Should I feel guilty that I want one-on-one time with Zoe? I don’t know. I know I don’t feel guilty. I won’t feel guilty for wanting to be seen and treated as an individual, especially by my mate. It might make me a bad mate and brother, but it’s how I feel. I cannot help my feelings and won’t let anyone tell me I can’t or shouldn’t feel a certain way. I knew Gunnar understood. He may not like it, but he understands it. He may not admit it, but he feels the same way. The only outlier in this is Zoe. Our bond gives me insight into her thoughts and feelings, but that doesn’t mean I can predict how she’ll take everything I said. So, I braced myself for a lecture. “You’re right.” Zoe sighed. I blinked. I expected a lecture not to be told I was right. It’s not often I’m told I’m right, least of all by a woman. Having grown up with five sisters, being right was not an option. I had hoped it would be different with my mate. She’s my soulmate, my other half, so if anyone should understand m

Walking away when Zoe wanted to take us upstairs to fuck was the hardest, and I don’t mean that as a pun, thing I’ve done to date. I cannot express in words how badly I wanted to go upstairs with Zoe and fuck her brains out. Granted, I always want to fuck her brains out. My mate is hot as fuck. I managed to keep my composure despite the feeling I was missing out on something and knew it meant they were at least kissing. I mean, it’s better than feeling the pain of being cheated, but it sucks to feel like I’m being left out. I can suck it up and handle business while they have some afternoon delight. At least, that’s what I kept telling myself as I went to Finn’s office. “Gunnar? What are you doing here?” Finn arched his brow as I let myself into his office. “I did knock.” I pointed at the door, pretty sure I knocked. “Yes, you did.” Finn nodded, still perplexed. “Everything all right?” He asked, leaning slightly as if to try and look past me. I furrowed my brow and looked ove

Sparring with Finn was at least doing its job of distracting me from what I was missing out on back at the house. And like every time we brothers sparred at the training facility, we drew a crowd. Of course, the crowd would have been generally bigger if Finn had been involved because everyone wanted to watch their alpha sparring. Sparring was the great equalizer for us brothers. Our combat training was the only area in which our dad didn’t play favorites. He expected Henrik and me to be among the strongest of Ironfur’s warriors. And he expected Finn to be able to beat us in a fight, and if he couldn’t, Finn had to train harder to prove he couldn’t be so easily defeated by his little brothers or someday usurped if Henrik or I wanted to challenge for the title. Yeah, I know, that last part is totally fucked. You’d question why our dad would even think Henrik or I would want to overthrow the line of succession. It’s not generally done, but according to Finn, it happened in other packs a

The last four days had been a bit of a blur as we waited for Ashley and Livia to get through their heats and for the jet the Sicilian packs were going to send for prisoners… persons of interest fuck if I know what to call it… transport. Zoe, Gunnar, and I have fallen into something of a routine. Luna Katrina emailed Gunnar and me an EIGHT-HUNDRED-page document covering our Beta responsibilities and the Nebrodi traditions for our Beta ceremony. So, our routine has been to spend our days studying. Zoe is a fast reader and has memorized her beta binder, which is great for her. She’s also been doing Nebrodi Beta for years. Gunnar and me, not so much. We are both slow readers. All our teachers from school will testify we were easily distracted and struggled to sit still. We were also C+ students at best. So, reading, let alone retaining all of this, is slow going. We’ve focused mostly on the traditions and the ceremony since we don’t want to fuck that up. When we aren’t studying, we alte

Getting Ivan to talk was like trying to crush coal into a diamond. Coal will become a diamond with enough pressure, but you can’t get that kind of pressure with your hand. And while I was glad the guy had accepted help from Henrik and me, he’s not making this easy. We’ve been talking at him. Yes, I said at him. I couldn’t say with him because that would imply that we had been having a conversation for like an hour. “Okay, big guy. Let’s see what you’ve picked up.” I sighed, rubbing my forehead. “How many older sisters do we have?” I started with an easy one. “Five.” It was the right answer but the fact he didn’t elaborate and just said the one fucking word was grinding my gears. “Right. So, tell us our sisters’ names, mates, packs, and ranks. It’s not a guarantee they’ll all be brought up during dinner conversation, but you never know when one of them might pop up in conversation.” Henrik encouraged. “Is this necessary?” Ivan asked. “Look, dude, we get it. You’re not a big talker.