“You are my fated mate,” Hailey continued. “Do you accept the matebrand?”

  That pulled me out of the haze of all-consuming grief, my brain trying to work itself back into gear. The matebrand? According to prophecy, only my sister could form a secondary matebrand.

  And who better to be my sister than Hailey? The young woman had reminded me of myself from the moment I met her. She’d helped me learn to be a wolf, had stood by me through a series of adventures. Now she appeared intent upon channeling matebrand magic into Orion for my sake, expediting a connection with a man she’d only met once.

  As if on cue, sand rose into a spiraling tornado of glittering light revolving around Prince and Hailey with me and Orion at the center. From within the eye of the storm, the outpack’s magic looked very different than when I’d seen it previously. It was like the stars in Orion’s eyes, wonderful and full of an unearthly beauty that reminded me of the vastness of the universe.

  Surely a power that could pick up a boat and move it a mile across the water could close one open wound?

  But Orion and I had lost our tattoos, which meant I had no way of begging this wakened outpack energy to assist us. All I could do was wait for Hailey to harness the power while stroking Orion’s fur. He remained sprawled across my lap, not even appearing to breathe now. And I lost track of even the magic swirling around us as I leaned in closer, trying to feel the movement of air that should have eased in and out of his nostrils.

  There was nothing. Or maybe it was just the motion of matebrand magic around us that made it impossible to notice such a tiny breeze. Either way—

  “We’re running out of time,” I told Orion’s fur, my words intended for Hailey. “Hurry!”

  Her answer made no sense at first. “What do you want us to do with the matebrand after it’s created?”

  Wasn’t that obvious? “Save him!”

  Then someone else answered. Gabi, who acted as if the question had been aimed at her instead of me. “We may need it to fight our way out of here. Be ready.”

  To fight our way out? I didn’t want to look up from Orion’s motionless body. But if there was additional danger facing him, I needed to know about it.

  What I saw when I tilted my aching neck upward was Gabi pulling out a gun. Gabi aiming her weapon at me.

  “Anyone make a move and your girl here is toast,” my ex-mentor warned, the words utterly calm and even more shocking as a result of that calmness. Hadn’t she promised not to harm anyone if I arranged this meeting? Hadn’t Orion and I both smelled that truth on her breath?

  No, Gabi had made promises, but they were never so far-reaching. She’d promised Maya would make it back here safely and would be turned over to us, which had indeed happened. Gabi had promised not to tell anyone about the meeting and not to bring backup—which turned out to be unnecessary since we were the ones who invited Finnegan to join us. Gabi had even overtly warned me that, after that point, she and I would once again become enemies.

  Still, even though Gabi boasted firepower, it was awfully bold of her to think she had the upper hand now. She was alone, save for Finnegan, while entirely surrounded by werewolves. And I didn’t care about the gun pointed at my chest when the wolf in my lap no longer seemed to be breathing.

  So—“Hailey, don’t listen to her,” I told the friend who was apparently also my sister. “It doesn’t matter whether I survive. Just heal Orion. Do it.”

  Because Orion had run out of time. Gabi was the one who’d taught me what happened to bodies when we stopped taking in oxygen. First, cells built up lactic acid, like what makes muscles ache during heavy exercise. After that, irreversible brain damage ensued, followed by the failure of every vital organ.

  Death was what came at the end of it. Certain death.

  “Please,” I added, ignoring everything other than Orion, the swirling magic, and Hailey.

  There was a lot to ignore. It started with Gabi and her gun but extended far past that. On my right, Celeste and Finnegan were whisper-arguing. I couldn’t make out their words, but her tone was adamant. His head was shaking refusal. For the first time since the pair met, they appeared to be at loggerheads.

  Meanwhile, the same alpha who’d asked for popcorn was taking wagers. The odds, as best I could tell, weren’t in my favor.

  Plus, sand and light continued to swirl around me, Prince, and Hailey. There were rainbows in the luminous particles now, as if water that didn’t exist here was refracting sunlight. Or as if magical power was building, building…

  Why hadn’t Hailey finished channeling that magic into her matebrand and from there into Orion?

