by Marilu Mann
“Oh no, Brother, no throwing me under that bus. Olivia, my sister, I am deeply saddened that I was not able to attend your wedding to my brother and I am also saddened that I have not yet met my newest nephew. I’m sure that Micah has told you of my position. Only messages of the utmost urgency could have kept me from meeting you until now.” He took Olivia’s hand and kissed it then pulled her into a strong hug.
“Thank you for mating my brother. His life is complete with you in it.”
Olivia’s eyes were suspiciously damp when he let her go. “You’re forgiven.”
She gifted him with a huge smile then turned her gaze on Micah and Gareth. “Lunch is ready.”
Without another word she led the way into the lodge and the three males followed her. Kaj shot a glance at his brother and Gareth and grinned. “I’m in the clear but the two of you might be in the doghouse.”
Kaj laughed as they went into the kitchen where Olivia ladled up venison stew while Micah introduced Kaj to Talia and Miakoda. The next two hours sped by with the brothers exchanging stories while Kaj held his nephew. Talia had climbed into Gareth’s lap where she listened raptly as the adults talked.
Glancing at the clock, he planted a kiss on the child’s head and put her on her feet. “Kaj, it’s great to see you but I have to go.”
He stood to hold out his hand to Kaj. With a wry smile Kaj handed the baby over to Olivia and got to his own feet. “Before you leave, Gareth, I do have a Message.”
The atmosphere in the room changed with the emphasis he’d put on that one word. Kaj’s face turned solemn as he went to one knee in front of Micah.
“Brother mine, Alpha of the Wisconsin Wild Haven Lodge Pack. I bring you greetings from Jan Volpe, Alpha of the Oregon Wallowa Mountain Pack. Jan Volpe respectfully requests that you release your second, Gareth Volpe, to go temporarily to his birth Pack. Jan Volpe’s sister by marriage, MaryAnn, has fallen ill. She asks that her remaining children, her sons attend her. Both of her sons.”
Micah and Olivia both looked at Gareth as he growled. Without anything else being said Olivia gathered the children and left the kitchen. Micah stood next to Gareth, looking from his second to his brother.
“Gareth, were you aware of this?”
“Yes.” He had never lied to Micah and he didn’t intend to start now. “Rion was at my place yesterday.”
“Alpha, Rion made his presence known to his brother but not to you. He was not aware of his brother’s place in your Pack. He believed his brother to still be a lone wolf. Rion Volpe meant no disrespect.”
Gareth drew in a deep breath. Rion hadn’t asked the Alpha’s permission before coming onto Pack land? Shaking his head, he remembered how impulsive his brother had always been and how tight their bond had been. As with most identical twins they were almost always in sync. They had known each other’s thoughts, concerns, fears and dreams.
Only a crazy fucker like Curtis could have split them so permanently. He’d often referred to them as “bookends” and frequently set them against each other in various ways. Rion’s temper got them into trouble while Gareth’s calmness usually got them out. Until Curtis had set a shifter bitch between them.
Coming on to both brothers at Curtis’ order without letting either of them know, she’d led them both on a merry chase, holding firmly to both of them by their cocks. Using their own testosterone against them, Brenda had done a number on them both. They’d wound up in a Challenge that neither of them had escaped unscathed. Though Gareth had taken the worst of that. Curtis’ own bitch, Maggie, had been the one to lace the water they used to clean their wounds with silver nitrate. Maggie had caused his injuries to become permanent.
Shaking himself out of the past, Gareth looked at Micah. “Don’t make me go.”
“Gareth, this is your mother, your brother, your family. You need to make this right with your family. Do you really want to bring Harmony and Rain into more strife? They deserve better. I release you from your duties as my second until this is complete.” Micah clapped a hand on his shoulder then squeezed. Kaj got to his feet to put his hand on Gareth’s other shoulder.
“They don’t mean for you to stay permanently unless that is your wish. The members of your family simply want to reassure themselves that you are healthy. Your mother has asked about you many times.”
Gareth shook his head. “She cared more for Rion than for me. He was always her favorite.”
