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He shrugs. “A wolf is the best thing that could’ve ever happened to her. Phoebe is a very lucky girl.”
“Enough, Topher,” Alex says, giving his brother a piercing look, but the dickhead, of course, refuses to acknowledge it. Alex shakes his head, his frustration clear to see. “Maia, look at me. Ignore the others, just for a minute.”
It’s hard to do that. Christopher incites my anger, and Ben makes me cautious. He’s very overeager, extremely excitable, and has very little boundaries or understanding of social norms.
Seb’s hard to ignore because he’s so focused on my daughter that I can barely glance at her without catching sight of him, too. It’s almost like he’s on guard, patiently waiting for a threat to emerge before he shows me his dangerous side.
“We are in a very precarious state right now as a quad,” Alex says. “And whilst finding you is the absolute ultimate blessing, we wish we were more secure so that we can protect you—to protect you both.”
“I don’t understand. I’m not… I’m not a blessing.”
“You’re the ultimate blessing, Maia,” Alex replies, and his eyes are bright silver when he says this. There’s no voice change, like when Orion took over before, so I can’t tell whether the words come from him or his wolf… but they’re nice to hear, either way.
I take a small sip of my drink to avoid replying. This situation isn’t what I expected. Not at all.
“Our female birth population is low,” Alex continues. “Every single year as a species, we have fewer females being born, and whilst, to some, it’s not majorly problematic, it has become a status thing. The more born female wolves a pack has, the better its overall ranking.”
“I’m not keyed up on the politics of werewolves,” I snark. “So, you’ll need to dumb this down further for me. Why do we care about the ranking of a pack?”
“It determines everything,” Christopher says, looking straight over the top of my head. His perfect jaw is clenched, and I can feel his tenseness. “If my fathers were challenged tomorrow by an outside alpha, and they drew, the determining factor would be the ranking of our pack. If we were low ranking, we could lose our homes, our status as the future alphas, and even lose our pack completely, all because we’re not strong enough to care for our born females.”
“And whilst we’re not in the middle ages anymore, where that was a common occurrence, it does still come into play today. It affects our tradings, our democracy, and our wealth. We’ve got a modest sized pack—312 wolves—and of those wolves, we have nineteen born females.”
“Is that a good number?”
“Yes,” Alex says with a nod. “But that’s the reason that you’re in danger—that we need to protect Phoebe.”
My eyes widen as a chill runs down my spine. “She’s a born female wolf.”
“She is. There’s a current… movement in our world that we strongly oppose.”
“Strongly,” Seb adds with a deep growl. His eyes lock with mine like he’s telling me something. I just don’t understand what.
The spell between us is broken when Alex starts speaking again. “The movement is for all female wolves to be mated at sixteen to the most… virile members of the pack in an effort to take advantage of their most fertile times and try to boost our numbers.”
Panic fills me, and my eyes dart to Phoebe, who is sleeping so peacefully. Every so often she makes a little grunting sound as she adjusts herself, and it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.
How could… how could that be her future?
She’d still be a child—my child.
“At sixteen they’re still children.” I’m mortified, and I can’t believe this is something parents need to worry about.
Fuck, I can’t believe this is something parents are considering.
“We know,” Alex says softly. “And we’re very opposed to the idea. However, there are other packs who are strong advocates for it, Maia. That is why you being with us is so imperative. It’s why we need to know about Ryan, so we can identify his pack and see if there’s a danger there.”
I frown and turn to Christopher, wondering if this is why he wanted us out of there so badly. “Your parents? Where do they stand on this issue?”
“Undetermined,” Alex says, and Christopher clenches his jaw. “There are quite a few… risky plans that are being floated around to try and raise our numbers, but none of the others are quite this illegal.”
“Why is the low birth numbers even an issue?” I ask, burrowing further into the warmth of my sofa. I’m clutching my hot chocolate but can’t calm my anxious stomach enough to take another sip.
“I, personally, didn’t think it was an issue,” Alex replies.
“Until?”
“Until a lot of babies born from a human and wolf match were unable to shift, and that trend has been increasing,” Christopher says. “Female numbers have been on a decline for the last fifty or so years, but it’s only been this last decade where they’ve been at an all-time low.”
