Page 21 of The Werewolf’s Wrong Mate

A scrape behind the teeth.

I breathed through it.

Control was not calm. Calm was for creatures that had never wanted to rip the world open and step through the wound. Control was choosing the exact second not to.

Malrec raised a basin over the altar and the moonwine caught the light.

My wolf went still.

I smelled salt. Smoke. Crushed rosemary. Old blood in the stone beneath my feet. Fear from the younger wolves pressed near the hedge. Ambition from Silas. Anger from Ronan, buried under command.

Then something bitter slid beneath it all, making my hand closed.

Ronan noticed.

“What?” he asked.

I kept my eyes on the basin. “Something is wrong.”

His face didn’t change. Alphas learned early to take bad news without feeding the room. “Wrong how?”

“I do not know.”

“That is not enough.”

“It is enough for me.”

“It cannot be enough for them.”

Of course.

Law needed proof. Ceremony needed witnesses. Instinct had saved more lives than both, but instinct didn’t wear robes or sign treaties.

Malrec dipped two fingers into the wine. Steam rose pale from the bowl and the bitter scent disappeared.

My wolf didn’t relax, hell neither did I.

Across the circle, Silas Thorne smiled and I marked the distance between us. Twenty-seven paces. Nineteen if I shifted halfway. Eleven if he panicked and moved toward Ronan instead of away. The blade at Malrec’s hip would slow me by half a breath if he got it out clean.

He would not.

Ronan stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Do not make me force you into that circle.”

I looked at him.

“You cannot force me anywhere,” I said.

Several wolves heard and Ronan’s eyes darkened.

My brother was Alpha because he was strong, ruthless, and smart enough not to test strength for vanity. He could command the pack. He could order my death if I turned on them. He could make the hard choice and live with it.

He could not make my body submit if my wolf refused. We both knew it. That truth stood between us with its teeth showing.

Then Ronan said the only thing that could still reach me. “Please.”

Brother, not Alpha.

“Do not ask me for more than this,” I said.