I had been willing to let it go. Viktor was right- they had to meet eventually. If Tsuki was going to stay with my pack as we all hoped, he’d inevitably have an encounter with Haruka; I’d even intended to introduce them before he made his final decision. That didn’t mean I was entirely comfortable with it happening so suddenly, when I couldn’t be involved. Because as much as I trusted Cean, I wasn’t sure he could handle it.

Or maybe that was just my instincts talking. It was a small doubt, but enough to let Tsuki walk away with Cean. Ever since the omega had woken up, he’d been driving my instincts crazy. I had the strongest urge to claim him, to define him through my own bond, to keep him safe and sheltered because he was more precious than anything I’d come across in my very long life. Which was startling, because I’d previously considered my mate to be my most precious thing.

There was just something about Tsuki which whipped me into a frenzy. That sugar sweet scent poured from him, stronger when he was emotional, and it was intoxicating. It had taken a massive amount of self control to keep my hands off him when we had left my house. I knew he’d just been overwhelmed by being outside for the first time in days- I would have to be stupid not to have noticed how he seemed caged by the room we’d given him; I had been taken completely by how his scent grew softer and warmer with his pleasure.

Dangerous. Tsuki was dangerous. I’d thought my mate would be the death of me, but this outrageous omega who had crashed into my life seemed to be a more likely candidate now. A suspicion which I was more certain of with each second Viktor and I spent anxiously waiting to hear what happened with Tsuki and Haruka.

We’re relocated to my house, holed up in the sitting room with a pack of cards on the table between us. Other than a few jokes about how one of us might be able to win since Tsuki was gone, they’d been completely disregarded. It was hard to focus on anything other than Tsuki. And if was that bad for me, a mated alpha of an established pack, I couldn’t imagine how bad it was for Viktor. He was unattached, eligible to start a pack of his own, and I knew how interested he was in Tsuki; it had to be killing him.

His tension was painfully clear when the anxious wolf bolted out of his seat the moment the door opened. The eager expression which had lit his face dropped into disappointment when it wasn’t Tsuki who walked through the door, but an older mirror of him. Ian looked confused for a moment as Viktor dropped back into his seat with an annoyed huff.

Shaking his head, Tsuki’s father banished his worries and gave me a polite smile. “I wanted to visit Tsuki. I figured he must be missing his coffee- he’s been going to Luna’s twice a week lately, he must be going into withdrawal.” Ian gesture to the cup in his hand, which had a chain store logo on the front. “I’m assuming it’s okay if I see him?”

“No!” Viktor and I jumped up at the same time, Viktor blocking the way farther into the house while I made to stop Ian from moving. We couldn’t have looked any more suspicious.

A frown started to pull at Ian’s lips as he looked between us. “And… why not?”

“He’s still injured, very tired, needs his bedrest!” Viktor lied.

And I, unfortunately, told a half truth at the same time. “He’s out with Cean! We’ll let you know when he gets back!”

I felt the color drain out of my face, and Viktor looked just as horrified. “Ian- I-”

“Where is he? What have you done this time?” Ian’s voice was lowered to a growl, and though he was less powerful than I was without a pack to back him, there was always something intimidating about angry parents. They would do anything to protect their children. I had witnessed first hand what Ian would do even to somebody he loved if he felt it would be in Tsuki’s better interest, and I was hardly that precious to him.

Viktor and I looked to each other, stumbling over our words for a moment. Then I gestured at him to shut his loud mouth, and he hunkered down by the door which led further into my house. “He’s out with Cean. I swear, Ian, I wouldn’t do anything to hurt your son. I’ve been protecting him for this long, you ought to know that by now. Even before I sent Viktor-”

“Sent Viktor? Excuse me?” Ian’s tone was frigid. “Viktor, as in the student Tsuki has been tutoring twice a week for nearly a month? His new friend Viktor? You set him up?”

