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I freeze above her and lift my head, tuning into my wolf senses. Sable has that effect on me—makes me forget who I am, what I’m capable of. Shit, I don’t care about anything when she’s around if it doesn’t make her happy.
Clearly, since someone’s pounding on the front door, and I was too much in a fog of lust to notice.
Adrenaline spurs me to action, and I launch to my feet and slip into the hallway, snatching up our clothes. As we’re both quickly getting cleaned up and dressed, the knocking stops, and I exchange confused glances with Sable. But a moment later, I hear voices from the front yard.
Dare, Archer, and Ridge are back.
I don’t bother with shoes. Sable trails me to the front door, though I motion for her to stay back and out of sight. Like she’s going to fucking listen to me. She’s as bullheaded as a recently transitioned shifter.
And I love her for it.
I throw the door open and step out onto the low, concrete stoop. Dare, Archer, and Ridge are standing in a semi-circle in front of a woman I recognize.
“Amora!” Sable says as she appears at my elbow. As the other woman turns to the sound of her name, she covers her eyes and squeaks, “Naked Amora!”
I sometimes forget that the woman my wolf has claimed didn’t grow up in our world. I’m so used to shifters walking around naked that it’s just second nature to ignore nudity. Sable’s life was so sheltered, she’s probably fucking scandalized by the open way we free-ball it.
Amora gives her a little wave. “Hey, Sable! Sorry for the naked part.”
“What are you doing here?” Sable brushes past me and joins them on the lawn, ignoring my command to stay put in the house.
I should’ve expected that. No use fighting her on it. That’s my mate, all five-foot-nothing and loaded with stubborn independence. I follow her to the group, wondering myself just what brought a North Pack wolf into this territory.
“Trouble in the North Pack,” Amora says. “I was just telling Ridge…” She turns to the man in question with a grimace. “Lawson is making a move to take over. You have to come back.”
“Son of a bitch,” Ridge curses with a snarl. “On what grounds?”
“That you don’t put the pack first.” Amora rolls her eyes, her dark hair glinting in the sunlight. “You never put yourself first, so it’s the most asinine reason I’ve ever heard. But between you and me, I think he’s just reaching for a decent excuse so the rest of the pack doesn’t clue in to what a fuckwad he is. He’s been skulking around sowing discord since the moment you left.”
Fury emanates from Ridge like a living thing. He paces away, breathing deeply as if he’s reining in his anger before he speaks again. “That asshole,” he growls, returning to us and swiping a hand through his hair. “I knew he’d pull this. Cowardly piece of shit.”
I can’t help but agree with him. His brother is an idiot and an asshole, and even I know Lawson wouldn’t do fuck-all for the good of the pack. The only reason he would try to usurp Ridge’s station is because he’s selfish and wants more control and power.
And that’s a problem in our world. Young pups get this diabolical idea in their heads that the alpha is equal to supreme power, when that’s not even a little bit true. The alpha isn’t a dictator—he’s a leader. These kids grow up equating power with the alpha role, and they’d never make it in the real world, leading a pack. Alphas can’t be selfish, not if they want their packs to be safe.
“I have to go back,” Ridge says, putting a halt to his pacing as he returns to our group. “I’m so sorry… I can’t let this stand.”
“Of course,” Sable soothes, her small hands sliding up his arms. “The pack has to come first.”
I’m thinking of Sable’s bravery this morning as she stood up to me and called me an asshole. I’m thinking of how I push people away and never consider other people’s points of view. So before I can change my mind, I speak up. “We’ll go with you. All of us. As a team.”
Archer and Ridge both turn to stare at me as if I’ve started exhibiting symptoms of witchcraft. Even Dare looks taken aback. Sable, however, just gives me a knowing smile and a proud nod.
“We’ll all go,” she agrees, kissing my cheek so that my entire body runs warm from her affection. “As a team.”
Ridge is a mass of tension and fury, so I offer to carry Sable on my back this time. He tries to argue—like he has some kind of claim on carrying her—but she pulls him off to the side and soothes him in that special way she has.
After we strip and shift, I lean down on my front legs like I’ve seen Ridge do before, giving Sable a better angle to climb up. It takes her a few tries to get a grip, but then she swings up and over my shoulder blades and settles in for the ride.
It’s… weird. I’ve never carried anyone on my back before. It’s not something we do. We aren’t horses or pack mules. But Sable feels warm and comfortable clinging to my fur, like she belongs there. Belongs with me.
We fall into a sprint with Ridge and Amora leading the charge back toward North Pack lands. I think it’s pretty telling how the female shifter came all this way to retrieve him—how she watched out for him in his absence. I do a lot of judging about the other alphas, but somehow, I gloss right over the way their packs are loyal to them. Ridge must be doing something right to have such a staunch supporter.
When we arrive, the windows of the council house radiate light in the early evening. It’s strange to be here again. The last time I set foot in the place, my wolf claimed Sable. It feels like a million fucking years have passed since that day.
As we near the council house, I can see through the open windows that the whole pack seems to be milling around inside. Someone’s yelling incoherently, while a number of other voices are arguing, and even more voices are attempting to soothe troubled waters.
Sable slips from my neck to the ground, and I immediately shift back into my human form. She’s already passing out our clothes from her backpack.
