything, it was the opposite. The pair of them darted together like they were magnetized the second that they saw one another, and both of them instantly opened their arms, spreading them wide as they shot into each other’s embrace.

I felt Austin and Ethan crowd me as they spanned out behind me.

“That’s a good portent of things to come,” Ethan murmured.

He was right.

It was.

So I nodded, and said, “Let’s hope it means she can help us help Seth, hmm?”

When all I received were grunts of agreement for my pains, I merely grimaced. I’d never liked Seth and had always been grateful that his father rarely brought him to the pack meetings for chastisement. Now, however, I felt bad for that. He needed discipline, but it was somehow too late.

I wasn’t sure how Sabina thought Lara could help him, but we needed to do something before we had a second Hitler on our hands.

Five

Sabina

The smell of her, the feel of her, the look of her—it was my baby sister. All Lara. But equally, she was different. Which, of course, made total sense. Thirteen years had passed since the last time I’d seen her. Over a decade of her having time to grow into the beautiful woman standing before me.

She looked drawn and exhausted, not that I could blame her, not after what she’d been through. But equally, I could see our mother in her. She was dark like me, but with a few more golden and reddish tints to her hair than I had. Her skin was the same caramel as mine, and her eyes were a rich green that sparkled in the sunlight. Where I was all dark, she had a mix to her, like she was a—

My mouth worked at that, as I processed my thoughts and tried to shoo them away.

“What is it? What’s wrong?”

Trust Ethan to be the one to pick up on my sudden disquiet.

“Nothing’s wrong. I promise. Thank you for asking though.”

He huffed, which sent shivers down my spine because I felt it internally, but I ignored him and focused on Lara.

She was skin and bone right now, and her cheeks were drawn in, the lines a little more pronounced from hunger and exhaustion and fear. The time spent fearing the shifter hyena’s attack had taken its toll on her, and I sensed she was truly grateful to be here, happy and not at all annoyed because she was safe. She was alive. And she hadn’t expected to make it out of her home in anything other than a body bag.

But here she was.

In my arms.

Knight cooed between us, making us both laugh as he giggled and gurgled. I’d never known a baby before who liked being squished as much as this kid, but it figured when I thought about how I loved being with his fathers, loved being trapped between them, and not just in a sexual way either.

Our animal side appreciated the closeness, the bonds that came from the time spent together, and Knight was pure animal right now. Especially with how he gnawed on my boobs.

She reached up, shaking me from my thoughts. One hand settled on my cheek, and the other cupped Knight’s head.

It was stupid of me to forget that she could sense my emotions, stupid of me when that was the major reason I’d brought her here. Sure, we needed to figure out if she could help us in some way, and I wasn’t talking just about with Seth. We all knew that if Cyrilo was powerful, and if I was too, it was likely she held a power of her own, so she needed to be brought to us so we could help her figure that out.

But even as a human, she’d always been strong. Always seen things more than anyone.

I’d seen auras, but it hadn’t been a powerful trait. It had