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“Is he our enemy?” I ask, but it’s more of a rhetorical question than anything.
Ryan is not Ryan Tartan, not even a little bit.
Ryan Grey is practically our brother. You know, if you take into account the way genetics work with children of identical siblings. He was a Wolfe, no matter the surname that he’s claimed, until they destroyed our family.
Now, he and the rest of the Grey’s are nothing to me. They’re worthless, they’re spineless, and they deserve losing their son—their heir.
Ryan’s father—my Uncle—had fallen in love with another woman and broke away from the harem with my dads. When my mum came along, he rejected her place in his life, refusing to mate with anyone but my auntie.
The only reason it was permitted by my grandparents, despite breaking the spiritual bond that fate herself put into place, was because the woman he fell in love with was a female born wolf with no living mate. They’ve made a very formidable couple.
It was too painful for my parents to be around them, though—for my mum in particular—so he split from our pack and took over hers.
After a while, they managed to have an almost civil relationship as children were born. I grew up with my cousins, I knew them, I loved them. They were our family.
But they’ve since made themselves into our enemy. Anything we do, my uncle tries to do better. Any move we make, he tries to undercut and act like he and his pack are better than ours. He’s moulded Ryan into his image, and it’s one of the biggest reasons I won’t mindlessly obey my own fathers.
I am my own man, and I know how to fight for what is right. Ryan didn’t.
And when my uncle let her die… he solidified his fate and that of all his offspring.
They failed to protect her.
I won’t make that same mistake. Not with my mate. Not with my child.
Phoebe and Maia are everything, and I won’t let another Wolfe female fall to the same fate.
“Not now. Not ever,” Orion echoes.
“What the fuck do we do now?” Alex hisses, his eyes flickering colours as he holds Max back. “How do we explain this to Maia? How do we…” He trails off glancing at the photo.
Seb’s jaw is clenched, and I can smell the anger pouring from my usually reserved brother. Ben isn’t even hiding his, but I can also sense some curiosity from him.
We’re not impressed, and I just know this will be the final straw for Maia.
She already struggles with us and the bond… but to know we’re related to the man who… to know we’re related to Phoebe’s father, to her fiancé…
“We don’t,” I decide, sitting up straight.
“We don’t?” Seb echoes, his voice low and dangerous. He doesn’t agree.
“Nobody can know about Ryan being Ryan,” I say, looking at each of my brothers in turn. Ben’s nod is quick, Seb doesn’t react, and Alex purses his lips but dips his head ever so slightly. “We’ve always vowed that we would protect ourselves—that vow includes our mate and our child. We cannot share who he is.”
But worse than acknowledging it to Maia is acknowledging it to my parents and sisters. This changes the game completely, and we can’t let Phoebe fall prey to the wishes of the elders who have already run this family into the ground.
Nobody can know the truth, or we will have a fight on our hands. They’ll try to take her, I just know it.
“She still won’t let us call ourselves the dad,” Ben says with a frown.
“Just because she can’t understand the depth of our connection doesn’t mean we’re as ignorant. We know that Phoebe is ours, that she’s our pup,” I say gently. “Maia needs more time to get to know us, and to come to terms with our place in her life. But, in the meantime, that doesn’t mean we’re going to let them get their hands on another female wolf—on our pup. They harmed one Wolfe. They won’t harm another.”
“They won’t harm another,” my brothers echo.
How the fuck fate thought this would work out is beyond me.
11
MAIA
