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He stepped up to Kael, stood facing the other man. They were the same height, Kael blond while Caleb was dark, but there were similarities in the underlying bone structure when you knew to look.

Someone came to stand beside her, and she glanced around at Darius. His eyes made a slow perusal of her body, down over her long bare legs and back to her face.

“Catrin’s right,” he murmured.

“What about?” she asked suspiciously.

He breathed in deeply. “You reek of sex.” He nodded toward Caleb. “Is your boyfriend going to cooperate?”

“I suppose it depends what you want him to cooperate with,” she said. “Why don’t you listen and find out.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be feeling all mellow?” he asked, and she scowled and turned away.

“My father is dead,” Caleb said.

Kael looked around the clearing. “Where’s the body?”

“It was disposed of according to pack law.”

Beside her, Darius grinned again. “They ate him, didn’t they?”

Regan ignored the comment.

Something flashed across Kael’s face, and Regan got the distinct impression that he would have liked to see a body.

“It’s true,” Catrin spoke up. “They ate him. I saw it. Close up.”

Regan rolled her eyes and turned back to listen to Caleb.

“The rest of the pack has nothing to do with you,” he said. “They’re mine. Leave them alone.”

Kael nodded. “Okay.”

Caleb looked a little nonplussed at the easy answer. He frowned.

“I’ll leave it up to you,” Kael said, “but I want to know everything they knew about my sister.”

Caleb glanced back at Regan before answering, and she nodded slightly.

“She may be alive,” he said.

Shock flashed across Kael’s face. “What?”

“Before he died, my father told me that my mother might be alive.”

“Might?” Kael’s brows drew together in a frown, but a flicker of hope showed in his eyes.

“After I was born, he let her go. He said she was wearing some sort of spell that kept her trapped. He made a deal—give him a son, and he would destroy the spell and release her.”

“You believe him?”

“There was no reason to lie—he was dying.”

“So where is she? Why didn’t she come back to me?”

Caleb was silent for a minute, and Regan knew he must be thinking how much to tell Kael.

“My father said she was broken. Perhaps she wanted it all to end. Maybe she’s dead after all.”