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“I guess he would have been our alpha if he hadn't been so broken, so it makes sense he’d be strong. But not that strong…” Shaw trailed off.
“We need to figure out what’s going on with Amelia and Liam. Why they are… the way they are.” Sometimes I wondered if the two of them had some deep-rooted connection.
Maybe Amelia had always been meant to be Liam’s mate, but then Brennan had become alpha instead. I’d never questioned the way mating worked before. Two wolves met, they had an intense bond—for better or worse—and if they lost their mate, opinions varied on whether a shifter could ever truly love again. It had always seemed simple enough.
But since meeting Amelia, I’d realized I didn’t actually know shit.
“Sometimes I wonder if he really was broken,” Shaw mused, and I stared at him, taking a second to pick up the conversation when I’d been focused on Amelia. “Maybe we are the ones that are too fucked up.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“Just saying.” Shaw rapped his knuckles on the table and stood. “I’m going to see how Amelia’s family is settling in.”
I snorted. “I don’t like there beingmoreof them here.”
“Sooner or later, we’re going to have to deal with the Longroad pack.”
“I have. I will.”
“Not just by killing,” Shaw paused. “Maybe you need to bring the survivors into the fold. Give them something instead of just taking away their alpha and their warriors. Win them over.”
“Win them over?” I repeated. “You’re my brother, and you don’t even like me. I’m not winning them over.”
Shaw’s lips curled up at the edges, but I wasn’t joking. The Longroad pack would always be dangerous to us… wouldn’t they? Maybe if they paid dearly enough, the survivors would raise their kids to stay the hell out of our way instead of seeking revenge.
“I like you occasionally. And I always love you, even though you’re a dickhead.” Shaw said the words cheerfully, easily, as if we were the kind of family that ever said we loved each other.
I didn’t know what to say in return—especially with Teresa sitting across from me, doodling on her notes and yawning—so I just nodded my head. Shaw stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked out.
Fuck. Add that to the list of situations I could’ve handled better. Maybe if Teresa hadn’t been here.
When the door slammed behind Shaw, Teresa threw her pen down. She used to love drawing when we were kids, and she wasn’t as good as she used to be, but her paper was covered in abstract kaleidoscopes of shapes. “I'm going to be really glad when we go destroy the Longroad pack instead of having all these conversations about feelings.”
I grunted. We spent the next few hours busy, getting reports from our spies that were trying to watch the Weston pack after everything they had tried to do to Amelia. We needed to know who was acting as the leadership from the Longroad pack and if Nathan was hiding somewhere, we needed to find him and root him out. If Liam could be believed--he meant well but I wasn't sure he knew what the truth was sometimes—then Nathan was hiding somewhere but in no condition to be seen by other packs who would take his weakness as opportunity.
There it was no room for weakness in the packs with the ongoing wars between the alphas. That's why I needed Cole's help to quash the rebellion here in my own pack.
Teresa’s gaze flicked up as a new shifter entered the command center. She carried with her an unfamiliar scent, filled with that Longroad musk of rain.
A teenage girl with long, light brown hair and an uncertain expression faced us.
Teresa glanced at me uncertainly and then turned to her. “Amelia's sister.”
She cleared her throat, looking anxious, but her voice came out clear and strong and she said, “Rose.”
“Alright. Well, I don't know if in your old pack you would have just walked into the alphas office, but that's not how we do things here.” Teresa sounded stern but not angry as she stood from her seat and moved toward Rose.
Rose's gaze jerked over her shoulder and met mine, and she swallowed as our eyes locked on each other’s. She looked very much like a younger version of Amelia.
She looked like she had a weak grip on her terror, so I didn't stand. Instead, I leaned back in my chair. “But Rose has something she wants to say to me. Don't you, Rose?”
Teresa hesitated.
Rose’s voice came out in a whisper I couldn’t even hear. One stern look from Teresa, and she cleared her throat, then tried again. This time the word was soft, but audible. “I do, alpha.”
Christ, was this just because she was in an enemy pack? Or was it a symptom of how Nathan Longroad had treated his pack?
I put my foot on the chair nearest me and pushed it out from the table.
