We shower again before meeting Iliana. She is with her partner, this human male who gets to hold her so close. It burns. His touch is like fire in our veins, and all we can think of is if our mate felt this, too, when we touched the Other female. Did we scorch her insides like lava because of our unfathomable stupidity?

When we go to collect our mate, the Brat wastes no time in cornering the, in his words, "little prancing prick."

"William, right?" the Brat strolls up with a rabid grin on his face. His smile looks easy, relaxed, but we know it is forced. We shadow him, keeping our eyes on the Brat and the human instead of staring at Ili as we want to. As the alpha said, the Brat can be incredibly friendly or intensely violent. This feels like the latter.

William turns to greet us with a much more sincere smile. "Hi!" he chirps. The Brat bares his teeth a little more. The human's smile falters a little at the sight of sharp canines glinting in the Brat's maw. William's sudden nervousness is very, very satisfying. We feel our mate rush up next to us, but neither of us looks away from our pissing contest. The Brat is bristling, ready to launch himself at the dancing prick's throat. The alpha is there, the silent warning rolling over us, but he has his luna at his side. Protecting his pupped mate will come first for him if a fight breaks out.

The gentle hand on our stomach stops the world. Bare skin slides over bare skin. Tiny callouses with the softest fingertips stroke our abdomen. We recognize them. Weight training. We have the same, bigger ones on our hands.

We tumble, a freefall, as our mate soothes us with just the slightest touch. A purr rumbles in our chest, and we fight ourselves back, allowing the feet forward. For our mate, who is touching us and doesn't want a feral male. No one does.

I force my jaw to unhinge from how hard I have it clenched. My wolf circles, entering his cage willingly, the broken doors swinging loose and useless. "Sean," I introduce myself to the human but don't extend my hand to shake. "Ili's security," I state baldly.

I see the disbelief on William's face just as I hear Ili gasp and remove her hand from me. I want to reach out and snag her back to my side so bad I can taste it, but my wolf reacts to the instinct by taking a warning step, eyes glowing red, one enormous paw with claws too big to be normal just over the threshold of the cage.

I steady myself as Braxton moves on Ili's other side, his gaze hooded and lustful. She was touching him, too, I realize. Alright, so we're both completely whipped and... fuck... Ili has no clue, does she? Goddess, this creature is utterly fascinating. How did I...

"Security?" the prancing prick says, his surprise obvious.

"Yes," I reply, hardening my gaze on him, pushing away the bitter guilt and shame. "And fiance," I add. My wolf snaps his jaws at me, but his attention is hooked on our mate, wondering how she'll take it.

"And... what?" Will looks bewildered, staring between the three of us, his ears turning red, face white, eyes blinking wide.

"Yeah, gotta lock that shit down, you know?" Braxton tells him conspiratorially as if Ili isn't standing between us, her tiny fingers now pinching our sides with no effect whatsoever. I'm not ticklish. If teasing her gets her to touch me... then I'm game. Her agitation rises and I feel it, the bond flexing between us. My wolf paces, agitated at not being able to feel her first. Selfish bastard, I think, he's been stealing those flickers of the mate bond from me. He snaps his jaws and I relent. I deserve his ire, don't I?

Will keeps blinking at us. "Lock it down?" he asks doubtfully. Braxton is playing with a curl of Ili's hair, his other hand is dipping lower, to hover just above the soft curve of her ass, making it obvious that we're both 'locking it down.' He must feel the bond, too, our mate's unease, her ire.

"Make sure that everyone knows she's ours," I explain. Very helpful, in my opinion. Ili disagrees if her elbow to my side is any indication. I snake my hand around her waist and she flinches. Goddess help me, unlike me, she's ticklish. It makes me want to lie her down and explore all of her, find all of those little places that will make her squirm.

"Will, did you speak with the Alberta judges?" Ili blurts out. "For our competition entry?" Her attempt at changing the direction of our conversation falls flat as a pancake.

"Lee, you're engaged?" Will looks at her with a bewildered expression. "To two men?"

"No," she snaps. "I am not. Sean and Braxton like to tease me because they're assholes." Tension rides her shoulders hard.

