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Her expression was neutral, and her body remained close, so it was hard to know what she was feeling. At times like this, he refused to read her mind and invade her privacy. Chanin wanted her to trust him.

The longer she remained silent, the tighter his chest became.

Morlie was his mate. He could not change this fact.

It’d be easier for him to lop off a limb than deny a mate.

However, given his pack's current situation, it would be hard to adjust if she were not interested in filling their home with little ones.

“Morlie, I know your life has been in flux for years. If, like marriage, you don’t want them.

..” After tonight, the wolf would find it impossible not to pursue the goal at every opportunity.

Still, Chanin would do everything within his power to keep it from happening, no matter that it was like putting his shoulder against a mountain and trying to move it up the side of another mountain.

“I was afraid to hope, let alone dream of finding someone for me or anything else beyond that.” As she raised her head, she shook it and exhaled but still didn’t look at him.

He squeezed her hand, hoping to communicate that he was not pressuring her. He remained silent, allowing her the time to work through her words no matter what came out.

“Since I have changed and I’m learning to connect with my wolf on a deeper level, I know she wants it. I can feel her yearning for it.” Morlie raised her hand as if about to place it on her stomach but lowered it back to her side.

“Our beasts live to fill four basic needs: water, food, protection, and procreation. That order changes by whatever need is lacking.” Chanin knew why her wolf wanted offspring. Shifters were all about having a strong Pack, and strength to their beasts was in numbers.

“It is understandable. Animals are never as complicated as humans.” Still holding his hand, she moved behind him as they passed through a thick cluster of bushes.

Once the path widened again, he tugged her forward beside him. “Truthfully, it is the reason you are here.”

“You mean the mark?” She absently played with the ring on the thin rope around her neck.

“That’s part of it, but you should know more.” Chanin stopped; they were about a mile out. He asked about her carrying his child when Morlie had no clue how dire the situation was for his Pack and the ramifications of the humans’ war.

Morlie's sable brows lifted high. “What is it? You look so serious, Chanin.”

He released her hand and made his way to a large tree. It was his moment to gaze off in the distance and think about what lay before them, not just their home but the territory, his Pack.

Leaning a shoulder against the tree, he faced her. “Morlie, you know about the mark. Aodh explained at the meeting grounds that it was the reason I could sense your traits, know you were mine.”

She folded her arms over her stomach as if trying to protect herself from bad news. His mate had been through so much that her instinct was to defend herself and prepare for the bad news.

Morlie fixed her gaze on him and nodded.

He offered her a half smile, hoping to calm her fears. What he had to tell her had more to do with his people's frailty, which was hard for him to express.

He forced the air out from his lungs and drove forward, “You weren’t around during the Great Catastrophes. The group warning disasters were one thing, but the annihilating wars that followed not only killed billions of humans but affected the Were population also.”

“How? You all have a thriving society. I can see you never went underground and have had to rebuild your existence over the last few years. And no sickness ravaged your people.” There was a sharpness to her words.

Chanin didn’t take issue with it. “You’re right, Weres are strong. Preternaturals are not easily killed because our skin is tougher, and we can heal extraordinarily fast.”

“Okay.” She shrugged a shoulder. “I’m grateful that my body is now just as capable. I don’t want to ever go through having my insides ravaged and not being able to fight it on my own.”

Her golden-brown eyes were ablaze as she smacked a fist against her core where her wolf burrowed inside of her.

She was gloriously beautiful to him at that moment.

Squatting, he snatched up a few blades of vibrant-green grass. He held them up so she could see it. “There was a time when all the earth beneath my feet was brown, smothered by soot and radioactive ash, and struggling to thrive. But it recovered with time, without being hindered by mankind.”

Lowering his hand, he absently weaved a single blade around his fingers. “However, it had become apparent over the years that something was wrong. With us.”

“Wrong? In what way?” She leaned back against a tree on the other side of the path.

“I can only speak for the Wolves. Even though we have discussed in the council meeting that all Preternaturals suffered in some way, even if it meant their kind was dying for a while because the Earth had been severely injured... that affected the Fae. Also, with many humans dead and the rest underground, there was a lack of access for a shifter to find a mate if they weren’t within their territory.

This greatly affected the Ursine and Vampires. ”

“For the Pack?”

Morlie was bright and seemed to sense he was holding something greater back.

“It was the nuclear wars for us. So much fallout, chemicals saturating the air...” He glanced up at the purple hues of the sky captured like a painting between the treetops.

“Hiding our moon. For wolves, we can go insane quickly without the lunar pull, the tides that regulate the Earth. In the beginning, some did. Our old Alpha, my Uncle Kenneally, my mother’s brother, was one of those who gradually lost his sense of what was best for our people. ”

“What did he do?”

“For a Pack, it is imperative for our kind to function that we follow our Alpha command and the laws that have governed us for centuries. However, we’d never experienced anything of the magnitude of the Global War, so when we were encouraged to continue to eat the meat of the land.

Hunt down; even the animals there were burned, dead, and tainted with the harmful chemicals. A lot of us did it.”

Chanin brushed away the grass from his hands and rose.

“Others, like my father, who is a smart man and a skilled anatomist, warned that even though the meat would not kill us, there could be long-term ramifications. My father had proof that mated female shifters were not going into ovulation heat and, after months of trying, had not conceived. Soon, our Pack numbers would dwindle because we would lose new generations. My father urged the Alpha to send out teams to go out and claim containers from ships that had been capsized and carried inland from the tsunamis. Many of them would have food that we could survive on until the greenhouse crops were ready and the population of rabbits in the underground farm had grown. Keneally called my father a weak kook who promoted fear.”

Feeling the rage in his core at his uncle’s words, Chanin shoved his fists inside the front pockets of his jeans.

