Suddenly, everything was illuminated, and things started to make sense.
Two females. Blood relations. One shifted, one in humanskin. Both wolf children? And a child. A baby. Not Daniel. Too young. I could smell milk on him and diapers and the soap or liquid used in baby wipes.
Eli whipped around at the scent, revealing a path that led straight to the odd trio.
The woman wore her power around her like a mantel. As if it were a cloth. I could scent that she was originally human, but more than that, I could taste her unusualness. It was as prevalent as the ozone. Rich and pure, almost salty like we were close to the sea, only we weren’t. The ocean was a good three hours’ drive away. Her power was strong. Rich. Fecund. It wasn’t like Eli’s or his advisors, who scented of brute strength and authority.
Hers was a strength that came from…
Love.
For a second, I could only blink at the realization, of the power that throbbed through her which was purely positive, and then the she-wolf shuffled her feet in a way that told me she was newly transformed and unused to walking on four paws.
As the wind brought her scent to me, my mouth dropped open.
She was such a pure white that she gleamed like silver, so clean and free from color that in the dead of night, she’d be visible. Her eyes were a rich green, deeper than emeralds, more milky like jade, but with a strong gleam that made them seem jewel-like. She was small for a she-wolf, dainty, and her scent was tied to the omega at her side, but somehow, unique too.
It was as if I’d scented her before.
Or, as if I’d been waiting to scent her since the day of my birth.
Like I’d been hit with a cattle prod, my body flashed hot and cold. My muscles overheating, my skin prickling with gooseflesh as she waddled toward us.
“What are you doing out here?” Eli snarled, but though his anger was clear, there was a softness to the demand. A softness that another alpha might exploit.
All mates were beloved. That was the point of being mates, after all. But this was different. The connection between alpha and omega was as tangible as Nancy, who lay panting at my side.
“If you have to ask that, you don’t know our mate,” the beta told Eli wryly, his arms rising so he could fold them across his chest.
“Screw that, who’s the wolf with her?”
My attention split in two ways at that. One, that the omega was shared by the three leaders of the pack. Unheard of, except for incredibly powerful omegas… Somehow, they’d managed to keep that under wraps. Because being the closest neighbor to the Highbanks, I’d have learned about that before anyone else, except maybe for their twin pack. That I hadn’t, meant she was under fierce guard, and I sure as hell couldn’t blame them for that.
Two, that the she-wolf was unknown to the leaders as well.
The omega cleared her throat. “It’s Lara.”
“That’s impossible,” Eli rasped, then he seemed to remember himself, and he turned back to me and snapped, “I understand why you’re here, Choi, but I’m going to formally ask you to leave my pack’s territory and ask that you only approach it in future after applying for, and earning yourself, an official invitation.” His chin jerked up. “As I’d do if I wished to transfer onto your land.”
“I’m here for the boy,” I rasped. “I’m not going anywhere without him.”
The omega’s shoulders hitched at that. “He’s not a package that you can pick up and deliver wherever you want,” she called out, her tone rising with anger as she stared at me. “He’s a small child with needs. He has a family now. You can’t expect us just to give him up.”
“I expect you to follow basic pack law,” I returned, though my voice was softer because I heard her pain. Heard her earnest desire to protect the child. But that wouldn’t deter me. “His father lost in a challenge. A bested alpha’s child is banished from the pack. It’s how it’s been for centuries—”
“And that makes it okay?” the omega cried, her arms tightening about the baby nestled against her chest. Which, did she but know it, was a slight against my pack.
No mother would bring their child to a confrontation such as this… not unless they knew that infant was one-hundred per cent safe.
Not that she wasn’t right. But still.
My voice was cold as I rumbled, “No. It doesn’t. But that’s justice.”
The she-wolf at her side lumbered onward, and I watched her as she trotted unsteadily forward, her head tipped to the side as she approached the circle of wolves. There was no threat from a beast who could barely stand up straight without falling over, but I watched her with a wariness nonetheless.
Pure white wolves were incredibly rare, ones that glittered like precious metals? Rarer still. And her scent was like nothing else I’d ever smelled before either.
The second she crossed the circle, however, she shifted back, revealing a woman who was fully dressed, complete with a long cardigan, heavy duty jeans, and eyes that were so tired, it was a wonder she could stay awake.
More than that, more than any of those things, my gut told me who she was.
I knew her like my mom had known my father. Like my grandparents had been blessed with their own mates.
And of course, I had to meet my one and only while trying to tear a child from the loving embrace of a family who wanted him.
Karma truly was a bitch.
Sabina
I had no idea how she’d done it. No idea how she’d tapped into my she-wolf and had… Kali Sara. What? What had she done? Piggy-backed onto my beast’s spirit?
I was well aware that sounded crazy, and yet, she’d done it.
She wasn’t a shifter.
Wasn’t even a wolf child.
She didn’t have the scent. She remained fully human. Yet she’d walked through the woods with me, clumsily rambling along the route on four paws. Why? I had no idea. But after a lifetime of living with her as a child, I knew that sometimes, Lara acted on instinct. I knew that she didn’t exactly act on impulse, but that she’d definitely behave without a care for proprieties if her gut told her what to do.
