Chapter Twenty-Seven
Isobella sat staring into the coals in the brazier, her back to the room.
The broken straps on the cot and the single coarse blanket gave her the chills.
They gave off abandoned-mental-institution-type vibes.
The whole room did—the door with its peephole, the lack of windows and the sparse, simple furniture.
She shivered, and yet her body burned. The thought of being strapped in here alone gave her the creeps. The thought of spending another moment in here with either twin—naked—did things to her insides. Delicious things that were out of place in a room like this. At a time like this.
Yet her wolf paced in her mind, thrilled at the prospect of being in their arms, at the possibility they might kiss her again.
Edmond coaxing and teasing. Aubert demanding.
She gritted her teeth against the swirl of desire low in her belly, the chair creaking as she clenched her thighs against it.
There was no guarantee that was the way things would end.
Unlike Gabriel, who’d made it clear from the moment he’d arrived in San Francisco that Annabelle was his, Edmond’s and Aubert’s behavior had been less than straightforward. Did they want her as their mate? Both of them? Or did Edmond and not Aubert? Or neither of them?
The Langeais wolves had sent her. Not Annabelle, not Stef. Isobella. With her Latino heritage.
What if she were wrong? A hot coal shifted in the grate, sending sparks into the air. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d read into things that weren’t there, ignored the signals. Not this time. Nobody was going to accuse Isobella of not learning from her mistakes.
She would ask them. Today. Stand before them and put her questions to them—am I your mate? Do you want me as your mate? Both of you? And who the hell is Sabine? What happened with her, and where is she now? It could hurt. Their answers. Either way, she’d know the truth.
It was better to know for sure. All she could do was hope she wasn’t being foolish in imagining that two strong, magnificent warriors, two Langeais wolves, would ever want her as their mate.
The door clanged shut, and Isobella jumped out of the chair, spinning around.
Her heart pounded in her chest. Edmond and Aubert.
Together. Like two mountains, silent sentinels guarding the door.
Would she emerge triumphant on the other side, or would her heart sustain another blow?
From the stubborn set of their jaws, it would be the latter.
Isobella stiffened her spine and raised her chin. Disappointment burned a path down her throat, but she was doing this. Now. She’d waited too long in the past. Best to get it all over and done with, then she could put it behind her, and they could get on with her training.
She’d never been meant to do anything heroic.
The fate of witchcraft had never rested on her shoulders, but she could still be of use to the Langeais wolves in their fight against Faucher and Cordelia.
With the knowledge she had of the future, of their enemies, she would do her best to aid them. Isobella would do her coven proud.
And what if they didn’t want her? What would that mean for Gabriel? For Pierre and Louis?
“Before we start, I want to ask—”
“I was hard on you yesterday,” said Aubert, cutting her off.
His eyebrows gathered in, and his mouth tilted down at the corners as he struggled to meet her eyes.
“I am sorry. It was not my intention to… I truly regret…” He sighed and raked a hand through his long hair, looking anywhere in the room but at her.
“I wanted to…” His voice cracked a little. “You never faltered. You were…”
His voice trailed off, and he stood there silent, clenching his fists at his sides. He found her gaze and held it, and it was impossible to doubt the regret in his eyes.
“What my brother is so ineloquently trying to say,” said Edmond, “is he struggles to show his softer side. It is in there, I assure you, but discipline is more comfortable for him than charm.” He nudged his brother.
“I keep telling you, you need to smile more often. The ladies like it.” Edmond’s expression turned serious.
“You are important to him, and if he was hard on you, it was because he wanted to ensure you had the tools to survive in our world. As do I. You are important to both of us.”
She pulled her gaze away from Aubert, taking in his twin. Important? To both of them?
“He did not mean to upset you, or to work you so hard,” said Edmond. “He only wanted you to be the best wolf you could be.”
Aubert nodded. Isobella’s breath caught in her throat at the earnestness of Aubert’s expression. Of both their expressions. Aubert with his ever-present frown. Edmond with a half-smile curling at one side of his mouth.
“He thinks you are remarkably strong and resilient,” continued Edmond. “You have progressed far beyond what you should be capable of at this point in your training. It hurts him that he hurt you. That he made you cry.” His attention shifted to his brother. “Am I right, Aubert?”
Aubert’s shoulders slumped, and he nodded. He looked so forlorn. Like one of those abandoned puppies at an animal shelter. She wanted to wrap her arms around him and tell him all was forgiven, but first…she had to know. She took a shaky breath. “I—”
“You are so beautiful.” Aubert thumped his chest. “In here, too. And your wolf.”
He thought her beautiful? For someone who used words sparingly, he sure knew which ones to use for maximum impact. “Thank you, and I accept your apology.” She hadn’t needed Edmond’s clarification to know Aubert was sorry. It burned in his eyes.
“Good.” Edmond rubbed his hands together. “Now that is settled and we are all friends again, let us continue with your training.”
Isobella’s heart dropped like a stone. Friends?
She held up her hands. “Before we start, I have a few things I need to ask you.” She gathered her courage.
“Am I…” This was harder than she’d thought it would be.
“Is it possible I am your mate?” She looked from one to the other. She had come this far. “Both of you?”
Aubert’s nostrils flared. Edmond’s half-smile broadened.
Her heart in her throat, she asked, “And who is Sabine?”
Edmond’s face fell, and Aubert’s stoic facade cracked.
Sabine. It always came back to her. Who had told Isobella? Remi? Edmond would do more than box that boy’s ears if he had. Or was it Gaharet, thinking to make Isobella’s choice easier? What had happened with Sabine reflected poorly on both of them, but especially Aubert.
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.