“And now you sound like a pup, not the second of my brother’s Pack.” Kaj shook his head. “Do not disgrace your Alpha. Accept what must be. Micah, with your permission, I’ll bring Rion Volpe here to formally ask for forgiveness for entering your territory without permission.”
“Do that. Now.”
There was a trace of something Gareth couldn’t define in Micah’s voice. Something akin to icy anger. He looked to his Alpha, who gave him the universal follow-me head jerk. They left Kaj at the kitchen table. Gareth followed Micah into his office.
“Micah, I—”
“Gareth, stop. I need to say this to you. I am sorry.” Micah’s eyes rounded with concern. “I had to release you not just for Pack peace but for your own. This thing with your birth Pack, with your brother, has damaged you far more than the loss of your eye. That? You have overcome that. But the inner damage goes deep. Do you want to be a whole wolf? Do you want to bring that damage to your mating with Harmony?”
“Mating with…Jesus, Micah!” Gareth slashed one hand through the air as if he could cut the words off. “I haven’t even asked. I’m not sure I’m going to ask. Whole? Me? I’ll never be whole.”
The bitter words hung in the silent room as Micah just looked at him. Gareth couldn’t take the silence, so he spoke again.
“Look at me, Micah. How can I take Harmony and Rain as mine? How can I offer myself to that beautiful woman? She told me last night it didn’t matter, but in the light of day? It matters. It will always matter.” He hung his head as the knowledge weighed on him. He’d never be a whole wolf. She should look elsewhere. He should…
Micah’s words echoed in the room. “Walk away then. Leave her now. Do not see her. Do not talk to her. Do not be near her even in a crowd. I could forbid…”
The words snarled out of him. “Don’t even think about it, Alpha. I wouldn’t obey. I’d desert this Pack first.”
The fury startled him but made Micah smile. “That is what I thought. It is a true bond, Gareth. And I believe you, which is why I would not make that judgment. Besides, you stubborn cur, I love you.”
Physical affection was common in the Pack but having it spoken like that wasn’t. He swallowed once, then twice, hard as his throat tightened. Micah moved to him to wrap him in his arms. No words were needed as he felt his Alpha’s warm strength.
They moved apart as they scented, then he heard Kaj coming down the hallway. Standing in the door, he looked away from Gareth. “Rion Volpe is at the door, Alpha.”
Gareth’s belly clenched as if from a fist hitting him dead center. His chest tightened. The scars on his face burned with memory. Micah nodded to Kaj. “Bring him to me.”
“Stand beside me, Gareth. He will know your worth to me.” Micah seemed to grow taller even though Gareth knew it to be a trick. As a tall man Micah didn’t always pull himself to his full height because he knew it could be intimidating. Now Micah stretched subtly up. He nudged Gareth with one shoulder. The physical contact felt good. Taking a deep breath, Gareth faced the man entering the room. Anger fluttered hot in his stomach.
Rion kept his gaze down, his attention seemingly on the floor, but Gareth knew he was very aware of everything in the room. Stopping a foot or so away from them, Rion went to his knees, hands loose by his sides, showing that he held nothing.
“Speak.” Micah’s voice was deceptively soft. Gareth heard the control and wondered if anyone else did.
“Alpha, you know who I am and Kajika, He Who Roams, has told you the reason I’m here. I am here to ask forgiveness for coming onto P
ack land without announcing my presence to you and for not asking your permission to speak to a Pack member. The last time I had word of my brother he was in Canada and was a lone wolf. I was not aware that he had become part of your Pack. I wasn’t aware that he had found his place. I am sorry for trespassing and I will accept any punishment you deem necessary.”
Rion swallowed hard and tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck to the Alpha. Gareth had never seen his brother so calm, so controlled. And he’d never expected Rion to show that much respect for any Alpha.
Micah stepped forward, indicating with a hand that Gareth should maintain his position. He watched as Micah reached out and gripped Rion’s neck, tilting his head up with his thumb so that he could see Rion’s face.
“I will accept your apology, Rion Volpe, because of the love I bear for your brother. But know this. You will never come back to my land without my permission and you will not disrespect me or my second in any way again. Are we clear?”
