"My brother is a fucktard."

Sean hums in agreement behind me. All of his attention is on the slim notebook in his hands. It smells like Ili, and I'm doing my best to not rip it out of his hands to investigate.

"What is that?" I scowl at him.

"Ili's journal," he replies blandly. "From her pup years." He pauses, "seven until about nine."

"You're reading her diary?" I ask him. I look back at the door to the offices. The metal didn't dent. Even the trim is still intact with only the faintest of scratches. It's reinforced titanium shielding because my brother is a fucktard. The wall around the door is dented, with fist-sized holes in the wood paneling. I pulled the carpet up and smashed one of Bailey's little robo-vacuums. That's what finally got through to me. She worked hard on those dumb things.

"She has five journals in all. This is the first," Sean says calmly as he turns the page. "She was a good pup," he adds quietly.

I snarl under my breath, my wolf flashes fang. "I know. Why didn't you know?" He doesn't answer, so I keep going. "She was my best friend for years. Years. So funny and sweet and absolutely beautiful. I swear to the goddess she never thought about herself, never put herself first. And, she would work so hard. She never gave up. Our teachers had to take work away from her so she could go on to the next assignment."

"Stubborn," is his soft reply.

"She's not... OK, so she is," I admit, "but in a good way."

His cold, dark eyes find mine, "she doesn't want to admit her desire for us. She is stubborn, Brat. We betrayed her," he murmurs, looking back down at the journal. "She mentions you. Your tenth birthday. She was excited because she got to skip training to go to your party."

I smile. "It was nice," I tell him. I finally relent and stop pacing, sliding down the wall to sit next to him. He's being careful with the notebook. Flecks of blood are still oozing from his knuckles and from under his fingernails. The hallway took the brunt of our anger, but the rest of the building suffered, too. The best part of our rampage is that the pack, being under curfew orders, saw all of it. Most wolves were smart enough to make themselves scarce.

"I remember we played in the woods that day because we were going to the lake. She was afraid of the lake," I tell him. Sean flinches, his face hardening. Hmm... suspicious. Leaning over, I read the next page with him.

Georgie kept trying to get my friends to make me swim. Freda knows I'm afraid of the water but she forgot. Brax and I played in the woods. After cake! Georgie's friends found us and made us go back. They're so bossy! Sean is the most bossy! The bossiest ever! I thought he and Braxton were going to get into a fight and then his dad would be so mad but nothing happened. Braxton liked the Rangers sweatshirt I picked out for him.

"We don't remember," Sean says quietly.

"Yeah, we don't," I mock him.

He grimaces, then goes back to reading. "Are you just going to sit there and read her personal thoughts?"

"We were blind," Sean mutters, ignoring my question. "She was a good pup," he repeats.

I'm contemplating bashing his face in, or trying to, when Beta Rique saunters up. I still haven't figured out why he's still in ClearHowl and didn't go north with Carmichael. "It's time for our meeting, sí?" he drawls, his cousin Vicente loping down the hall next to him.

The door whirls open at his approach. Sean and I are on our feet, impatiently waiting as the door slowly swings open. My brother is a complete, utter, and total fucktard.

"You're such a fuc- Hey, Bailey," I amend as my luna shoots me a frown.

Ili stands up as Sean and I stride into the room to her side. "Hi, babydoll," I murmur as my wolf settles down when he catches her scent. I do a quick scan. She's in one piece, but goddess, she looks frazzled. Her beautiful grey eyes are dark, shadows dancing in their depths. Sean murmurs something on her other side and Ili sways tiredly.

"I am not happy with either of you," is her snappy response, but the fear in her eyes belies her attitude.

My wolf wilts a little, but all I see is her exhaustion. "Sit," I order abruptly. She stiffens but sits as her knees collapse from under her. Sean crouches down on one side. I stand behind the chair. Her shoulders are tense and without thinking, I reach out and start to gently rub the back of her neck. My Mark is there, tempting me, the scar faded to a gorgeous silvery-white. Again, without thinking, I bend and touch my lips to the Mark.

I hear Sean groan in pain as Ili gasps, her head lolling to one side. Her fear batters the bond. My wolf makes the decision, and a split second later I'm the one sitting in the chair, Ili curled stiffly on my lap. Her eyes blink at me, startled. Sean stands up, taking my place behind us. The movements are all seamless and instantaneous, leaving no time for Ili to protest.

