“I am in bed. It’s just as easy to needle you from here. Cade, it’s so dangerous right now. Just do a conference call.” He heard the anxiety in her voice.

“Are you saying my sister isn’t worth a hug and some reassurance after she’s given her entire life to this Pack?”

She winced and Cade felt bad for a moment but it needed to be said.

“You know I don’t think that.”

“Then let me go and stop making me feel guilty about it. Tegan needs me. She’s my sister and one of my wolves. And my people need me to be active right now. The humans are pissed off and Ben can’t handle it all. He’s only been a wolf for less than a month.”

“Cade.” Lex paused and heaved a sigh. “Don’t do this. I don’t want to leave Nina right now.”

Cade relaxed and squeezed his brother’s shoulder. “Don’t leave her. That’s an order. I’m Alpha, Lex. I may not have been an Army Ranger or be used as a cautionary tale to scare young wolves into staying out of trouble, but I am perfectly capable of protecting myself. Assign me a detail, include Dave or Megan but keep the others here with you. I’m leaving in three hours.” He turned to Nina. “And you. You stay your ass in bed. Your doctor says you’ll be okay in a week or so if you’re as still as possible so shut up and be still.”

Without another word, he left the room.

He phoned his parents, who supported his travel to Chicago, both as their son and as their Alpha. Megan had packed him a bag while he’d been in the shower and he made his goodbyes quick. Lex still glowered but his place was with Nina. The first week of pregnancy for a human transformed into a wolf was a dangerous time and it was necessary she be on bed rest. So it was necessary for Lex to be there to keep her in line. No one else could.

Cade was f**king sick of safety. He was a f**king Alpha. He’d been stuck there while Tegan had been kidnapped and tortured. It was Lex who went. Damn it, his family needed him. His freaking people needed him and he was going.

Megan brought two other wolves from the Enforcer corps, including Dave upon Lex’s insistence. Cade trusted her, and them with his life. They drove to the airport in silence and loaded onto their private jet. It was quiet, near midnight and most everyone settled in to sleep for the flight.

Cade stretched out in the seat and looked out the window.

Megan came and snuggled into his side. “Hi,” she whispered. “You okay?”

He smiled. It was just the two of them now. Alone and unmated. He knew she’d started to get a bit restless but he’d been waiting the longest. At forty-two, he was more than ready to find his woman and start a family. He wanted what Lex and Nina had. Wanted what Tracy had with her mates. He wanted a woman to look at him the way Tegan looked at Ben. For two years he’d been anchored to Nina and felt deeply for her. She was like his mate, except they didn’t share the most important thing, the utter intimacy she shared with Lex. She wasn’t his. He wanted someone who was. Wanted to stop living off the echoes of someone else’s relationship and have one of his own.

“I’m good. Tired. Worried about Tee. Are you okay with her moving?” Tegan was Megan’s twin. The two were both on his guard detail. For many years after Tegan lost her first mate, she’d been a shadow and they’d just gotten her back only to lose her again to the distance between Seattle and Chicago.

“What else does she have? What other options does Ben have? He was put on leave after he was changed. He can’t be a cop here anymore. His mother has disowned him. He’s such a powerful wolf now, where would he fit in Cascadia?”

Ben Stoner, a cop and former human, had been transformed into a werewolf by a bite from the Alpha of the National Pack. The strongest wolf in the country. As wolves carried the traits of their sire if they were made, he was formidable. And there wasn’t a place for him in Cascadia unless he challenged Lex, or Cade himself. And Ben wouldn’t do that because he loved Tegan and he respected his brothers-in-law and the Cascadia wolves too much.

But it left Ben without a Pack, without a place and as war had been declared against the Pellini Group and all their affiliated Packs, all strong wolves needed to be in play. Ben needed to take on the Second position in Great Lakes, the largest and most powerful Pack in the United States. He belonged there and Tegan belonged there too.

It tore Cade apart. He loved his sisters and he’d lost two of them to other Packs in recent years. Tracy to Pacific but that was just in Portland and now Tegan to Chicago. He wanted to make things all right for the people he loved and so he’d go to Chicago and make sure Tegan understood he supported her in this move.

He nodded and put his arm around Megan’s shoulders. “I’m going to miss her.”

“Chicago isn’t so very far away when you own a jet. Good thing you have that fancy business degree and have made Cascadia so rich. I can fly out and see her and we can go shopping. After the war is over. I don’t imagine Ben is going to be up for her flitting around to shoe shop just now.”

Cade laughed. “Poor Ben. Tee seems so mellow on the outside. She’s not all hard-edged like Nina or even Tracy. But her will is ten thousand times more stubborn. I don’t imagine Ben can stop her from doing whatever she wanted.”

“Do you want to…” she paused, “…find someone? Have that? What they all have?”

“I do. So much I can’t see straight. The older I get the worse it is. The lonelier it is.”