Page 14

W e finish watching the game film, and the six of us definitely agree that there was something wrong with the Warriors players. Now, we just have to figure out what happened. My instinct tells me they were under some kind of spell. Our rivalry has always been energetic, but this was the wrong kind of energy. They weren't out there for the puck or the points; they were out for blood.

It makes me think my father and his dark witches got to them somehow. But if so, why hockey? He can't do anything to risk exposing our kind, let alone on national television.

There are too many unknown variables in all of this.

Fran's been texting me updates about Leera's coffee date with Willa every ten minutes on the dot. I pushed it back from my preferred every-five-minute updates, but I knew she'd likely be there for a while.

I'm glad she's slowly getting out of the townhouse more and branching out. Networking. Making friends and learning to count on people instead of doing everything on her own.

We've been so wrapped up in all the dangers, school, hockey, researching, that we haven't had much new-couple time. Which I am planning to rectify tomorrow.

But first, my men have to help me finish getting everything ready. While we do, I'm hoping to reconnect with Eris and find out what's really going on with him.

“Benny! What's a pinky promise?” I holler across the room.

His eyebrows scrunch together, and he raises his shoulder like he also has no fucking clue.

She's very serious about this pinky promise.

I laugh to myself while I continue typing.

I lift my head from my phone with what has to be the most obnoxious smile on my face. She never ceases to amaze me with her light.

“All right, Boss, what's the plan?” Benny asks, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest.

“Time to go,” I announce as I grab my bag and head towards the exit. “We've got some work to do on the pack lands.”

With the pack being further north and closer to the Canadian border and Great Lakes, the snow has already begun to fall, mostly in small dustings, but it's cold enough that if more fell, it would stick and stay for a little while.

With the help of the Pinterest and my powers of observation when it comes to my little mate, I've got an epic date planned for Leera tomorrow if it all works the way it's supposed to. I also brought along a little magical insurance from Willa, just in case my plan doesn't quite work the way I have planned.

While my men decide to take their wolf forms to the pack lands, I drive the car with their clothes, my bag, and all of Slate's electronics. When we arrive at the edge of the lands where I park the car, their wolves all approach, shifting as they reach the car to grab their clothes from the back seat.

Once they are all dressed, Slate and I grab our bags to hike out to the west side of the pack lands where it's mostly forest area and a small clearing. We make the trek there in an almost uncomfortable silence, a first for us. The twins are usually goofing off, but everything's been so fucked up since we discovered my sister. What if things never return to the way they were? What if whatever is eating at Eris becomes too much, and he pushes us all away? I still don't know what could be so bad that he won't talk to us and is considering rejecting his mate.

I'm pulled from my thoughts when we reach the area that we can work on the project I had Brutus get started for me. I delegate instructions among my men, giving each of us a task to accomplish. The only task I'm worried about is the ice. I'm not sure it's quite cold enough to keep the ice thick and solid enough for what I have planned.

I task Eris with assisting me so that I can try to talk to him, much to Benny's chagrin as he's used to being my right hand.

We settle into a more comfortable silence as we all work. Slate and Dolos blowing out their eardrums with their “noise-canceling” headphones that are turned up so loud I can hear their music all the way over here.

“Look—”

“I just—”

Eris and I begin at the same time.

“Please. Continue,” I encourage him calmly.

He keeps his head lowered as we work in tandem between the trees. “There's still so much you don't know,” he grunts like he's struggling to get the words out. I think he's finished, but I patiently wait for more information. “About our parents. The shit we've seen. Fuck. The shit we've done…” he trails off again but doesn't return to the discussion this time.

We've nearly finished our first task when I finally ask the question bothering me the most, “What does any of it, really, anything, have to do with not accepting your fucking mate, Eris?”

He jerks like my words were a physical blow before his haunted eyes find mine. “Because she deserves so much fucking more than me and what I can give her…I don't know if I have anything left to offer her.”

