My she-wolf shivers in her sleep, fur twitching in agitation along her spine. Even in her sleep, she is aware of an alpha like none she's known before walking into what should be her den with her mates. There is nowhere safe for us and we both know it down to our bones. All we can do is huddle deeper into the embrace of one of our males, just as exhausted as we are.

"Sean?" I rub his cheek, my eyes drawn to his, despite the massive alpha-male sauntering further into the room. My mate holds my gaze with no visible concern about the huge alpha who has just crashed our party.

"Inuit Genome," one of the elder's snarls. "This is not your territory."

The alpha ignores the older male as if he never spoke. Instead, he greets Alpha Carmichael with a bro-handshake, then turns and does the same to Conner. I blink, my vision hazy, at the huge shadowy alphas greeting each other like long-lost brothers. Behind the alpha, another male, Sarj, Conner's best friend, leads a few others I can't recognize through the mating fog in my brain.

The power in this room is nearly suffocating. My she-wolf starts to whine, thrashing her way back to consciousness so violently that my teeth crack and my bones ache.

Sean gently rakes his teeth over my new Mark. A highly pleasurable shiver rolls over me as my she-wolf goes limp. "Sean," I whisper, blushing. A deep male chuckle caresses my skin. Braxton kisses my cheek as he drapes a blanket over Sean and me. I fight off the drowsiness as much as I can, but the bond between Sean and me is sapping my strength. My body is like jelly and my she-wolf once again passes out completely.

Sean buries his face in my hair. I can feel the wetness and smell the salt of his tears. I rub his chest, his self-loathing slapping me in the face and burning through the last of my exhaustion.

I shouldn't even be awake right now. The double-Marks, given so closely together, should have completely depleted me, but other than feeling drained of energy and sore from my males, I'm wide-awake.

In all fairness, my mind and body are used to being sleep-deprived and aching.

Sean makes a soft noise, a low moan of bone-deep sorrow. "Precious mate," he croons, "beautiful angel. We're sorry. We love you. Always. Sorry. Won't hurt you. Never again." His voice is slightly broken as he whispers his apologies and promises to me. I feel his wolf, a huge, dark-colored male, tentatively probing my she-wolf before wrapping himself around her as tightly as he can. I guess he can't sleep, either.

"Sean and Iliana are mates. It's too late. What sort of test could possibly be used without hurting our mate?" Braxton is pacing in front of us, posturing violence. Some of the wolves in the courtroom are watching him, confused and wary. After all, he has been Marked, he should be as weak and limp as Sean and I are. Other wolves seem oblivious to Brax's odd behavior.

"Other than Georgina and Sean Marking each other, I'm not aware of any 'test,'" Conner says blandly. Alpha Carmichael agrees with an eloquent grunt.

"I won't allow Iliana to be hurt by one of her mates Marking another female!" Braxton roars.

Sean's low growl echoes the sentiment, then he manages to lift his head from my hair and croak, "we will not have venom for any other." He reburies his face in my hair.

"I have venom!" Georgina says desperately. "It would work!"

The wolf who spoke to Sean and me earlier, the one who wants Sean to have three mates so that Georgina and I have to share him, interjects, "if Georgina Marks Tremaine, then he may be able to produce venom for her in return. Of course, right now he is focused on this female." He waves a hand at Sean and me.

Conner snarls, "my Beta," he corrects the male. "Iliana deserves time to-"

"Enough time has been given for this farce!" a wolf cries out angrily.

I shudder in Sean's arms as voices rise in anger. The outcry seems to be in neither my favor nor Georgina's, but with every second that passes by my bonds with Sean and Braxton strengthen and Georgina knows it. "I'm scared," I murmur to Sean.

I feel Sean's body tense under me. Then, he moves, surging upward to stand, leaving me grasping futilely for him, huddled on the floor at his feet. Nude, with his manacles still in place, his skin pale and tinged grey as my Mark heals on his neck, he snarls to the room, "Iliana is our truemate. We are a mate betrayer. She will not be punished any longer for our failure."

Sean sways in place until Braxton reaches out and catches his shoulder, steadying him. That slight movement, a brief moment of solidarity for each other, galvanizes the wolves in the courtroom and whips up the council into a frenzy.

"This is clear mate betrayal! Thievery!" I hear a shrill voice rise above the rest. My blood turns to ice when the same voice screams, "Iliana Thomas is a witch!"

Voices explode in unison. Among the shouting, I can hear Dad yelling that I'm not a witch or a liar. I can hear Georgina wailing. I can hear Braxton shouting at anyone who comes near him and Sean snarling with his last bit of energy as he leans more and more on Braxton.

I climb to my hands and knees and watch the stone floor pitch and roll in front of my eyes before blurring to black. Blind, the noise is intensified. I dig my hands into the floor, my claws scraping for purchase as I fight with gravity and find myself in a stalemate.