That was the reason for many of the times our father had slapped her, I was sorry to say, and in our household, even though I’d tried to protect her, it was no good. I’d just get punished at the same time as she had.
My jaw worked at the memory, at all the times we’d been beaten, that we’d suffered at our father’s hands, and I wouldn’t lie—I was glad he was dead.
Was glad he was in the ground somewhere, his body nourishing the earth because that was all he was good for. He’d never fed us, not like I wanted to feed Knight all the wisdom in the world. He was more than just a child to me, after all, he was my future. But our father had never looked at things that way. He’d never thought further than the next dollar to be earned, the next drink to have in his fist, and the next meal our momma could put in his belly. Even though Cyrilo was in his image, even he’d never come up to his standards.
A man like Draga Krasowski was impossible to satisfy. Impossible to please.
And Lara, for some insane reason, had agitated him more than any of us.
She’d often worn bruises on her cheeks, often sported the miserable proof of a father who felt no shame in hurting his children. It shamed me that I’d allowed it to happen, but it shamed me even more that, when my time had come, I’d gotten out of there.
I’d left her behind.
But I wouldn’t leave Daniel.
I released a shaky breath at the thought, years’ worth of guilt and teenaged angst hitting me square in the chest.
I’d left her behind.
Left her with them.
How could I have done that? How—
“You were young, my love,” Ethan soothed, whispering the words into my mind, soothing me with his love, gifting me with his affection.
“Never too young to allow what happened to happen.”
He shook his head at me. “You’re too hard on yourself.
You’re not to blame for your father’s actions. Only he’s to blame for that. Just like I’m not to blame for my roots.”
“Me either,” Austin grumbled, nosing into the conversation with an ease that pleased me.
The walls between us weren’t as strong or as high as I’d like, for their sakes. They were powerful men, used to owning their own thoughts, and I tried to respect their privacy, but the open door to their souls was infinitely comforting.
And I wanted them to have that too.
I wanted them to know that the second they wished to speak with me, to commune with me, they could.
Something that Ethan had just done.
Maybe he knew the door opened both ways, or maybe after today, something had changed. I didn’t feel different, in all honesty. But I didn’t have to feel it to know it, did I?
Just like I knew something else. “Please, don’t take Daniel away. He’s mine.”
And he was.
He was family now.
He was ours.
A part of Highbanks pack, sure, but more than that, mine.
Lara twisted back to look at me, and I saw the confusion in her eyes. We’d been raised to be possessive, obsessive. Never to share. To cherish only that which belonged to us.
Cyrilo would never have been able to take on another man’s son, for example. That would have been a weakness in his eyes. It didn’t matter if he was in love with the child’s mother, didn’t matter if they were soulmates. His past would never enable him to do that.
And I’d been raised in the same way.
But I’d broken free of the ties and was here as a result, pleading for the safekeeping of a child that wasn’t mine, that wasn’t my blood, but who belonged to me nonetheless.
I tipped my chin up, and rasped, “He’s a good boy. He doesn’t deserve this.”
“I didn’t deserve to lose my father, either, ma’am,” the other man replied, and his tone was so stalwart that I truly didn’t believe I’d ever manage to sway him. “And because of his death, I lost my mother too.”
“You say that like it’s his fault,” Lara replied in my stead, her voice soft and gentle, and the male, an alpha, surprisingly strong but not as domineering as my men, turned to look at her.
To grace her with all his focus.
That had silvery wisps making an appearance, spinning into being around him where his aura would be.
Every part of me recognized that this man was decent. That he was kind. Gentle. Good people. I wasn’t saying alphas weren’t bred to be good people, but his nature surprised me. It took guts to lead, took a strong will, and someone who was comfortable with affirmative action to be at ease with making decisions that weren’t always pleasant.
I’d never have said this male was like that, but equally, he proved me wrong because he was standing while the rest of his pack were on their bellies in the face of frequent blasts of dominance from Eli who, not unsurprisingly, wasn’t in the best of moods.
“None of them are strong,” Eli whispered into my mind, and I cast him a look, sensing the power in him and finding a comfort in that. He wouldn’t let Daniel be taken from us. I just didn’t want this to devolve. I didn’t want blood to fall.
“Yet he beat Kingsley Rainford. There must be something about him that was capable of besting him in a challenge,” Austin inserted, being rational for once.
“Kingsley was a nasty bastard. Choi had the need for vengeance on his side,” Eli told us all.
Maybe that was the reason why, or maybe Choi had an inner well of strength, something that we couldn’t see, something that maybe Lara could because she hovered close to him, and those little wisps in his aura?
They were moving toward her. Dancing like little spirits, small sprites that writhed in waves toward her.
The sight confused me, until it hit me.
Until it made sense.
“They’re mates,” I rasped inwardly, not wishing to spoil the moment of recognition, not wishing to destroy the inherently beautiful moment that belonged to each couple alone.
My ‘moment’ had been born of fear and death and change, but I would always remember that morning in the woods with fondness. Waking up with Eli, Ethan and Austin barging into the meeting as Eli taught me how to walk.
