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“No, we didn’t know. We were just suspicious,” Max clarified. “When Nick found out Wolf’s nickname, knowing every one of Maven’s secrets so far seems to lead back to one of our packs, he was worried and told me. He knew the name of Hunter’s brother from talking to us. We decided not to say anything until we could get them in a room together. It seemed like a lot to put on Hunter without knowing more. If that was wrong, I’ll apologize to him.”
“Sorry to spring that on you, too,” Max said, turning to Wolf. “Hunter’s reaction wasn’t really about you. His childhood was awful and filled with trauma. He told us once you felt like a ghost that haunted him in that house. So he’s feeling shocked and overwhelmed. He just found out Sam is his half brother, too, and neither of them ever knew. It’s a lot for him. Just give him a minute.”
“I’ve spent years feeling as if I failed him,” Wolf said, a quiet sadness haunting his words. “I’ll give him as long as he needs.”
He shifted his attention to Sam after a moment. “You’re his half brother?”
“Yeah,” Sam looked uncomfortable. “It was in my gramps’ letter. I only told him a few hours ago.”
“So does that make you my half brother too, if we all have the same father, but you have a different mother?”
“Yeah, it does. Welcome to our fucked up family,” Sam said with a grimace. Wolf smiled at Sam briefly before it flickered and died.
“Did Hunter run on you too?” Wolf asked, and his vulnerability almost broke me.
“No.” Sam looked pained. He glanced at the entryway before he dragged his eyes back to Wolf. “He hugged me. But I’m a shiny extra present under the Christmas tree. From the little he said this morning, I figure they held your supposed death over him his whole life. Finding out you’ve been alive this whole time can’t be easy for him.”
Wolf looked at Max, his eyes full of unspoken questions. “It was a lot worse than that. Your parents are assholes. They almost broke him, but it’s his story to tell. I will say, though, he rarely runs from things. Just let him get himself together. He’ll be back.”
I could feel sadness wash through me, but it felt disconcerting. As if it wasn’t my sadness. I shot a look at Wolf.All the emotions I’m feeling? Are they mine? Or Wolf’s? Is that even possible?
Ryder and I have always sensed each other in our twin bond, but we’ve never felt each other’s emotions before. Not like this.
“You just said Hunter is feeling shocked and overwhelmed, as if you could feel him. Can you?” I asked Max, my eyes not leaving Wolf. It was a strange question to ask someone, but these were strange times.
“Yeah, it’s a pack thing,” he said with a knowing smile. “It gets stronger when you’re bonding, or touching each other. After you claim your omega, you get a direct line to your pack mates’ emotions.”
“If you have a really deep connection, usually built over time or an extreme bonding event, the books say you can even hear each other,” Maia added.
“The books?” I asked.
“Yeah, there were an old series of illegal books about alphas and omegas in the library here. Until I stole them. One is about packs. I’ll lend it to you when Dave finishes reading it. I should probably return them. The omegas here are going to need all the help they can get now that they’re free and finally able to follow their instincts.”
I nodded. I definitely wanted to read those, so I knew what was coming at us. Ryder smirked at me, knowing my thought patterns and already being in tune with my emotions. I rolled my eyes at him.
“I’ve read the pack one already,” Ava said softly. Silent tears ran down her cheeks and dampened Wolf’s skin as she nuzzled into him. “I can help if you want to know more.”
“So can I,” Nick said. “My great grandma often told us stories about the old packs. I’ve picked up a lot over the years.”
It had been a long time since I had felt so clueless about anything. I’d spent years learning about everything that could give us an advantage in rescuing Ava. Yet learning about packs had never crossed my mind. Alphas and omegas living in packs had been a fairytale, made up stories. Yet, being here, I could see them working. I could feel bonds growing within my pack, even though we hadn’t claimed each other yet. It made me realize just how much we’d been missing out on as a society.
“Thank you,” I said, a little roughly. I wasn’t as open with my feelings as Ryder was. I’d always been a little more reserved. Nick winked at me, and Wolf patted my hand on his arm. I smiled at them both, feeling my tension ease.
I looked around the room, desperate to get the attention off me, when I noticed the box Maia’s pack had brought in with them. It looked cumbersome. I couldn’t imagine they were dragging it around without a good reason. A memory sparked, of my dad running to Ava’s uncle’s place after we told him what happened, and coming back with a similar-looking box. He’d buried it in the backyard.
“What’s in the box?”
“It’s how the Network contacts each other. We rescued it from my gramps’ farm just before Maven burned it down,” Sam said. “We really need to contact the Network, but we don’t know how to open it. Max wanted to keep working on it while we were all here.”
“Why are youallhere?“ Ava asked.
“Sam had to fly the chopper,” Lexie said. “Dio, Pala, and Dave did some complicated male negotiation thing to decide who was coming with me and who was staying to keep the farm secure.”
“I won,” Pala said proudly. “It only cost me a month of laundry duty.”
“None of my guys would let me go without them,” Maia shrugged. “They went next level possessive when we discovered my bun in the oven this morning.”
“We did not!” Leif exclaimed. “Our reactions were entirely normal.”
