The Alpha Wolf's Sacrifice (Wolves of Anchorage 1)

Roman

Five years later…

Roman never would've imagined it, but five years after moving to Anchorage the pack was fully settled in. Even Roman considered it home. He never would've chosen it, but it had worked out well.

They still had the reunion every year and he still went to visit Sutton every year too.

In March, it was time to visit Sutton once again. When he got there, his old friend was oddly agitated.

"What in the hell is wrong with you?" Roman asked.

"I just got back from visiting my sister."

"Everleigh?" Roman asked. Was that who he was talking about? Not that she was his or anything, not after five years. Five years had gone by, and he still thought of her every single day. But Sutton didn’t need to know that. He was the one who’d lost it when he found out they were dating.

He didn’t answer. "Are you talking about Everleigh?" he asked again.

"Yes. She's my only sister, you know that."

"Just making sure, seeing as how you didn’t bother telling me that she was your sister the first time."

"Don’t bring that shit up," Sutton said, rubbing his forehead. "As I said, I just got back from visiting her.

"Man. She did not want me helping her out with her real estate business; she was an absolute bear about it." He chuckled at his own bad joke. "I don't understand why somebody wouldn't want help from their family."

Roman could imagine it quite well. But he wasn’t going to say that to Sutton. As one of his brothers, his job was to listen to him rant and support him, unless his ideas were off the rails.

"Right," Roman said. "Isn't that what the pack is for? To help? Or clan in your case? I'd be offended if somebody didn't want to help me." Roman did mean that part after all.

"Exactly. If I started a business, I would expect everybody to jump in and help. But she got all pissy and decided that my help was undermining her independence. She thought because she was a female that we were treating her differently in the clan."

"Were you?" Roman asked. It was a pertinent question and a fair one.

"I mean, a little bit, because she's my little sister. She's the baby of the family and the only girl. Plus, females are the ones that make the cubs. We have to protect them."

Roman agreed. Not because he didn't think females were capable, he knew that they were. But because he also had the impulse to protect Everleigh. It was the only thing he'd wanted to do until he had to break up with her.

But that was neither here nor there. He wanted to hear about her; he wanted as much information as he could get. His wolf still longed for her, even after five long years. That obviously meant something, whether he liked it or not.

"So tell me, what she's doing?" Roman asked. He was eager to hear about her life.

"Well, she left Anchorage," Sutton said.

Roman had known that. Just a few weeks after he’d broken up with her, he’d no longer been able to sense her presence. He’d gone to the real estate office, and they had told him that she'd moved locations.

"She started working in Juneau. You know how hard that city is to get to," Sutton said.

That was true. At least for humans, the easiest way to get there was to fly or by boat. Had she been making a statement when she moved there?

"Did you know? That's pretty far away."

"I know. That's what we said. We asked her not to go but she as usual did not take our opinions into consideration. She went over there, and she started a new life. We didn't see her. For a year."

"You didn't see your sister for a year?" That was a long time for shifters.

"After a year, she came home to visit. But she was different. A little more settled, a little more grounded."

"Was she happy?" Even after everything he wanted her to be happy. He wanted that more than anything.