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“I am!”

“Not like that!”

“Damian, you're squishing him!”

“I'm not squishing him!”

Arian kicks. The dirty diaper slips from Damian's hand.

Darlene screams. Damian jumps backward.

Arian pees.

Both pups scream.

I grin. I can't help it.

Damian stares at me. “Daddy!”

Darlene points accusingly at her baby brother. “He peed on me!”

My grin widens. For one tiny moment, I can almost hear Arlene laughing beside me.

The entire pack gathers beneath a gray sky. Silver Moon stretches farther than I can see. Warriors. Families. Elders. Pups. Thousands of wolves standing together in silence for their Beta Female.

My mate.

Damian stands on one side of me. Darlene stands on the other, holding my hand. Arian rests against my chest. Rylan stands beside us.

Not as my Alpha. As my brother.

Selena stays close to the pups, her newborn daughter resting in her arms. Paige stands nearby, her eyes swollen from crying.

Arlene's casket rests before us. My wolf presses against me. Mate. "I know."

People speak about her.

A warrior remembers the way Arlene treated rank like responsibility instead of privilege. A mother talks about seeing her stop in the middle of a crowded hallway because a pup wanted to show her a drawing.

Paige's voice breaks when she talks about her friend. About the woman who could walk into her home, open her refrigerator, and act like she lived there.

A few people laugh through their tears.

Good.

Arlene should have laughter at her funeral.

She was more than the way she died. She was Damian, Darlene, and Arian's mother. My mate. Selena's best friend and sister in every way that mattered. Paige's friend. Silver Moon's Beta Female.

She lived here. She loved here. She mattered before she ever became a hero.

Then the time comes.

My wolf recoils. No. The casket begins to lower. Mate.

Darlene squeezes my hand, and I tighten mine around hers.

Don't put mate in ground.