sableArcher holds up his hands to get the crowd’s attention, and the chatter slowly dies down. “Thank you for coming on such short notice to meet with us tonight. We’ve given you a few days to think about what we discussed in our last meeting, and now we’d like to open the floor to each pack regarding their thoughts on the matter. My pack will get us started. Patrice?”One of the robed elders sitting in folding chairs at the front of the crowd stands and steps up onto the makeshift stage to join us. She shakes Archer’s hand, and then surprises everybody when she turns to offer her hand to Ridge and Trystan too. She’s middle-aged with a stern, hard face and a spray of gray in her blonde hair. But none of the apparent sternness is audible in her voice as she speaks.“Greetings, everyone. I’m honored to stand before you as the emissary for the East Pack,” she says with a sincere smile. “Our people have met multiple times over these past two days, and the answer for us has remained the s

RidgeThe strain in the older woman’s face leaves little room for interpretation. I don’t have to ask her what Lawson’s condition is. I don’t have to say is he going to recover?Because the truth is clear in the stark look she gives me.Sable’s small hand alights on my arm, and I take an ounce of comfort in her presence as I glance down at my brother.My jaw clenches painfully. Yeah, Lawson and I didn’t exactly have a perfect relationship. In fact, it was pretty fucking shitty for the majority of our adult years. Sometimes, I felt like I almost hated my brother, which goes against every pack code regarding the sanctity of family.But looking at him now, dying and broken, I can’t muster any of that old hate. It seems fucking petty at this point, all the bickering, the fighting, the arguing. The day he challenged me and lost. The day he was tortured and gave up all the pack’s secrets. Despite all that he did wrong, I only feel sorrow.Lawson is the last of my family. When he’s gone… the

SableRidge kicks the half-open door with his foot, barely even breaking stride as we enter the bedroom.He deposits me on the bed and is on me immediately, never letting our bodies separate as his lips claim mine over and over with kisses that make my pulse race. He’s devouring me with an entirely new kind of hunger, something I’ve never felt from him before, not even the first time he claimed me.It’s like he’s falling from a great height, plummeting through empty space, and the connection between us is the only tether that can save him. The only thing that can keep him from breaking when he hits the ground.Our clothes are gone almost as if they vanished into thin air, torn off and thrown to the side of the bed so quickly I might as well have used magic to do it. The second we’re both naked, Ridge settles his large frame between my legs, tension radiating from him as if he resents the few seconds we had to be apart.As if they caused him physical pain.He grunts inarticulate words

TrystanArcher’s kitchen is alive with the smell and sound of breakfast cooking and coffee brewing. It’s the most normal, mundane situation I can find myself in these days, and it’s my favorite. Here in this room, nobody can touch us. We can laugh, we can eat, we can caffeinate, and through it all, all we need is each other.Fucking sappy, sure. But it’s my reality now.Although, this morning, none of us are laughing. It’s a grim goddamn day. Death feels like a sixth person in the room, and even the sky is gray and cloudy to match the mood.I sip my coffee, watching Sable squeeze Ridge’s arm with a small, secret smile of comfort. When Archer, Dare, and I returned last night, we found the two of them asleep in each other’s arms. It’s still such a weird sensation, looking at another man holding my mate—naked, no less—and not feeling an ounce of jealousy. All I could feel was relief that Sable had been able to calm him down. She was there for him in a way none of the rest of us could be.

SableElder Patrice and her team of scouts return by mid-morning the next day with more information on the witches’ bunker. Turns out, Lawson knew exactly what he was talking about.While the recon team chose not to climb the mountain for a better vantage point, since that would’ve gotten them too close and taken too much time, they were able to pinpoint a strange anomaly on the side of the mountain facing away from the interior range. Using their accounts, we spend the better part of the day compiling a full report on the area surrounding Wolfsbane Mountain. Terrain, obstacles, prime cover, vulnerable zones—all of it is mapped out and analyzed.We’re able to bring in a few other people from all three packs for deeper descriptions too. Even though many have never climbed Wolfsbane Mountain and didn’t even know what it was called, we find a couple other shifters who have visited the little town of Anatoly and seen part of the mountain range. The interviews are tedious, and the act of d