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It didn’t.
The red in his eyes leeched away, and all that remained was a scared seventeen-year-old boy in front of me, face wet as he shook.
“I’m,” he croaked out. “I don’t— Oh god, oh—”
Kelly moved first. He pushed past Carter and pressed himself against Joe, rubbing his nose near Joe’s ear and into his hair. Joe’s fists were still clenched at his sides as Kelly wrapped his arms around him. He was stiff and unyielding, eyes wide and on me.
Carter came then too. He took both his brothers in his arms, whispering quietly to them words I couldn’t make out.
Joe never looked away from me.
They slept that night on the floor, the floral-print comforter and pillows pulled from the bed and made into a little nest. Joe was in the middle, a brother on either side. Kelly’s head rested on his chest. Carter’s leg was thrown over the both of them.
They slept first, exhausted from the assault on their minds.
I sat on the bed above, watching over them.
It was late into the night when Joe said, “Why is this happening to me?”
I sighed. “It had to be you. It was—” I shook my head. “You’re the Alpha. It was always going to be you.”
His eyes glittered in the dark. “He came for me. When I was little. To get at my dad.”
“I know.”
“You weren’t there.”
“No.”
“You’re here now.”
“I am.”
“You could have said no. And I wouldn’t have been able to force you. Not like them.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Dad wouldn’t have done that. He wouldn’t have—”
“You aren’t your father,” I said, voice rougher than I expected.
“I know.”
“You are your own person.”
“Am I?”
“Yes.”
“You could have said no. But you didn’t.”
“You need to keep them safe,” I told him quietly. “This is your pack. You are their Alpha. Without them, there is no you.”
“And what did you become? When there was no us?”
I closed my eyes.
He didn’t speak for a long time after that. The night stretched on around us. I
