“I know. I’m sorry.” Kissing him lightly on the cheek, she got up slowly and straightened her clothes.

His cock twitched as her breasts were made even more apparent by that action. Damn, hadn’t one of her brothers or her parents ever told her not to parade around like that? Her nipples were hard and outlined in a way that tortured him even worse than the demons had.

Gods, to taste just one of those…

The wolf inside was salivating.

“Are you hungry?”

Yes, he was, but not for food. “No. I’m all right.”

She nodded. “I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

Naked? He almost groaned aloud as that image went through his mind with a clarity that should be illegal. Damn it to hell, get out of my head. But the image of her nude body was there and it blistered him.

As soon as she was gone, he placed his hand down to his cock to try and alleviate some of the pain she’d caused. It was no use. He was so hard, he could drive a nail with his erection.

“What am I going to do?”

If he touched her, he would violate all the laws of the Omegrion and her family would mount his balls to the mirror that hung over the bar.

So he would suffer. Whimper… none of it would give him what he really wanted, which was to be inside her sinfully delicious body.

“Fang?”

He heard Vane’s voice from the other side of his door. Pulling the covers over his lap to hide what Aimee had done to him, he sighed at the welcomed interruption even though he dreaded seeing his brother again. “Come in.”

Vane opened the door. “Hey.”

Fang would have been amused by his uncharacteristic hesitancy, but right now nothing much could elicit that from him. Not while his body was this hungry.

Awkward silence filled the room as they stared at each other.

Vane leaned against the closed door. “I can’t believe you’re finally awake. I really thought I’d lost you.”

“Yeah, well, you’ll have to forgive me for being a selfish asshole.” Fang cringed as those words flew out of his mouth before he could stop them.

Vane stiffened as he recognized the quote. “You heard me?”

Fang looked away, unwilling to answer. So he changed the subject. “Why’s Stefan downstairs?”

“Markus has fallen and Stefan is no longer a leader. I put Fury in charge of the pack.”

Fang couldn’t have been more pissed off had his brother slapped him. Then again, that’s exactly what he’d done by putting Fury in as their leader.

It should have been him.

“He’s not strong enough to lead.”

“With my backing he is.”

And with Vane’s backing, Fang couldn’t challenge him for leadership. Well, he could, but it would break their bond and weaken them before the others, leaving them open to attack. Which was exactly what the other wolfswains would do. Perfect. He’d been completely cut out of his birthright.

Markus would be thrilled.

Vane moved forward cautiously as he watched Fang’s solemn contemplation. This wasn’t the reunion he’d expected when Fang finally came out of his coma. He’d dreamed of this moment over and over again. Fang waking up, happy to be alive. His brother embracing him…

But something was different now. There was an air around Fang far deadlier than anything Vane had sensed from him before.

His brother was angry and there was a bitterness to him that he didn’t understand. Why would he feel like that given what he’d put Vane and Fury through? “You’ve been out of it for months.”

“Believe me, I know.” His eyes flashed with brutal malice.

Frustrated, Vane sighed. “What do you want from me?”

“Nothing, Vane, I just want you to be happy.”

His mouth might have said that, but his tone didn’t. Vane tried again to ease the tension between them. “I am that. Finally. Bride’s better than I ever deserved. And we both have a room for you at our house.”

Fang grimaced at his offer. “I don’t know. You two are newly mated. The last thing you need is your mentally defective brother spooking the shit out of your woman.”

That was a vintage Fang comment. One of the sarcastic retorts that Vane had been craving to hear all of these months past. “Bride doesn’t spook easily.”

“Probably true if she sees you first thing in the morning.”

Vane smiled at his humor. His chest was tight as he realized just how much he really had missed his brother while Fang had been out of it. There was no one else in the world like him. “We want you with us.”

Fang shot out of the bed as if he were about to attack. “I’m not your son, Vane,” he snarled with an unexpected rage. “I’m not a child. I’m a grown wolf and I really don’t think I belong with you guys.”

He nodded, but refused to back down. He knew better than to let Fang sense his emotions. It would only make the wolf in him more volatile.

So he tried to change the subject to something safer. “There’s something else you need to know about Fury.”

Fang scoffed. “He’s my brother. Aimee already told me.”

That surprised the hell out of him. Just how close was his brother to the bearswan?

That couldn’t be good.

“Do you want to see him?” Vane asked.

“Not really. In case you’ve forgotten, the two of us aren’t exactly friendly.”

“Yeah, I know. But he’s been a big help protecting Bride.”

“I’m glad you had him.” The tone of his voice belied those words.

Vane scowled at his attitude, which was beginning to chafe his ass raw. He’d been keeping a leash on his temper, but it was starting to slip under the constant assault he didn’t deserve.

He was trying, but Fang wasn’t making any effort at all.

Instead Fang kept attacking and the wolf part of Vane was getting really sick of it. “Why are you so angry at me?”

Fang simmered inside. His fury was volcanic and he wanted to lash out at Vane in the worst way.

You let me down, you asshole!

But that wasn’t the only bane that burned inside him. It was the fact that while Vane had let him down, he’d cursed him for being trapped. That his brother had said things to him that were wrong and hurtful.

And wholly undeserved.

He wanted to feel the same love and loyalty for his brother now that he’d felt the night Anya had died. But it wasn’t there anymore and that hurt most of all.

Fang wasn’t the same and neither was Vane.

Unwilling to fight anymore when it wouldn’t change anything, Fang backed off. “Look, I still don’t feel well. Why don’t you go and spend time with your mate and Fury?”

“What about you? You’re my family too.”

Yeah, right.

Funny, he didn’t feel like that anymore. “Just pretend I’m still in a coma. I’m sure that’ll be easy enough for you to do.”

Vane screwed his face up into a look of disgust. “Oh, fuck you, you selfish bastard. You know, Fury and I were the ones who kept you safe while you laid in bed, worthless to us. And now you dare to cop an attitude with me? You are such a bitter shit.”

Fang raked Vane with a sneer. “Yeah, like you don’t know anything about being selfish.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You abandoned me to chase tail and then when I didn’t rise at your command, you buddied up with a bastard you hate. Don’t forget, I know your love of Fury runs about as deep as mine does. Where was your loyalty in all this?”

Vane slung his hand out and pinned him to the wall. “You better be glad you’ve been sick or I’d shove those words down your throat.”

Fang blasted him with a wave of his own. It shattered the powers Vane used to hold him and sent his brother reeling as he was released. “You’re not the only one who can command magick, dick.”

Vane looked up from where he’d landed on the floor against the wall, his features shocked. “How did you do that?”

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know, adelphos. Be grateful that I’m not willing to show it all to you. Now get out.”