Chapter 6

The pack would surely know all the details before nightfall, but Wolfie and I opted to bring Chase home with us to be debriefed in private anyway. Actually, I'd assumed my mate would want to speak to his milk brother entirely alone, but Wolfie seemed nearly as shaken up as Chase was by the realization that the latter's teenage sweetheart had come back into their lives. So I wasn't entirely surprised when Wolfie grabbed my hand as he headed out the door, and I willingly allowed myself to be drawn down the street behind the pair of male shifters.

"I just can't believe it. I haven't heard from her in almost sixteen years," Chase said a few minutes later as I laid out cookies on a serving platter and nudged the food in his general direction. I figured hearing from your long-lost girlfriend was every bit as traumatic as nearly getting run over by a bus, and we all deserved a little morning chocolate.

"Yeah, it's been quite a while since we left Dad's pack," Wolfie rumbled in agreement. "I remember you telling me at the time that Sienna didn't want to come with us. And, as I recall, you were too proud to beg."

I could tell that my mate thought Chase's lack of imploring was a character flaw. Wolfie did tend to be all-in when it came to relationships, but I couldn't imagine even a teenage Chase being much of a playboy either. So perhaps the latter's connection with this Sienna had been serious, even though the two had been barely more than kids at the time.

"Yeah, well, I did go back to beg, eventually," Chase said, after swallowing a bite of cookie. He spoke quietly with eyes averted, and I could tell that Wolfie was surprised by the admission. "I snuck home a few months later," the beta continued. "But Sienna was gone by then and she didn't leave any forwarding address. None of her friends would tell me where she'd ended up, and I got the impression they really didn't know either. She seemed to have just disappeared off the face of the earth."

"That's rough, man," Wolfie said simply. "She was the love of your life."

I smiled as my mate pulled his milk brother into a hug, thinking how good it was to be a werewolf. After all, what human man would use the term "love of your life" in anything other than jest? And embraces among male non-shifters were seldom so extended and heartfelt.

Chase clearly needed the emotional support too because it appeared that my mate's assessment of his friend's feelings was correct. For the first time, I realized that I'd never seen the beta look at a woman with interest in his eyes, not even after we all moved into Haven and he had a larger selection of females to choose from.

Yes, Chase was strong and caring. But he seemed almost asexual when it came to pack princesses...and now I knew why. The beta obviously still carried a torch for his childhood girlfriend. The question became—did Sienna deserve his regard or not?

"You're going to have to meet with her," Wolfie said once the two pulled apart, his words a statement instead of a question.

"Yeah, if you don't need me here," Chase answered, deferring to his alpha even over a matter of such obvious personal importance. "There must be a pressing reason for her to contact me after all these years. So I might be gone for a while, but the pack seems to be in a pretty good place right now."

Chase turned his head to include me as he spoke, acknowledging the fact that I'd started filling the beta's previous role in Wolfie's life. The two would always be best friends, but Wolfie had largely grown out of his need for a non-bloodling to translate between him and the rest of the world. And in the rare instances when my mate still needed a human-minded partner...well, I was there.

"Of course the pack can get along without you," I said quickly, not waiting for Wolfie to reply. Because I knew Chase was also asking whether I could get along without the previously necessary third-wheel who had greased the gears of my early relationship with Wolfie.

Luckily for everyone concerned, I hadn't needed the beta to clue me in to what Wolfie really meant in months, so I added force to my words by taking Chase's hands in mine, imparting what strength I could to the shaken shifter. Yes, Wolfie and I would get by just fine with Chase gone. I just hoped he'd fare as well out in the world alone.

My mate, apparently, was thinking along a similar track. But Wolfie's willingness to sacrifice for his milk brother exceeded my own. "And the pack can do without me as well," the alpha said, surprising me and Chase both with his readiness to dive in with both feet to help his friend.

