Aspen County

Keene and I end up in the hut assigned to Zeeva, Eyulf, and Ryder, but I don't see any sign of the latter. As if reading my mind, Zeeva stops cleaning dishes and laughs sadly. "He isn't here. He wandered around after we left you. He no doubt wound up back at your place, the poor thing."

I close my eyes and shake my head. "My place, as in the exact place my sister is no doubt headed off to."

"Lovett," Zeeva says, giggling. "You haven't seen him these past few weeks. It's been really rough on him to be separated from her for so long. And she's been through enough to be left alone, I think."

I sigh and roll my eyes at being reprimanded. "I know. I just still feel weird that I don't control her anymore. It's even weirder because she's been through so much and she took over as the freaking Alpha and she has to deal with this Voice thing—well, not that anymore, at least not right now—but she's barely 17."

"What do you mean that she isn't dealing with the voice anymore?" Eyulf asks, concern lacing his voice and face.

I sigh and sit down on their couch. Keene stands beside me, gently rubbing his hand up and down my upper back. "She visited me in a dream last night—not one of those vision things that Louve has, just a dream. And then she decided to stick around after I woke up."

"I'm sorry," Zeeva whispers. Keene pulls his hand away, and she hugs me.

"Me too. Now I see why my sister has become so closed off to the world." I sigh. "I just wish I could've understood so that I could help her sooner."

'Trust me, there's no need to beat yourself up about it. There's absolutely nothing you could've done to have stopped me.'

I groan. "She's here," I mutter.

"Think on the bright side, at least she's not bothering Louve and Ryder for once," Zeeva mutters, shrugging.

I glare up at her. "That is really not helping."

She chuckles. "Think about how many times she must have gotten in the way of their relationship if she's bothering you this much so soon after waking up. It actually makes Ryder seem even better for her, considering the fact that even after all of that, he still stuck around. That shows dedication."

"It could also show that he's a desperate teenage boy, even less reason to trust him with my little sister."

"Lovett, leave it alone," Eyulf warns as Zeeva shakes her head and returns to the kitchen. "If anyone could understand what your sister is dealing with, it would be him. I mean, think about everything that he's been through."

"I know, but his violent streak and 'relationship' past aren't exactly points in his favor."

Keene, who had watched the exchange with amused silence, pipes up, surprisingly in Ryder's defense. "He has a good heart. He'll never do anything to hurt your sister physically. And while they may at times have verbal arguments, he'll never intentionally cause her any emotional pain. And even when he does, he will immediately do all within his power to make amends. Your sister would never be able to find anyone else as dedicated to her well-being as Ryder."

I sigh and finally drop it. We move onto safer topics. Zeeva tells me about how Nyx, Nox, and Rudi took off soon after leaving us and said to pass on their apologies for missing the battle that I'll have to face with the Voice. I wave off their apologies, completely understanding why they had to go. We sit around for an hour, just talking. And then the silence in my head is interrupted.

'If you didn't trust the brute with your sister, you might want to run home now before you miss him finishing something that I don't think you'll be pleased to see him doing,' Monique whispers in my head, her voice excited.

'I said I would trust them—she deserves that,' I tell her, fighting the urge to run back to my sister and halt whatever's going on. Keene glances at me briefly, as if aware of what's going on in my head, but he stays quiet

'You know, just for my amusement, I could always just make you go over there. Or I could even make you go to sleep and take you through the portal so that you have to watch but have no control in what goes on.'

'Stop it!'

'You and your sister are more alike than you think.'

Suddenly, my eyes close as I fall asleep. They open again to show me the cavern that I was in earlier. "Seriously? How do you do that?"

"I have my secrets." She waves a finger and I'm yanked forward. She clutches me by the front of the shirt and throws me into the now glowing archway. I fall through and land on my back in Louve's room, closing my eyes so that I don't see anything I don't want to.

"Are you okay?" I hear Ryder ask her.

Louve giggles a little. "Yeah. It didn't really hurt much after that one bit of pain."