  It wasn’t my sister’s heels dragging, I realized when I craned around further to look behind me. The reluctance belonged to Prince, whose shadow still covered me but who hadn’t spoken the way he’d have to to complete their mate bond.

  After all, a partnership was a two-way street. The tattoos wouldn’t settle into Hailey’s skin and allow her to save Orion until Prince accepted her offer.

  “I understand your reluctance,” I said, speaking into my lap now. Because it was impossible to fully remove my attention from Orion, my fingers massaging his limbs as if that could somehow prevent the bodily breakdown that was imminent. My words were aimed at Prince, though, when I continued. “I was scared of the matebrand too at first. It feels so alien. But…”

  “Hush.” Prince’s hand was gentle as it swiped across my lips, his fingers already threaded with the first faint swirls of matebrand ink. He didn’t need my pep talk. Not when I’d seen how he and Hailey looked at each other back when he saved us from Bellwether the first time. So why was he hesitating now?

  He answered my question with his own question. “We’ll use the matebrand to heal Orion, correct?” he asked Hailey, as if that eventuality was in question.

  “Of course,” she answered.

  Around us, the entire maelstrom of spinning sand became bitter with her lie.

  I squinched my eyes shut, trying to understand. Trying to make my usually quick brain slog through the mud that filled it.

  Why would Hailey lie about such a thing? What intention could she possibly have other than saving Orion’s life?

  Then the aerial sand that had formerly given me a wide berth swept in closer. It slapped my cheek in what seemed to be a carefully calibrated rebuke, steering clear of my eyes so it wouldn’t blind me yet somehow making it extremely clear that I needed to wake up.

  I was awake. I was just having a really hard time focusing on anything other than the fact Orion wasn’t breathing.

  But the sand’s slap worked. My brain jolted into gear at long last.

  And I realized what must have been obvious to Prince from the moment Gabi interjected herself into the proceedings.

  We knew Finnegan had been a spy for the Council, so it wasn’t entirely surprising he’d used the half-glyph to break my matebrand. He’d been working with Gabi, who now held a gun to keep all of Orion’s allies and my own away from the tornado of sand and magic. The two of them apparently wanted Hailey to form a matebrand…but why?

  Because Hailey was my sister, but that’s not all she was. She was also a Council plant.

  I’d considered that scenario previously and dismissed it. Five or six years had seemed like an excessively long time for a teenager to act as a sleeper agent within a werewolf pack. But at the same age Hailey had sworn herself to Vega, I’d been thoroughly under the Council’s thumb. Why should my sister’s resolve be any less?

  Which meant today’s entire drama had been carefully orchestrated. No wonder Gabi had demanded a meeting involving me and Orion, Celeste and Finnegan. She must have told Hailey to make sure Prince was there also. Because all six of us were necessary for the prophecy to become a reality.

  Lines the desert had spoken using Vega’s tongue reverberated in my head now.

  “Where the glyphs lie halved, null shall overlay,

  That was Celeste and Finnegan using their half-moon tattoos to break my matebrand and pave the way for the creation of another.

  “Sister matebrand formed on the fifty-second day.

  That was Hailey and Prince preparing to bind magic into their own bodies. But the date was wrong…or was it?

  I’d thought I was finally understanding what it meant to be a werewolf when I paid attention to moon charts in the process of planning nighttime adventures. But had I ever, until this moment, considered the fact that the moon rising later every day meant lunar days didn’t quite match up with solar days? A round of mental calculations resulted in a disheartening conclusion—the fifty-four twenty-four hour periods since I’d first formed a matebrand with Orion matched up with two fewer moonrises.

  It had been precisely fifty-two moons since we mated, in fact.

  Which meant today was the prophesied deadline I’d thought already uneventfully past us. And, jumping ahead in the poem, perhaps Hailey’s compulsion wasn’t what I’d thought it was either. The Council might not be forcing her hand after all. Instead, her actions today might be compelled by greed. Or the hunger for power. Or maybe just by blind devotion to a Council I’d once been loyal to as well.

