Chapter 117

Liam

It was after ten when I finally drove home.

I had been at the packhouse since six that morning. Patrol reports with Ryan. The western line with Imogen, who had walked the same half mile of trees for the third time that week and come back with nothing but mud on her boots and a temper. Two hours in the Luna’s rooms going over the guest list for the Alphas’ visit with Abby, who read every name out loud and then looked at me and said What do I need to know about this one? as if I were a book she had left lying open on the desk.

Then the council. Then Kade.

That was the part I hadn’t learned how to do yet.

For eight years I had known exactly what I was for. I was Abby’s brother, which meant I was the one who signed the school forms and sat up through the nightmares and stood in the doorway of the clinic at eighteen with my arms folded, telling a Blackridge Alpha that nobody was taking my sister anywhere. I was Kade’s Beta, which meant I h