Her mate’s eyes fluttered open and closed again as they had done for the last two days. His twin, Clarissa’s Alpha, waited in silence as he had for the last two days as well.

“He should be dead.” Tatyana never minced words. While Clarissa appreciated her honesty, after days of nothing but worry, she might appreciate some kind words spoken to make her feel better. She shook her head. Exhaustion made her loopy.

Clarissa found her voice. “I’m holding him to me. My wolf won’t let him go. I can’t explain it otherwise. It was something August said to me once. His wolf held me close. That’s why he bit me.” She rambled. “He needs to shift.”

The Alpha’s mate nodded. “He has to wake up long enough to do that. At this point, if he shifts, he might heal.”

Clarissa hated the might in that statement. “Then he has to wake up and do it. My Alpha, would you help me?”

Robert stepped forward. He’d been quiet, his silence punctuated by the waves of distress the Alpha had given off in his scent every once in a while. The Alpha losing control of what he sent out into the world spoke volumes. Did Auggie know how much his brother loved him? She was going to see to it that he understood.

They’d tried any number of things to rouse August, and none of it had worked. Not even hitting him across the face. He’d come close to waking, but then he just… wouldn’t.

“Tatyana, you’re going to shake him. It always makes him respond. While you do that, my Alpha—”

Robert interrupted her. “Given everything and that you are my Sister, it is fine for you to call me Robbie when we’re alone. Your sisters do.”

That was nice, but she didn’t care right that second. “You’re going to threaten me.”

“I’m going to what?” he shouted. “I’d never threaten you.”

“No, it’s brilliant.” Tatyana stood straighter. “What would rouse you faster than someone threatening me?”

Robert’s wolf was present in his eyes. “August will know that I’d never hurt you.”

“He’s not going to be in his right mind.” This had to work. She knew it would.

“Let’s do it,” Tatyana ended the discussion. She shook August. His poor body had been so abused. The dragon had all but destroyed his skin. He wasn’t going to live if they didn’t do something.

His eyes started to flutter, and Robert growled. She’d never heard their Alpha make that sound before. Goosebumps broke out on her skin. Even Tatyana winced.

“I told you to protect them. What part of being a healer did you miss, Clarissa? If my brother dies, you’re following him immediately. Dead.”

August roared to life, and Robert hissed out a breath. “Shift, brother. Shift now.”

In his half-awake state, he might not be listening. “Do it, August. Shift for us now, my love. Please. That’s how you’ll heal.”

He winced, but his body shifted, slowly for August, but he got there. He let out a huff before his legs gave out and he all but face planted down on the ground in his wolf form.

“I know.” She knelt down, running her hands over his soft fur. “You’re going to be okay now. You will. Your body is healing. You made it.” She could hardly catch her breath. “You did.”

August raised his wolf head and growled at his brother. She laughed as Robbie groaned. “He was pretending. No one has hurt me.”

Her mate made that huffing sound again. He pulled himself up and limped over to her before he sat down and put his head in her lap. Her wolf sighed. Yes, her wolf had held onto his wolf, hadn’t let him go, as though this time she was the one who bit down on him and said you can’t go anywhere.

Tears stung her eyes, and they flowed down her cheeks. This was relief. August would be okay. Maybe not today. Maybe it would take some time. But he would be. She would see to it.

Clarissa sat on the porch swing, her mate sipping some water next to her. He leaned on her shoulder. Every day, August got stronger. Since his ordeal, he’d been quieter and yet more affectionate, too.

“You okay?” She kissed the top of his head, and he nodded.

“Don’t worry about me, Angel Face. I’m figuring some things out. I’m here, thanks to you. Just figuring out what comes next.”

That was unexpected. “Which would be what?”

“Well,” he started to speak, and then shook his head. “Robbie’s coming. I’ll tell you both together.”

She nodded. That would work, too. Robert appeared a few seconds later. August could always scent things at least ten seconds before she could.

“Hey.” Robert rounded the corner. “Came to see how the patient is doing.”

He leaned on his knees. “The patient is feeling old. The patient is not healing as fast as he used to.”

“Well, we are older now.” Robert gave them a toothy grin before he sat down on their steps. “Be calm. You smell better. You’re getting there.”

“About that.” Her mate got to his feet. She hated that he winced as he did so. He might need to shift again. She bit down on her nail. Clarissa hadn’t given any thought to the dragon drugs in days, but now she was finding the need rode her again. She leaned back in the swing. August didn’t need to worry about her right this second. At the moment, she had to deal with this on her own. If she needed help, she’d ask.

Her mate spoke again. “For a while, even before this last bit, I haven’t had any memory of my battles as a wolf.”