I stepped back on instinct, hands raised defensively in front of me. “It wasn’t like that! They weren’t supposed to interact!”

“Yeah, I’m going to believe that. What else have you lied to me about, Alyx?” Ian took a threatening step forward, free hand balled into a fist- and then froze, the cup slipping from his grip to spill across the floor between our feet. “Out with Cean? Where? To the garden?”

My face must have given it away; Ian spat a nasty curse and spun to leave. I leapt forward, my hand closing around his wrist. It was stupid to try to stop an angry alpha, even for a child of the stars, but I was desperate. Ian didn’t care. He turned on me, and hit me harder than I would have ever imagined the man was capable of.

Viktor shouted my name, catching me before I hit the floor, and it meant Ian was free to storm out. It took me a moment to collect myself, but my shock was replaced by sharp worry when I could think clearly again. “What do we do?” Viktor asked, his hands trembling as he helped me back to my feet.

“We have to stop him- or at least get there quickly enough to prevent bloodshed. He’s got to be too far for us to take down unless we shifted, and that will make this situation even worse. Stop him if you can- but at the very least, protect Tsuki. He doesn’t need to see this. Got it?”

“Got it,” Viktor repeated, pale-faced and solemn. He was right on my heels when I raced out of my house, ignoring the calls of confused pack members who knew I didn’t run anywhere unless I had to. My fear grew when I heard the raised voices when we still a block away from the serene garden that Cean and I had built for Haruka’s comfort.

“I can’t believe you!” Ian’s voice was loud, boiling with violent anger. “You abandoned him, how dare you pretend you have any right to be involved in his life! How many years have I spent protecting him from the knowledge of your pathetic existence? He was better of believing you were dead, you monster of a woman!”

Viktor swore, and a second later he was ahead of me, the gate to the garden thrown open. His attention was undivided, and he was at Tsuki’s side as soon as his gaze found the shaken omega; the poor boy was staring at his parents, ashen with his eyes huge in his face and wet with unspilled tears.

“I had no choice!” Haruka’s shrill protect drew my attention to the pair who were faced off with each other. Despite her lack of sight, her other senses gave Haruka enough understanding of her environment for her to be toe to toe with the man she had once called her lover. “What was I supposed to do, Ian? I couldn’t stay there! Alyx’s pack is different, he was the only one who understood-”

“Understood what, Haruka? How pathetic and selfish you are?” Ian snapped back. “You couldn’t take it. They treated you like a leper when you found out you couldn’t have any more children, and the only one you’d managed to give birth to was Tsuki. Omega or not, you were useless, and you’d produced a child they saw as a burden to their pack! And you couldn’t take it, so you left Tsuki behind and you ran to Alyx like the coward you are! You put your tail between your legs and found a new pack- and you left your son to those monsters. Our son!

“Do you have any idea the abuse he suffered there? I couldn’t get my hands on him until he was eighteen, and it was already too late! He wouldn’t even sleep in a bed for the first month because he was afraid I’d beat him for it! And even then he still had horrid nightmares. They tortured him, Haruka. And all because you left him there without any protection, thinking he was alone in the world!”

“How could you?” Ian’s hand fisted in Haruka’s shirt, dragging her close; she was several inches shorter than him, so the action had her on her toes.

Fear flashed across the woman’s face, and I didn’t blame her; the last time the two had come in contact, Ian had left her blind. Ian looked terrifying as he glowered down at the mother of his child.

And their son was stricken, soft whimpers leaving his throat as his hands clutched at his hair. “Stop…” his voice was faint, and he’d been repeating that word on a soft murmur the whole time his father had been speaking.

“I didn’t have a choice! There are things you don’t know, Ian! After what Alyx told me- I had to leave him!” Haruka was desperately trying to explain herself, and Tsuki’s soft protests were growing in volume. “And how are you any better? If he thinks I’m dead, how much does he know about you?”

