It was an excellent point. Especially since I now remembered one of the Council members saying something about Gabi being raised by wolves. Plus, I’d already decided my biological sister must be older than me, a description that Gabi fit.
On the other hand, if Gabi was my sister, did she actually deserve to be saved?
I was still thinking that through when Donovan slammed on the vehicle’s brakes.
The van slewed sideways and I would have smashed into the window if Orion wasn’t there cradling me. He’d released his seatbelt and lunged down the aisle while I was still trying to understand why there were so many vehicles blocking the roadway, why Donovan had to spin the van around to prevent us from crashing into stationary metal.
Then our tires stopped rolling. The door beside me slid open. And Vega filled the resulting gap.
She looked bigger than when I’d seen her last. No, she smelled bigger. Alpha musk was rolling off my aunt in waves, the aroma scratching the insides of my nostrils worse than the residual scent inside the van did.
The fact I very much hadn’t kept my nose clean during this outing was abruptly, exceedingly clear.
“Get out,” my alpha snapped. Then—“Not you,” she added, glaring at Orion, whose foot was nearly on the ground. “This is my territory and you don’t have permission to enter it.”
Her statement made more sense than it would have back when I’d thought like a human. Vehicles were considered exempt from werewolf territorial mandates; otherwise it would have been impossible for shifters to travel along the human highway system. And it was true that while we’d been tossing around ideas about sisters, Donovan had navigated us onto Vega’s home turf. So my aunt had every right to decide whether or not to roll out the welcome mat for another alpha.
Still, she hadn’t made waves about Orion visiting me previously. Her behavior now seemed very much out of character. “Aunt?” I started.
“Alpha,” Vega corrected. “How many times do I have to tell you to get out of the van?”
I realized she’d added a compulsion to the final words when my muscles started moving without my permission. Only Orion’s iron arm in front of me kept me from obeying. “Why?” he growled.
“Because I have a very unhappy pack leader sipping iced tea in my parlor,” Vega snapped. “Chief Bellwether is demanding my niece be punished for trespassing and I can’t deny him that right without starting a war. Not when Elspeth’s actions months ago are why his clan is in such a mess now.” When Orion growled, she added. “There will be no permanent bodily damage as long as Elspeth submits. You have my word on that.”
“No,” Orion answered for me.
I tried to open my mouth but found I had no way of inserting myself into their conversation. Had no way of doing anything other than leaving the van since my muscles were still trying to obey Vega’s earlier order.
The others were unaffected. “Alpha,” Hailey interjected, pressing into the doorway behind me and Orion. I could feel Ari beside her, the pair of them warming my back as Hailey offered: “I was trespassing too. I’ll accept the punishment in Elspeth’s place.”
“Or I will,” Ari added, his voice cracking slightly.
“Not on the table.” Vega didn’t spare either young person a glance. Instead, her gaze continued boring into me. “Your sister came to call while you were out.”
My sister? For one split second, I thought Vega knew about the blood sister from the prophecy, and I must have broadcast that thought down the pack bond because Vega cocked her head and softened a little. Despite the urgency I could feel emanating off her, she took the time to answer the question I hadn’t voiced.
“Your mother had no other children before you. Your father?” she shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine.”
I blinked dryness out of my eyes, only realizing as I did so that my body was obeying me again. If Vega didn’t know about my blood sister, then who was she referring to?
“Celeste?” I realized belatedly, the word finally making it out of a thawing mouth.
“Obviously.” The hint of softness from earlier fled as Vega glared at me. “Did I forget inviting her to cross the boundary?”
“I apologize alpha,” I murmured, dropping my eyes in submission. This was an old issue between us, riled up by the fact Celeste had trouble understanding that I needed permission from my alpha whenever a non-pack mate came to visit. Vega had warned me more than once that her patience was wearing thin and I’d tried to get my sister to understand. Still, I wasn’t entirely surprised Celeste had just shown up.
I wasn’t surprised, but I was very concerned about her timing. “Celeste hasn’t interacted with Chief Bellwether, has she?” I asked, scanning the darkness around us as if that would give me an answer.
“Of course not.” Vega shook her head in annoyance. “Unlike some people, I’m doing everything in my power not to make matters worse.”
And for a moment, she was entirely my aunt, not my alpha. Which might explain why, when she raised her eyebrows, I ducked out from behind Orion’s arm and slid down out of the van.
In reaction, Orion growled out something that might have been words but didn’t quite register. His large, warm hands landed on my shoulders as if he intended to drag me right back into the vehicle. And while contact between us had felt good when I was blindfolded and again when the van swerved out of control, now I got the distinct impression I was an inanimate object being fought over by two dominants.
The sensation raised my hackles. I wasn’t anybody’s pawn.
To make matters worse, this was the second time Orion had treated me this way recently. So I didn’t bother being subtle as I slipped out of his grip. Then I lost track of his reaction when my attention was snagged by something barely visible outside the illuminated circle of headlights.
There were wolves there, members of Vega’s pack. I’d noted their familiar aromas the moment the van door opened. Now, I caught the glimmer of retinas reflecting moonlight, their stillness proof that they were intent upon keeping anyone from intruding upon their alpha’s business.
So how were two people in human form able to push through that circle of fangs and claws?
Chapter 12
At first, it appeared that the taller of the two-leggers was talking his way through. And I guess he was, just not in the way a human should have been able to.
Finnegan’s tone was light and his French badly accented as he repeated “Excuse-moi” over and over. It wasn’t the accent or the language, however, that made the wolves part before him. Instead, it was the alpha compulsion tangled up underneath.
“Are you forgetting what it means to be a guest?” Vega bit out, swiveling around to face Finnegan. “My wolves aren’t yours to command.”
But Finnegan didn’t answer. Instead, it was the other two-legger—Celeste—who rushed forward as soon as she and Finnegan made it past the guardian wolves’ circle. Her face was flushed, tufts of hair sticking out of her French braid as if she hadn’t taken the time to disentangle herself from obstructions while running here, instead brute-forced her way through. And for a moment, we were both ten years younger, infiltrating the Enclave on a night very much like this.
It had been a midterm of sorts, one where we were doing our level best to avoid armed and dangerous guards Gabi had told us weren’t forewarned about the night’s expedition. Evading notice, we’d climbed the fence and worked our way through the wooded perimeter, then I’d boosted my sister in a window after taping and shattering the glass.
The ensuing alarm had shocked me more than it did Celeste. We’d expected some sort of security, had planned for various options. Still, the deafening blare made me stumble when it hit my shifter-sensitive eardrums.
Celeste had caught me. She’d always caught me. “Do you need to go back outside?”