I stroke the small of her back soothingly, trying to knock Braxton's hand off of her ass so I can get a better handful. She's so tiny compared to us. His fingers tangle with mine until we have each other locked in a grip and our fingertips are turning white. I force my grip to slacken. Braxton isn't the one who drives us insane. The prancing prick's hands were all over my mate. All over her. She smells like him. Is it any wonder that I want my Mark on her?

"It's just a matter of time, Doll," I hear Braxton murmur to her, just an inch away from kissing her ear. I want to throat-punch him, but I'm loving the shiver that dances down her spine. This close I can smell Will more, pinpoint each filthy pawprint on her perfect skin. "Now, send Rudolph away."

I rock back on my heels a little. I've scented this before on Ili. The scent of strange males, faint because humans don't smell as strongly as we do. Innocent scents, from skating, from training. Now I know that, but it always bothered my wolf. Is that why he wasn't eager to claim his mate when we first shifted? Was he afraid to learn that his mate wasn't faithful to him?

The fucking irony makes my heart clench. My wolf shakes out his fur, still pacing. He's not letting me in, not letting me know his truth. Maybe he's ashamed he wasn't strong enough to fight off my douchebaggery. Maybe he really was a coward, not wanting to learn his mate was unfaithful. I feel a little sick. I don't want Ili to know that we're both assholes.

The prancing prick is glaring at my hand on Ili's waist. "Do they bother you a lot?" he asks Ili. His spine straightens and his eyes come back to meet mine. "Do you really need protection?" His glare indicates that Ili needs protection from us. My wolf growls, lifts his leg, and pisses on his shattered cage door. Asshole.

"Will, it's... complicated," she says, lamely. Her fingers pinch my hand. Her she-wolf peeks out. It's the first time I've seen her since the night of the mating party.

Goddess, she is beautiful. Big, almost awkward in a way I don't think Ili has ever been, her paws a little too large for her frame, with long, lanky limbs and eyes a touch too big for her face. Her nose sniffs the air, also a little too big for her snout, but her fur is silky and soft.

The urge to shift and run with my mate hits hard. I let Ili go and take a small step away. Why didn't I ever want to shift with my mate? I ran with Georgina all the time. I never thought... goddess, Ili's wolf is a Beta-sized sweetheart. I can fucking tell how gentle her wolf is. Fuck. Fuck me.

"Congratulations, Ili, you looked great in training," Conner comes up beside us with a warm smile.

"Thanks, Conner!" Ili chirps happily at the praise. Both she and her wolf relax at their alpha's approach. I, on the other hand, get tense. To say that my former best friend isn't friendly towards me anymore is an understatement. Fuck what he said earlier, about forcing or tricking Ili to mate Braxton and me, I know my new alpha. He's probably going to tell Ili something completely different.

Shit, he probably wants us to overplay our hands as some sort of test. Then he can have an excuse to punish us. As a brand-new alpha, he has to be careful where he steps. Alpha Alex should have punished Braxton and me, not Conner. Punishing his younger brother and former best friend is not the best way to start his reign.

"Ah. Well, congratulations on your engagement?" Rudolph the prancing human says to Ili.

"Thanks, Will," she whispers.

Will wanders off and Conner turns to me with a brutal glare. "Smooth, you fuckers. Our meeting starts in five. Let's go."

---

What, are they made of marble? I can barely get any flesh to pinch, even when I use my nails. And, what is with their scents this morning? Goddess, they smell divine. Like chocolate, I want to eat. My she-wolf snuggles up, wanting to play with her males. Nope, not happening, I warn her. She ignores me, batting her lashes at the two males as they both stake their claim on me right in front of Will.

I can barely concentrate on the male posturing happening right in front of me, though. My she-wolf may be entirely enraptured with Brax and Sean, my so-called fiánces, but I'm all too aware of the alpha female candidates, still standing around, their eyes watching us with pure hostility.

Bailey is talking to two of them, Madison and Katy, and she's babbling about genetics and her pup. I can faintly, her words... "then I suppose females would increase in number as more genetic diversity is introduced. It's just a hypothesis, of course, but now that male wolves are living longer and surviving, they are significantly outnumbering females. Seventy percent of wolves born are male. That's an astounding difference."

