Page 47 of The Awakened Wolf

“Didn’t it?” Her lips twisted. “When he picked you, it was like everyone else picking you…like he was reading those stupid letters out loud and proving to everyone that I was a fraud. That I’d never be the real Alpha. I felt like I had to fight for it—fight for him.” She stared at the floor. “But… I’ve never been more relieved.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve never been more terrified.” I said, plopping down beside her. “You told Mother over and over and over how much you wanted to protect me, but when I needed you most, you just left me… to do something with a stranger that you were too afraid to do yourself?”

“It never occurred to me that you would be anything but thrilled to live out your human dreams in Manhattan.” Her eyes were wide, twin blue pools of innocence. “Besides, Sebastian said you were fated. And that turned out to be true, so there was no harm done really.”

A film reel of the loss we’d endured over the past weeks played in my mind. I saw Charlie and Max and Mateo, and all the shifters we’d lost in battle. I saw Blaze trapped in his cell and Jesmyn waiting to find out if she would lose her mind.

“Kiana, words can’t describe how much harm has been done,” I said in a low voice.

“That was Damien’s fault, not mine.” She sat up straighter. “But he’s gone now. I took care of him. And once we get rid of Odin, we can do what Leto said and work together for once. Be a real family.”

I wasn’t sure I would live long enough to see my sister own up to her part in Damien’s machinations, despite not being entirely under his sway. But I was too touched by the unexpected sentiment to argue with her.

“Well,” I smiled. “You’re going to have to wait on being an aunt. Leto willing, we can rid the world of Odin, but we can’t do the same for the humans.”

“What’s your point?” Her brow furrowed.

“I’m not bringing a pup into the world until it’s safer for our kind.”

“Nooooo.” Kiana rose from the couch, doing her best to stand tall and look down at me. “You can’t wait. Once you’re mated, you have to get with pup as soon as possible. That’s your job.”

“No.” I folded my arms, standing as tall as she was to remind her we were twins and there was plenty of Alpha in me too.

“Elyse,” her voice turned icy, “What about all the things I’ve done for you? Letting you come home despite your—” She wrinkled her nose. I suppressed the urge to punch it. “—awkward state. And letting you have Sebastian after that embarrassing display? I even picked out a mate for Evan! What else do you need me to do for you, Elyse? Literally all you ever have to do is have a pup. I’ll even look the other way if you want to read it books or take it to the stupid movies.” She stopped. “Sebastian’s probably into that too, isn’t he? He did buy that theater for you…”

As these last rambling bits fell out of her mouth, my confused mind cleared.

All those letters, page after page of my sister begging our mother to spare her the fate of motherhood herself.

She needed an heir.

That’s why she was so obsessed with me having a pup. We were twins. My children would be genetically identical to any she would have had with Sebastian. So why mate and have pups herself when she could conscript me to do all the labor?

“How do I know you won’t just kill me and take my pup once I’ve whelped?” I snapped.

“Gods,” Kiana squeezed her brow. “Why is this so hard for you to grasp? I don’t want a pup. At all. To whelp. To raise. Not at all.”

“What?” I said, my fever rising. “That’s worse. What if something happened to me and Sebastian and my pup needed you? Would you raise her? Would you love her like your own?”

Kiana’s frown deepened. She opened her mouth and then stopped. Finally, she said, “Well, Evan would, so you don’t have to worry.”

“Get. Out.” I pointed at the door.

She crossed her arms. “I don’t take orders, I give them.”

“Fine.” I grabbed the nubbly gray cardigan that I’d left on the floor that morning and stormed out, making sure to slam the door hard enough that they’d hear it all the way in Manhattan.

Chapter Eighteen

“Elyse.” Tender fingers brushed the hair from my eyes and drew me onto my back as if my magic. I blinked the stale crust of tears from my eyes, and Sebastian’s handsome face came into focus, haloed by the city’s beautiful ever-present light pollution. His mouth curved into a smile that rustled his up-all-night stubble. “There you are.”

“There you are.” I threw my arms around him, unsure if I was pulling myself up or pulling him down. Unsure if it was still the end of a very long night or the beginning of a bright new day.

We met awkwardly in the middle, both of us thrown off balance as our lips came together for the first time in hours, which in fated mate time was like… I don’t know, six months or maybe something even more ridiculous. My wolf let out a low howl of pleasure from deep within, and Sebastian’s fingers curled around my arms, digging into my light sweater. His wolf had heard her.

He abruptly pulled back, laughing softly. “In case you missed that, he says this is almost as acrobatic as the upside down Spider-Man kiss.”

I trailed my fingernails along his scruffy jaw. “Mmm, tell him we can try it, but you’ll need a mask.”

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