made his request all the more peculiar.
I bit my lip as the other alpha rasped, “It is the way of the pack.”
“The way of my family was to beat their womenfolk, to subjugate them—does that make it right? Simply because it is the way things are done?”
He flinched at that, and I saw his hackles rise. His shoulders hunched up, his eyes narrowed, and all around him, those silvery wisps that had been responding to her, turned a kind of blood red. It filtered into the silver, tainting it all pink, but before I could be alarmed at his swift temper, a wash of white and blue made an appearance.
Calm.
Control.
“He lives?”
Lara tipped her head to the side. “Who? My father?” At his nod, she shook her head. “No. He’s dead. He died a long time ago.”
“Not long enough.”
Lara laughed a little. “It depends on your perspective. My mother thought the sun rose and set on him. To her, it’s always night now.”
The statement was spoken with a candor I knew defined Lara, especially when she was with someone she trusted, but the words hit me.
For the first time in my life, I knew I understood how my mother felt.
The sun rose and set on my mates, but the truth was, if any of them so much as laid a hand on Knight, I’d stab them next. I was of her blood, but I was not her.
And Lara proved she wasn’t either, wasn’t like our father, because she whispered, “Just because something is the way, a part of your culture, doesn’t make it right. Doesn’t mean you have to abide by it.” Her hand smoothed over his chest, up to his jaw. “He deserves a second chance. The chance to not be his father. To be raised by good, strong men, who’ll make sure he doesn’t repeat his father’s mistakes.”
Choi’s mouth firmed, but he cut me a look. “How can you promise that? How can you say that he won’t turn into his father and that he won’t seek vengeance on the Rainford pack?”
I frowned at him. “Surely, the way to have him look for revenge is to toss him out of the place he calls home?”
His eyes narrowed, and the skin on his high cheekbones pulled taut as he glanced at Lara. “I wish the child no harm.”
I knew that was more for her benefit than mine.
But I’d take it.
If Lara could use her guile as a mate on him, I’d take it all the way to the bank, because losing Daniel would be like losing Joshua.
And I couldn’t go through that again.
Austin
I stared up at the ceiling as Sabina stretched a little, her body tensing as her arm moved the barest fraction before she immediately settled down.
In the ‘C’ of her arms, the open part of the letter bridged me, and as was always the way, it amazed me how she never moved, how she always kept Knight clasped to her without it interfering with her sleep.
A more natural mother I’d yet to meet, and that was confirmed tonight when she’d unofficially claimed Daniel as her own.
Of course, the words hadn’t been spilled, but I wasn’t a moron. I didn’t need to hear them to know that they were the way of it.
Daniel was, in her eyes, hers. She’d taken him under her wing from the start, seeing to him in ways that few she-wolves would ever do for a child who wasn’t their own.
I didn’t like kids. Not really. They were noisy and bratty, took up a lot of attention and were hard work.
But the kid in me who’d been tossed out like yesterday’s trash? Whose mother didn’t love him enough to hold onto him? Whose adopted mother hadn’t given that much of a shit about him, even if the alpha had to have been paying her a lot of cash to keep Ethan and I fed and watered?
That part was rocked to its marrow by her actions.
The sweetest, purest gratitude for her, for everything that she was, had me restless as my brothers dozed, as my mate slept, and my son wriggled between us.
Knight was on his back, but in the faint light as dawn approached, I saw his eyes were open. Heard his coos. It was impossible not to reach down to have him tug on my finger, impossible not to watch over him as though he were the crown jewels and a cat burglar had threatened him.
When he was quiet, I could admit to being