The two females are smiling slickly at her, pretending to be enthralled with their luna, but I see the glazed look of boredom in their eyes. When Alpha Conner approaches, their fake smiles fade. Bailey doesn't seem to notice, still wrapped up in her wolf breeding dynamics, but I can hear the false note in her voice. She's pretending to be clueless, I realize, as much as Conner is pretending that he doesn't want to bash in those two females' heads for their disrespect.

I move closer to Braxton and use him as a shield so that I can peer around him and watch those females. He moves with me so that my view is better. Absentmindedly I pat his back in thanks. I'm rewarded with a low purr of contentment. Startled, I meet his eyes. Damnit, he really is a beautiful male. Too pretty, I think, if the lust wafting in the air from the alpha female candidates tells me anything.

Sean moves closer, offering me silent comfort as we leave the studio. He feels different, softer somehow, right now. He is a hard male. Still handsome, but with sharper features, as if he was chiseled with an axe from the same granite Braxton was molded gently from.

Bailey disengages herself from the two females and floats toward us as Conner reclaims her to his side.

I deliberately look around, eyeing the candidates suspiciously. Two of them, Kendra and Marley, are complete bitches, pun intended. Marley is a strong female, but Kendra is just self-possessed and thinks she's better than she is. The others are a little better. Except... Stasia. Ugh. One of Georgina's best friends. Frenemies? Partner in pettiness? She's vile.

"Are you having contests for alpha female?" I ask Bailey as she maneuvers Braxton out of her way to walk next to me. I have to ask her how she does that so easily. Braxton and Sean fall into step behind us as Conner takes the lead.

"I don't know," Bailey admits. "Honestly, I don't really like any of them. What do you think?"

I flounder a bit. I have some very bitter feelings about the alpha female spot. I was supposed to be competing with them, but here I am, the female Beta who is acting as a stand-in for one of the two males trailing me.

"What about Velia?" I blurt out.

"My sister's mate is LoboGris," Conner calls out from in front of us. "She's got a whole host of issues. Dad's not pleased."

"You knew about her mate? Have you been talking to Dad?" Braxton asks, sounding astonished and a little hurt.

"Not for a few days," Conner bites out. Braxton falls silent. I resist the urge to reach back and grab his hand to comfort him. I hear his slow exhale and peek over my shoulder. Sean stops rubbing Braxton's back as his hand drops back to his side.

I whirl back to the front, willing the memory of that hot-as-hell kiss between Sean and Brax to vacate its stay in my mind. Oh, my goddess, what did those two get up to on that mountain? I didn't feel the burning of being cheated on, but maybe my she-wolf just didn't know?

I examine my she-wolf as she peeks coquettishly at the two males. Hmm, maybe she doesn't consider Braxton and Sean being intimate as cheating? Do I? The kiss between them plays in my mind again, like a meme on repeat. Nope. I'm fine with it.

I hear two low hums of pleasure from behind me. I must absolutely stink of pheromones. Damn kiss. Push it away, Iliana.

It's a relief to leave all those eyes behind as the three of us climb back into Sean's truck and drive to the packhouse in silence.

"Alright, this is our new office, Ili," Conner places his hand on a keypad and it beeps, letting him in. I walk into the office suite. It's brand-new, with a central sitting area with four private rooms on the first floor. The alpha offices, including the one that Conner was using just last night, are on the second floor.

"So... you're not taking over Alpha Alex's office?" I ask him, a little bewildered.

"Yeah," Conner suddenly turns, pulls Bailey and me into the room, and slams the door in Sean and Braxton's faces.

"Dad has screwed my parents in the Beta office," Conner says blandly while I recover from the shock. "He can keep that office. Besides," Conner sits down on the couch, steeples his hands, and looks steadily at me, "Uncle Alex needs his office."

I sit down in the plush armchair across from Conner. "He's back? Already? The FBI took him yesterday." Conner and Bailey share a look. "What?" I ask. My head swivels back and forth.

"Uncle Alex is officially in prison," Conner says baldly. "And Dad is gone up to Canada, on the lam, officially. I'm inheriting the businesses. The dumb jock nephew of the powerful, intelligent mastermind genius according to humans. To the council, I'm the weakened alphason of a defunct alpha-turned-beta and an unranked female."

