“Friday. Dinner. Public,” I repeated coldly, stepping away from her touch. “Nothing else.”
Her smile didn’t falter, but calculation flickered in her eyes. “You know, there are rumors about why you’re so... unavailable. Some say you found your mate and lost her. Others think you prefer males. A few wonder if you’re broken somehow.”
“Are you done?”
“I’m just saying,” she smoothed her dress, “whatever your issue is, I can work with it. I’m very adaptable.”
The door burst open before I could respond. Noah stood in the doorway, chest heaving, eyes wild with barely contained emotion.
The door burst open. Noah stood in the doorway, chest heaving, eyes wild with barely contained emotion.
“You need to come. Now.”
His scent hit me wrong, agitation mixed with fear and anger I hadn’t smelled on him in years. My brother avoided me when possible these days, our relationship strained to breaking. He helped with Alpha duties when necessary, but the easy brotherhood we’d shared had died somewhere between Blake’s funeral and that hotel room in Pine Valley.
Mary made a disgusted sound at the interruption. “We were having a private-”
Noah’s head snapped toward her, and the snarl that ripped from his throat was pure threat. “Get out.”
“Excuse me?” She drew herself up indignantly. “I don’t take orders from-”
“GET. OUT.” His voice dropped to a register that made my wolf stir with interest. “Or I’ll throw you out.”
She huffed but must have recognized murder in his eyes because she left, heels clicking angrily on the floor. The second the door closed, Noah rounded on me.
“You need to fucking go with me. Right now.”
The profanity shocked me. Noah never lost control, never cursed, never let emotion override logic. He was the stable twin, the one who’d held everything together after Blake died.
“What’s wrong? Is it rogues? An attack on the border? Is someone hurt?”
“If this is about pack business-”
“Fuck pack business!” He slammed his hand on the table, making it crack. “This is about the mess you left behind five years ago now dying in my living room!”
I frowned, trying to parse his words through the rage. “What mess? Noah, you’re not making sense. Who’s dying?”
“Aren’t I?” He laughed, but it sounded broken. “God, you really are that self-absorbed. You make your grand fucking gesture, your noble sacrifice, and you never once think about the consequences for anyone else.”
“Noah-”
“No, you know what? I’m done. I’m done covering for you. Done pretending what you did was noble instead of cowardly.”
“If someone from Pine Valley is here-”
“Move your ass,” Noah snarled. “Or I swear to the Moon Goddess I’ll drag you there myself.”
I stood slowly, Alpha instincts bristling at being ordered around, even by my brother. “Noah, explain what’s happening. That’s a command.”
“You can’t command me in this,” he spat. “Not about them.”
Her? “Who are you talking about?”
“You want explanations? Come with me. See for yourself what your choices cost.”
I followed because the alternative was letting him leave in this state, and despite our distance, he was still my brother. My only remaining brother. His scent trail led to his car, and I noticed his hands shaking as he unlocked it. The smell coming off him was wrong, layered with so many emotions I couldn’t separate them all. Fury dominated, but underneath lurked fear and grief and guilt.
“Get in,” he ordered.
