Page 47 of Wanted By the Wolves

Nova picks little bites of carrots from our pile, tossing each into her mouth with a crunch. There’s something so satisfying about hearing her happy little sounds while she snacks and we work around her.That deep sense of home settles in, and I find myself smiling for no real reason.

“So, you guys are littermates. Briggs has told me stories about your travels as hunters, but I want to know how you met Gage.” Nova eyes the three of us.

Gage takes the muffins from the tin and sets them on a cooling rack. Nova reaches for one, but the healer tsks her away. “Careful. I made them for you because they have a base made with some extras that you need after so long on a wolf diet, but don’t eat too many at once. The herbs will help with your muscles and cramping, but too much will probably make you feel a little wonky.”

“You made her pot brownies, didn’t you?” Briggs asks, sounding affronted. “Where’s my stash?”

Gage smirks at my brother. “I’ll make you your own batch.”

“Great. Just what we need,” I tease.

Nova steals a muffin with a shrug. “I’m used to living with a healer and eating their concoctions. I’m not worried.” Nova makes a go-on motion. “Tell me about how you met.”

I get lost in the moan she makes around her first bite, and it takes a head shake and a dick adjustment to remind me of her original question. “We came here when the place was being built.”

“They secured the area for me,” Gage adds. “They spent a summer here.”

“And how did you get assigned this place?” she asks.

Gage busies himself at the stove, taking a moment. “My fathers were the pack alphas for the Eastern Forest before they passed with my mother the winter I turned eighteen. I didn’t want to be pack alpha, even though I was the oldest. I had a magical touch, and healing was where my wolf felt drawn. I went to live with my mother’s brother, a traveling healer, while my brother took leadership of the pack. My uncle trained me, and we worked together for a while before he passed. A few years later, I was approached by a group of elders.”

“The Council?” Briggs interrupts.

“Yes and no. They were elder healers and a few Wolf Council members who had joined forces. It was their plan to build this place and keep it secret. We planned for two years before we finally got everything together that summer you two came here.”

“It was a good summer. Full of brownies,” my brother says wistfully, his eyes on the healer.

I’m wondering, not for the first time, if something more didn’t happen between the two of them that summer. Nova gives me a secret smile; I think she sees it too.

“What about before you guys came here? Before you were hunters?” she asks me.

“I don’t remember much. Nothing about our village or our family pack.” I finish peeling potatoes and bring the bowl over to Gage.

Briggs picks up where I left off. “We grew up in the tents of the Outskirts, living there until we were sixteen. That’s when Mako found us.”

“Who is Mako?” Nova rests her chin in her hands, watching us as she snacks.

“He was an elder who kicked our asses until we stopped being little shits,” I admit, thinking of the grizzled alpha.

My brother raises his brow at me in question, and I nod. He can tell her, but I don’t have to watch. I avoid their eyes by cleaning up my mess and taking the peelings to the compost bin.

“We were punks hustling in this underground fighting ring. There was never enough food, and the fights got us extra rations. This one night, the king’s guard raided a fight, snatching up kids for work detail. The chaos started a fire, who knows how, and I got trapped with this other kid we knew. Dex could have gotten out, but he had to be a hero.” Briggs’s words are teasing, but I feel his gratitude in our bond.

The feeling makes me uncomfortable and exposed. I couldn’t leave him there. What was I going to do? He’s my brother. We look out for each other.

Nova’s gaze lands on me. “You got him out?”

The attention feels like pinpricks on my scars. I swallow thickly. “And then ran right into Mako, who chewed my ass out all the way to the healer. After that, he took us to his home, and we never left until he helped us get our first hunting gig with the Council a few years later.”

Briggs squeezes my shoulder. “Yeah, Mako was an old-school hard-ass, but he straightened us right out. He passed away a few years back, but without him, I don’t know that we would have made it.”

Nova opens her arms, waiting for me. The moment I lift her, she wraps herself around me. Maybe I don’t mind being in the spotlight if it’s her light shining on me.

“That must have been so painful, but I’m so grateful for him and for you,” she whispers. She buries herself in my neck, gently petting along my chest where the worst of my scars live.

I swallow around the boulder in my throat, leaning in to scent mark her hair. I don’t know if I’ll ever get over how right it feels to have her in my arms.

My brother joins our hug, curling himself around her back. “Get in the pack pile, Gage.”

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