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    They smelled of the wind and mountain snow, and something else, something I dared not put a name to so early in the day. I avoided them and tried not to let their casual brushes against what little exposed skin I had bother me. They were in charge and could do as they wished, with or without my consent.
    "Hello, boy," my alpha said, going to my son and patting him on his shoulder. He wasn't affectionate with him, not as I thought a father should be. But then again, he'd never actually wanted a child, and if Gavin had been born female, I didn't know ... That was not a thought for today, and I quickly put it away in favor of something lighter, something much more fitting for this chilly morning. The sun was out, and its glare against the bright white snow made me blink before I turned away from the window where the curtains had been pulled back to allow in the light. The mountain was beautiful, the snow a welcome reminder of the season. And I had my son. That there was a space missing in my heart didn't matter. Nothing could fill that hole, but thinking about it did no one any good, especially when her name wasn't to be mentioned in this pack.
    "Sir?" I spoke up, knowing that I needed to tell my alpha about my dreams as soon as I saw him in the mornings, no matter what else he was doing. That was his rule. And I might not get another chance to do so. He often went hunting in the afternoons or was otherwise engaged. I didn't look up, but I didn't have to in order to know he was against the back wall. Years of living with them had given me decent spatial recognition as a matter of survival. I had to get his attention, but he wasn't looking at me. He was talking with one of his men in front of the fridge. I knew him, knew his smell and too much else about him as well. I did not go toward him. But I needed my alpha to notice me. I touched his elbow, the barest touch possible, before pulling back.
    "Yes?" he demanded, his voice stern, bringing the noise in the kitchen to a halt around us. No one moved when he spoke. But it wasn't out of respect. The people in my pack feared him, and I knew first-hand that it was with good reason. While women and children were far more often the focus of his attention, men hardly went without a scratch in our little pack.
    With his attention turned to me, I went to my knees in the kitchen. Not because he'd demanded it or because he'd even said anything to me that would suggest it. Not yet, anyway. But because the strength of my alpha's attention on me made it impossible for me to do anything else.
    I pulled my shoulders down and in and hugged my arms against my stomach. Talking to him always made me feel a bit queasy. "I had a dream last night," I said, trying to get my voice to be louder, but it didn't work.
    He made an irritated noise in his throat. "A what?"
    I curled my hands against the edge of the counter, needing its strength to keep my balance, even on my knees. "A dream." My free hand went to my knee, and my fingers disappeared under the hem of the dress I wore. "I had a dream last night." I whispered the words, half-afraid to voice them. More than half, if I were being honest with myself. Which, I realized with no small amount of disgust, I hadn't been all that much lately. Some things were simply too hard to do and I, the weakest member of our pack, knew that better than most.
    "Tell me about this dream you had, seer," he said, his voice soft, coaxing me into a deceptive calm. I knew better than to believe him, but I knew even more that fighting him would end up being worse for me. And though I wasn't sure how much Gavin knew, I was sure he'd never seen what our alpha was capable of. Not first-hand, at the very least. I was sure of that.
    I didn't want to tell him, and I lowered my head even further toward the cracked and peeling linoleum floor to get away from the whispered command in his seemingly innocent words. I knew not telling him would make him mad, but the dream would upset