The pain in his voice...in his eyes is so full of anger that I can practically feel the tension that is rising within him. He really believes that whatever haunts him makes him unworthy of his own fucking mate. “You know that's not how that works. Look at the fucking shit I've been through. Look at the fucking shit I've done. Look at the shit my father has done and is still doing!” The last sentence ends on a shout as my emotions get the better of me. “Do you think Leera deserves what I've been through? Do you think Leera deserves anything my father’s done? Does Leera deserve any-fucking-thing she's been through?”

He doesn't look at me; he keeps his eyes tied to the ground, just barely shaking his head.

“Your mate, my sister, was literally made for you by the Moon Goddess herself. Who the fuck do you think you are to question or deny that?” I throw over my shoulder as I stomp away from him.

The only men that are undeserving of their mates are the men like many of our fathers. Mine being a prime example of a wolf who didn't deserve his mate. Khaos' father as well. The problem with Benny's father was that when he was sober, he was the father and mate a man should be, but he had a problem with addictions, and they made him a monster. The twins never told us much about their upbringing. Now that I think about it, neither did Slate. Then you have Andrei. A man with a literal king and queen as parents who have hearts of gold, but wasn’t even able to be raised by them.

The worlds are fucked. Not just the human realm. Werewolves, witches, vampires, you name it. There are good and bad in all species of creatures. Some lean further in certain directions, but at the end of the day, every creature, walking every realm, has a conscious decision to make.

Eris better make the right decision.

By the time we return home to the townhouse, the sun has long since sunk below the horizon, giving way to the waxing crescent above. I hurry through the door, eager for a look at my girl.

I find all three of them tangled together on the couch beneath a colorful heap of fuzzy blankets. The smile that stretches across my face couldn't be contained even if I wanted it to.

My mate, peacefully sleeping on the left, with her silver hair spread across everything in its reach and her perfect pink lips parted. When she moved in, I learned she's a mouth breather, and I've found it adorable ever since. My sister, sleeping in the middle with a small smile on her own face, her dark hair intricately braided against her head with a part in the middle, allowing her hair to separate and flow over each of her shoulders. Her fingers are laced together and resting on her stomach as though she fell asleep in thought. A small chuckle escapes me at the sight of Zoey on the right side of the group. Her dark hair is haphazardly strewn everywhere, and it looks like she might even be tangled in it. She has one arm up over the top of her head and the other arm lying across Runa, and her blanket has fallen to the floor. When I grab it to pull it back up and over her, it shifts Leera's blanket, revealing that the arm that Zoey has draped across Runa was done to link her fingers with Leera's.

My heart swells at the sight, and I once again send thanks to the Goddess. Not only for Leera and my sister, but for Zoey. That the girls have each other. Even when they leave a snack disaster on the table that looks like you sent a bunch of five-year-olds to the store with too much money.

I quietly clean it all up, knowing that if I don't, Matilda will, and that woman does too much as it is.

Dolos stops by to take in the scene and smiles warmly at the girls, lingering on the one in the middle the longest. I can't imagine what he's going through, not being able to claim his mate until his brother gets his shit together. He blows her a kiss even though she's asleep and makes his way to the kitchen when I hear an “ah-ha" come from him.

Andrei and Benny also stop and smile at the girls before helping me grab some of the snacks. Benny grabs a few bites of some of the popcorn as we carry it all into the kitchen. My men and I finish off the snacks; Leera must have known we would. I don't know why else she would have ordered eight pizzas, which must have been Dolos' realization when he beat us to the kitchen.

“Don't let me forget to thank her in the morning for thinking of us,” Andrei requests, clapping me on the shoulder on his way out of the room, and I nod.

Eris slowly walks through the space, not going to stand in front of the girls like Dolos or I had, but he does slow, his gaze catching on his mate. His fists are clenched so hard at his sides that his knuckles are turning white. Just when I think he might allow himself this happiness, he mutters to himself and stomps off. I want to get mad and fight him on this, but that won't do any good. He needs to make a real decision, and he needs to do it on his own. No matter how minuscule it was, that was progress.