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Sasha had to force herself not to shudder bodily when there was a rustle at the back of the cave, in its shadowy depths, that startled her. Zev told her not to worry, it was just a few rats.

"I haven\'t had time to clean up yet from the carnage Lhars left while I was gone," Zev said, shaking out a fur, then laying it on the hard stone of the floor and gesturing for her to sit.

Unlike in the village homes that reminded her of lodges or cabins back home, everything here seemed dusty or dry—an old place, falling apart. The few jars and dishes she could see were piled neatly, but there was little furniture to speak of, and the furs she could see arranged in a bed at the back looked old and ragged.

There was a fire pit at the center with a pile of ashes and charred wood at its center. A soft glow emanated from it, but little heat.

"So…" she said as she settled cross-legged onto the fur he\'d laid out next to it, looking around nervously. "Why are we here? What\'s going to happen now?"

Zev immediately joined her on the fur and took her hand. "I\'ve made my claim, and you\'ve accepted," he said with a delighted grin that made Sasha forget about the threat of cave spiders, and want to bask in that smile like it was the sun. "Unless I\'m challenged again, you\'re mine." His voice had gotten very deep.

He\'d just settled, his elbow on one knee, the other knee bent and folded in front of him. He reached for her hand and something electric crackled in his gaze.

Sasha leaned closer. "I am yours, Zev," she said quietly. "God help me."

He chuckled, but she felt the tension in him. He stared at their hands, twisting his palm against hers so he could line their fingers up, then lace them together. "Well, Lhars did me a favor tonight, though I don\'t know why."

"Lhars did? How?"

"By challenging me."

"How did that help you?"

Zev shook his head in apparent disbelief. "It was an acknowledgement, first of all. Because he outranks all the other wolves, by speaking to me he forced them all to see me. And then on top of that, he challenged for you. He should have waited for me to come for you, to challenge him to show his strength because he didn\'t have to look for the fight. But because I was still cast out, when I started coming for you, the others were turning on me. They would have defeated me…" he trailed off, his brows pinched together and face tight.

Sasha swallowed, seeing the shadow of death on his face. She\'d had no idea it was that close. "Why would he do that?" she asked carefully. "I mean, don\'t get me wrong, I\'m glad he did. But why didn\'t the others just go after you anyway, if he was in charge and didn\'t need to fight?"

"This world isn\'t like the human world, Sasha," Zev said.

Sasha snorted, swallowing back hysterical giggles again as all the impossible, crazy things she\'d seen in the past two days flipped through her head like some kind of bad acid trip. "I\'ve noticed."

Zev smiled easily and traced his thumb across the back of her hand. "Here, power is all. The hierarchy—who\'s in charge of who… that\'s the rule we live by. So unless you know your place in it, you\'re adrift."

"And your place is Alpha of the wolves now."

He nodded thoughtfully.

"The thing I don\'t understand is, in my world when someone\'s powerful, other people protect them so they don\'t have to fight. Because they\'re valuable. If Lhars was in charge, why didn\'t he just tell the others to finish you off for him?"

"He didn\'t have to tell them. They were going to do it. He did the opposite—he stopped them."

"How? Why?"

Zev sighed, frowning. "Well, the how is: As soon as he challenged me, the others had to back off and give him his shot—because he was Alpha. In this world, you become powerful by being strong—either physically or in your mind. And when you want to demonstrate that… no one should stop you. Alphas increase their power by defeating others. As soon as he declared his intention to fight me for you, he saved me from the others. Their wills are submitted to his as Alpha. So they stepped down. On top of that, he stayed in human form."

"Why is that important?"

"Usually it\'s a sign that whoever challenged isn\'t challenging to the death. When two Alpha\'s fight, whoever stepped up to make the challenge will approach in human form and once the challenge is acknowledged, they begin to fight. If they don\'t shift, then it\'s a challenge for the hierarchy. But if they do… there\'s no limits."

Sasha\'s mouth fell open. "So… anytime you fight in your wolf you\'re trying to kill the person?"

"No, no. It\'s not that simple. I\'m just saying, Lhars staying in human form was significant. It said something. It helped me—again. But as for the why… I don\'t know. That\'s what\'s bothering me…"

"What does it bother you? You beat him. So, you\'re in charge of the wolves now, right?" she asked.

He nodded. "It wasn\'t what I wanted, but it\'s unavoidable. When I beat Xar I can appoint Lhars as Alpha of the pack again. But until then, he can lead as my second. It\'s just… I don\'t get it. Lhars hates me."

"Well, obviously not," she said, tracing the tendons on the back of his hand. "I mean, he\'s your brother, right? Brothers fight a lot, but they\'re still brothers."

Zev grimaced. "We aren\'t brothers the way you\'d think of them," he said quietly, and she saw the grief on his face, heard it in his tone. It made her want to hug him.

"You\'re from the same parents, right?"

"Yeah, except, as far as I know, our parents never met. And they changed us—our genetics. The whole thing happened in a lab, Sash. It\'s not like I got to go to the hospital and take the big brother pictures with Mom, you know?"

"Okay, but you guys grew up together? Knew you were brothers?"

"Sure. But here that doesn\'t really… I mean, there\'s lots of wolves that are related genetically. It doesn\'t mean they\'re family."

"So you guys never got along?"

"We used to, when we were kids."

"What happened?"

Zev turned his head away to frown at the cave wall, his eyes going distant. Despite the unpleasant subject matter, Sasha couldn\'t help noticing the strong, square line of his jaw. The way his cheeks were shadowed with growth—and how that contrast made his eyes even more brilliant.

"What happened," he said slowly, "Was that first the Team treated me differently. Like I was more important than him. That added to my status in the pack even when I was young. And then… then I went away and found you," he said quietly, turning back to meet her eyes.

Sasha frowned. "Why would that cause problems for him?"

"Because the one thing Lhars always wanted was a mate. It was the one thing he could have that I couldn\'t. That\'s… when we argued one time, he said that. That by finding you I\'d stolen from him the one thing he could have that wasn\'t tainted by me."

"What? That\'s awful! That\'s not your fault!"

Zev shrugged. "It isn\'t anyone\'s fault. He just… he just wanted to have something I couldn\'t," he muttered. "I thought when I left, Lhars would have had a party. He\'d finally hold a place in the hierarchy higher than me. And whether he knew it or not, I\'d lost you. He was going to beat me in that, too."

They stared at each other and Sasha\'s heart thumped. "Well, I\'m really glad that he didn\'t," she whispered finally.

Zev nodded. "Me too." Then he smiled. "And we\'re almost there, Sash. Once we\'ve done the mating ritual, that\'s it. You\'re mine."

Sasha\'s heart swelled and she leaned forward to kiss him softly. He took the back of her head and held her to him while they kissed, and they both sighed.

When she pulled back, Sasha grinned. "Okay, so let\'s get on that. What\'s this mating ritual?"

Zev\'s face went blank.

*****

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