“I really wanted to talk to you earlier, but our first night got interrupted, and my priorities had to change.”
The way he leans back and looks away makes me feel bad about everything he’s already endured for me.
“If she decided at the end of the week, that she wanted me, she would need to accept that I am in the military. I will get called away on missions. If we could get Rhysan back, then she would be on her own with him now and then.”
“I’m familiar with that. I’m used to being on my own.” I think back to Caden, to our brief time together before he was taken from me. “Most of my life, actually.”
Zorin guides a strand of hair from my eyes with a claw. “But I also can’t stand seeing my brother wandering the forest alone. He had everything. Then he had nothing. The pack prevented Jezza, his mate, from accessing the bunker Azrim and I had carved in the mountain for her and the others.
“She died in the community den, protecting my nephew from the falling debris of war. Then the pack took Azrim’s son and gave him to the pack leader’s daughter because she has milk to spare after losing one of her twins to an infection.”
A crack runs through my core. “I’m so sorry.”
Zorin licks his lips and looks down.
“Sounds like you just need formula and some modern medicine,” I offer. “Anyone can care for a pup that way.”
“Lunas don’t believe in that. They choose tradition over all things. We had lost our entire pack, so we were trying to survive by joining theirs because Jezza and Azrim were scent-bonded. They fought it for years. Until they couldn’t. Then Rhysan came along. The pack took us in, but I think now that was just a way to gain control of Rhysan after he was born.”
“What, like they let Jezza die because they wanted…control of him?” I ask.
Zorin gives me a wide-eyed look that tells me I’ve figured it out.
“So we get Rhysan back. I mean, you can’t tell me there’s a pup that’s in trouble and expect me to walk away from that.”
A small smile curls a corner of his mouth. “But there’s something else. My brother. Azrim was the one who kept the two of us together when we were younger, before we found the other rebels of our Aegeris-allied pack. I want him to come inside from the cold, stop his Night Stalking. I want us to be a family again. But, in Mindoran culture…”
“You claim your mate in front of the pack.”
“Yeah. Except he’s all I have.”
“You want to claim me in front of him?”
Zorin tilts his head. “Withhim.”
My pussy clenches in anticipation of such an idea. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I want you to be comfortable with him and him with you, because if I die, he will be the one who must bond with you and return to care for his son. But Azrim is a bit moody. Grouchy maybe is a better term.
“Sometimes he can be downright infuriating. But he’s my brother. Jezza saw in him what I did, the protector beneath his walls. He can be really tender. You should’ve seen him with Rhysan when he was first born. Azrim held him all night, just stared at him like nothing else in the world mattered. Only Rhysan. Now, all we have is silence and rejection scars.”
I run a hand over the marks on his cheek that cross his nose. “The alpha marked you?”
“That is our way. Carnas understands.”
I already hate their former leader. “Fuck that guy. If someone took Radar from me, I would probably put a bullet in them. If they hurt him, I would nothesitateto make it fatal.”
A grin toys with Zorin’s mouth. “So if we could’ve been together in another life, would you have considered being my mate and helping me put my family back together again?”
I’m not about to let him slip away from me. Mindoran culture sucks, and it’s clear that the Aegeris brothers aren’t like the rest of their kind. There isn’t enough Isonian blood in me, as weird as it is to think that, to have any concern of burning Zorin. “Inthislife. No one else is the boss of me. And I want you. So here’s what I propose…”
Zorin’s lips part like he isn’t familiar with breaking rules.
“I want you. I want to find a way to work this out. And I would rather wait until the end of time to be your mate than lose you forever when this week is over.”
Zorin rests his cheek to mine. “You can’t be serious.”
“Dead.”
