Page 25 of Unforgivable

"She was hurting her leg from shaking," Ezra offers. He stabs the hay with a pitchfork, spreading it out on the stall floor. Ezra will defend my assholeness to other wolves, even to Rhet. It's... nice to have them in my corner. That's why I'm so afraid of this female breaking us apart. She has that power. I can tell.

"I figure you can deal with her," I tell Rhet with a smirk.

"Fucker," he growls. More hay gets pulled over. "Get those last few bales?"

I nod. He walks over and starts to bring a few cows into the first stall. Ezra is at the next one as I stack the remaining bales on the wheelbarrow to haul to the other side of the barn.

"Where's Rocky?" I ask.

"In his shed, pissed the fuck off."

I take the bales down. Ezra and Rhet join me a minute later. We start on this side together in silence.

"When we slaughter him, we can't tell her about it," I say, just like we never told her that Rocky is actually Rocky II. It's winter. Time to slaughter a bull. He's sown his last oats.

"We won't," agrees Rhet. He pauses from pitching hay and sends me an intense look. "Are you good with this, Thjis?"

I look away, pretending that this hay needs to be spread out more. "I don't want to risk it. You know that."

He walks over to me and hugs me tight. "She won't change us. She'll just make it better. I feel this in my gut, Thjis. My wolf knows it, too. We need her."

I slap his back before we release each other. This male is my brother. He saved my worthless hide years ago, and I owe him this. If he thinks she won't destroy us, then fine, but I'm skeptical.

There's just one more issue. "What if we aren't what she needs?" I say it real quietly. So quiet, it's almost lost in the soft shuffle of noise in the barn.

"We are," he says firmly. "We saved her. We- we are what she needs."

I can hear the doubt in his voice.

---

Alpha Jax

I blearily shove the paperwork aside. Goddess, this is miserable. Pressing the palms of my hands against my eyes, I try to stem the pounding in my head.

"Shit," I mumble. I can't sleep lately. All I can think of is how badly the future of this pack is looking.

It was perfect just a couple of months ago. Everyone was happy, I swear. Wolves were living their lives with their families, just happy, right? My own family was doing great. My Beta Max’s family was doing awesome. I didn't have complaints filtering across my desk all-the-fucking-time. My Gamma, Brett, didn't constantly call me with his frustrations at getting answers with cases. Hell, his caseload has tripled in three months.

Everything is going to shit and it's fucking overwhelming.

"Honey?" the voice of my love makes me smile, even with all this shit on my plate.

"Hey, beautiful," I meet her lips with my own.

Jessi smiles worriedly, her hand stroking my cheek. "Your parents are here," she whispers.

I groan, closing my eyes. There's nothing worse than when the great alpha, Macon Christorsen, comes knocking on my door. I get that he gained his title young when my grandfather, Quin, died, but those thirty years in the role cemented the idea that he'll always be alpha in his head.

He and mom travel to other packs as elders most of the time, but they get too involved in my business when they come home.

"Where are they?" I ask tiredly.

"In the library," comes the concerned response.

I frown. Usually, they go to the kitchen. The library was where my dad's office used to be. His old desk is still there, clean, and pushed against a back wall. I preferred the more cozy office near the entrance to the house for my own.

With a sigh, I stand and walk to the library, Jessi trailing in my wake, my hand entwined with hers.

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