Ian’s silence said it all, and Haruka smirked at him. “That’s what I thought, you self-righteous asshole! I bet he has no idea what you really are. A pathetic excuse for an alpha, a lone wolf kicked out of your own pack for your sins against your kind. At least I’m not a traitor to our species! How many times have you lied to him?”

“Stop.” Tsuki’s voice was louder, and he raised his face; the tears had spilled, and I had to look away from the pain in his eyes. His parents had just tipped his world upside down, and I couldn’t imagine how that felt. “Please, stop. We can talk about this-”

Ian either didn’t hear his son, or didn’t care, as he bared his teeth at the woman in his grip. “You have no right to judge me. At least I tried to take care of him! I did my best, but you trapped me, and you know it! It was all your idea, your fault, and you got me exiled from my pack only so that you could abandon our son when I could do nothing about it! He would have been better off not born than with a cold hearted bitch of a mother like you!”

“Shut up!” Tsuki screamed the words, tears shaking his voice. It was followed by instant silence, and I wasn’t the only one who looked at him with shock. That intense pull, an irresistible command- Cean had told me how it felt, but I had never experienced it myself. That sort of influence over other wolves was supposed to be unique to a child of the stars- and it shouldn’t work on one.

Tsuki took a step back, trembling violently as he raked a hand back through his hair. “I can’t do this. Not now… not ever. Just- go away. I just want it all to go away.”

“Tsuki!” Viktor reached out for the retreating boy, and Tsuki snarled at him; it seemed to be more out of instinct than anything, but Viktor still looked hurt as he drew his hand back.

That pulled Tsuki out of his stupor a little, enough to whine and clutch at his hair again. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry, but I can’t. I… I need to run. I need to hunt. I need to shift.”

“But Tsuki, the full moon isn’t-” Viktor had started to protest, but it didn’t stop Tsuki from doing the impossible again.

The full moon was the only thing which could free a wolf from their human form; children of the stars were an exception, our closer connection with our wolf allowing us to shift whenever we liked. For an average wolf, shifting was a half a minute process full of excruciating pain. It was only worse for an omega, who had the weakest connection to their wolf than any of the others. The shift should have been long, agonizing.

And yet, he shifted faster than even I was able to, a few split seconds accompanied by a sharp sound of pain. Just moments, and what faced us was not a crying, brokenhearted young man, but a slim and elegant wolf with a thick, pure white coat which looked like spun moonlight.

“Impossible,” I breathed, entirely captivated by the gorgeous wolf. It was impossible to deny his intoxicating scent; though I was careful, my steps measured, I approached him with my hand outstretched.

Silver eyes watched me with an intensity that I wanted to melt under. When I was close enough to touch him, I hesitated. I’d have never found the courage to reach farther if he hadn’t raised his head, proud and beautiful. I closed the last few inches, my fingers barely brushing his nose and sending a shiver of awe through me.

The moment I touched him, it was as if I had freed him from stasis. The growl which rumbled from his throat had us all taking a step back from him. Tsuki’s eyes darted around the garden to find his path out; he found it in the decorative waterfall near one of the high walls. He bound his way up the rocks, lithe and graceful, before one last high leap had him over the wall.

His disappearance freed me from the spell. My soul was on fire, and I knew I had to act quickly. “Viktor- go after him. He should trust you. And you two,” I turned to Ian and Haruka. “We need to talk. Now.”

There was no denying the unearthly command in my voice, just as there had been no dissent to Tsuki’s order. The pair looked like kicked puppies as they followed me, Viktor already shifted and off after Tsuki like a bullet. I prayed Viktor would find him quickly, and not just because the sky was boiling with dark clouds and we’d already learned Tsuki didn’t deal well with storms.

His safety was important- but so was ours, and if I was right in my suspicions after what I had just seen, the wolf that had just run from was incredibly powerful, so rare that his breed was thought to be nothing more than an old wives’ tale- and he would be an extremely powerful weapon capable of destroying our entire species if we weren’t careful.