"Holy shit," I bleat out, stunned.

Conner smiles. It's a scary twist of his lips that belies the 'dumb jock' and makes me wonder how anyone could think he's not just as smart as Alpha Alex. I think of the Challenge... he's an alpha, there's very little doubt about it.

"What happens now? And why did you lock Sean and Braxton out?"

"You go on the road, skating," Bailey explains. She and Conner exchange a look. She swallows carefully. "Ili..."

"What?" I whisper.

"My friend, Jared, found this website a month ago," Bailey says quietly. She shows me her faithful MacPro. I stare at the webpage it's open to, blankly taking in the words and pictures until they swim on the screen.

"It's just a myth," I croak.

"Typically, I would agree with you," Conner says, "but it's too close to the truth... and then there's this..."

I stare at the new page. My heart starts to pound unmercifully fast. My palms start to sweat. I feel sick and dizzy all at once. I'm glad I'm sitting.

"The government knows?" I say numbly.

Conner's eyes narrow. "Worse. Uncle Alex has been working with Uncle Devel for a decade on these missing she-wolves. We thought that they were being trafficked, but now..."

"The lab was developing hybrid wolves," Bailey interjects quietly. "All of the puzzle pieces were fitting together. The humans know all about you."

"Oh, goddess," I whisper. "What... why... what are they going to do?"

"That's the problem," Conner says quietly. "We know that they have been trying to create super-pups, but for what reason? Bailey realized that they were trying to combine wolf DNA with human DNA, but we don't know why."

"We have a hypothesis, more than one," Bailey says softly, "all horrifying, of course."

"Uncle Alex thinks that the most likely scenario is that they will build a new species."

"Subspecies," Bailey corrects faintly. Conner smiles at her and brushes his lips over her forehead.

"What are we going to do?" I ask.

"There are two options," Conner says quietly. "One: we suppress this. Bury all of the evidence of our existence. We may have to..." he takes a deep breath, his chest shuddering. "Go north," he chokes out, "and hide more thoroughly as we used to decades ago."

"What's the second option?" I sniffle. My she-wolf whimpers sadly at the thought of leaving our home.

"We blow the lid off of this shit and control the narrative as much as we can."

I collapse into the chair, feeling all of my energy drain from me all at once. "No," I breathe. My she-wolf howls. The threat of exposure... of our secret, the secret of our lives, our very existence, out in the open with billions of humans... it's unthinkable.

Conner grimaces. "If we do... Your role becomes all the more important, Iliana. I can't shove Sean or Braxton on an international stage. They can't be held up as examples of wolf culture to the human world."

I press my hand to my chest. Am I breathing?

"You alright?" Bailey asks me, looking worried.

"Yes," I whisper so faintly that I doubt she heard it.

"You and Bailey will soften our image," Conner clutches Bailey tight to him suddenly, his muscles flexing, chest rumbling. He's angry at the thought of any sort of threat to his mate, and certainly, this would be one.

"Me?" I ask.

"A delicate, beautiful, Olympic ice dancer?" Conner smiles, but it looks weak, almost ill. "ClearHowl is already more human than any of our allies. Imagine LoboGris or RustClaw? You have a face and image humans will love, while the wolves..."

"Look at Braxton and Sean and feel better about keeping things the same old, same old, misogynistic boys club," Bailey finishes for her mate.

"Oh. My. Goddess," I mumble through numb lips. This is why Sean and Braxton were able to walk free. This explains the last crazy twenty-four hours. This will change everything.

We sit in silence until the sun is stretching across the sky, peering down into the office from the skylights in a bright, but muted glow.

"Why did you lock them out of the office?" I ask Conner, suddenly. It's been so quiet. It's as if we're the only three people in the world. The windows are fully shaded, most likely bulletproof and shatterproof, I realize. The new offices are soundproofed and reinforced. A pretty fortress inside of the packhouse.

"Just to fuck with them," Conner says, shrugging with a smirk. "I have to tell you what I said to them earlier, anyway. Don't be pissed, yeah?"

It's a useless warning. I don't think I have enough emotion left to be angry right now.