"You two are going back to that fucking rock. I swear," Conner says.

"It's OK, Conner," Ili plays peacemaker immediately. I squeeze her gently, trying to tell her without words that I won't overstep any more than I already have. Sean drops one hand to the back of the chair, almost on my shoulder. His other hand creeps forward, then reverently winds into Ili's hair and starts to gently massage her scalp. A tremble goes through her body. Like a marionette with her strings cut, her head falls to my shoulder and her body goes limp.

I feel some of the tension in my wolf, and in Sean, leave. She's here, in my arms, protected and safe.

My older brother snorts, smirking at us. "See, Ili? Totally whipped."

"Ey," Beta Rique forces a smile. "Can we have an update on the situation?" he tells Conner. He sits down at the table as if the weight of the world is resting on his shoulders.

I listen with growing horror as my brother explains the situation. Ili is trembling in my arms. Sean's hand goes to my shoulder and squeezes. I nod imperceptibly, letting him know our female is doing alright, considering.

"My mate, Miranda, is a witch," Beta Rique says into the ensuing silence. He glances at a stony-faced Hank. "She thinks that it's only a matter of time. Several larger covens over the last couple of decades have broken into smaller ones. Witches are going rogue. It's a bad sign," he admits.

"Witches are independent, I was told?" Bailey asks, fingers poised over the keys of her laptop.

"Very," Beta Rique says huskily, "but these are powerful witches going it alone. Young and impressionable, too."

"Powerful rogue magic-users?" Conner says wryly, "not scary at all."

"In the meantime," Bailey says, her fingers flying over the keys, "wolves are solidifying power bases in Canada and the midwest, with a few scattered packs in more remote areas of the south and east."

"In Europe, entire packs have disappeared," Conner adds quietly. "It's possible that human governments or gangs have caught on to our presence. Wolves are running toward the strongholds in Belarus and Norway."

"Si," Beta Rique adds, "and we have heard many rumors about the Nahual, lately. The packs in Venezuala have been hearing more stories of these monster werewolves coming out of the Andes."

"What's happening out there?" Ili whispers into the silence.

"The problem is all of the stories are coming from different sources," Bailey says quietly. "Shutting them all down will be nearly impossible."

"There have always been stories," Sean says in a low monotone to me.

"Haven't there always been stories?" I say in a louder voice.

Conner grunts eloquently. "It's deeper than that. These monsters? Dr. Honeiker was not the only one creating superpups -" he pauses, "- I'll explain in a minute." A buzzer signals. Conner hits a button and the door swings open, revealing Trey and the tiny female wolf I rescued a month ago. Rory, I think her name was.

"Trey, come in," Conner welcomes his bitter rival with no inflection at all in his voice. Wierd. I glare at Trey, noticing with satisfaction that he looks like complete shit.

"I'm sorry about Cole," Conner says quietly. Cole?

Trey nods, his jaw working, but he brushes off the apology, or whatever it was, and says, "Aurora has something to tell us."

The female trembles, her arms folded tightly across her chest. "I... I was born without a wolf," she explains quietly. "When... Dr. Honieker, um... he told my parents that he could give me a wolf and so... I was sent away and then..." she takes a shuddering breath. "It worked."

"I'm sorry, what the fuck did you just say?" Beta Rique asks hoarsely.

Rory nods, miserable, starting to cry.

"How?" Bailey asks, her voice sharp, eyes narrowed. "How is that physically possible?"

"How is magic possible, bella?" Vicente, quiet up until now, says with sympathy. He must think our scientific genius of a luna can't handle non-scientific topics.

Bailey waves her hand in the air, dismissing his words. "Magic is bending and manipulation of energy, most likely at the cellular level. How did Dr. Honieker or his minions generate a wolf spirit to force into a human? It's one thing to create wolves from wolves, but an entirely different task to meld a wolf to a human."

Rory starts to cry harder, shaking her head.

"What was the process like? Were you conscious during any of the procedures? How long were you there? Where did this take place? Can you confirm that you have a wolf?"

"Honeygirl," Conner interrupts her after a minute, "she won't answer you right now." He's right, and I'm a little disturbed by how dispassionately both my brother and Bailey seem toward Rory. Especially when the female turns and runs from the room, still in tears.

