~ ZEV ~

Zev pulled out of Lhars' mind completely. He wished his hands were free to claw through his hair, or scratch his neck. His skin felt too tight. So tight, it thrummed, because the weight of everything he'd thought… everything he'd assumed…

He'd been wrong. So wrong.

"You know," he said softly, "I haven't made any attempt to hold her heart—"

"She doesn't want me, you fucker. Leave it alone. She's just like every other blind idiot here who takes one look at you and decides the sun shines out of your ass. Even the humans… I don't know what magic they put on you, Zev, but one of these days I hope you start appreciating it. Because the rest of us have to fight for the kind of loyalty and devotion that you shit all over, every day of your fucking life."

Zev stared at the ceiling and sighed heavily. "I'm sorry," he said. "I really didn't know."

"You should be," Lhars grumbled, but his voice lacked the heat he'd had a moment before.

Zev grimaced. His head ached. His chest ached. His whole body ached. He'd been wrong about his brother. His mate was in human hands. And he was tied to a bed.

If it hadn't been so fucking tragic, he would have laughed.

"What the hell are you smiling about?" Lhars growled.

Zev snorted. "I'm tied to a bed. I'm fucking Alpha. I have an infection. My mate is in the human world and I think… I think our bond is broken. And I'm tied to a fucking bed." He coughed to cover an actual laugh, though he felt more grieved than amused.

"You didn't give us any choice, Zev. You would have run out of here and collapsed in the forest. We're trying to keep you away from infection."

"I know. I know. I'm calmer now, if it helps. I know I can't… not yet."

"Yet? You can't, period, Zev," Lhars snarled. "She left of her own accord, and she left the hierarchy in place. If you leave, all hell breaks loose. Everyone remembers. This doesn't pass."

Zev bristles. No way was he just leaving Sasha in Nick's hands indefinitely. No fucking way. Hierarchy be damned. But he knew he couldn't say that to Lhars. Not right now. Not when he'd been so wrong and Lhars had been the one to fix his mistakes.

So he lay there for a long moment, silently reconsidering his brother. Turning memories over in his mind, until they took on a new texture, and new light.

He had misjudged his brother, and it had caused pain.

"I'm sorry," he said finally. "I was wrong."

Lhars swallowed audibly, but didn't respond.

"But I do still have one question," Zev said quietly.

"What is it?"

"Xar. You helped him for three years when he was clearly losing his mind. If this is what you wanted all along, why didn't you work against him?"

"I was. But I was doing it quietly and slowly. I hadn't been at the beginning. At first I was just being second and trying to find purpose for everyone so they wouldn't die after the females disappeared. But once Xar started going off the deep end… there was a lot of fixing his problems, or adjusting things he was trying to do. And for the rest of the time I was… working in the shadows. Keeping my ear to the ground of what the humans were doing, but slowly… preparing."

"But you could have been Alpha. You could have beat him—especially after he started going south."

"I thought about it," Lhars said, folding his arms, staring into the middle distance, his brows pinched in over his nose. "But it became really clear to me, as long as the Team thought Xar was in charge and working with them, they were less guarded. If I'd taken Alpha they would have realized I was ambitious. I couldn't afford it. At least, not early on. Towards the end… before you came back… I was getting to the point where I was either going to have to take Alpha, or leave with anyone who would come. Leave the rest behind for the humans. I'd decided on spring…" he trailed off. Then cleared his throat. "But, then you showed up. And the world was puppies and rainbows again."

"That's why Hedin told me the wolves were preparing to defect?"

"Yes."

They both sat quietly, thinking. It was Lhars who spoke first.

"Sasha's going in with her eyes wide open, Zev. I could see it in her. She knew Nick probably had a plan he wasn't share. But she wanted to beat them."

Zev nodded. "She told me as much. She wants… if she's not back in a few days, when I'm healed, she wants me to come for her."

Lhars sighed heavily. "We better start preparing. I really don't think they're letting her go in two days."

"I know. She knew. We just… she didn't want to say it."

"So you two really can mind-link?"

"Yes."

"Wild."

"You have no idea."

Lhars stared at his own hand, picking at a nail. "How did it happen?"

Zev cleared his throat. "We're ardent."

"Yeah, so?"

"So… something happened. There was a day… it was like my whole body needed her. Not just… you know. And she was desperate too. And when we… came together it… something happened."

"The bond."

Zev shook his head. "No. We'd already formed the bond the first night. This was… this was different. It's like the bond went deeper and we became… it's like a piece of me flowed into her, and a piece of her into me. It's crazy, Lhars. But remember that legend about the Arden Pair? The ones who had magic?"

"That's a kids story," Lhars scoffed. "A romance for little cubs."

Zev shook his head. "No. It's not."

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

Lhars whistled. "So you two are soul-connected?"

"Yes, but you can't tell anyone." Zev let his tone get dark, a warning for his brother. "We can't risk the fact that we can mind link getting back to the humans. Especially not now."

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