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“Really?”
    No one that sweetly innocent should sound so bloodthirsty.
    Sarah Anne reached for her daughter. “No, he’s not.”
    Garrett didn’t hand Meg over, but he did give Sarah a piece of advice. “You don’t tell your Alpha what to do.”
    It was too dangerous. Donovan would be totally within his rights to cut her down.
    “The hell I don’t.”
    Meg perked up. At the tone, or the opportunity to learn a new word?
    “Watch your language.”
    Sarah Anne’s mouth opened and then snapped closed as she looked at her daughter. He turned to the right. Sarah Anne went with him, following her daughter. With every inch between her and the other man, he breathed easier. Cur moved in on Donovan’s other side. Garrett caught Donovan’s eye. However he felt about the situation, protocol had to be observed. “I apologize for my mate.”
    Donovan’s eyes narrowed. His nostrils flared. Something like satisfaction lit his expression. “You claim her, then?”
    Garrett looked over, taking in Sarah Anne’s pale face, even features and that determination that belied the fragility of her gender.
    “You take her as your mate, her children as yours?”
    The ancient sanction settled like a balm over his soul.
    “No,” Sarah Anne gasped.
    “Yes,” he said, the inevitability of it flowing through him, even as Donovan smiled.
    “Then your apology is accepted.” Donovan ruffled Meg’s hair. “Enjoy your new family.”
    “You can’t do this,” Sarah Anne protested, her head whipping back and forth, looking for help. She wouldn’t find it in this all-male crowd. No male werewolf would mess with the advantages bestowed upon them when it came to claiming their mates.
    “It’s already done,” Daire rumbled from where he sat on the floor.
    “It can’t be.” Sarah Anne grabbed for Meg. This time Garrett let the child go. She clutched Meg to her as though the child was her one last link to sanity. “I left to escape this.”
    The words had a hollow, disbelieving quality.
    Donovan’s didn’t. “You can’t escape destiny.” He bowed slightly. “Welcome to my pack and my protection.”
    Sarah Anne’s lip curled. “It didn’t last long.”
    “Long enough.”
    “What about my son?”
    This time it was Cur who answered. “I’ll bring him home to you.”
    “Rachel—”
    Cur nodded, his too-long hair rasped across the leather of his coat. “Your friend, too. Consider it a wedding present for my newest pack member.”
    Sarah Anne’s fear cut into Garrett like the edge of a blade. He wanted to give her something to hold on to. “The one thing Cur can do is keep a promise.”
    “That’s an awful name,” she whispered in that shell-shocked way people had when they just couldn’t take any more. She looked at Garrett, her big brown eyes full of pain. “I want my son.”
    “I know.”
    She looked at Teri, her gaze bouncing off Daire’s imposing presence, skimming over Kelon and Donovan, before returning to Cur. “You two are friends.”
    It wasn’t a question. “Yes.”
    “And you’re insisting on your claim?”
    He didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”
    “And you’ll protect me?”
    “Yes.”
    “No matter what?”
    What was she up to? “Yes.”
    She ducked under his arm. “Then keep them off me while I find my son.”

Six
    HOW the hell had she ended up back where she’d started, mated to a wolf she didn’t know, with everyone expecting her to smile and be happy? Sarah hugged Meg to her as she stepped out into the night. She took a deep breath, inhaling the cool air, blinking back tears when she couldn’t find a trace of her son’s scent. For five years, it had never been absent, but now it was nowhere to be found. The night sky, normally a thing of beauty, stretched over the landscape in an endless mocking expanse of empty black. Josiah was out there somewhere, along with Lord only knew how many rogues chasing him. She closed her eyes.
    Keep him safe, Rachel.
    Oh, God. What was she saying? Rachel was