Trey stares at the empty doorway, looking ill. "Her twin sister is the one who killed Cole," he rasps out. Reaching out, he shuts the door, giving us privacy again.

"Fucking hell, cabron," Vicente says, as shocked as the rest of us. "When did this happen?"

Trey shakes his head, eyes closed. "Drunk driving, a week ago," he spits. "Fuck..." he takes a slow, unsteady breath, "an accident," he whispers. "It's tearing Rory apart. Her own sister, her twin... so fucking irresponsible..."

He rubs his mouth, looking like he's about to vomit. "I'm going to go," he rasps.

"Trey," Conner stops him with a hard command in his voice. "I need you back in RedMoon. Today. Report to the Council. Call a meeting."

"We should be looking for the facility that they've been using, first," Trey counters.

My brother stands slowly, eyes never leaving Trey's face. Bracing his hands on the desk, Conner smiles at the other male. It's not a nice smile. "I am the alpha," he says with a mouth full of sharpened teeth. "You are a paper alpha so the council thinks we are weakened." Trey's eyes fall, his jaw ticking, looking pissed. "You do as you're told."

"What the fuck?" I blurt out.

My brother's eyes slide towards me. He sighs and sits back down. "Technically, I'm the RedMoon alpha, but there was so much chaos at the time that we never officially announced it. Uncle Alex told me to let them continue thinking Trey was the leader, so that they believe ClearHowl is weak. Even the Challenge from Uncle Alex was meant to make me look like an incompetent dumbass."

"But, why?" Ili asks.

"RedMoon is still on the Council," Trey explains quietly. "They want ClearHowl gone. Wiped off the fucking map."

"Why attack us?" I ask. "Especially when they must be aware of all this frankenwolf shit?" The silence is charged. "You think that they're involved?" I ask my brother.

Conner nods, his green eyes dark. "It's too convenient, too many coincidences. If you start looking at this a global problem, with DNA and superpups and these fucking Frankenwolves, then the Council is almost certainly involved."

"Why would any wolf do this?" Ili asks. I kiss her cheek, my innocent doll.

"Power," Beta Rique says with a scowl. "Alpha Inuit is a king. His luna is a queen in her own right. The wolves in Belarus consolidated most of Europe and Asia a century ago. Then... North America follows. They have two alphasons in the north. Twins. Nothing can stay the same. The wolves who have spent a century in power will cling to it no matter what. LoboGris, we know this, sí? We are on the council. Nico, Carmichael's hermano, is our representative, but they don't let him speak. Don't let him on the committees. He stays to spy."

"And they're making new wolves," Ili says with horror. "Are they also the ones leaking information? Is this why our secret may be revealed to the world?"

"That we don't know," Conner says. "But, let's be honest. There may be too many shit fires to keep a lid on it all. Some of these rumors are born of chaos from the uprooting of traditional pack structure, the forming of superpacks, and just the modern age. It doesn't matter where the leaks are when there are so many of them."

Trey heaves a sigh. "I'll go back to RedMoon. Mom... she wants to stay here," he says to Conner.

My brother nods. "She's welcome to stay here as long as she wants."

Trey leaves. Conner waits until the door closes behind him.

"Can we trust that male?" Sean murmurs in my ear.

"Do you really trust that fucker?" I ask Conner out loud.

"Honestly?" Conner frowns at us. "Barely, but yes. His pack is fucked, nonexistent. Half of them moved here and seem content to stay in ClearHowl." Conner is quiet. "Uncle Alex pointed out that Trey is now a MateLess alpha. He's useful for alliances as smaller, more vulnerable packs look for protection."

"Poor pendejo," Vicente scoffs.

"Balance must be struck," Bailey murmurs quietly. "How many wolves are out there that were never supposed to be?"

Beta Rique clears his throat, his dark brown gaze on our luna's face. "Luna," he says respectfully. "You are not completely human, sí?"

Bailey frowns at him. "I am."

"You are having a female pup. An alpha female," he points out. "I have only daughters. Witches have very few male pups."

I watch, bemused, as Bailey's fingers twitch before she pulls her laptop closer to herself and starts typing furiously. "Do you have data on that?"

Beta Rique smiles, "I point it out because Miranda believes that there may be more than wolves and humans in this equation, no?"

"What others?" Bailey shoots out. She holds up a finger. "Wait, let me open a new spreadsheet." Fingers poised over the keyboard, she looks at Beta Rique expectantly.

