Free Gifted: A Holiday Anthology by Kelley Armstrong

submissive or dominant wolf in their relationship. They were twins. Equals in everything.
    Normally, he’d have let it go at that. The wolf in him said that if she submitted, acknowledging her error, he should take the high road. She might deserve a cuff on the ears and another snarl, but that was it. Tonight though, with everything going on, he didn’t feel like dropping it quite so fast.
    “No, really,” he said. “What the hell were you doing, Kate?”
    “I . . . I was restless?” Her voice rose, in a question, as if looking for the answer that might appease him.
    “So, you took off in the night again ? After what happened this summer?”
    “I—”
    “No, this is worse than last summer, because this time you were expressly told not to come out here at any time. To sneak off in the night—”
    “I’m sorry.” She stepped toward him, her gaze down. “You’re totally right.”
    He eased back, then, grumbling, his temper fading.
    She looked up at him. “Are you okay, Lo?”
    “No, I’m not. My sister tried to sneak into the forest when there’s a mutt—”
    “There isn’t a—” She swallowed the rest and dropped her gaze again. “Whether there is or isn’t, the point is that I disobeyed a direct order.”
    “From your Alpha .”
    She shifted. They both understood the difference, even if Mom might not. If she told them to brush after meals, that was their Mom. If she told them to stay away from a potential mutt, that was their Alpha.
    “Are you okay, Lo?” Kate asked again. Then she shook her head. “No, stupid question. I know something’s bugging you. It’s what happened at school, isn’t it?”
    It took him a moment to realize what she meant. More than a minute, because he’d honestly forgotten about it. His sister had problems at school with the other girls. Kate was smart and talented and—according to the other boys—pretty. But she hung around with Logan and a few of the other kids who didn’t quite fit in, and that drove the popular girls nuts, like she was thumbing her nose at them. They could be mean. The last day of school, one of them had tripped Kate, and his sister had hauled off, whacked her and sent her flying. The girl had been too scared to tattle, but Logan had a talk with Kate after that.
    “I know I need to rise above it,” she said. “Ignore them. Never hit them, because I can really hurt them. And because Mom will get a call, and she doesn’t need that.”
    “Right.”
    “It won’t happen again. But you’re still mad, aren’t you? I disappointed you.”
    “What? No.” He gave her a rare hug. “I actually forgot all about it, Kate. If I’m a little off, it’s just that: I feel a little off. Like you did this summer. I’m running behind. Boys do mature slower than girls.”
    She laughed at that and hugged him back. “I don’t think anyone would accuse you of maturing slowly. All right then, as long as you aren’t mad at me.”
    “About the school thing? No. About sneaking out tonight? Yes.”
    “I know. It was dumb. I’m a kid. I’m allowed to do dumb things. Isn’t that what you said?”
    “Yeah, yeah. Just get inside before Mom or Dad catches us or we’ll both learn exactly how dumb it was.”
    An hour after giving his sister proper hell for disobeying an order, Logan was doing exactly the same thing and painfully aware of the hypocrisy. But the puppy had to be fed.
    He gave Kate time to fall asleep. Then he put on his coat and boots and climbed out the window. Snow was still falling, already obscuring their tracks from earlier. He had a ways to go, and he really wanted to get this done quickly, so he circled out to the road, which was easier. Any other time, he’d have enjoyed walking on a crisp and clear night with lightly falling snow. The nip of the cold didn’t bother him at all, and he walked with his hood down, moving between a fast walk and a jog, depending on the depth of the snow.
    He’d hit a good run at a plowed section, and he