Heat burns under my skin, fire constantly lurking in my blood, waiting to rise to the surface.

"Focus," my dad instructs calmly.

Focus.

It's impossible, not when I can practically already feel the familiar flames lick my skin, no longer repressed under my skin. It would be so easy to-

I burst into blue flame.

After a moment, I extinguish it. Getting rid of the flames is easy.

That hard part is stopping them from coming out in the first place.

No, not hard.

Impossible.

My dad sighs, no doubt disappointed. Years of him trying to train me to control my combustion, to no avail. He and North are the only ones immune to my fire, which means I'm only every allowed to train with them.

Jett is proof of why that rule needs to be in place.

"Better," he says slowly from a few feet away. "The flames barely touched me this time. You're keeping it slightly more contained. We still have a lot of work to do."

No shit.

I keep that remark to myself, nodding once as I take a drink of water, trying to lower my temperature, something North does when he's around.

I hate when he does that.

Luckily, Blood Lake is always cold, and my skin cools quickly, though I see smoke rise from myself as the frigid air hits my burning skin.

Even more luckily, whatever magic that lurks in my Gift also stops anything attached to me from burning, including my clothing.

"North told me about what happened during war," my dad says, an edge in his voice I recognize all too well: disappointment.

"I didn't hesitate," I lie. Hesitation is a weakness, Blood Lake does not allow those.

He frowns. "He showed me what happened through our mindlink. You hesitated."

My blood boils. That fucking snitch.

"Calm down," my dad orders, no doubt literally seeing steam rolling off me. "He just told me because he's worried about you."

I snort. "I can take care of myself. I don't need my brother babysitting me."

"He's your Alpha too, Drake," he says, his voice calm, though I know he's just as mad at me for hesitating. My parents have taught me better than that.

"How could I forget?" I mutter, turning away, trying to suppress the flames, but I can't.

I never can.

****

"How did training go?" Jett asks, sliding into the chair next to me.

"Same as always," I respond shortly.

"Dad is in a bad mood."

"So?"

"You hesitated. You know how that looks."

Weak.

I don't reply.

"The triplets are moving tomorrow," he says, wisely letting the subject go, though I'm sure he was not the last person who would lecture me on what happened during the war.

"I'm surprised they're waiting," I say disinterestedly, pushing the food on my plate around. "They've been dying to get out of here."

"Can you blame them?" Jett snorts. "Things are getting cramped around here."

No, I don't blame them at all. With the newly conquered territory we took from Red Crescent, the triplets are moving there to help assimilate the newest pack members to Blood Lake.

"They just want to do what they want without Mom and Dad looking over their shoulders," Malin says, sitting across from Jett.

"Not like Mom and Dad don't let them do anything they want anyways," I say, low and bitter.

My sister shrugs. "It's not like they do anything Mom and Dad don't approve of."

Not like you, she leaves out.

"Will you be moving with them?" Jett asks curiously. "You're 22, I'm sure you're sick of staying at the Pack House."

Of course I'm sick of it. And I already tried convincing my parents to give me control over the new Eastern territory, but unsurprisingly, they didn't go for it, because North is staying here, and they don't trust me to be without him, knowing that one thing slightly angering me could burn down an entire territory.

"No," I say shortly, unwilling to elaborate.

"Maybe you'll find your mate," Jett says hopefully. "The Mating Gathering is tomorrow."

Ew.

"Not like that will get her out of here," Malin unhelpfully adds. "She'll outrank anyone else and have to bring them here. Unless he's an Alpha."

It's a likely scenario, me being mated to an Alpha. With as much power as I have, it would be unlikely I'm mated to someone weak.

Or, I may not be mated to anyone at all. I'm already 22 years old, and many wolves already find their mates by this age.

Maybe he's already dead.

I smile at that.

"Not true," Jett disagrees. "The Lycans are coming this year. Maybe she'll be mated to one of them."

I punch his shoulder. "Gross. Not happening."

"Lycans," Malin shakes her head in disgust. "I can't believe they're allowed to come to a werewolf Mating Gathering."

"I heard," Jett says, his voice lowering. "The Lycan King heard from a Seer that his mate would be attending. It's why they're coming."

"The King," I sneer. "What a pompous title. Pure arrogance to not just call himself the Alpha."

"He's not just the Alpha," my twin's voice suddenly says. He doesn't sit down. "The Lycans aren't just a pack. They're a kingdom. And he's not just an Alpha- he's royalty. Weren't you listening during the meeting about this, Drakon?"

No. "Yes."

"You'll have to watch your temper," North warns. "Lycans are much more aggressive than we are. Stronger, too. Burn one of them and the King will take your head as consolation."

"Lovely image, thank you, Alpha," I say stoically.

Like my parents haven't already had this talk with me a million times since learning that the Lycans would be attending, since they generously sent a letter warning all of the packs of their attendance.

Drake, bow your head if one of them speaks to you.

Drake, don't rile them up, they're dangerous.

Drake, don't burst into flames.

My skin heats, thinking about submitting to one of those beasts.

It cools instantly.

"Stop," I snarl at my brother, who looks at me with cold indifference.

"This house is almost completely made of wood," North says calmly. "I can't let you burn it down again."

Again.

It's happened before.

Three times.

Jett shifts in his seat uncomfortably. "I'm sure it'll be fine," he says cheerfully, the only one of my siblings capable of any emotion resembling joy.

"One of us will have to stay with her at all times," North reminds Jett, the only two people who can cool me down.

Literally.

North can regulate my temperature, cooling the water in my blood down so I don't erupt, whereas Jett turns my blood icy. Unpleasant, but better than dealing with my twin.

"Yeah, yeah," Jett says. "I know the system."

The system, one of them constantly watching over me to make sure I don't burn the world down.

"Let's go, Malin," North nods to her, and she instantly stands up.

"Where are you going?" Jett asks curiously.

"Training," Malin answers. "He wants to watch the session, make sure the juniors are progressing with their weapons training well."

"Of course they are," Jett says, waving his hand dismissively. "They're being trained by you."

Malin uncomfortably shrugs, not being used to praise. None of us are.

It's true, they're in good hands with Malin training them. She has the Gift of summoning knives, and our mother has spent a great deal of time training her how to wield them.

It's why she's our Weapons Master.

Not that our mom didn't train all of us. We've all spent countless hours in the training center with her, learning how to wield all kinds of weapons. But since Malin and the triplets all have a weapon-summoning related Gift, they were much better with weapons than North, Jett, and I.

So, once we reached age thirteen, Mom focused on the youngest four of our siblings, turning them into perfect soldiers, living weapons with skill beyond reason.

Dad took over North, Jett, and my training, working with us because we're Elementals, like him, and our wolves are stronger than our skin-sides anyways.

Malin and North leave for the training center, leaving Jett and I alone.

"Mom and Dad are coming over later tonight for dinner," Jett informs me.

Once North became the Alpha four years ago, they moved out, settling into a cabin of their own nearby.

"Great," I mutter.

"You know that Mom is totally going to chew you out for hesitating," Jett says quietly.

I sigh, knowing that my mother will be far more harsh with me than my father was today. He's always been the pushover, but my mom would not tolerate that kind of weakness.

"I know."