As the twins nuzzled into me, scenting me, as Eli stroked a hand over my head and played with my ears.
It was a moment that was beyond compare. Beyond heat and lust, beyond all emotions. It was a moment of connection. Of one spirit recognizing another’s, and I was honored to behold it, to witness with my own eyes what happened.
“How do you know?”
I blew out a breath. “This sounds crazy, but I can see it.”
“Nothing you could tell us sounds crazy,” Ethan said ruefully. “The stuff you can do, see, feel is already more than anything we could imagine.”
My nose crinkled at that. “I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not.”
“It’s neither,” was his immediate response. “It’s just a statement of fact.”
Lips twisting, I focused on my sister, wondering if she was responding to Choi’s presence, but before I could wonder overlong, she stepped forward and pressed her hand to his chest.
Knowing Lara rarely touched people, if ever, the move was more momentous than anyone around her could understand. But I did. I knew how sensitive she was. Knew she wouldn’t touch people unless she saw something in them that she could never unsee.
I bit my lip at the sight, feeling silly for the tears pricking my eyes, but her words hit me more than even the leap of faith. “Please. My sister begs for the boy’s safety. You have to see there is no malice in wishing to provide a lost child with a home.”
The other alpha’s jaw tensed, but his eyes were fixed firmly on Lara, his gaze never darting from hers to me. Both their focus was so powerful, so overwhelming in its strength that my heart fluttered with joy for her.
With relief.
She needed this.
She needed a kind man. Someone whose strength was hidden beneath the surface, who didn’t act on impulse, who was capable of besting a powerful alpha, but who didn’t lead through fear himself.
Ethan wasn’t wrong. The rest of his pack, the wolves he’d brought with him for this display, not one of them could even compare to Maggie May, our council leader. She was old, but she was feisty, and she was strong too. A low beta type. Choi’s right- and left-hand man and woman barely scratched that surface, yet they were here. Even though they had to be scared of the repercussions of facing a powerful alpha like Eli.
They came, not out of fear of Choi, but out of the need to back him up.
That merely confirmed how good and honorable Choi was, which made his request all the more peculiar.
I bit my lip as the other alpha rasped, “It is the way of the pack.”
“The way of my family was to beat their womenfolk, to subjugate them—does that make it right? Simply because it is the way things are done?”
He flinched at that, and I saw his hackles rise. His shoulders hunched up, his eyes narrowed, and all around him, those silvery wisps that had been responding to her, turned a kind of blood red. It filtered into the silver, tainting it all pink, but before I could be alarmed at his swift temper, a wash of white and blue made an appearance.
Calm.
Control.
“He lives?”
Lara tipped her head to the side. “Who? My father?” At his nod, she shook her head. “No. He’s dead. He died a long time ago.”
“Not long enough.”
Lara laughed a little. “It depends on your perspective. My mother thought the sun rose and set on him. To her, it’s always night now.”
The statement was spoken with a candor I knew defined Lara, especially when she was with someone she trusted, but the words hit me.
For the first time in my life, I knew I understood how my mother felt.
The sun rose and set on my mates, but the truth was, if any of them s
o much as laid a hand on Knight, I’d stab them next. I was of her blood, but I was not her.
And Lara proved she wasn’t either, wasn’t like our father, because she whispered, “Just because something is the way, a part of your culture, doesn’t make it right. Doesn’t mean you have to abide by it.” Her hand smoothed over his chest, up to his jaw. “He deserves a second chance. The chance to not be his father. To be raised by good, strong men, who’ll make sure he doesn’t repeat his father’s mistakes.”
Choi’s mouth firmed, but he cut me a look. “How can you promise that? How can you say that he won’t turn into his father and that he won’t seek vengeance on the Rainford pack?”
I frowned at him. “Surely, the way to have him look for revenge is to toss him out of the place he calls home?”
His eyes narrowed, and the skin on his high cheekbones pulled taut as he glanced at Lara. “I wish the child no harm.”
I knew that was more for her benefit than mine.
But I’d take it.
If Lara could use her guile as a mate on him, I’d take it all the way to the bank, because losing Daniel would be like losing Joshua.
And I couldn’t go through that again.
Austin
I stared up at the ceiling as Sabina stretched a little, her body tensing as her arm moved the barest fraction before she immediately settled down.
In the ‘C’ of her arms, the open part of the letter bridged me, and as was always the way, it amazed me how she never moved, how she always kept Knight clasped to her without it interfering with her sleep.
A more natural mother I’d yet to meet, and that was confirmed tonight when she’d unofficially claimed Daniel as her own.
Of course, the words hadn’t been spilled, but I wasn’t a moron. I didn’t need to hear them to know that they were the way of it.
Daniel was, in her eyes, hers. She’d taken him under her wing from the start, seeing to him in ways that few she-wolves would ever do for a child who wasn’t their own.
I didn’t like kids. Not really. They were noisy and bratty, took up a lot of attention and were hard work.
Moon Child: A PNR Shifter Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 2) Page 14