Page 47 of The Sacred Wolf

You’ll learn.

Mateo took a step forward, insinuating himself gently between Kiana and Max. “Why don’t you just tell us what happened first?”

This was directed at me. I nodded, taking a deep breath. Ten minutes later, I’d related the entire thing, at least, what I could while skirting certain inconvenient truths. Like why Evan seemed so close with “my” human friend Jayla. And most of all, about Sebastian’s true parentage.

You must tell him that eventually.

I don’t think it’s mine to tell. Anyway, Sebastian deserves to hear it first.

Max is the Alpha.

But it’s Sebastian’s life. It will be his…

Pain.

Yes.

“You did well, Elyse,” Max whispered. “To stop Sebastian and your sister from attacking the humans in Damien’s sway. That would have played into his hands. Sometimes restraint,” he added, arching a brow at Kiana, “is the mark of a true Alpha.”

Kiana huffed, stamping a foot and triggering a small avalanche of dried blood dust from her shiftskin onto the Persian rug lining the floor.

“Speaking of which,” Max said, eyeing the rug archly, “now seems like a good time to get back to why, exactly, you were in my territory, Kiana.”

“I was doing you a favor.” Her eyes narrowed into slits.

“I can’t imagine you wanting to do me any favors, given our history.”

“Believe it or not, I was following Damien. It doesn’t matter whose territory he’s in. The damage he’s done to all of us needs to stop.” Kiana pressed her thumb into the bottom of her fingers one by one until they popped.

I studied my sister carefully while she gave this seemingly magnanimous little speech.

She’s lying.

Of course she is. She’s cracking her knuckles. I’d lived with my twin my entire life so I knew her tells.

“Hmph,” Max grunted, his mouth quirking up at the corner. “Is that so? Well, no matter the reason, you were in the right place to help. You helped. I’ll let it go this time.”

Okay, maybe it didn’t take a lifetime of observation to see through her.

He turned to Jayla, who’d stayed as quiet as a mouse beside me on the couch.

“And what, pray tell, do we do with this human?” he asked.

Jayla shrank against me, her throat pulsing as she swallowed hard.

I hesitated, my mind racing for a solution that wouldn’t involve an unpleasant end to our friendship…or my friend. I didn’t really think Max would do that, but I wasn’t too sure of what Kiana would do when we all left the safety of this room.

“Oh, I don’t know." My twin laughed airily. “Maybe Elyse should just bite her like that other human.”

Evan gasped, giving himself away, and my heart dropped into the cradle of my pelvis, a solid weight pinning me to the chair. Kiana flashed a triumphant smirk. She’d taken a gamble on that one, and it had paid off.

“She didn’t just do that!” Evan’s thought penetrated my mind, and it was my turn to gasp. We met each other’s eyes, mirrored pools of disbelief. “Holy crap, you heard that? But…we’ve never…is this normal?” he asked, his inner pitch rising.

“Shhh, it’s okay,” I soothed, even though my own inner voice rose sharply.

Human-to-human telepathy was usually only available to the highest ranking wolves. Alphas, Betas, maybe the upper reaches of the guard. But Evan had no rank; if it wasn’t for me, he probably would have been assigned to the servant class or the lowest levels of the guard. Unless… no, that couldn’t be… there was no way he was showing up on the cosmic radar as… my Alpha Heir?

“It happens,” I lied, not wanting to unpack this right now. “It’s fine.”

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