She swallowed. That wasn’t good news at all. On one hand, it could simply be a case of battle fatigue. But it was sometimes also a sign that the male was getting close to decline. That couldn’t be allowed to happen.

She had just gotten him back.

He winked at her. “Not going anywhere, Angel Face. I promise. Not any time soon. It’s not decline. My wolf is as happy as we are, too.”

“Then you’re just done fighting.” Robert nodded.

“I don’t want to let this pack down. Moreover, I don’t want to let you down. You’re my brother. I love you.”

Robert’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you just say ‘I love you’?”

“I did.” August didn’t even seem embarrassed. “More than I don’t want to let the pack down, I don’t want to let you down. I want to be useful. I don’t know what I can do for you if I can’t fight. But my first priority has to be to my mate, whom I also love.”

She kicked him gently to show him she was there. He didn’t react, his attention seemingly focused on Robert. “So there is it.”

“Then it’s a good thing you have so many other skills.”

Clarissa covered her mouth with her hand to hide her grin. August cocked his head to the side. “Like what?”

“Well”—Robert rose—“we have to expand the pack. We burned the new Queen, but it just means they’ll make another one. We have ten years. So we need this world to be full of packs again. Strong, loyal packs. To that end, I am going to expand mine into the hills. Anyone there can swear loyalty or get out.”

It was rough, but that was the world they lived in. They were werewolves. They followed Alphas. It worked better that way.

“Then we’re going to start making strides to help Alphas start forming packs. If they all need to defer to me until then, fine. So be it. We will get things back in order to find those eggs in the next ten years, and again and again. It will take organization.”

August visibly swallowed. “Do you expect me to go talk to those people?”

Robert laughed. “By the gods, no. I’m good at this. Send you out to talk to people? No. You are going to go into our new pack land, determine what those who swear loyalty need from us, and get it for them. Your mate, too. She’ll look after their health. I don’t care if you talk to them at all. Are there houses falling down? Would it be a smart idea to install sentries there? You tell me. I get it done.”

Clarissa rose. “I think he’d be really good at that.”

Robert rocked back on his feet when he stood. “You’d think I was Alpha or something. What do you say?”

“I… I like the idea very much.”

Robert nodded to him. “Sounds good, brother. Fills your need to move around, minus the fighting. I hope. Let’s see how it goes. Don’t die on me or come that close again. We shared a womb. Let’s occupy the planet together for another forty or fifty years. No more near deaths in this family.” He pointed at Clarissa, too. “That’s an order for the whole family.”

The sound of crickets drifted through the trees as Robbie left them to their evening. August sank down onto the steps and patted the one next to him, which she gladly got up and went to. “What do you think?”

“I like it if you like it, Angel Face.” He kissed her cheek. “Of course, it’ll depend on the baby.”

She laughed and then stopped. He wasn’t kidding. “What baby?”

“The one in your stomach. Didn’t know yet? We’re going to have a pup.”

No, she hadn’t known. Tears flooded her eyes. Oh, this was wonderful news. And also terrifying. “Auggie, sometimes I still want to use the drugs. I won’t. I swear I won’t. I just wanted you to know. I’ll take care of this baby…that I didn’t know I was having, but of course you do because of that nose of yours.”

He wrapped her up against him. “We’re both going to spend our lives facing our demons. The memories of stuff. The need for what ails us. But we’ll do that together. I’m afraid you got the most screwed up of the Owens brothers.”

She snorted. “You got the most screwed up of the Knox sisters.”

“That’s not true. We all know Elizabeth is the most screwed up.”

Clarissa laughed because it was true. She laughed because she was joyful. Because they were alive. Because she had this life now with this male who loved her despite everything she had done. Because her body felt better and her wolf back to normal. Because somehow they should all be dead, and they weren’t.

He kissed her cheek before he bent over to bite down on her neck. She shuddered. August found that spot, over and over again. As many times as he wanted to claim her, she’d love to be claimed.

There was happiness to be found in a world recovering from destruction. There were moments of surety even when everything seemed to have gone to chaos. They might not yet know everything that would happen in the future, and that was okay. They had one.

“August Owens, we didn’t have the beginning we should have had. You didn’t notice me across the street and suddenly realize you were my mate.”

He shrugged. “I would have had to wait years to have you. You know I always scent things early. You’d have been too young. I’d have been taking long swims in Duncans Pond.”

“You and that pond. What is your fixation with that pond?”

He groaned. “It’s not a fixation. I think other than now, I’ve brought it up once.”

“Yes, but why bring it up at all? There were better things at home.”

She laughed because she had August to argue with. Forever. Eternally. Always. Evermore. Endlessly.