Chapter 227: Chapter 226

Zane “You fool. Yo have no idea what you've done.”

Gabriela spoke from the doorway in a cold, horrified voice. She bounced Alaina on her hip while the baby gnawed a fist.

In all the years I'd been Xander’s Beta, there’d been a few moments, here and there, when his mother and | hadn’t seen eye to eye. She’d always been looking out for him in one way, and sometimes, I’d been looking out for him in another. We'd found ways to agree or agree to disagree, but this time, the spark in her eyes told me she was definitely not agreeing.

“It's not like | want this,” | said in a low voice. “I don’t want to sleep with her-”

Xander growled, and Lanie pulsed out some Luna energy to all of us. | could feel her hurt, though. She was keeping a brave face, and her voice whispered to me through the mind link.

“| don’t want that, either.”

“Nobody wants it,” | put in harshly, hating that | had to hurt any of the people | loved. “I don’t want to go to bed with her even once, not to mention however many times it'll take before she gets pregnant. And | don’t want any pup of mine out there in the world connected with anyone else as its mother.”

| was being purposefully blunt about all of it, braving myself to face whatever they threw at me. Only Mason didn’t glare. He put a comforting arm around Lanie’s shoulders, drawing her close. She leaned into him, and another pulse of that soft, feminine strength filtered through me, boosted by a similar surge from him.

Xander, on the other hand, was a bundle of tension. His wolf kept rising, flashing in his eyes and rippling her his expressions.

Every time he forced the beast to quiet, my own wolf responded.

“This is all a f ucking mess. | get it. I’m sorry,” | told them all. “But any one of you would’ve done whatever you had to do to keep our Luna and the twins safe. | don’t want to fight you over it, Xander, but if | have to, | will, F uck, come and beat the s hit out of me if itll make you feel better. But | gave her my word, and I’m going to have to do it.”

He was across the room to me in a few long strides, and | braced myself for that first punch. Instead, he took me by both shoulders and gave me a single, hard shake.

Xander’s gaze bore into mine. “You should have talked to me first.”

| shrugged out of his grip and took a step back. “There wasn’t any time. | did what | thought | had to do.”

“I'm the Alpha!” He growled.

Mason snorted. “Me too.”

“And my job as your Beta,” | said to Xander, “is to do what | feel is necessary to support you, and our pack, so that you can continue to be the Alpha.”

that Xander knew | was right, though. He didn’t like it, but he knew | hadn’t acted out of scope.

“I'm your Beta, Xander,” | said in a low voice. “You have to trust me.”

“| trust you. | know you would never have agreed to any of this if you didn’t think you had to.” Lanie spoke up, still encircled in Mason’s embrace. Her voice was strong and firm, even though tears glistened in her eyes.

| hated seeing them there. “I love you. Both of you.”

Her Luna light swelled all around her. Xander backed up a few steps, his fists clenched. His shoulders sagged as he faced away from me. He wasn’t happy, but at least he wasn’t going to punch me in the face.

| put my arms around him from behind in a hard embrace he could have jerked out of, but when he didn’t, |

kissed him between the shoulder blades.

“| don’t want to share anything with that witch,” he muttered, half-turning. “I don’t want her to become part of our family, and if you father a pup with her, that pup will be part of our family.”

Mason let out a strangled noise and shook his head. “Having been the son who belonged to a father that had an entire other family, a brother he never knew, | have to agree with Xander. Knowing there’s a child out there who should be part of our pack, | couldn’t stand for not including it and its mother, no matter how much it sucks.”

Through it all, Gabriela had been studying us all. The baby had quieted in her arms and now slept.

Gabriela rocked slowly back and forth. When at last she spoke, she kept her voice pitched low so she didn’t wake Alaina.

“It has nothing to do with being part of a family,” she said finally in a low, strained voice. “It has everything to do with what Rhiannon will be able to do once she’s pregnant with your pup, Zane. You should never have agreed to this.”

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