The hands that pick me up are small, feminine, calloused, and strong. I smell earth on this she-wolf. I feel the ground under me become solid, unbending to fit the Luna's will and know, without being able to see, that this must be the Great Luna of the North, Willa. She was kind to me once before when I didn't realize that she exudes so much power.

"Don't let them get hurt," I plead with her, blinking rapidly to try and clear my vision. My eyeballs ache. Everything is so heavy.

"Shh, Silken Wolf. Mactiir will not let your silly pups be injured."

I lean on her arm. She called me 'silken.' I've never heard that used to describe a wolf before. It's probably never been used to describe a wolf before.

The Luna is much taller than I am. I bet she and Alpha Inuit look beautiful together. The world steadies a bit. My head quiets enough to be able to see again. I open my eyes to see Inuit Genome, the TrueBorn Alpha of the north, through a cloud of his luna's honey-blonde hair.

He is a solid rock in a stormy sea as he stares at the council's wolves from the center of the room. Wildness barely leashed. He remains silent, eyes watching, ears listening. The council rages around him, but nothing touches him in the room.

"Enough" the Great Alpha commands suddenly. The room falls into a deathly silence. My she-wolf awakens. "The council in the north has fallen. We rule the north."

I can feel the protests, the shock, and dismay, in the eyes and wolves of the council, but they stay quiet.

The Great Alpha smiles. "Don't believe me? Go ahead, call your friends." Slowly, one wolf walks back to the council's bench and picks up his phone. He places a call while every eye is on him. No one picks up on the other end. He calls another number, then another, another, until he has made nine phone calls into the silence.

He puts his phone down with shaking hands.

"The council of the north is dead. Slaughtered when they declared war on my pack, my family," Alpha Inuit says. His voice is calm. He announces the coup of the most powerful council in North America as if telling us it's raining outside.

"I propose a treaty," he says next. The silence finally breaks sending a low buzz through the room. "My luna and I came here today to broker peace with the southern councils."

A pause, an inhale of breath, and then, "but I'm concerned with this... situation." He looks at Georgina, then his dark brown eyes, nearly as dark as Sean's, come to rest on me. "I will not subject a tiny female to losing her Mark," he says mildly, "as it seems that this female is too... delicate, and the relationship between the two females would not allow for Green to Mark them both."

I straighten my spine and lift my head off of his luna's arms, ready to argue, "I am the ClearHowl Beta!" I snap at him. At the same time, my two mates, the dunderheads, growl at the alpha.

His eyes widen before he smiles just the slightest bit. Next to me, the Luna of the North laughs quietly, "Silky Beta," she murmurs. She pets my hair. Her mate hears her and his smile grows.

"Either way," the Great Alpha says, "we can simply test the bond by Severing the one between... Georgia, was it?"

"Georgina," I supply when no one else bothers to correct him.

"Mmm," he hums, nodding, "Georgina and Green. Either the bond Severs and ends the connection, or nothing happens, meaning there is no bond. Simple. Done."

Holy goddess. That really is simple. If the Severing works, then oops, Georgina and Sean really did have a bond. If it doesn't, then she's a liar, liar, pants on fire.

But she does have a bond? We think she might. And I'm not Severing my bond. No way.

Georgina protests, tearful and panicked, "there is another way. We can test our DNA for compatibility."

Alpha Inuit turns to stare down the foolish female who spoke. My sister, who knows about the DNA, knows about her false, scientifically created bond with my truemate. She knew that I was Sean's truemate. She knew she was drugging him with whatever that substance was. The tiny part of my heart still loyal to my sister breaks off and falls away. I only have one sister now. This bitch is no one to me.

"Tell me more," The Great Alpha commands Georgina.

Other wolves try to shush her, but it's too late. Under the gaze of the TrueBorn, she cracks. "The lab, Honeieker's Lab, developed it. It looks at DNA compatibility to test for mates."

"Why would the lab create such a thing?" Alpha Inuit asks silkily. "We know our mates by sight, smell, touch. We don't need science to tell us."

Georgina falls silent, her lips pursed stubbornly as her tears dry on her cheeks.

"No one wants to answer me?" Alpha Inuit asks, looking around in faux surprise. He would be amusing if he wasn't so scary.

I dare a peek at Conner. He and Alpha Carmichael are standing side-by-side, arms crossed over their chests, their faces foreboding and their mouths shut.

I bet the Luna of the North can hear my heart pounding.

"Mactiir," she purrs suddenly. She leaves my side, walking to her mate with the sleek sashay of an apex predator. Her mate's eyes fix on her with an intensity that crackles through the air between them, threatening to cause the courtroom to spontaneously combust. As soon as she leaves my side, my two mates take her place, Sean holding me up and Braxton holding up us both.

"Yeah, Qitsuk?" Even the Great Alpha's voice changes; deepens and softens to a masculine purr.

"We can ask the brilliant luna. Young Alpha Conner's luna will understand this... testing," Luna Willa says 'testing' with a special sort of bitterness.

