“Where’s Vane?”

“I’m not sure. He’s not in his den or camp. I haven’t seen him in a while. Have you?”

“He was off helping that Dark-Hunter who lives in the swamp. Talon. I assumed he’d be back by now.” Dark-Hunters were immortal warriors who fought for the goddess Artemis. They hunted down the Were-Hunters’ cousins, the Apollites, and killed them whenever they turned Daimon and started preying on human souls to live.

It was rare for Dark-Hunters and Were-Hunters to mix, but not impossible, and over the centuries, Fang and Vane had made friends with a number of them.

Anya sighed heavily. “That’s the Dark-Hunter you two fought for the other night, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, Talon and Acheron.” Acheron was the leader of the Dark-Hunters and a longtime friend of Vane’s.

“I wish the two of you would leave them alone. Every time a Were-Hunter mixes with one of them something bad happens.”

“Ah, don’t worry. It was actually fun. Besides there’s a lot of Daimon crap going down and the Dark-Hunters have agreed to help us protect you guys should something happen.”

“So say you, but I don’t trust them.”

“Neither do I, but I do trust Vane and you should too. He would never do anything to cause harm to us or to the pack.”

She looked away shamefaced.

Fang felt guilty about making her feel that way. However, she shouldn’t be questioning their elder. Vane would die if anything happened to them.

To think he’d caused it…

Vane would never get over that. And yet as Fang sat stroking his sister’s ear, he had a bad feeling. He couldn’t define it. It hovered in the back of his mind like a specter that wanted his blood.

It’s just the concern for Anya.

Was it? Or could it be a premonition? He’d never been particularly precognitive.

But…

He wouldn’t think about it. Anya was safe. He was here to protect her and Vane would be back as soon as he could. Nothing would change. She’d have her puppies here where their old enemies wouldn’t be looking for them. Then once their young were old enough to travel, they’d move again.

That was the way of things. And nothing was going to change. He was going to make sure of it.

Fang snapped awake at a sharp cry of alarm. In his wolf’s form, he was lying beside his sister who’d also come awake at the sound.

“Stay here,” he projected to her. “I’ll go check it out.” He pushed himself up on his paws and trotted over to the main camp where a group of wolves were gathered.

Two were bleeding profusely.

Keegan’s older brother, Liam, held his bloody paw up to keep from putting weight on it. His light brown fur was coated in blood. “It was an ambush. We’re lucky any of us made it out.”

Markus, also in wolf form, glared at him. “Who?”

“Arcadian wolves. They had a trap set for us.”

Markus cursed. “Where’s the rest of your tessera?”

“I don’t know. Orian told us to come back and warn all of you.”

Markus cast his gaze around the pack. “Gather our forces! I want every able-bodied male.”

Fang turned human to confront his father. “You can’t. What if this is a trap meant to call us away from our women and leave them unprotected?” He looked around at the wolves. “Remember what happened before? How many women and pups did we lose to Arcadian slaughter?”

Markus snapped at him.

But Fang saw the indecision in the other’s eyes.

William moved forward. “I think Fang might be right. Some of us should stay behind. Just in case.”

Markus’s eyes glowed in the darkness. He hated to be questioned. “Fine. Fang and the rest of you women can stay behind. I hunt.”

The pack divided in half.

Liam limped over to Fang. “I don’t know about you, but I damn sure don’t feel like a woman.”

Fang laughed. “Ignore the impotent wonder. So what exactly happened?”

“We were horsing around, hunting after small fowl for practice. One minute we were chasing through the marsh and the next Orian was hit with a Taser, then someone opened fire on us with guns. We lost Agarian immediately with a bullet to his head.” Liam looked down at his own injury. “I got caught on the paw, but it only nicked me.”

Which was why he couldn’t use his magick. When they were wounded, their magick was unpredictable and unstable. When used, it could do any number of unwanted things.

Suddenly, Anya cried out.

Turning back into a wolf, Fang ran for her. He reached her in record time. She lay on the ground, writhing.

Terrified, he nosed at her neck. “Anya?”

She was sobbing uncontrollably.

Was she in labor already? Fang exchanged a baffled look with Liam who came up behind them. “What is it?”

“Orian.. .”

“What about him?”

Anya pawed at the ground as if in utter agony. “He’s dead.”

Fang tried to soothe her. “No, he was hit with a Taser.”

She shook her head in denial. “No, he’s dead. I know it. I can feel it.”

“You’re just pregnant and upset.”

She gave him a look so hostile and agonized that it shook him to his soul. “We’re bonded mates, Fang. He’s dead. I can feel it.”

Fang couldn’t breathe as those words tore through him. Bonded…

When two Were-Hunters bonded together, they melded their life forces into one. It was an act of ultimate love and loyalty that meant when one of them died, they both died.

The only exception being if the woman was pregnant. Then her life was elongated, but only until the babies were born. Once the last one was safely delivered, the mother would join her mate in eternity.

Anya was going to die.

Fang struggled to breathe as those words slammed into him with talons that dug so deep into his soul that it was all he could do to remain standing. “Why would you do such a thing?”

She lunged at him, biting him hard. “I loved him, you stupid idiot. Why else?” She howled, a baleful, haunting sound. The cry of a wolf in utter agony.

Leaning his head back, he joined her and let loose his own pain.

His sister was going to die… And there was nothing he could do.

Anya broke off to continue crying. “How can he be dead? How?”

But Fang didn’t hear her words. All he could do was see her dead and limp. See her pups as they looked to him for stories of a mother they’d never know.

How could this be?

They would be just like him. They would have that hole deep inside them that nothing ever filled. The question of what it would have been like to be loved. To have a mother who cared for them and nursed them.

Turning human, he pulled her into his arms and held her as his own tears brimmed. “I won’t leave them alone, Anya. Ever. They will want for nothing.”

Except you and their father.

Those words choked him and succeeded in breaching his control. Against his will, his tears flowed. Embarrassed, he hid his face against her neck and held her for everything he was worth. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. His brother and sister were the only constants in his life.

They were his only solace.

And now to lose one… it was more than he could stand.

He held her close, rocking her for hours, unaware of anything else. It was only when Vane returned at dawn that he realized how much time had elapsed.

Vane approached them slowly. “What’s wrong?”

Fang grappled with a way to tell him gently. Anya was asleep now, but there was no such solace where he was concerned. He tightened his fist in her white fur and decided there was no way to sugar-coat the truth that would shatter Vane the same way it’d shattered him. “Did you know Anya had bonded with Orian?”

Vane curled his lip as if he found the idea as repugnant as Fang had. “Why would she have done that?”