“Yes, Micah Keeps Vigil, Alpha of the Wild Haven Lodge Pack.”
“Your punishment will have to wait. I am not sure at this time what penance I will require of you. For now, however, you have my permission to be on my land. For that matter, because of your relationship to my second, you may check out of the motel you have been staying in and have the use of one of the rooms here at the lodge. Gareth, you will take your brother to room six. Rion, you will join my family tonight for dinner. There are some others who need to be aware of your presence here and an obligation to this Pack that your brother has that requires him to be here until the next Gathering at the least. After that you may leave.”
Rion shifted on his feet. “My mother is ill, Alpha, but knowing that my brother has a Pack will help. I’ll call her to let her know when we’ll return. Thank you. And I accept any penance deemed necessary.”
Gareth wanted to argue with Micah about having Rion at the lodge but there was no way he would disrespect his own Alpha in front of their respective brothers.
Kaj moved forward as Rion got to his feet. Micah’s brother looked from Rion to Gareth and back then shrugged at Micah. “If it weren’t for the patch and different lengths of their hair I wouldn’t be able to tell them apart just by looking. You?”
Gareth stiffened even as Micah clapped him on the back. “No. Even their scents are similar. I have never been around twin shifters before, are they common in your birth Pack?”
“Yes. Our father was a twin, and the current Alpha, Jan, is a twin as well. Our grandmother had six children, two sets of twins and two single births,” Gareth responded.
Rion nodded. “There have always been twins in our birth Pack, but now that you mention it I don’t remember hearing of other twins in other Packs.”
“Huh. An interesting anomaly. One I might need to discuss with other Packs as I travel.” Kaj rubbed his hands together. “Look at us. Brother to brother. I think this calls for a drink! Micah?”
Micah nodded then he and Kaj headed for the door. Gareth started to follow even though he had no intention of toasting brotherhood with Rion.
“Gareth, wait, please.”
Turning to face his brother again, he couldn’t help the rough growl that escaped, but knowing Micah wouldn’t be happy with him for starting a fight in his home, especially since he’d given Rion permission to be here, he reined in the anger.
“Why are you wearing that patch?”
“Are you fucking kidding me? You know exactly why.” He moved to shove past his brother. The slight tremble in the hand Rion laid on his shoulder stopped him.
Rion’s scent turned the deeper, richer odor of pine that he carried when he was upset. It was one of the few ways their birth Pack had been able to tell them apart. He left his hand on his brother’s shoulder. “No, I don’t. What happened to your eye?”
“You happened, you fucker. You took my sight and my eye.” He shook the hand off, not wanting any physical contact with his brother.
“What?” Rion’s shock wasn’t faked; neither was the way he paled as he backed up with the scent darkening into an almost-burned smell. He slashed a hand through the air. “No, no, no. That’s not true. You only had scratches after our fight. You weren’t badly hurt. That isn’t right.”
“Who the fuck told you that? Isn’t fucking right?” He let the growl roll out. “I lost my sight that night, Rion. And that bitch Maggie made sure I kept the scars to remind me of just what my brother had done to me. She put silver nitrate in the solution I used to clean the wounds. You tell me what’s right about that.”
“No. They told me…” Rion sat down hard on the floor, letting his head drop into his hands. Gareth heard him sob once. When Rion lifted his head tears tracked down his face. Rion simply stared at his brother.
“All this time I’ve hated you for what you did to me and it was nothing. Nothing compared to what I did to you. They told me you’d left the New Orleans Pack because Brenda chose me even though you’d won the fight. They told me that you’d left and that you were never going to come back, that they’d keep you away if necessary, because you’d nearly killed me.”
“Bullshit.” He spat the word out but his heart had started to race uncomfortably. He’d known that Brenda had chosen Rion but he’d been told only that he had to leave the New Orleans Pack because he’d lost the Challenge. Even his own mother had gotten in on it by contacting Curtis. He’d never stopped to wonder how she knew he might come home. His heart pain spread into his stomach.