One of the council wolves makes a low sound of derision and mumbles, "human bitch." I don't see the TrueBorn move. He's there, just one step ahead of Conner, splitting the council wolf's belly open onto the floor. The male screams thinly, his hands clutching his guts as they spill onto the stone floor.

"She insulted my mate," Conner protests. The Great Alpha just shrugs. Conner scowls, for all the world looking as though he is pouting. He regains himself, then states, "Let's Sever. Iliana keeps Sean and my brother. Georgina clearly knows more than she wants to say."

"We m-must vote!" one of the council wolves says meekly. "ClearHowl has no vote." He doesn't look the Great Alpha in the eyes. Technically, Inuit Genome doesn't have a vote, either.

Trey starts to laugh. "You've just heard from Georgina's alpha. Alpha Conner does have a vote and I think we all know what it is."

Silence falls again. The Great Alpha looks at Trey and asks, "What do you mean, Alpha Wilkinson?"

"There is no Alpha Wilkinson. There is no RedMoon," Trey responds. "Only ClearHowl. RedMoon's vote belongs to Alpha Conner now." Trey steps back, fading away, the derision dripping from his voice all that is left in the shadow of a wolf he's become.

Several of the council look ill. I'm not sure if we're showing our hand too soon, or if it's playing out well. Or, more likely, the presence of the Great Alpha and the destruction of the northern wolf council means that we can lay all our cards on the table.

"Vote," Inuit Genome announces. "All for a Severing-"

"You can't!" a wolf spits. Sean's "friend" has finally lost his composure. "We spent hundreds of thousands of dollars developing that she-wolf for him!" he points at Georgina.

"And you used my daughter's DNA to do it," a new voice speaks up.

I turn to see my mom, tears pouring down her sunken cheeks. Her eyes look dead, her face gaunt. "I allowed this bitch into my home and all the while the plan was to steal Iliana's mate away, wasn't it?" she asks, looking at the council. "Wasn't it?!" she screams.

No one speaks. Mom begins to cry harder. "I should have known," she sobs. "All the doctor's appointments... the interest in Georgina." She gulps, "the attempts on Ili's life."

"Attempts on her life?" the Luna asks in a voice that is... to be correct, silky.

Dad steps up, shaking. "The car accident in Cleveland. The illness when you were only three. The lake, almost drowning... Georgina pushed her! The attempts stopped when you were six."

"When Georgina's DNA finally matched to Sean's," a new voice says softly. We all turn to see Bailey in the doorway. I knew it was her, though, because before the first word was out of her mouth, Conner was across the room to enfold her in his arms.

It's getting crowded in here.

"And you knew nothing of this?" Alpha Inuit asked Mom. "About the DNA and the lab?"

Mom looks at me, haggard and raw, "nothing. I never saw it. I'm so sorry, sweetie."

"Everyone is lying!" Georgina says desperately. "I am Sean's mate!"

"You are not," Bailey says firmly. "You aren't even supposed to have a Mate, because you are basically a test-tube baby." She waves her ever-present MacBook in the air as if it holds the secrets of the world, which to be fair it most likely does.

"So..." the Great Alpha regains everyone's attention as he turns on Georgina once again, "who did this to you?" He looks toward the council wolf who spoke. "Who wanted a mate for a Tremaine so badly that they broke every one of our laws to make it happen?"

Georgina starts to cry, her eyes darting to the left. A terrible shrieking noise fills the air. It's so loud and shrill that almost all of the wolves in the room cringe, covering their ears with their hands, including my males and me. The council wolves all scatter toward random exits, and the room floods with males dressed in dark black.

Someone on the council pulled the alarm.

Panicked, I grab for Sean and Braxton, terrified that they'll be hurt. I don't see the flash of blonde hair. I feel nothing as claws rake down my back.

My dress, what's left of it, rips away. I'm left nude, shaken, and completely unhurt, as Mom drags Georgina away from me, snarling and yelling at the pup she raised as her own.

Georgina turns, her claws lashing out at Mom. They connect, sinking into Mom's collarbone, shredding her skin down to her chest, as every atom of my body screams for my mother.

Sean rips Georgina's throat out with one single clawed hand, manacles swinging free from the stone he ripped them from, watching dispassionately as she crumples to the floor. She's dead before she hits the ground.

The alarm cuts off. The black-clad warriors are outmatched by the alphas in the room... and even more so by the alphas who follow them inside.

"Iliana, are you alright?" I look up into Beta Teague's green gaze. He steps right over Georgina's body and past his own son to hug me tight to his chest.

Beta Teague picks me up and carries me to the back of the courtroom, seemingly unconcerned with the battle occurring all around us. Sean and Braxton trail after us, aggression shining from their curled lips and clawed fingers. I curl into the big alpha-male, my father-by-mating as of just a few short days ago.

"My mom?" I whisper.

"Don't look, babypup. Don't look," Beta Teague says sadly.