I fully intended to shift and attack them, but Luna intervened, grabbing my arm. I shot her a confused look. “Luna? What?”
Luna didn’t look at me. Her gaze was fixed on the two golden wolves. “Sam? Nate? Is that you?”
The strangers shifted into their humanoid forms. Two identical blond men with golden eyes appeared where the wolves had been. “Hey there, Luna,” the one in the right said. “It’s been a while.”
Luna’s eyes filled with tears, her connection with me bombarded by a myriad of incomprehensible emotions. “Oh my God. I can’t believe this. After you left… After you left, I didn’t think I’d ever see you again.”
“I’m sorry we had to put you through that,” the second wolf replied. “After the whole thing with your brother…”
He trailed off and looked away from Luna, as if unable to face her. “I don’t blame you,” Luna said. “You know that, right? You were only trying to help me.”
“Yes, but we still killed your brother,” the first wolf replied, “and to tell you the truth, we don’t really regret it.” Clearing his throat, he turned toward me, “Anyway, Luna, would you mind introducing us to your… friend?”
His tone made my hackles rise. “I’m not just her friend. I’m her mate.”
“Oh, are you?” the second wolf asked, baring his fangs at me. “What gives you the right to make that claim?”
“The fact that we bonded last night,” Luna replied, her voice low and sedate. Our bond vibrated with a strange mix of confusion and apprehension.
The twins shared a look, and then glanced at Luna once again. Their eyes flashed with fury, but they didn’t attack me. “I see,” the first wolf said. “Well, then, we’re glad you found the person who’s right for you.”
He didn’t sound glad. He sounded accusing. Luna flinched, and I growled at the golden wolves, hating the way they were treating her. “You know what? I’m tired of this. You burst in on me and my mate, asking questions and making accusations. I think I’m the one who should be demanding explanations, not you. Who the fuck are you, and what do you want with Luna? What’s all this about her brother?”
“My name is Nathaniel Marsh, and this is my brother Samuel,” the first wolf replied. “We’re Luna’s childhood friends. And we’re her mates too.”
What the fuck?
* * *
Samuel
This was a punishment. It had to be. That was the only explanation for the fact that we’d just found Luna and we’d immediately lost her again. And to a Firewolf, no less. Rowan Savage, Rufus’s younger brother.
Now that I could see him from up close, I couldn’t help but understand why Rowan had been able to fight Rufus off. In any pack, the Alpha was acknowledged as the strongest wolf. But it was well known in the Wolfsbane Pack that Rufus’s brother was almost as dangerous and vicious as he was.
There was something about him that struck me as familiar. When I looked at him, I could taste blood in my mouth. It was strange, but I waved the sensation off. It wasn’t important.
What mattered was that Rowan had stolen Luna from us. I wanted to tear his throat out for it, to destroy him for what he’d done. But I couldn’t, because that would break Luna’s heart.
When I looked into her eyes, I saw the echoes of the truth I’d always known—the fact that we were mates. And it didn’t surprise me that Nate was her mate too. But there was no room for this Firewolf in her life, in the life we were supposed to have together.
Unfortunately, my opinion didn’t matter here, because it was too late for us to change anything. Rowan wasn’t going to give Luna up either, and he was the one who’d claimed her.
I still enjoyed the look that appeared on his face when Nate confronted him with the truth. “We’re Luna’s childhood friends,” he said. “And we’re her mates too.”
Rowan’s eyes widened and his nostrils flared. He opened his mouth, and I could tell he was just about to refute our claim. But I refused to allow it. “Before you say anything, why don’t you ask Luna about it? She knows us. She knows why we’re here, why we came after her—and why we were separated.”
I didn’t bother waiting for him to do that. Instead, I looked at Luna and focused on her. This was about her, about her happiness and well-being. And now that we were together again, there was something I had to tell her, something that had been weighing on me for almost a decade.
“Listen, Luna. I know you didn’t expect us to come back like this, and maybe in that sense, we’re undeserving to be your males. We should have been able to protect you then. We should have been there for you or found a better way to come after you sooner. We just couldn’t find a solution that wouldn’t involve putting you into more danger. But that’s not an excuse.
“All we want right now is to be with you and make sure you’re safe. Beyond that, we can figure out everything later.”
“Thank you, Sam,” she answered softly. “That means a lot to me.”
I smiled, a flutter of something special crackling through me. The years might have passed, but she was the same at heart. She could still recognize us, just like she always had. Maybe this wasn’t so hopeless after all.
Having Rowan here might grate on me, but the fact remained that he’d saved her when we’d been unable to. Besides, Luna had already made her choice. We weren’t about to take it from her.
