Page 25

Benji

I wasn’t one of those people who was glued to their phones. I hated that I had to carry it around with me and kept it perpetually on silent with the exception of one number.

As grateful as I was to be out of my old life and here with my pack and our mate, I’d never been able to go completely no-contact with my former pack. I tried. Goddess knew I tried. But despite my best attempts, I held onto this stupid phone.

I didn’t know why I couldn’t push through and walk away for good, but something always felt uneasy whenever I tried.

But every time I was about to make the leap and toss it out the window while driving on the highway or running it over or using it in the fire pit, I physically could not bring myself to do so.

I talked to Roan about it once when we first settled in here. This place was supposed to be our new start, and clinging to the past was the opposite of that. At least, that was how it seemed to me.

Roan was smarter than me and said exactly what I needed to hear, that holding onto my phone was the equivalent of a child’s favorite stuffie that they could never get rid of. When it was time, I’d know. Until then, I shouldn’t stress about it. For the most part, I didn’t until today.

Lily’s heat was coming. All the signs were there, giving us time to discuss it before her heat took away rational thought from all of us.

So, of course, that’s when the phone rang the one ringtone that cut through no matter what. Tyrone.

Tyrone was the closest thing I had to a friend growing up.

His family worked for mine, and we were more like cousins or brothers than friends.

He hadn’t called me since everything went down.

He knew the boundary that was raised and the danger contacting me would be for all involved.

If his number was ringing, I had to answer.

I looked up, trying to figure out how to tell Lily that something else was taking precedence over her.

The conversation the four of us were having was important and also not one we could put off while I figured out how to deal with my family shit.

But also, the family shit in question had to be important.

It shouldn’t have be a surprise that Roan had my back. His eyes were wide. I didn’t know if he understood fully what was happening, but he knew it was serious and that I wasn’t hovering my finger over the “accept” button on a whim.

“Benji, if you need to answer that, do it. No one here will think less of you.” His words were exactly what I needed to hear.

I stood up, answering the phone as I walked across the room, my beast hating every second what was happening. I did too, but if I didn’t listen to what Tyrone had to say, my gut said I’d regret it for the rest of my life.

“Tyrone?

“Tyrone, is everything okay? Please speak.”

Silence had never been his gift, and that had my stomach ready to revolt. It had to be bad. Really, really bad.

“I have some news about Sylvia.” His voice was low, nearly too quiet for me to hear even with my shifter hearing.

Sylvia was my half-sister, the “bastard demon child” of the family who I wasn’t supposed to know existed.

Her omega mother died when I was a young teen, and she’d been dropped on our doorstep.

Tyrone had been the one to find her that day.

We were still so young, but we both knew my father and what would happen to her if he found her.

We’d done our best to protect her, but ultimately failed.

She was taken from us years too soon, in the dead of night, and I wasn’t even allowed to mourn her or say her name out loud ever again.

The time I did… Let’s just say that’s how I got the scar on my back.

My stomach dropped. “Did they catch the bastards?” I’d always assumed it was my father, but years later, I heard rumblings it was his enemies and the real target had been me, making her death my fault.

“I don’t know about that, but I think she’s alive.”

I opened my mouth to ask how, but nothing came out.

“If my intel is right, the window to get her is short. Meet me where we said. I’ll call you back.”

I turned back to face my pack. Lily’s heat was coming. She needed us. She needed me to be needed.

But my sister might be alive. Might be another terrifying variable in play. I dared not get my hopes up too high. The wounds from her loss were still so close to the surface. I didn’t think I could bear losing her again.

“Benji, what is it?” Lily grabbed my hand. “Your face is telling me… Your eyes, your scent are all telling me a million things, and I can’t decipher any of it.”

“They think Sylvia is alive.”

Roan and Harlan both gasped behind her, and Lily for a split second looked like her heart was breaking in two.

“She’s my half-sister. One my father never wanted to exist. Everyone thought she was dead. We had a funeral. But she might be alive and, if so, she needs help.”

“You need to go get her.” There was no hesitation in Lily’s voice.

“But your heat is coming. You’re my mate, I am supposed to put you above all others.” It was a vow I’d made to myself.

“Benji.” Her hands were on my cheeks, holding me so that I was watching her. “I was once an omega in need, and I was rescued. You’re a good man, an amazing alpha, and I love that you want to be here for me, but your sister is more important. You need to go to her. I need you to go to her.”

She dropped her hand and pulled her shirt collar down over her shoulder.

“Mark me. Mark me now. Your promise to me that you’ll come back with your sister safe at your side. And it’ll be my promise to you that I’ll be here when you return and that nothing between us will have changed. I will be yours and you will be mine.”

The phone rang again, and this time, before I answered it, my beast lunged forward, taking control of my human form. My canines elongated and then latched onto her shoulder—marking her as mine.