  Whatever my blood sister’s motivation, the end of that truncated line of prophecy didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that the Council wanted Hailey’s matebrand to congeal for the exact same reason they’d kidnapped and caged my parents. Because outpack magic was immense and could be used in ways I likely hadn’t ever imagined.

  No, Hailey hadn’t rushed to form a matebrand to save Orion. To her, Orion was irrelevant. I was irrelevant.

  She was acting like a good little Council agent. And the outpack magic was poised to do as she bid.

  Chapter 25

  Time must have slowed down while my new understanding of the prophecy sank in. Or maybe outpack magic had finally forced my neurons to fire faster than usual. Whatever the reason, rainbow-sharded sand was still swirling when Celeste flicked her index fingers against her thumbs the way we used to while sneaking through Julius’s mansion after bedtime. It meant: Are you paying attention?

  I instantly mirrored the subtle fingernail flicking, noticing for the first time how much it made my human digits feel like lupine claws. Past-me hadn’t really understood past-Celeste, I now realized. Hadn’t understood that even though she couldn’t shift, she still had a wolf inside her. But, when my sister pointed first at me then at Gabi before raising her eyebrows in question, present-me understood enough of what present-Celeste was saying now.

  So I nodded, trusting this woman who had always been my sister even though she shared none of my fur or DNA. Our eyes met again. Then, in perfect synchrony, we made our move.

  She and Finnegan rose as a unit while I slid Orion off my lap and flung myself at Gabi’s weapon. The gun would be the clincher. With it, Prince could be forced into a mating my gut said he wanted even though honor prevented him from accepting Hailey’s offer. It would be so easy to push him over the edge…

  Not so easy now. Not when I spun using moves I’d learned from the guys in Vega’s pack rather than from Gabi. Not when I stretched my entire body so my upraised foot connected with the pistol’s metal barrel.

  Gabi tried to counter my blow, but it wasn’t one she expected. The weapon turned slippery, evading her grip and flying away to land who knew where.

  She’d lost the upper hand. Not that she was ready to surrender.

  “Didn’t think you’d leave Orion to die alone,” she countered, her words even better placed than the blow she aimed at my solar plexus. I was still off balance from my own offensive, so both of her strikes landed hard.

  Air gusted out of me. And, on any other day, I would have crumpled. But right then, I was only wolf. Pain was irrelevant in light of the danger to my mate.

  Danger I could only defuse by dealing with Gabi. So I bounced back, aiming my heel at my opponent’s shin. She evaded but stumbled in the process. My second kick came closer than the first.

  It was different fighting my mentor after training among others. I knew her moves, but she didn’t know mine. I’d learned to manage my weaknesses while also gaining new strengths.

  Meanwhile, behind me, something shushed like falling rain, never mind that the sun was still blindingly bright in the totally clear sky. I didn’t turn, though. Just kept fighting, noting the way Gabi evaded my third offensive by an even narrower margin than she had the first two.

  As she did so, she muttered one of the multilingual curses Celeste and I had tried so hard to emulate when we were children. At the time, we’d thought Gabi was the epitome of womanly perfection. She couldn’t lose. Couldn’t fail.

  Maybe not then. Now, though, Gabi didn’t even try to block my palm strike. Instead, she fled toward an all-terrain vehicle I only now noticed beyond the edge of the crowd of shifters. Get on that and she could easily outrun all of us. Get on that and her twisty attempts at bringing me back to heel would continue unabated.

  I started to follow, but Maya’s voice restrained me. “Orion’s bleeding again. It’s now or never.”

  Orion. The Council’s future attempts to control outpack magic suddenly paled in the face of the man they’d manipulated me into mating with.

  Letting my prey flee, I turned to find, not swirling sand, but Hailey pinned on the ground beneath Prince with no new tattoos in evidence. Celeste and Finnegan must have broken my sister’s incipient matebrand just like they’d wiped away mine.

  I barely glanced at the four of them though. Because Orion’s crumpled body was once again oozing red into the hungry earth. At least that meant he was still alive. But I’d already tried everything. And he couldn’t have much blood left to lose.

