My Alpha Brother’s Regret After I Died

After she left, Garrett let out a sigh. "Cain. It's Wednesday. Iris didn't bring the tea. With rogues this bold lately, I don't like it. Send your Beta out to the cottage. Just to check."Cain laughed, short and ugly."Check on her? She heard about Selene's ceremony tonight, and now she's sulking in that shack, cooking up something to ruin it. She called me three times last week, for nothing, and I didn't pick up because I was sick of it. Now she won't even show up tonight? That's the whole point. She's trying to get a reaction out of me."Garrett's eyes widened. He was about to push back when Cain's phone lit up again.Selene calling."Lena." The second he picked up, the temper went out of him. His voice dropped, gentle in a way he almost never was. "Hey. Don't worry. I'll be back before the ceremony starts.""Cain." Her voice came through wet and fragile, exactly the kind of voice that made him want to fix things. "The healing crystals for tonight's ceremony are gone. Iris came into

The little silver wolf charm was still hanging off the phone case, alone.He'd tied it on himself, on my tenth birthday, fumbling at the knot. He'd ruffled my hair and told me, very seriously, that as long as I carried the Sterling mark, I could never get lost from the pack.I remember looking up at him. "But if I did get lost, would you come find me?"He'd flicked my forehead and grinned. "Stupid question."Cain held out his hand, voice rough. "Give it to me."He stood rigid in the hallway, taking the evidence bag. Through the plastic, he turned the gray phone over. The little silver wolf was still there, hanging off the back.His fingers were shaking. He typed in my birthday. The screen unlocked.The wallpaper was a photo. The two of us, kids, on a border patrol with our father.I was maybe eight or nine, in two crooked little braids. He was standing next to me. Both of us stiff and unsmiling, frowning at the camera like neither of us knew what to do with our faces.Something went ou

Cain made his decision that night. Selene was getting investigated. Every inch of her.He pulled Garrett aside, away from everyone else. Surveillance went up around the house, quiet and tight. They needed her real movements from the last two years, not the version she'd given them. And so as not to spook her, the ceremony had to go on tonight as planned.Not long after, Selene showed up at the Bureau on her own. She wound herself around Cain and asked him, sweetly, to come with her to the family shrine before the ceremony, to pay respects to Marcus and Cordelia, to ask for the ancestors' blessing. It was tradition. Every Sterling Alpha did it before stepping into a major role.Cain's hand was in his pocket, working the ring Garrett had torn off him through the fabric. His face stayed cold. He agreed.He pushed open the heavy doors of the shrine. The incense was already lit. But Selene was nowhere inside.A rogue's scent hit him, strange and unfamiliar. Every muscle in him locked up. He