Page 57 of Wolves’ Witch

No. Edmond was not having it. He wanted Isobella, heart, body and wolf, but not without his twin. Especially not now they knew there were Montagne twins who shared a mate.

That look in Aubert’s eyes the moment clarity had pushed through and Jacques and Lance had pulled him away. As Edmond had sucked in huge lungsful of much needed air, his face battered and bruised, the worst of it had been written all over his brother’s face. The guilt, the shame, the regret. His strong, silent brother, who had always had his back, broken by what he had almost done. That had hurt Edmond more than all the blows Aubert had landed. The devastation. He never wanted to see it again. Aubert had carried those feelings like a wound that would not heal ever since.

But Aubert was not solely to blame for what had happened. Edmond was equally responsible.

They had to tell her. Hiding the truth was no way to start a bond, but he could not let it come from Aubert. His brother would paint himself as the villain, when neither of them had behaved with honor. Then there had been Sabine, and the part she had played.

He took Isobella’s hand and sat her down on the cot beside him. With a glare and a jerk of his head, he encouraged Aubert to join them. One of them on either side of her. “When Aubert and I were younger, we…we thought we had found our mate.”

Isobella’s eyebrows rose. “You thought? Don’t you just…know?”

Gaharet was right. Isobella knew enough about the Langeais wolves to understand how the mating bond worked. “The pull was there, but Sabine…”

Aubert’s grunt voiced his own reservations about Sabine. If only they had talked about it back then, perhaps they would not be here now.

“Sabine is not someone I would have chosen for myself. Nor would I have thought her a match for Aubert. In truth, I did not hold Sabine in high esteem.”

“Nor I,” admitted Aubert.

His brother’s admission reinforced the suspicion that had been plaguing him. That something else had been at work. Something meant to sow discord amongst the Langeais wolves.

“She was…” He squeezed her hand. “Sabine was nothing like you. She was grasping and greedy. Loud and unkind. She delighted in seeing Aubert and me compete for her.” He sighed. “And compete for her we did. We are not proud of the things we did in the name of claiming a mate. You see, unlike you, we knew of no werewolves, twins or otherwise, who had shared a mate. It was not something that had ever happened in the Langeais wolves.”

“Maybe that is not entirely true,” said Aubert. “If you think about it.”

He frowned at Aubert over Isobella’s head. Then understanding dawned. “The twins who shared a keep. One mated, one not.” Could it be they had shared her? The rightness of it settled behind his breastbone. He could wish they had known that when they had met Sabine, but they had not. And perhaps it was for the best. For if they had, they might well be mated to her, and that thought chilled his heart and had his wolf slinking away into the depths of his mind. Why had he not paid attention to his instincts back then?

They had been young and excited to have found their mate. The attraction to Sabine had been almost painful in its ferocity. Still…

“What happened with Sabine?” Isobella’s head turned from him to Aubert and back to him. “Did one of you mate her?”

“Sabine is dead,” said Aubert.

Edmond wanted to choke the life out of his brother. Aubert’s penchant for abrupt words was not helping them right now. “Aubert and I came to an accord after more than a few…challenges. We made the decision not to fight over her anymore. To let her choose, as pack law demanded she had the right to. The following morn, we found her body.”

Isobella squeezed his hand. “I’m so sorry.” She grabbed Aubert’s hand and squeezed it, too. “And for you too, Aubert.”

“It was…” He searched for the right words. “Not pleasant finding her dead, but…” He did not wish to sound uncaring, but the truth hovering on the tip of his tongue needed to be said. “I mourned the loss of having a mate. Of never knowing the joy of a bond. But I did not mourn Sabine. Not like I should have a true mate.”

Aubert’s surprised gaze met his. “Agreed.”

“It was as though, with her death, any hold over us she had was gone.” He was talking to Aubert now, though he still held Isobella’s hand. “As though…”

As though Sabine had never been their true mate at all.