“I swear, Gareth. I swear to you. They told me…” Rion’s breath hitched and he got to his feet, hands open and at his sides again. Shaking his head, he moved a little closer and reached toward Gareth. Gareth took a step back.
“They told me that you hated me and wanted me dead so they were going to protect me. Then I saw Brenda fucking one of Curtis’ seconds and I left. I knew they’d set up the fight and that she didn’t care about either one of us. I didn’t know where you’d gone and I didn’t want to face you anyway, so I went home. I went home to try to heal.”
“Heal from what? You won the damn fight, Rion.”
“And I thought you’d won.” He barked out a short, sharp sound then yanked his shirt off. Gareth felt the air leaving his body in a rush and it was his turn to sit down, hard.
“This is why I needed to heal. This is why I thought you had won. This is why I hated you. And it was all for nothing. They set us up. They drove us apart for no other reason than that Curtis wanted to break up the ‘bookends’.”
He stared hard at the scars on Rion’s chest and abdomen. Any of those cuts, if deep enough, could have been fatal. Wolves fighting over a female weren’t playing, they meant to maim, to kill if necessary. The ugly, raised scars covered Rion’s chest and abdomen. He knew they were from his paws. He still had nightmares about being on his back at one point and raking his claws across his brother. He remembered biting, tearing at flesh. Still remembered the pain and horror he’d felt when Rion ripped his face open. Scrambling back to his feet, he shook his head.
And he remembered the searing pain as he’d held the silver-laced cloth up to his face to wipe away the blood. He remembered the panic when he’d tried to shift to stop the pain, to start his healing process and he still couldn’t see out of his right eye. He remembered, now, the screams he’d heard after the fight. Those must have been from Rion. Maggie and Curtis had fucked them both up. Shaking his head, Gareth backed away from his brother.
Rion put his shirt back on but not before he wiped his face with it. Reaching out again, he stopped when Gareth shook his head.
“I can’t…I need.” He took a deep breath. “I need time to think…”
He spun around to leave but heard Rion following him into the hallway. Micah and Kaj came out of the living room, surprise evident on both of their faces when he turned toward the front door. “Micah, I have to go. I need to get out of here.”
Without waiting for permission, Gareth yanked open the door and moved quickly ac
ross the wide porch. He knew they’d followed, but Rion’s was the only voice that reached him.
“Gareth! For what it’s worth now, I am sorry. I am so sorry.”
Still shaking his head, Gareth started running. He wanted to shift but didn’t want to stop. This would have to do. Running down the drive and toward the main road, he felt the cold air stealing his breath and told himself it was the icy chill that caused his heart to hitch. He kept telling himself that even as the tears filled his good eye and everything became blurry. He had lost his sight and his brother all because of some crazy fucking Alpha’s need to amuse himself. He knew, from Micah and from Micah’s friend Slade, that Curtis was dead. He wished now that he wasn’t so they could go back to New Orleans and kill him.
“What just happened?” Kaj looked hard at the younger wolf standing on the porch with his head hanging. Rion lifted his head and turned to face both Kaj and Micah.
“We just found out that we’ve been harboring hatred for one another for the last seven years for no reason. Curtis set us against each other for his own amusement. If I hadn’t heard he was already dead I’d be on the next flight to New Orleans to kill him myself.”
Kaj pulled Rion close, patting his back even as he looked toward Micah. “Will Gareth be all right?”
Micah nodded. “I think so. It will take him some time to think about all of this. I often wondered about Curtis. I know he wanted me away from his Pack because he thought I would challenge him at one time. He stepped down before Slade could challenge him and died soon after. I wonder how many other lives Curtis ruined for his own amusement. And that bitch Maggie. I thought Slade and I were the only ones she’d fucked with. I never knew the full truth about the extent of Gareth’s injuries.”
They went back inside, closing the door against the cold air. Kaj glanced back at the front door and wondered if he shouldn’t follow Gareth. A look at his brother’s face set in cold anger decided him. Rion might need to talk and he probably wouldn’t do so just to Micah. The anger might not be directed at either of them, but his brother was a scary mother at times. Time to put the diplomat’s face back on and hear Rion out.