Her Mate, Her Secret, His Twins

The horn sounded before dawn, and Wren's hands went still over the boys' shirts.For four years she had planned for every danger except this one. Sickness. Hunters. A rogue wolf catches their scent in the woods and asks questions she can't answer. She had never planned for the Ashford Pack to summon every allied territory to a single ceremony she could not refuse."Mama." Idris tugged her sleeve, his gold eyes catching the weak morning light through the cabin window. "Why do we have to go?""Because Hollow Creek answers when Ashford calls." She kept her voice even as she pulled the hood of his cloak up, shadowing his face. "And because I said we're going, so we're going."Ezra was already at the door, restless in a way that reminded her too much of someone she tried never to think about. He didn't know that though. He didn't know anything. That was the entire architecture of her life, four years of walls built quietly around two boys who had no idea whose blood ran gold in their eyes.

Priscilla had seen a lot of things ruin a ceremony before. A drunk elder. A challenge fight that broke out too early. Once, memorably, a goat wandered onto the dais during the blessing.She had never seen her future collapse in real time in front of four hundred witnesses, and she was not about to stand at the edge of the dais and let it happen without a fight."Alpha Ashford." She said it again, louder this time, stepping down from the platform with her silver ceremonial gown trailing over the grass. "Perhaps you'd like to explain to your betrothed exactly what this is."The word landed exactly where she'd aimed it. Betrothed. A term the council had used so carefully for months, softly, tentatively, as if testing how the pack would receive it before making it official. She'd never once heard Kade use it himself, not once, not in any of the stilted, formal conversations they'd shared over the past year. But the wolves around her didn't know that. To them, hearing it spoken aloud made

The council chamber was already full by the time Kade arrived, elders seated in their formal half circle beneath banners that had hung there since before his father ruled, their faces carrying the particular blend of concern and calculation that always meant trouble.He'd left Wren and the boys in the private hall with Elder Sable and two of his most trusted guards, though the decision had cost him more than he expected. Every step away from that room felt wrong, some instinct buried deep in his chest screaming that he shouldn't be putting distance between himself and the family he'd only just found."Alpha Ashford." Elder Corvin rose as he entered, his silver beard catching the torchlight, his tone carrying the careful neutrality of a man who had spent decades surviving pack politics by never showing his hand too early. "Thank you for joining us. I understand the circumstances are unusual.""Unusual isn't the word I'd choose." Kade crossed to the head of the chamber, refusing the off