asked.
“Something brewing.” She huffed, then howled, long and clear enough to tell anyone and anything in the vicinity that she was nearby.
Even though I was used to it, I still jolted in response. Austin and Eli didn’t, of course.
Jerks.
By the time we made it back to the packhouse, even though it wasn’t that far away, I was yawning as we moved through the front door and down into the hall.
Our bedroom was a communal space, and it was pretty much the only place we’d changed since I’d become omega of the Highbanks pack.
With time, I’d change more and more things, because in all honesty, I hated the formality here. All the antiques and the fancy shit made me scared to break things.
I’d prefer to donate all the crap to an auction house, ask them to get the highest bids, and donate it to charity, but this was Eli’s stuff. His inheritance.
And what was I supposed to do in the interim? Go to Home Depot or Ikea and just buy a mass of flat pack furniture?
Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen.
While I was more than happy with flat pack furniture, we were the leaders of the pack.
We lived in a frickin’ mansion. It would be like riding around in a Ford Focus that had been modeled to look like a Ferrari—just not right.
As we trudged up the steps, I could feel my eyes drooping, and I sighed with delight when I smelled Ethan.
He was awake.
He didn’t say anything though, just curled into me when Eli plopped me on the bed.
Eli always slept to my left, and Ethan and Austin tended to alternate between laying to my right.
I didn’t think they’d admit it, but I knew they slept better too, now that we were tumbled together like this.
There wasn’t anything weird about it, but the twin bond ran deeper than anyone knew, even them. The ties between them were links they often messed with, and I knew they didn’t always see eye to eye, but there was no denying how much more restful they were since we’d knocked down the wall between my bedroom and Eli’s and had made this our room. One bed for all of us to share. One place for all of us to wake up.
Unless I went wandering in the middle of the night, of course.
If that was the case, then one of my guys would always go wandering with me.
I knew that was to keep me safe, not so that they could get some one-on-one time, but I figured it was a good opportunity for a bit of both, and I saw nothing wrong with that.
We were busy people, the leaders of a growing, powerful pack as shifters drifted toward us, seeking a home for their family, with an alpha and an omega who were fair and just. And I was only one woman. My nighttime forays were a way of keeping us all bound together, and even when it was cold like tonight, I knew that was why they never grumbled.
It was our time. No one else’s. And I knew they loved that as much as me.
When Ethan curved an arm over the swell of my belly, I felt the baby respond. He didn’t kick, just twisted inside me, like he was pushing into Ethan’s hand. Ethan let out a soft chuckle, because I knew all the men were getting used to the tactileness of our child. But he didn’t say anything, just anointed my cheek with a kiss, snuggled into me, then rested.
To the sounds of Eli stripping off and Austin clambering onto the bed behind his twin, I drifted off too.
Only to be awoken by a howl.
Berry.
I jerked upright as she howled into my mind, “Attack. Twenty of them. Useless. Traitors.”
The disjointed words had me rubbing my temple.
Useless?
What did she mean by that?
And traitors?
Then, it hit me.
The old councilors. The women who’d always sniped at me, the men who were bitter about being replaced with everyday folk in the pack… she’d always called them ‘useless’ because they were all talk and no action.
I sent my thoughts to my mates, and when they slid into wakefulness, already half-cocked for a fight, I knew I’d never seen anything hotter than the three of them pumped up with an aggression I’d only ever witnessed when there was a challenge. We’d had a few of them since Eli had turned the pack on its head, but this was different.
This was underhanded.
This was not how the pack worked.
“Stay here,”