Page 48

“What if we could both have her?” Edmond called after him.

Aubert froze, two steps from exile. He did a slow turn to face his brother.

Both?

The more Edmond thought about it, the more the idea made sense to him. Standing on the other side of the training room door as his brother had kissed their mate, he had not raged at Aubert. Not at all. He had wanted to join them. With his cock harder than the stone walls surrounding him, it had hit him with the blinding force of a lightning strike. What if…? The possibility had burned a path through his mind, setting his body on fire. What if they did something never before done in the history of the Langeais wolves? His heart had pounded in his ears like a herd of stampeding animals. What if they shared her?

Twice now, fate had gifted them with the same mate. Once might be a mistake, but twice… Perhaps this was how it was always meant to be. Two wolves, one mate.

Would Gaharet approve? If this was what fate intended, did it matter? But this…option, it would give them more than hope. It would give them a way forward.

Aubert’s eyes were wide and his mouth agape, yet his scent held a hint of intrigue. His brother was not discounting the idea.

“Think about it, Aubert. Isobella will not have to choose. Neither you nor I would have to forsake a mate.” And their bond, built on their shared pain, their grief, would remain intact. They could build on it. With Isobella.

“You are suggesting we…?”

It defied logic and laws and pack tradition. Never had two wolves taken one mate. If it were any other man, a stranger, even another of his pack touching his mate, bedding her, Edmond would have wanted to rip their arms off. With Aubert, his twin, if she belonged to neither one nor the other, but both of them… A sense of rightness settled behind his breastbone, the calm acceptance of his wolf adding to his certainty.

“Why not? What does your wolf think?”

Aubert’s focus turned inward, his frown deepening. “My wolf is…calm. More than calm.”

The surprise in Aubert’s voice was unmistakable. As with Edmond, the thought of sharing his mate with his twin did not repulse him as he would have imagined.

“What about Gaharet?”

“She is our mate, and I know of no pack law it would violate. Do you?”

Aubert considered his question. “No. But would he approve?”

Edmond shrugged. “It is uncustomary, but it is a solution. How could he not approve? Not when refusing could lead to something far worse. If you and I are in agreeance…” This could work. He and Aubert could make it work. Gaharet’s approval was but a formality, an acknowledgment he was their alpha. Nothing more.

Aubert quirked an eyebrow. “Lothair?”

Edmond chuckled. “It would cause quite a stir at court, but he need not know. It is not as if our pack has not kept secrets from him in the past.” No, Gaharet and Lothair were not the challenge. “The only approval we need is hers.”

Aubert’s expression fell. “It is too late.”

Edmond strode toward him and grasped his shoulders. “No, it is not.”

Aubert pulled away. “You were not there when…”

His brother hung his head. When Aubert had worked her so hard she had all but collapsed from exhaustion? Edmond had not needed to be. Seated by the fire, determined to afford Aubert the time alone with Isobella he had had the previous day, Isobella’s weakening resolve and burgeoning defeat had been difficult to ignore. The keep reeked of it. Gaharet had said naught, but he had thrummed with his concern, stronger as the day wore on. “You were trying to influence her decision.”

The truth of it was in the hunch of Aubert’s shoulders. “She had to choose.”

“And you thought to make her choose me.” That his brother would make such a sacrifice for him tore at his heart. “All is not lost. You kissed her, and she did not push you away. That is a good sign. She but needs a chance to know the real you. The Aubert I know. The Aubert who was willing to sacrifice his own happiness for me, for her. Give her a chance.”

“But—”

“We will show her. Together.”

Aubert raked a hand through his hair. “What if she—?”

“No. No.” Edmond would not have it. “It is the two of us, or neither of us.”

Aubert gaped at him. “You would forsake the chance to have a mate? To claim Isobella? After what I did? I almost killed you.”

“Aubert, I forgave you for that a long time ago. It is long past time you forgave yourself.” He clasped his brother’s face in his hands and leaned his forehead against his. “You are my brother. My twin. It is the two of us, or neither of us. I would not have it any other way.”