Is that really true? I thought, considering Wolfie's words. I'd managed the Haven clan so badly before my mate moved in that I had to wonder. Just last winter, I'd trusted Sarah and I'd trusted my uncles, most of whom had ended up stabbing me in the back. Who said I would do any better on my own this time around?

Plus, a sad little voice that I tried my best to ignore added: Is my mate leaving us because Chase needs him...or because he's fed up with me for being too scared to embrace a claiming moon?

But my co-alpha erased both fears as he took my hand in his and cocked his head to one side. His lupine half was speaking to my own without words, simply broadcasting the boundless affection that the two beasts shared. I suspected that if our human minds didn't persist on getting in the way, then Wolfie and I would never have any dissension in our relationship at all.

"I know you can do this, Terra," Wolfie said when our respective wolves had settled back down into slumber. "I'll call and email whenever I can, but I trust you and I trust our pack." He paused, then glanced quickly over at Chase, whose mind seemed to have returned to the past rather than paying attention to the remainder of our conversation. "And I have to do this for Chase. He's stood by me through thick and thin, so it's high time I had his back as well. We're brothers."

I could barely speak through the sob caught in my throat, so I merely nodded my head.

Wolfie was right. Chase deserved all the help that we both could give. So I'd find a way to be a better alpha than I'd been before. Somehow, my wolf and I would protect our pack.

***

Of course, cell-phone reception and internet cafes near Sienna's home turned out to be nonexistent. So I was entirely out of touch with my mate when the letter arrived the next morning.

Well, I was physically out of touch, but Wolfie was still very much on my mind. So, rather than diving into the pack problems awaiting my attention, I was instead sitting in my office in the Barn doing my best to emulate Wolfie's more human approach to educating Ember when my stepmother tapped gently on the already open door.

"Are you busy?" Cricket asked, a sheaf of papers clutched in one hand and her bird-like shoulders tense. I wasn't able to ask the source of her worry, though, because Ember's excitement at the entrance of a new playmate spurred the wolfling to hop down off my desk and to dance around the woman's feet like an extra large cat.

We were all used to the bloodling's enthusiasm. But apparently Cricket wasn't as on top of her game as usual, so she neglected to notice the joyful attack until too late. "Oh!" my stepmother exclaimed, nearly falling over the living trip hazard before crouching down to scoop up the bloodling in her free hand.

"Now that you've got Ember, I'm not busy at all," I answered, dubiously eying the document Cricket held out toward me. My stepmother had retained her duties as pack secretary even after her husband stepped down as leader, so it was no surprise to see that the opened envelope had been addressed to Wolfie. What was more surprising was the source—the Southeast Inter-Pack Tribunal. As I made out the words, I immediately felt a pang in my stomach that matched the expression on my stepmother's face perfectly.

"Bad news," Cricket said simply, passing the letter over before returning her attention to the bloodling. "It requires an immediate reply, so why don't I take Ember for a while so you can focus?" Then, aiming her next words at the pup in question, my stepmother asked, "How would you like to help me mop some floors?"

Even though the task sounded more like a chore than a game, Ember visibly vibrated with anticipation. Cricket had embraced the role of grandmother early on, but since the bloodling lacked human hands, the former had been unable to share the typical grandmother activities of joint cookie baking and craft making. Instead, the duo had learned to love cleaning together just as much.

I'd initially been bamboozled by Ember's enthusiasm for what I considered grunt work. Until, that is, I walked in on the pair one day and found rags tied to the pads of the bloodling's feet. Cricket was calling encouragement as the pup slid gaily across the soapy floor in their version of "mopping up." Yes, it wasn't a typical grandmother-granddaughter activity...but both participants clearly loved the project. So who was I to say they'd be better off baking cookies?

The reminiscent smile quickly faded from my lips, though, as I picked my way through the legalese in the document Cricket had delivered before taking Ember off my hands. Our Tribunal was a lot like a human court in both purpose and preferred language, so it took me longer than necessary to get the gist of the article in question. Only when I saw Justin's name did the worry at the back of my mind coalesce into a more serious ache. Then I picked out the word "daughter" and my vision went dark for a split second.

