have one with me. They just always thought it was because I was the strongest in the pack, that they were tied to me through our wolves, and their wolves knew I was the more dominant of them all.
“But I knew otherwise. I’ve always watched over them and given them things to do to keep them out of trouble.”
I peered up at him, settling my side into him. I could feel his abs against the flat of my palm, and he was literally muscle everywhere. With a face like the 49ers’ quarterback, Eli was one of the three most beautiful men on the planet by looks alone, but this went deeper.
His eyes were a thousand shades of green. His nose was strong, Roman, but it led to tawny brows that shadowed the crevices of his eyes, giving him a darkness that could be spooky if you were on his bad side.
His mouth was so soft, so kissable, but his smile and those eyes? Kind. They held traces of both, even though I knew his temper was quick to stir. Hadn’t I seen that at the council meeting?
I thought about that, even as I reached up and traced his bottom lip.
While he tensed some, I felt his control clamp down. Felt it in how his entire being grew rock-hard—his dick included. Until, out of nowhere, he began to soften.
I’d already known the three of them had impeccable control, but to literally feel him control his fucking erection?
I wasn’t sure whether I was impressed or wanted to pout.
Just being in his arms, on his lap, made me feel a whole helluva lot better though.
I almost stopped touching him because I didn’t want him to think I was leading us somewhere I genuinely wasn’t ready for, but his control gave me the freedom I needed to take a time out, something I wanted with him. Here, like this.
So I tucked my face against his throat as I nestled my head against his shoulder, and murmured, “I can’t imagine them as troublemakers.”
He chuckled. “That’s because you didn’t see them when they were fourteen. Rebekkah had no control over them. My father was a dick to do what he did. He had to know that alpha children need more care than the lesser ranks.”
My brows rose at that. “They do?”
“Yeah. Especially from the same gendered parent. For them to have to do without their father, an alpha, was really hard, and I tried to pick up the strain, but there was only so much I could do.”
“Why?”
“Because father loathed them.” He sucked in a breath. “Now that I have you, I kind of understand, but after last night’s conversation, I was thinking about it, and I realized that if you needed a fourth mate to ground you, if you were truly so powerful that it kept you sane and healthy? I’d deal with it, even if I truly hope it never happens. I’d have to. For you.
“Which,” he grunted, “tells me that my father was a prick, and while I always knew that, it sucks because I did love him. He was a good father to me, but he was a shit alpha for the pack.”
“You can right his wrongs,” I rasped, feeling his irritation and wanting to soothe him.
“I can only try.” He sighed. “Anyway, when they were fourteen, they’d get into the worst shit in school. I had to take them under my wing—had no choice, or they’d have been expelled. Pulling stupid pranks—”
“Ethan?” I jerked back to gape at him. “Ethan was pulling pranks?”
“He wasn’t always the Tin Man he looks like now,” he said dryly. “Back then, he was a real piece of work.”
“What changed?”
He shrugged. “A girl. He got all serious with someone, and then she found her mate. It made him turn to books.”
My nose crinkled at that. “I’m jealous. How stupid is that?”
He shrugged. “Not stupid.” He pulled a similar move as I had earlier—ran his finger along my bottom lip—then he tapped it. “I wish you’d never lost your child, sweetheart, but my jealousy wishes that it’d been mine.”
My eyes prickled with tears. A few days ago, I’d probably have taken that the wrong way. But now? I got it.
I did.
They hadn’t come to me pure, and I wouldn’t be going to them the same way either, and we both accepted that, but it didn’t stop the wolves inside us from demanding more. Demanding everything.
Gnawing on my bottom lip, I rasped, “There’s an irony to the fact