Evergreen

four.

The small luncheon that followed the mate meetings began as a potluck, then it became a catered thing, and then it became boxes of pizza in the common room of the community center.

Once Sage was done with her day, she made sure to leave just as quietly as she came. The Council did not meet eyes with her for the rest of the time she was there either. She could only imagine the horrors they'd dreamt up for her.

"Sage, we've decided we need you to start closing the center again. Keeper's sick."

"Sage, maybe your brother's health insurance shouldn't be included in the pack health plan since he's no longer serving."

"Sage, you and Akari need to move into the basement of the center. Safehouse needs fumigating."

Random and infuriating occurrences were sure to follow whenever she told them how far up her ass they'd have to reach to find a fuck to give.

She could not help herself. It was not in her to bend. She was an Alpha's daughter.

It was not in her blood to submit.

It was dusk when she pulled into the gravel driveway of the safehouse. The driveway really was tire marks on the lawn that were worn into the ground over the ten years they'd inhabited the house.

When she came in the house, Sage noticed that everything was still exactly how she and Akari had left it that morning. Usually, when Akari comes home he comes in like a storm.

"'Kari! I'm home! Are you here?" Sage calls out one good time.

The house echoes her own voice back to her.

Sage takes a moment and sighs. Looking out the small window in their kitchenette again, the orange of the dusk was now turning quickly to the blue hue of night. She knew this would happen. She knew he wouldn't be home before it got dark.

She didn't even bother taking her coat off when she first got in the door, so she headed right out, grabbing one of the drawstring backpacks by the door when she passed them. Sage was on autopilot and she had to admit she was pretty pissed.

At Akari and at herself.

"You all have to take care of each other no matter what."

Her father's voice was fresh in her mind as she pulled away from her house.

"The pack and our family, it's all we have. We all we got."

Sage could hear the laugh in his voice as he said it. The sureness in his tone.

She knew her father never would've said such things if he knew what she knew now.

Unlike her mother, Sage's father was a good father and a good Alpha. He was an awesome Alpha. The Moses lineage spanned back at least five hundred years and Black Maw in particular was formed from her great grandfather and grandmother's mate bond. This pack belonged to her family truly.

And her parent's mate bond was cursed from the very beginning. She was doomed from the start.

Now, all the mantra did was make her stomach turn.

Being in her early twenties was something lost on Sage constantly. Since the war that changed them all was a decade ago and Akari's regression started half that time. Everything seemed to be a blur for her. The only thing she had left of her family was what they'd taught her before it all went to shit.

Oh, she could've let Akari be carted off to a memory care facility, but she knew he'd never be able to safely shift again. She owed her life to her brother and if no one else showed him that respect, she would til the end.