  Human thoughts turned frantic and deafening. But I ignored them. Crouched and used wolf instinct as I swiped my cheek against Orion’s, marking him mine.

  One side. Then the other…

  I didn’t ask for help, but sand and lights rose around us anyway. Outpack magic gathered, and I waited just the way I’d waited until a peccary was close enough for me to clench my jaws shut around its throat in a killing grip it never saw coming.

  Only when I was sure of my moment did I seize the swirling power with clear intention. Only then did I slam that power into the hole in Orion’s belly.

  “Save him,” I demanded, my words a lupine growl.

  Then the world went dark.

  Later, I learned what happened while I was unconscious. Orion’s wound closed in a flash of blinding light that covered up Gabi’s escape and kept everyone in the vicinity blinking back stars for minutes afterwards. Hailey tried to flee amid the same confusion, but Prince wouldn’t let her. He didn’t turn her over to Orion’s angry pack mates, however. Instead, he went full-on possessive dominant when anyone came close, growling a repeated “Don’t touch her” that I now entirely understood.

  Money changed hands, my ex-housemate Nash coming out far ahead as one of the few who’d bet against Bellwether. The audience didn’t disband, but someone did show up with popcorn. The air smelled salty and buttery when I awoke.

  That scent was what I noticed first, along with the fact I was cradled in Celeste’s lap. This was the same way I’d come back to myself after more than one nightmare. Because even though Julius had tried to keep his so-called daughters human and sleeping in our own separate bedrooms, as adults we’d gotten around his orders when we so chose.

  And that’s what love was, I realized. It wasn’t DNA that said Celeste and I were sisters, nor was it words forced out of lips that found them hard to manage. It was actions like movie nights crammed into busy schedules. It was instinctive understandings like the way Celeste answered the question I hadn’t even managed to ask.

  “He’s alive but sleeping,” my sister told me at the same instant I remembered where I was, the same instant fear for Orion slammed into me far more violently than the swirling sand’s slap had stung my face.

  I believed Celeste, but I still leveraged myself up on arms that were weak as overcooked noodles, searching, searching…

  There. Orion had shifted since I saw him last, so no matted fur covered where his wound would have been. Instead, I could see perfectly healed skin stretching across his flat stomach, could see how easily he breathed as he lay atop someone’s rolled-up-shirt-turned-pillow.

  I could also see his arms. Like mine, they were totally devoid of tattoos.

  The relief that had suffused me gave way to urgency. It was time to end the lack of connection that lay between us. Not just because I craved our mate bond more deeply than I’d ever wanted anything. Not for the sake of Orion’s health, either, since I hoped he would wake up soon without needing an additional boost from outpack magic.

  No, we had to re-form our matebrand for the sake of all werewolf-kind. To prevent Hailey from talking Prince into creating a magical linkage the Council could manipulate. To prevent any other mini-me’s that might be running around from doing the same. My former hesitation had been an invitation that provoked recent disasters. I was done hesitating. I was done avoiding what I deeply wanted for myself as well as for the larger werewolf world.

  Trouble was, my newly steadied thought processes also made it painfully clear what would have to happen for my matebrand to reassert itself and stay in place permanently. The half-glyphs on Celeste and Finnegan’s wrists would need to be broken, the magical bond between my sister and the man she called her soul mate would have to be severed.

  Even suggesting that eventuality made it likely I’d soon lose the only ally I’d had for most of my life.

  Chapter 26

  “You’re giving me the look,” Celeste complained as I came to my feet and pulled her up after me. She was trying to sound like herself, but her voice wobbled. We were often able to understand what the other wanted before words were spoken, so I was entirely surprised to see Celeste covering up her half-glyph with her opposite palm as soon as I released her hands.

  Instantly, Finnegan strode toward us, murmuring polite commands that let him brush past the pair of Vega’s best warriors who had been keeping him at a distance until now. My aunt opened her mouth to counteract his dominance display, but I shook my head and she let Finnegan continue to advance.