I force myself not to run through the den. When Derwyn found me to tell me that Nevaeh’s in labor, I raced all the way here from patrol as my wolf, and I waited for an agonizing minute while Kyle got my clothes.

I can’t run buck-ass naked through my pack.

My pack.

My stomach roils. Every moment since I was born, I’ve been training to be alpha, and I was utterly unprepared. I can beat any contender in an alpha challenge, I can make any hard decision in cold blood, but in the past months, I’ve been called upon to do that exactly zero times.

I have had to...