was part of the death toll. Lana had seen Aren drag her away—her remains could’ve been left for scavengers. I didn’t ask him outright if he’d finished her, but I didn’t have to. He would’ve told me if she’d escaped.
Sebastian slipped away. He may have gotten away in the Nero van, or maybe he ran during the fight. It didn’t matter right now.
The sun was rising. A new day. I stood in my barn with all I had left of my father. His empty shell.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
I turned around to see my brother, on crutches, making his way down the barn aisle. I nodded and focused back on Malcolm. “Yeah.” Aren pulled a stool over and sat beside me. I shook my head. “I still can’t believe he’s gone.”
Aren nodded. “Me neither.” He paused and looked over at me. “I’m glad you told him about Lana.”
“He wasn’t happy about it at first.”
Aren shrugged. “If I brought home a jaguar for a mate, you wouldn’t have been happy for me at first either.”
I thought about it and had to agree. “I guess you’re right.”
“She was amazing last night,” Aren said quietly. “In spite of everything, she never lost her head.”
“So you trust her now?”
He nodded. “With my Alpha’s life.”
My shoulders tensed. “Don’t call me that.” I looked at our father and blinked hard to hold back the bitter tears. “Not yet.”
Aren rested a hand on my shoulder and squeezed. “You acted like an Alpha last night.”
“I cried like a boy who lost his father.”
“You were. So was I. Doesn’t make you any less of an Alpha.” His hand lifted from my shoulder as he went on. “None of us were thinking straight last night. We never would have cleared the lake of the evidence. In the chaos, the wolves would have scattered and met back here. But we stayed and we made the right choices because you did, Adam. In spite of the pain and fear and rage, you put the Pack first.”
I clenched my jaw to bite back the wave of emotions brewing inside of me. I met Aren’s eyes and whispered, “I was going to leave this morning with Lana. I wasn’t putting the Pack first then.”
Aren shook his head. “You wouldn’t have gone.”
“You’re wrong. I was ready. We were going to leave this morning to draw Nero away from Reno.”
He was quiet for a moment, and I watched for any sign of how he was feeling, but Aren’s face was a mask. Finally he looked up from Malcolm and met my eyes. “Are you still leaving?”
His question jarred me. “I don’t know.”
Aren’s brow furrowed, and he shot up off the stool, wincing in pain when he put weight on his injured ankle.
“You don’t know?” he fumed, grabbing a crutch to lean on. “You selfish asshole. How can you say that, Adam? If you leave now, then you leave the Pack with me, an injured Alpha. You remember what that means, right?”
“What does it mean?”
We both turned and saw Lana walking toward us. Her dark hair was mussed from sleeping and she looked exhausted, but somehow in spite of all that, she had a glow of natural beauty that blinded me.
Aren glared at me and then answered Lana. “If he doesn’t become the Alpha of our Pack, then I would be next in line. Since I can’t lead the Pack right now, one of the others would have to step forward.”
I finished it for him. “Once they step forward, they have to fight Aren to the death for the Alpha spot unless he agrees to leave Pack territory.”
Lana’s eyes widened. “What?”
Aren nodded and snatched up his other crutch. He kissed her cheek as he passed by and growled, “Please knock some sense into my idiot brother.”
Chapter Forty-Three
I watched Aren go, trying to steady myself. God, was I so starved for a family that a simple peck on the cheek from Adam’s brother made my heart sing? Apparently the answer was yes, because the small gesture made me feel like part of the family.
Adam was sitting on a stool, facing his father’s body. I couldn’t imagine his pain. I’d always wished for a father, wished I’d even just known who he was. I used to imagine he’d be proud of me. Maybe he was a writer like I was.
But Adam had all of that. And now his father was gone.
I stepped up behind him and massaged his shoulders. They were like cement. His head fell forward, and he moaned. I kissed the back of his neck while I did my best to loosen the knots. I could almost feel the weight of the world resting on his broad shoulders.
“What were you and Aren fighting about?” I figured it was best to approach calmly, casually, though I knew where the conversation would inevitably go. Adam was not leaving his brother here to be killed.
“He was telling me what a great Alpha I was last night, and I let him know that until Malcolm got shot I was planning on leaving with you. Now I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
I wrapped my arms around him and closed my eyes, breathing him into my lungs. I felt his fingers lightly trace over the bruises from the handcuffs.
“They’re never going to leave us alone, Lana. Nero will be back.”
I didn’t want to think about Nero or the blood and body parts we cleaned up last night. I wanted to pretend we were a normal couple, just for a little while. I opened my eyes and saw Malcolm pale and motionless on the pyre. I couldn’t hide from this though.
The horses nickered as I moved around to sit next to Adam. “I wish I had the right answer, Adam. I feel like I’m just treading water, trying not to sink into panic. So many questions are rattling around in my head. Your Dad can’t be right about me being pregnant. You haven’t bitten me. I don’t even know if that would work since I’m already a different kind of…animal. And now that he’s gone, you can’t leave with me. You have to stay here and lead the Pack. They need you.”
He took my hand and looked over at me. “But I can’t do this without you.”
My eyes were already raw from crying, but they brimmed with tears again anyway. “Your Pack will never be safe if I’m here.”
His green eyes narrowed. “I’ll never let anyone hurt you again, Lana.”
“Then you’ll spend the rest of your life fighting them.”
“No.” He leaned over and kissed me so soft and slow that my heart ached. I opened my eyes again, and his gaze held mine, demanding my attention. “I will spend the rest of my life loving you.”
A tear spilled down my cheek. “Your father would be alive right now if it wasn’t for me.”
He cupped my check, brushing away my tear with the pad of his thumb. “If it wasn’t for you, I never would have learned to love anyone but myself.”
“I know Malcolm said I was part of the Pack, but they didn’t get a say in that. Do you think they could ever truly accept me?”
“Aren already has. The rest of them will too. It may take some of them longer than others.”
“They’ll resent me after a few more visits from Nero.”
He shook his head. “We’ll be ready for them in the future. They won’t catch us off-guard again. Plus, we already know what Sasha and Sebastian look like so we’ll watch for them. Don’t underestimate the Pack, Lana. We can protect ourselves.”
“Believe me, I saw the carnage last night.” I stared at my hands. “I was going to leave last night. While you were running with the wolves. I already had a plane ticket to leave for Chicago.”
He was up off the stool so fast that I flinched. “Why? I told you I’d go with you.”
“I didn’t want you to give up your family for me. It wasn’t right, Adam. You’d never be happy without
