Chapter 0023

Julian shook his head, his dark eyes wide with disbelief. “I’ll go.” He muttered the words, voice barely audible. “Just… I need a few hours to pack my things.” He sounded dazed, almost disoriented.

“Supervise him.” I instructed Sebastian.

“No problem.”

Sebastian followed Julian out of the office as I reached out to Isabella through the mind-link.

‘Are you free right now?’ This news needed to come from me.

‘Sure, where do you want to meet?’

‘My office.’

‘On my way.’ She responded cheerfully.

‘She won’t take this well.’ Titan stated the obvious.

‘Which is exactly why we’re telling her ourselves.’

Isabella arrived quickly. She was in her usual bright mood, which meant Julian hadn’t contacted her yet.

“Is this about Athena?”

“No. It’s about your brother. He’s been up to his old games again.”

“You said it wasn’t about Athena.”

“It’s not. We just found out Julian slept with Natalie.”

“Are you serious?” Her dark eyes went wide with shock. “Why would he do something like that?”

“It happened a while back, but it just came to light. Isabella, he chose banishment.”

“You’re exiling our brother? My twin?”

“It’s gone on long enough. He’s had warning after warning and still refuses to change. Do you have any idea how many complaints cross my desk because of his behavior? I can’t deny he’s a skilled Gamma, but his talents no longer excuse his actions.”

She crossed her arms tightly. “Crap. Where is he going to go?”

“I don’t know.”

“You mean you don’t care!”

“Of course I care about my brother, Isabella. But there’s a limit to how many chances I can give him. If this were anyone else, they’d have been gone long ago. You know he’s been exploiting his status as my brother.”

She nodded slowly, releasing a heavy sigh. “I understand.”

‘She’s handling this much better than I expected.’ Titan mumbled. I had to agree, though it wasn’t entirely surprising—despite being twins, they were never particularly close.

“You can keep in touch if you feel you need to. You’re his twin; I won’t hold that against you. But from today onward, he is no longer a member of this pack. That means no sharing information, no revealing my location or anyone else’s. No updates on attacks. You tell him nothing. Understood?”

She nodded.

“Isabella, I need to hear you say it.”

“I understand. Under no circumstances will I give him any information.”

“Good. I believe he’s in his room packing if you want to say goodbye.”

She left without another word.

‘She’ll get over it.’ Titan muttered. ‘We did what was right for the pack.’

I wasn’t completely heartless. I gave him keys to a car and enough money to last a few months while he figured things out. But essentially, he was on his own—no other pack would take him in.

“You made the right call.” Sebastian told me as we watched the black car vanish from sight.

“I know. It was a long time coming.”

“Would you have killed him if he’d chosen death?”

“I don’t know.” If it were anyone else, the answer would’ve been yes. But could I have actually ended my own brother’s life? Who knows. “What about Natalie? She didn’t leave with him.”

“She’s trying to use our sons as leverage to keep us together. Fifteen years together, and she throws it all away for a fling with Julian.”

He looked up at the house where we could both see Athena sitting in the chair by the bedroom window. “Good thing you got him out before he got to her.” In that moment, I knew without a doubt that would’ve been enough to make me kill Julian—discovering he’d laid a hand on my mate.

“Have you told her yet?” Sebastian asked.

“Told her what?”

“That she’s your mate, obviously.”

“It’s complicated.” I sighed.

“It’s a little unfair not to tell her, especially since you made her part of the contract.”

“She’s still mated to someone else.”

“You do want her, right? I mean, you wouldn’t have brought her here if you didn’t.”

“I want her. But I need her to want me too—not just because of some damn mate bond.”