They want to take Ember away from us. Instantly, my wolf became so angry that I nearly fell onto the floor on four paws rather than finishing reading.

Good thing Cricket took the daughter in question off my hands, I thought grimly. In fact, I was already on my feet and striding outside before I realized I'd chosen a course of action in an instant.

Like Cricket, I knocked on a door and invited myself in without waiting for a reply. Dale was pasting a bandaid over a young cousin's skinned knee when I entered. But with one look at my face, the boy skedaddled out of the doctor's office and slammed the door behind him.

I would have felt bad about the youngster's hasty retreat, but I knew the pack's kids had been won over by the doctor's colorful bandages and now tended to show up on his doorstep when they had hardly so much as a scratch. My rampant wolf couldn't smell any blood and there hadn't been any scent of worry about the room until the inhabitants got a look at the anger behind my eyes. So I maintained my attention on the issue at hand.

"You said you might be able to transform Ember after more trials," I said, cutting right to the chase with my brother-in-law. My human brain was vaguely aware that I should have started with small talk and worked up to my request. But my human half wasn't entirely in control at the moment. And my wolf was uninterested in two-legger time-wasting.

Truth to tell, my human half felt about the same way after reading the letter that we still clutched in one hand.

"How long do you need?" I finished, boring into Dale's eyes with my own.

The poor guy wasn't used to the intensity of an angry werewolf's gaze, so it took him a few seconds to get his act together enough to speak. In the meantime, I paced jerkily from one end of the small examining room to the other, doing my best to maintain my human form so I'd be able to speak to my brother-in-law and pepper him with further questions.

"Is everything okay, Terra?" Dale asked, and I could tell he was itching to pull out his stethoscope and look me over. I simply continued to stare, though, and his eyes slid to the side in an almost lupine show of submission.

"Well, it might be days before I feel comfortable trying out the drug on Ember or it might be weeks," the doctor said once it became clear that I wasn't planning on imparting any additional information. I didn't particularly want to keep my brother-in-law in the dark, but I also wasn't sure how much longer my wolf would let me maintain human form when both of us craved the feel of splintering bone between our sharp teeth. So I kept my lips closed to cover the fangs that wanted to expand and sharpen against my tongue. No need to terrify Dale when he seemed quite willing to help us get what we needed without any additional inducement.

"I haven't started working on it yet," the doctor continued. "Because I wasn't sure how you and Wolfie felt about the idea."

"Then start," I said—or rather, my wolf said as the two of us turned back toward the door. We'd answer the letter by choosing the peacekeeper route, we decided. That would give Dale more time to work on the only solution I could come up with to keep Ember out of her father's hands—to accelerate her majority by forcing a shift.

Because that was the crack I was hoping to slip through. In werewolf law, any shifter old enough to change forms was also old enough to choose his or her own future. Presumably, Ember would be willing to tell the court that she wanted to stay with us, and the current disaster would be averted.

It was a brash move, but a necessary one since the Tribunal's request would otherwise end in tragedy. The governing body had ordered me to either relinquish our bloodling back into Justin's dubious care or to submit to a peacekeeping exercise in hopes the two of us could come to some sort of compromise.

As if there could be a compromise between my current urge to tear out Wolfie's brother's throat and Justin wanting to do the same to my mate.

Too bad the other alpha had realized that metaphorical sallies would be just as satisfying as sinking his fangs into our actual flesh. I hadn't thought Justin was that smart and patient.

Yes, Wolfie's brother just continued to disappoint.

"I'll start on it now," Dale called after me, and I squashed my wolf long enough to turn back around and grace my brother-in-law with a vaguely human smile.

"Hurry," my wolf and I said simply. "But make sure it's entirely safe."