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“Your sister’s safe, Emma.”That voice, that husky, ever calm voice, delivering those words was the sweetest sound to my ears.

“Where is she?Can I see her?Can I talk to her?”

“Not yet, baby.She’s with Jace.They’ve got…some stuff to work through.She’s in heat.You need to give them a few days, give or take.I promise she’ll call you as soon as she can.”

I frowned.The relief at knowing Sloane was safe changed to a different kind of emotion at his denial of my request.“I want to talk to her, for a minute.Can’t I have a minute?I need a minute!”

I could feel Derek and Jude’s tension rise in line with my voice, and for reasons that escaped my frantic mind, I thought they were about to intervene and try to calm me down.

“Not happening, baby.”

“Don’t ‘baby’ me!Put my sister on right now!”

He sighed heavily.“Look, Emma, I’m sure you think you know your sister, but right now, you don’t.She’s in heat.The only thing she needs is her mate.”

“Mate?!”If he’d slapped me across the face, the blow would have been lighter.

“Do you love your sister, Em?”

He’d never called me Em before, and his husky voice dripping down the line brought a shudder I didn’t appreciate.“Of course I do.”

“Then give her some time.Let her work through her awakening.”

“I can’t,” I said, the words ending on a sob.

“You’re going to have to,” he said.

Silence stretched between us, then was broken when he said, “I gotta go.A shit storm is coming after what we had to do.Take care, Emma.”

He hung up.

I stared at the cell.He’d dismissed me, again.Cut me off.Told me to wait while his friend rutted my sister.He was probably marking her and breeding her right now.Sloane would be so out of it, she wouldn’t even care.

“Take me,” I said to Jude.

Jude shook his head slowly.“I heard most of that… She’s safe, Emma.You can see her soon.I think we should wait, like he said.”

“She’s in heat,” Derek added.“From everything I’ve learned about them, you can’t stop that now.The only thing that she wants and needs is her alpha.”

“Take me!Please.”My eyes pleaded with them.

“What are you going to do when you get there?They might not even let you in.It’s not an open day.”

I huffed out a breath.“Deliveries and people go in all the time.They must.I need to be close, ready for when she—” I couldn’t bear to think about her in heat, being oblivious to everything but the need to mate.“For when she’s herself again.”

They tried to dissuade me, but I was having none of it.

And so, reluctantly, they took me back to the gates.

ChapterEleven

Ryder

“Ryder, you need to deal with this bullshit,” Dane said.

As Dane stormed out of our office and into the club’s communal dining room, I looked up from my coffee.He thumbed over his shoulder toward the office.“Gate, asap.Before we have a damn riot on our hands.”

I put my coffee down, rising slowly, scowling at the fucker.After that tense conversation with Emma, I was in a bad fucking mood.