"Probably just werewolf healing." I hear the sheets shuffling and wish I could just leave. I don't want to hear this. "You really are beautiful."

I gag and roll my eyes, accidentally allowing them to open. My back is facing them, but in front of me is the t-shirt that Keene brought Louve earlier.

I gasp, horrified. Reluctantly, I slowly turn around to look at them and calm my nerves. I only grow more disgusted. Clothes litter the floor, and the blanket of the bed barely covers my sister's waist. Her bare back faces me, and Ryder, also barely covered, plays with her hair.

"Get me out of here!" I shout. "I don't want to see this!"

Monique appears, her eyes shimmering. "What are you gonna do if I let you leave?" she demands, her voice laced with twisted excitement at the chaos she's created.

"I'm going to break this the hell up! Now let me go!"

"As you wish. I look forward to watching."

"You twisted little—" I begin. Before I can finish insulting her, she places both hands on my chest and shoves me. I'm sent plummeting into a dark abyss, my sister's room disappearing.

"Lovett?" I hear Keene say. He stares down at me, struggling to shake me awake. He has his arms locked around my torso, probably to hold me in place in case Monique decided to throw me around.

I shake off his grip and ignore him, swinging my feet off of the couch where I'd fallen over into his lap after Monique knocked me out. "I'm gonna kill him," I whisper menacingly. Everyone exchanges glances, knowing that I'm talking about Ryder but not realizing what I just saw.

"Lovett, just tell me what happened. What did he do?" Keene tries to stay calm, but his concern for me makes that a little more difficult than usual.

"That bastard just deflowered my sister!" I shout. "I may have only been 14 when my uncle died, but he made sure that I understood exactly what sex was as soon as I hit my teenage years. I have a right to kill him! She's only 17 years old!"

"Lovett, be reasonable," Eyulf tries. I know that he's probably no stranger to some sexual activities, but he's not my sister, so I don't care.

"Look, you know about his past 'relationships.' If you could even call them that. I don't care about what he did to those girls. But I do care about what he does to my sister. She had no clue about what that was until he came along. That means that he not only had to explain what that was, but he also had to persuade her."

"Lovett," Keene says calmly, placing a hand on my chest to keep me from charging out to find my sister and tear her away from Ryder. "Let it go. There's nothing that you can do about it now. The deed is done. They're in love and they're mated. As far as most werewolves are concerned, they have every right to do as they please. I'm not condoning it nor am condemning them for it. I think that your sister would appreciate it if you took the same approach and stayed out of it. And if you do go now and invade on their privacy, you'll be doing exactly as Monique wants. You must fight her influence."

I back away from him. "Whose side are you on anyway?" I demand defensively.

"Lovett, I'm on yours, of course. But I'm also expected to take my grandmother's place as the Shaman, and with that comes the responsibility of maintaining peace and guiding my fellow werewolves. That's all I'm trying to do for you. Please let me."

I sigh. Deciding to deal with this later, I sink back onto the couch.

Keene shakes his head. "Lovett, you're forgetting how well I read people. I know that you'll just go take care of him later." Figuring that I might be more comfortable without them there, Keene turns to my friends. "Can you two just give us a minute?" They nod and leave the room, not wanting to face my wrath. Keene kneels before me, taking my hands in one of his and reaching up to cup my cheek with his other. "Lovett, like I said. Ryder would never do anything to hurt your sister. Yesterday, you were sad but not angry about everything that had happened, even when you noticed them walking away towards her room. Think about it. All that has changed is that the Voice is now in your mind. Fight it—you're stronger than her. If you just pay attention to what your mind is telling you, you'll see that while this would normally make you uncomfortable, you and Ryder have repaired your relationship to the point that you can deal with this without killing him." He grabs my face more forcefully with both of his hands and forces me to look at him. "Fight it, Lovett."

I nod, and he wraps his arms around me, realizing that I'm no longer an immediate threat to Ryder's life—or any part of his anatomy.

"You know, it suddenly feels as though a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders, almost as if she's… She's gone." I look at Keene, and his concern mirrors my own. "Louve!"