My Alpha Marked His Adopted Sister

The mate bond dragged me to our bedroom door. When I pushed it open a crack, my Alpha husband's sister was lying on our marital bed in black lingerie. The lace was so sheer it hid nothing.

She had her arms wrapped around Caelan's neck, crying, begging him to mark her.

---

Twenty minutes earlier, I'd been so happy.

I had cut my border rescue assignment short by three days. I'd left the injured rogues in the other healers' care and run the whole way back to Blackridge Pack, mud still caked on my boots. Caelan had sounded tired on our last call. I wanted to surprise him.

Then, halfway up the stairs of the packhouse, the bond went hot.

The usual warm hum had become a burning wire under my ribs, pulling hard.

*He's hurt,* I thought. *Something happened to him.*

I took the stairs two at a time. The bedroom door stood open an inch. A voice slipped through the gap.

"Caelan, touch me. Please."

I froze with my hand on the frame.

Through that inch, I saw her. Sabine Ashford, Caelan's little sister, was stretched across the gray sheets I had picked out for our mating night. Her hair spilled over my pillow. The black lace on her body was see-through. Her nipples pushed against it, dark and hard, and the scrap between her thighs showed everything.

She caught Caelan's wrist and pulled his hand onto her breast. She pressed his palm down and rolled it in slow circles.

"Like this," she whispered. "Just like this."

*Pull away,* I begged him silently. *She's your sister.*

Caelan's jaw flexed. His hand stayed where she'd put it.

Then he moved it.

He slid it down her stomach, hooked the lace aside, and pushed two fingers straight into her pussy.

Sabine cried out and arched off the bed. He worked his fingers in and out of her, fast and rough, his thumb grinding against her clit. The wet sounds filled the room. Her thighs started shaking.

"Caelan, I'm going to... oh God, Caelan..."

She came hard. She squirted all over his hand and soaked the sheets beneath her.

Caelan pulled his fingers out and frowned down at the dark stain spreading across the bed.

"Look at this mess," he muttered. "You got the sheets wet, Sabine."

Sabine laughed, breathless, and looped her arms around his neck. "So? Let her wash them. She does everything else around here."

"Don't."

"Why not?" She rubbed her nose along his jaw. "We grew up together, Caelan. I know you better than anyone. We're the closest people in the world. Not her."

"You know what this looks like." His voice went low. "People think you're my sister."

"I'm not, though." She pouted.

He was quiet for a second.

"You're not my blood," he said. "You never were."

The floor tilted under me.

I had known Sabine was adopted. Everyone in Blackridge knew the Ashfords' real daughter had died of fever as a child, and that Sabine had come to them a year later, a stray pup off the road. But I had always believed Caelan saw her as family.

Not like this.

Sabine's eyes went wet. Her fingers curled into his shirt.

"Then mark me," she begged. "Please, Caelan. Mark me. I don't need a title. I don't need anything. I'll stay by your side my whole life. I just want your teeth on my neck."

"Sabine."

"Please." Tears ran down her cheeks. "You love me. I know you do."

He didn't say yes.

But he didn't stop, either. His hand found her thigh again and slid upward, slow, like he couldn't help himself.

And then the bond turned on me.

His desire poured straight into my body. I felt his heartbeat racing, felt the heat curling low in his belly, felt how badly he *wanted* her. It hit me in waves, his hunger tangled with my own skin, and I couldn't tell where his feelings stopped and mine began.

Under it all, my wolf was howling. Not in rage. In pain. Like something with its leg in a trap.

I pressed my fist against my mouth.

Three years. Three years of cooking his meals, healing his warriors, smiling at his pack dinners. And this was what I came home to.

I shoved the door. It slammed against the wall.

Caelan jerked upright. Sabine went rigid beneath him.

For one long second, nobody moved.

Then Sabine snatched the sheet and yanked it up to her chin. Her eyes darted to me, wide and wet. And then, slowly, she leaned back into Caelan's chest, like she belonged there.

"Talia." Caelan's voice was hoarse. "You're supposed to be at the border."

"Clearly."

"This isn't what it..."

"Don't you dare." My voice cracked, and I hated it. "Don't you dare tell me what I just watched. I *felt* it, Caelan. Through the bond. I felt every second of you wanting her."

His face went pale.

I turned to Sabine. "Get out of my bed."

She didn't move. She only pressed closer to him.

"Fine." I straightened. My hands were shaking, so I curled them into fists. "Stay. Enjoy it. Because tomorrow morning, I'm standing in front of the whole pack council, and I'm telling them exactly what the Alpha does with his *sister*."

Sabine's chin trembled. Her lashes fluttered. Big tears spilled over.

"Caelan," she sobbed, clutching his arm. "Caelan, she's scaring me. She's going to ruin everything. They'll throw me out. Caelan, please..."

Caelan stood. He stepped off the bed and planted himself between us, his body a wall, his shoulders squared toward me.

"Talia." His Alpha voice rolled through the room, heavy and cold. "Calm down."

"Calm down?"

"You're upsetting her. Lower your voice. Now."

I stared at him. At his hand, still damp, held out behind him to keep Sabine safe. At the way he watched me, like I was the threat. Like I was the wild animal who had wandered into his den.

And something inside me went very, very quiet.

He was shielding her. The way he always had. Every time she'd "accidentally" spilled wine on my dress. Every time she'd cried until he cancelled our plans. Every time I'd swallowed it and told myself she was only his little sister.

He had chosen her. Over and over, for three years.

I just hadn't been looking.

Behind his back, where he couldn't see, Sabine lifted her wet face from his shoulder.

And she smiled at me.