“Spend some time with your daughter.” Damien mutters. “You spend all your time, training, working or with Maddie.”

“Are you accusing me of abandoning my child?!” Brax’s nostrils flare as he pushes his hands against the table as though he is trying to hold himself back.

Damien glares at him, it was exactly what he was saying.

“Sort it out! I snap. “I have enough problems going on in this pack and I don’t need you two to constantly be at each other’s throats! Figure it out!” They both fall silent. I guess Evrin isn’t the only one that’s exhausted.

“I am going to speak to my daughter and find out exactly what happened!” Brax snaps, storming from the kitchen.

Damien opens his mouth to say something and I give him a warning glare

“Did she hurt him?” I ask when I know Brax is nowhere near us.

“Not exactly.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“She launched herself across the room at him. Used a chair to pin him to the floor and threatened him with ‘my dad will kill your dad.’ The teacher said to keep her home for a couple of days. She’s going to ask Ryken to do the same with Kade”

“My dad will kill your dad? Was she talking about you or Brax?”

“I think we both know the answer to that. I don’t know if Kade said something to her or whether she is just having a bad day. There were no signs of nightmares last night, even with Evrin crying at all hours.” His eyes shift to Logan. “Where is he anyway?”

“Sleeping.” He didn’t know yet. I take a deep breath and tell him “He shifted.”

He blinks a few times, “Sorry, what?”

“Evrin shifted. He was crying because his body was trying to shift and he was holding it back. I showed him my Lycan and he shifted. A beautiful small black Lycan. And Dane hasn’t spoken to me about it since.”

“Problems never come just singularly, do they?”

I shake my head. Problems never came one at a time, not in this life.

****

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” Mallory tells me as she cradles Luca. “He could just be in shock.”

“He encouraged me to show Evrin. And now he has been keeping his distance all day. I’ve linked him and he keeps telling me that there is something else that needs doing. It isn’t like him.”

“I’m a bitten Lycan, so remind me, how old are you when you shift for the first time?”

“Around the age of thirteen.”

“Maybe that’s all it is. He was expecting to have at least another twelve and a bit years to prepare. Dane adores you and I’m pretty sure nothing scares him. But maybe, this bit of fatherhood does because it’s something he can’t control.

“I hope you are right.” I mutter, “Maybe now it will slow him down on the idea of having another.”

“Another pup?”

“Yes. And before you get any ideas, I’m not pregnant.”

She presses her lips together and raises her brow as she turns away. “Do you wonder if the next one will be a Wok like Dane? That would be funny wouldn’t it. Siblings that are a mix of Wolves and Lycans. Orone that’s a mixture of both. Is that even possible?”

“Who knows?” I cross my legs up under me. “Has Eric told you what’s been happening?”

She nods.

“You knew Cassandra quite well. Did she use Witches? I mean she must have done, her and Trey had me bound. What I mean is, did you ever meet any?”

“No. There were very few people she

would let me meet. After running away, the older I got I realised how

much there was wrong with the

situation, but I had just been too

blind to see it. I should have challenged them more when learned about you. I should have

seen everything that was wrong

instead of just accepting it.”

She takes a deep breath. “I never came across a Witch, Cassandra nor any of the others never mentioned one. We didn’t even come across one when we were living with the Rogues.”

I could see she was bothered by my talk of Cassandra. Eric had told Dane that she still held on to the past and what she had done to me. We never spoke of it. It was like a dirty secret kept between us but everyone else was aware of it.

I hadn’t forgiven her, though not verbally. In my head, I had forgiven her a long time ago. She had become part of this family, my only female friend and I couldn’t imagine my life without her.

She thinks she’s being subtle, wiping a tear away as she kisses Luca’s head.

“I forgive you.”