As if thinking of her had conjured her, Aisha appeared at her mate’s side. She peeled her lips over her teeth in a wolfy grin for me that Bessemer mirrored. Instinct guided me to ease outside and join Dell, presenting a united front.

Quick to notice the drift in their attention, the silvery wolf that was Graeson shifted to the left and put himself between Dell, my first line of defense, and the alpha mates.

My fingers curled into fists at my sides, my thumb smoothing over my concealed spur. “Are they going to fight?”

She considered their postures. “Not today.”

Not today implied maybe tomorrow was a distinct possibility. “Graeson would fight his alpha?”

“Over you?” A wild smattering of laughter erupted beside me. “Yes.”

“I came here for help, not to stir up trouble.”

“Where teeth and hearts are involved, men are not rational.” She gave my thigh a sympathetic pat. “It’s a dominance thing. It’s not your fault. Any mate Graeson brought home would face the same firing squad.”

“Oh fudge.” The implications hit me with the force of a Mack truck, and I dropped my head into my hands. “After Aisha attacked, she called me the beta. I thought it was—I don’t know—a taunt, but it wasn’t, was it?”

The way Dell shrank in on herself told me my hunch was right.

“Aisha is alpha, because she’s the female half of the alpha pair.” My brain sorted all I knew about wargs and about Graeson’s situation into neat little stacks that wouldn’t stand taller than a coffee mug if I placed them on my desk. “Graeson is the beta.” The wheels kept spinning. “Initiating the pack bond is an intimate act. Inclusion of a new member, I would imagine, must be sanctioned by the alpha.”

I read the blossoming dread on Dell’s face and knew I was headed in the right direction. “Unless another type of intimate bond was formed that might supersede that of a wolf to his alpha like a—”

“—mate,” she finished for me when my mouth and brain got disconnected.

“Bessemer thinks I connected with the pack bond because I’m Graeson’s mate.” The idea sent shivers cascading down my arms. “Graeson is beta… That makes me beta too?”

No wonder Bessemer had his fur britches in a wad. Betas answered only to their alphas, and his beta had brought home a fae of undetermined strength and origin, one who might jeopardize the running of his pack by weakening his second or sowing discord in the ranks.

Dell twisted hair around her finger and tugged until I was amazed it remained attached. “Yes?”