Tipping my head back, I inhaled deeply, appreciating the heady aroma of magic in the air. Some said blue moons thinned the veil, creating a gateway between this realm and the next. I’d never believed that, though I, more than many, was aware of exactly what they enabled to manifest.

“Eli? It’s time.”

The omega’s voice was soft, polite. She was always that way. Her duty was to the pack, not to me. Politeness was all I merited from her for that reason. She tended to the emotional wellbeing of our community, and it was going to be difficult over the next few days without her.

My mouth tightened as I turned around to face her. As expected, she was the only one of the council who was on her feet, the rest were on their knees as my position demanded.

Casting a glance over Merinda’s face, I saw no expression, no concern or even fear, but I felt it for her.

“You should wait,” I rasped. “You shouldn’t push this.”

“The blue moon is a portent. It would be churlish to ignore it.” Merinda’s crinkled face was filled with a peace I didn’t share. Her eyes were tired, not from lack of sleep, but from age, and her wrinkles were layered on top of more wrinkles…so there was no denying her age. No denying that she’d lived a long life and deserved to rest.

But…

“The pack needs you.”

She smiled at that. “The pack always needs us. However, you will find your omega in the upcoming days. You know that’s how it works.”

There was no one else whom I could imagine becoming the omega. Our pack was strong, healthy, but there was no omega within the ranks, other than the one I was looking at now.

We had four hundred members, and over a hundred and eighty of them were female. Half of that number were of childbearing age. A pack’s strength was founded on its female population, because for every ten boys that were born to a shifter couple, only three girl children ever saw the light of day. We had to even up our numbers by transforming humans, but we’d been blessed with a large quantity of naturally born female wolves.

Some might say we were lucky, gifted even, but I saw no reason or rhyme as to why we were so fortunate.

Omegas were always female and were usually mated to the alpha of the pack. Of all the females among my people, I knew of none who could slip into Merinda’s role. None who had the patience or the temerity to take her place.

She reached up to cup my chin. “Fret not, child. All will be well.”

Clamping down on the words I wished to speak, I shook my head instead.

How could it be well?

How could anything be well?

“I need to be with your father,” she whispered. “It’s my time.”

“Mother,” I rasped. “You’re still needed here.”

“No. You shall see. My sacrifice will not be in vain.”

Losing father two years ago had been hard enough, but to lose my mother too? I understood her suffering and her choice as a leader. But as a son?

I’d never understand.

Because she was, in her own way, as stubborn as me, I didn’t argue. I just grabbed her hand and squeezed. I had been a late child for my parents, and I mourned that lost time, even as I helped guide her up to the totem.

We were in the Highbanks’ forest, right in the center where the council always gathered. Hundreds, maybe thousands of years earlier, one of my ancestors had carved a totem pole and placed it here. We still worshipped the same Mother, still believed in the same deity and the same practices, but we were different. This was the new millennium, after all, not the past one.

In a concentric circle, the highest ranks within the council supplicated themselves before me and the totem. Only I had the right to stand. Not even the omega could, unless…

The new and old millennium were about to coalesce in a way I’d never envisaged.

Two weeks ago, when she’d spoken to me of the rite she wanted to fulfill this evening, I’d thought she was joking, but she’d swiftly shown me otherwise.

Her blood would spill tonight, and all for a ceremony that might not even work.

As we approached the altar, I rasped, “This isn’t necessary. I’ll find another mate.”

She sighed. “Your mate is the pack’s omega. This is vital, my son. Without a mate, you aren’t whole. Without an omega, the pack is lost. You know this as well as I do.”

We weren’t born knowing who our mates were, but at thirteen, or whenever we had our first shift if, like me, it was before thirteen, each of us had a ceremony at this very totem and learned if our mate was out there.

As the next alpha, my mate was important to the pack, not just for myself. When I’d learned I didn’t have one, we’d been reeling ever since.

Thirty-plus years of reeling was wearisome, but it hadn’t been a problem, not with my mother still living.

“It might not work,” I whispered, even as I helped her stand in the totem’s shadow.

Four wolves were carved into the totem that soared dozens of feet into the sky. With the trunk as large as three men, it was an impressive sight, but at its base, there was a kind of pedestal where a single person could stand.

It was stained red with blood, for any ceremony that took place here required a sacrifice.

My mother’s sacrifice would be her life.

Her life so I could find my mate.

“The totem never fails us, my son,” she said huskily, and it hurt me to hear the delight in her voice.

She wanted to die.

No mate outlived the other for long. I’d known each day I had with her was a blessing, but I’d never thought she’d seek this route. Had never imagined—

Her soft, wrinkled hand reached up to rub over my scowl. “All will be well, child. It’s my time. Your father needs me.”

The words had me almost choking on my misery, but I stepped back when she pushed at my shoulder.

The totem stood in a clearing with a twenty-foot wide perimeter. It was clear of the leaves and debris that were prevalent in the rest of the forest. It had always amazed me as a child to notice how not even a single leaf or ant could cross the circular barrier.

As far as we knew, there was no magic that could craft such a force field, and it had always been considered the Mother’s blessing on this holiest of places.

All around me, I felt the council’s expectations, their grief, their excitement, their fear. Only in the circle could I sense this. Normally, it was cut off from me and the omega handled it. For that reason, I spent as little time here as I physically could. Ceremonies and rites were one thing I couldn’t avoid, however. Without me to complete the circle, the ritual wouldn’t work.

Gnawing on the inside of my cheek, I stared at my mother as she reached within the folds of her coat and retrieved a knife.

The sight of it glinting in the moonlight made me close my eyes, but I did as she’d asked, did as she’d begged—I made no move to stop her.

“Mother, in the light of the moon, I gift you my blood. I return my powers to you, and I present my son. He seeks a mate, an omega, one who will help the children of the Highbanks pack flourish for another five centuries. I gift you all that I am, all that I have been and could ever be, and hope you honor my sacrifice and gift my child the mate he needs to reign over his people.”

Raising a hand to cover my eyes, I heard her gasp and knew she’d sliced into her flesh. I could scent the blood spilling from her, hear the horrendous gurgles as she made the sacrifice on my behalf.