He chuckles, "the eldest? A creature of the sea who murders those foolish enough to live on her water."

Bailey watches, her face lighting up with fiendish delight, as we all shudder at the mention of the sea. "Grammie knows all about it," she says excitedly. "Hold on, I have other pages," she mutters, fingers flying. "Grammie tells me a lot of nutty stories," she pauses and Ili fills in the silence.

"I think we can't discount her stories," Ili says softly. I rub her back, proud of her open-minded intelligence. I see Vicente turn to look at our mate. His eyes catch on Sean standing over my shoulder and slide right past us.

"You're right, Ili. Fuck. You were in their system, honeygirl," Conner snatches Bailey into his lap, ignoring her protest as the laptop bobbles in her hands.

"There are rumors of others in the cities, in the desert in Asia. Monsters," Sean supplies to me.

"What about the Demon-shifters?" I announce "In the deserts. Vampires in the oldest cities, of course."

"Wow," Bailey gasps. "Yeti or Bigfoot? That's a big one on the pages"

"Bear shifters," Conner and I say at the same time.

"There are bear shifters," Bailey breathes.

"Rare and isolated," Sean mutters to me.

"They're rare, hermit-like bastards," I announce to our luna. "They don't look like bears, either. Ugly."

"They're bigger than you?" Bailey asks innocently.

"Ugly," Conner repeats. "We hardly ever see them. Thank the goddess, because they're hideous."

"Sure," Bailey drawls out slowly. She tosses a secret smile to Ili, who is snickering on my lap.

"Our secretiveness means that we don't have much to do with the others," Beta Rique says seriously. "Now the groups are being pushed and pulled out of their traditional places just like wolf packs. It's straining our ability to stay hidden."

"It's looking as if the secret will be out sooner rather than later," Baileys says worriedly.

"What is the plan? Con, you said we would reveal everything?" I ask.

"Uncle Alex has a plan for that."

"Uncle Alex is in jail," I point out.

Conner snorts, "nah. He's already on his way home. He let them arrest him to make it seem as if we're weak, remember?"

"Why make the council think that?" I ask.

Conner's face stretches in what I think is supposed to be a smile. "A war is brewing in the north. In is taking out the council up there. We can't allow the council to take charge of the wolves in our territory, especially if our presence here is known to humans."

"You want to take out our council at the same time?" I ask in disbelief. "Like, entirely take them out?"

Conner nods. "As soon as Trey and Carmichael are in position, we strike. We want to make sure they can't destroy their records before we get to them."

"Carmichael didn't go north," I state.

Conner shakes his head. "No. Plans changed. He's waiting to attack the GreyMist. Nico is already in position. All we need is Trey to report what a clusterfuck ClearHowl has become."

"GreyMist is in the middle of Nashville," I point out flatly.

"Exactly," Conner says grimly. "Imagine trying to keep that quiet?"

"Fuck," I breathe out explosively.

A soft voice breaks through, "there's a skating competition in three weeks in Nashville." Ili sits up as she speaks, her body stiff.

Conner looks at Ili bleakly, "I know, hon."

Sean must flash his fangs at Conner, because my brother smirks cruelly at the male behind me.

"So, it's part of... um... the cover?" Ili asks softly.

Conner nods. "We have the Beta competition. You win. You go to this skating thing just a couple of weeks later. Every wolf on the continent will be watching you compete. A female Beta skating with a human male. They won't be able to look away. Trey asks for the council to convene at the same time."

I whistle. "They'll be sitting ducks."

Conner nods, "one step at a time, though. We let In fight his war in the north. Let the Beta trials continue. Every wolf pack who wants to taste ClearHowl blood will be completely blindsided."

"What about our secret?" Ili asks him. "Do we have to tell the world about us? Isn't it possible to disguise this war as... a mafia attack or something?"

Conner looks at her steadily and with respect, but his words are devastating, "I don't know, Ili. I hope so, but we prepare for the worst."

"Right," she sags back into me. I kiss her forehead, making a soft, rumble in my chest. Sean strokes her hair. His wolf also rumbles for her, soothing her, reassuring her. These are scary revelations, for sure. What happens if humans discover irrefutable evidence of our existence? Will we find ourselves at war with the entire world? Hunted? I gather Ili up closer, kissing her cheek.