Terrified, he nosed at her neck. "Anya?"
She was sobbing uncontrollably.
Was she in labor already? Fang exchanged a baffled look with Liam who came up behind them. "What is it?"
"Orian . . ."
"What about him?"
Anya pawed at the ground as if in utter agony. "He's dead."
Fang tried to soothe her. "No, he was hit with a Taser."
She shook her head in denial. "No, he's dead. I know it. I can feel it."
"You're just pregnant and upset."
She gave him a look so hostile and agonized that it shook him to his soul. "We're bonded mates, Fang. He's dead. I can feel it."
Fang couldn't breathe as those words tore through him. Bonded . . .
When two Were-Hunters bonded together, they melded their life forces into one. It was an act of ultimate love and loyalty that meant when one of them died, they both died.
The only exception being if the woman was pregnant. Then her life was elongated, but only until the babies were born. Once the last one was safely delivered, the mother would join her mate in eternity.
Anya was going to die.
Fang struggled to breathe as those words slammed into him with talons that dug so deep into his soul that it was all he could do to remain standing. "Why would you do such a thing?"
She lunged at him, biting him hard. "I loved him, you stupid idiot. Why else?" She howled, a baleful, haunting sound. The cry of a wolf in utter agony.
Leaning his head back, he joined her and let loose his own pain.
His sister was going to die. . . . And there was nothing he could do.
Anya broke off to continue crying. "How can he be dead? How?"
But Fang didn't hear her words. All he could do was see her dead and limp. See her pups as they looked to him for stories of a mother they'd never know.
How could this be?
They would be just like him. They would have that hole deep inside them that nothing ever filled. The question of what it would have been like to be loved. To have a mother who cared for them and nursed them.
Turning human, he pulled her into his arms and held her as his own tears brimmed. "I won't leave them alone, Anya. Ever. They will want for nothing."
Except you and their father.
Those words choked him and succeeded in breaching his control. Against his will, his tears flowed. Embarrassed, he hid his face against her neck and held her for everything he was worth. It wasn't supposed to be like this. His brother and sister were the only constants in his life.
They were his only solace.
And now to lose one . . . it was more than he could stand.
He held her close, rocking her for hours, unaware of anything else. It was only when Vane returned at dawn that he realized how much time had elapsed.
Vane approached them slowly. "What's wrong?"
Fang grappled with a way to tell him gently. Anya was asleep now, but there was no such solace where he was concerned. He tightened his fist in her white fur and decided there was no way to sugar-coat the truth that would shatter Vane the same way it'd shattered him. "Did you know Anya had bonded with Orian?"