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“There are five wolves in my father’s generation.”
“How is that relevant?”
“I told you this pack was on its last legs. Well, I guess that’s ten legs.”
“Or twenty.”
“Right.”
“I thought we were doing bad,” she said with a shudder.
“Thus everyone’s obsession with witches. My father scored one, and his power outshone everyone. Yes, they feared her, but they were also jealous of him, especially when he had two children with wolves. They didn’t know about my slight problem then.”
“How did your father hook up with a witch?”
The path evened out, and he could see his house in the distance. “We thought the same about witches as the rest of the world, that they were dangerous. But my mother was on the run. She stole a prize stallion from her coven and was trying to hide him.”
“Blue Roan?”
“His daddy, yeah. So she searched for a wolf pack, the one place her coven would never follow. Malcolm, that’s my brother, and I are proof positive that the myths are wrong.”
She crossed her arms. “They’re not wrong. They’re just incomplete. There were plenty of years where we were enemies.”
He nodded once. She had more caused to think that than probably any witch alive today. He focused on the view out past her shoulder.
“Where is your brother?”
He fought a new grief at the brother who’d tried to stand between his wolf and the pack for so many years. He’d been the first to notice.
“He got out of dodge.” As soon as the wards on his house were finished, Malcolm took himself off. He was convinced that once he was gone, Aiden’s wolf would calm down. It hadn’t worked, but he was already gone. “He runs a stable out west. He was the smart one. Look what happens to the wolves who stay.”
“This is going to come out wrong,” she said slowly.
He glanced down at her in surprise. “What?”
“If your father is alpha, how did he let those kids get so wild?”
“He isn’t alpha.”
“What? You said he outshined everyone.”
“Magically, yeah, but his wolf isn’t dominant. He couldn’t hold a pack.” And didn’t that annoy the others every day of their lives? The submissive wolf landed the witch.
“That’s a thing?”
“What, that some wolves are more dominant than others? It’s the same with humans, right?”
She laughed outright at that one, and suddenly he wondered why she wasn’t leading her coven. She was certainly dominant enough, but maybe witches didn’t think like that. He scoffed; all humans thought like that, often more than wolves in his experience. Wolves figured out where they stood and enjoyed their lives. Humans jockeyed forever.
“Why aren’t you alpha?” she asked.
His wolf perked up within him. “Aside from the insignificant problem? My wolf isn’t dominant either.”
“Bullshit,” she said with such conviction, he laughed.
“It’s as submissive as my father’s. It’s also aggressive as hell, probably because it feels the need to bow down to every powerful wolf.”
“But they fear you.”