“Your uncle seemed foolish and arrogant to me and should not have been leading anyone. I hope your father ripped his throat out.” Morlie lowered her hands, and Chanin saw the extension of her nails.

He grinned at the rage his mate exhibited on his father’s behalf. He couldn’t wait for Morlie to meet Conan, his father. He could guarantee his mate wouldn’t walk away with a bruise on her jaw as she had from her interaction with his mother.

“Rieka got to him first.” Chanin sighed, recalling the days surrounding his uncle's death. “She’d been the head of his security.”

Morlie gasped and stepped forward. She was close to him again but didn’t touch him. “Your mother? Did she get in trouble for attacking the Alpha?”

“Because they were siblings, no. Our laws do not interfere with family affairs.”

“That’s why your cousin has been able to skirt the law.”

“Farkas’s father’s death left the position vacant.

Farkas believed he had the right to it because the old Alpha was his father.

So, in a way, even though I beat my cousin fairly in the challenge for Alpha, Farkas contends I’ve stolen his birthright.

However, his crimes have now spread into others’ territories, so I must handle him as Pack Alpha, not a relative. ”

Morlie moved closer to him. Her soft scent stirred his blood. “You said your father was worried about the females in your pack not conceiving.” She licked her lips. “Has that resolved itself now that you all have a healthy food supply again?”

“No. Female Lupine cannot conceive.” He wouldn’t lie to her.

“When we negotiated with your government to help them create an antidote to cure the widespread disease, I approved us giving our white blood cells for the serum mix. A big part of the agreement was your government would deliver those humans they thought were too far gone to save. We instructed them to mark the sick by placing a small amount of the mixture anywhere on the body before bringing them to us. It was so we could sense the suppressed gene.”

Chanin shoved his hair back with his hand. “I cannot allow my Pack to fade from existence. Ever.”

“If there are the Preternaturals on the council, are there others of a different kind? If so, what would have happened to someone brought out who didn’t match a Drahk, Fae, Vampire, Bear, or Wolf?”

“Yes, there are others. They reside on what’s left of the four remaining continents that have a similar arrangement.

But to answer your questions, even if a human wasn’t connected to any on our council, one of us would have still taken them in and healed them and offered them a chance to live among us. ”

“Has that happened? Are there unmated humans in the territories?” Her brow scrunched.

“No. Part of the reason is we have been lucky that those brought out have been one of ours. However, the other reason is that many sick people haven’t been sent out.

We can sense the illness in the wind and know how badly humans still suffer inside the Wall.

Until you...and Kai’s explanation to Aodh about the lack of help, we assumed it was either a distribution or a supply issue of the serum.

But your government has been sly. They’ve only brought out one human a month when we expected multiple or a steady stream coming. They control it.”

“The bastards control it on the inside, too. We didn’t know of a serum. Evidently, only the rich in the Consumer Providence must have access to it.” Morlie paced as she grabbed a fist full of her short curls and grunted, her jaw locked tight as if she wanted to release a scream.

Chanin could understand her frustration. It was clear to him that she realized that her government would’ve let her die because she was of a lower class.

The silence settled between them for a moment. He allowed her time. Hell, he needed it himself to shake off the anger rolling through his blood. At this moment, there wasn’t anything they could do about it. They needed to cooperate with the human government as long as they upheld the agreement.

“Then I guess there isn’t a choice about whether or not we get pregnant to do our part to save our Pack,” Morlie declared.

Our pack .

“You always have a choice, Morlie.” He cupped her face and held her gaze. Too many things had been forced upon this petite beauty, and he wouldn’t allow this to be one more thing.

“Thank you. But in this, there is only one option.” She linked her fingers with his against her face. “To answer your initial question about whether I wanted children. Now that I’ve met you. I am your mate...I not only want to do life with you, but I want to create it as well.”

He closed the gap between them in a single step. He cupped the back of her head and pulled her into him. Chanin lowered his head and claimed her mouth in a fierce kiss.

Chanin drove his tongue deep, sliding into her warmth. He tasted the same need in her that was burning in him. The world lit up around him. He enjoyed the hot presses of her body against his and the feel of her hands sliding up the cotton covering his chest and into his hair.

Pulling back, he sucked her bottom lip into his mouth, nipping the flesh as he drew back, forcing himself to end the kiss.

He stared down at her, at the lust filling her gaze and the swollen, wet sheen of her lips.

Damn, he couldn’t wait to ravish her. “You’re mine, little rabbit. I want everything with you.”

“Good. We’re almost home. I’m starving.” She glanced up toward the golden lilac hue of the pre-dawn sky. “It’s barely morning, and I’m not the best of cooks, but I think I could at least heat some of Rudie’s leftovers for us, and then we can start this baby-making process—”

“No!” He stepped back.

“What?” Her brow was furrowed. “I thought you said...”

“Yes, but timing is everything.” He grasped her hand and continued to make their way out of the woods. “I need to handle something first.”

“Fine,” came Morlie’s petulant response. Her feelings were hurt.

He’d have to let her bear the emotion, giving them a little distance at the moment.

Rudie! he barked down the mental pathway that connected him to his runt of an assistant.

Yes, Alpha?

We are less than a mile out.

Got it. I’m at your place, and Bleddyn said he’d meet you on the way to town.

Good. Contact Boris and ensure he meets us at the containment cell. Chanin could finally see their house in the distance.

I’ll get it done. Do you want me with you?

No. Get Wolcott and get the training done for Morlie.

There was a pause before Rudie’s winded response . Um, sure. I can do that . Anything else, Alpha?

Chanin looked over at Morlie and was struck in his gut by her beauty in the early morning light. She walked beside him but seemed deep in thought. Yes, one last thing, runt. Whatever you need to do, keep Morlie away from my wolf until tonight.