conviction that he and his wolf had could not be translated so easily into a concept a human would understand. Claire didn’t have a primal being within her, telling her with the utmost certainty that the two men whose ad she had answered were her mates for life. He needed to give her time. He and Argo both. But it was so damnably difficult to keep his paws off of her!
“Not yet. I thought we could talk before she wakes,” Argo said, the soft smile he had been wearing being brushed away.
Shit, Cooper thought to himself, leaning against the porch railing.
He was dressed in only a pair of sweatpants, and the cool morning air licked at his skin. His eyes rolled over Argo, who was wearing comfortable-looking pants and a T-shirt that hugged his form so tightly that Cooper could see the outlines of his chiseled abs. As he had done on the first day they met, Cooper admired the body of the man he felt so connected to. It was difficult not to and he knew the feeling was mutual.
“Okay. What about?” he asked.
He tried to distract himself from the glumness in Argo’s tone by having another sip of coffee. It did nothing to relieve the sudden bout of desire to drag both Argo and Claire into a room and have his way with them.
“I came back here for a reason,” Argo began, his blue eyes set on Cooper.
“I figured as much,” Cooper admitted with a chuckle. “You told me as much.”
“I didn’t tell you everything. I want the pack back.”
That quieted him fast. Cooper frowned, looking at his partner. The passion he held in his blue eyes left little room for questioning. Cooper knew exactly which pack he meant, but he couldn’t resist asking. Couldn’t resist hoping.
“You mean the Longbrooks? Achilles’ pack?”
“Yes. My pack.”
“I thought you decided not to pursue that anymore,” Cooper said.
He knew it had been a tiny bit naïve to hope that the only reason they had returned so close to the Longbrook lands was because of Argo feeling homesick. But, ever the optimist, he had clung to the possibility like a life raft and refused to let go until he was told otherwise. Before it was pried from between his fingers.
“I couldn’t. Not after Adam died. I had no claim on them anymore. You can’t have an Alpha triad without a second and I had lost mine. Though, as I’ve told you before, I don’t think we were ever meant to lead together. I don’t think fate would have allowed us to become a triad,” Argo said, pain tinting his words.
On instinct, Cooper set down the mug on the railing and plucked Argo’s out of his hands as well. He drew the man against him, slipping his arms around him gently. They had talked about the way they had found each other, marveling at it many times. The combination of bad luck and horrific tragedies that led up to their chance meeting left both of them uneasy. Yet, at the same time, it made it all the more special that they did find one another.
Argo lost Adam when he was a teenager, so the cut was so much fresher than it was for Cooper. Cooper’s twin had died when they were both just babies, Collin having been snatched from his crib by a rival pack and killed mercilessly. For Cooper, it was a fact of life, something he had grown up with and acknowledged. The pain had never consumed him like it had Argo. Argo had watched his brother die, and even worse, he had helped orchestrate the sequence of events that culminated in the tragedy. The guilt chipped away at him every day and Cooper could see it tightening around his partner the closer they got to the Longbrook lands.
It was rare that two Alphas found each other like Cooper and Argo had. Usually, almost always, a wolf pack was led by a pair of Alpha twins and their third, their fated mate. But, sometimes, one of the twins would pass, leaving the other as just one half of what had once been whole. Most of these wolves succumbed to their pain, being left without their other side. In rare cases, they could find a similar