Brothersong

The fourth and final installment of the Green Creek series, a paranormal fantasy saga centered on a werewolf pack in a small Oregon mountain town, follows Carter Bennett, eldest son of the late Thomas Bennett, the Alpha of all werewolves. In this world, werewolf packs are led by Alphas, supported by Betas (orange-eyed wolves), and threatened by Omegas (violet-eyed feral wolves who have lost their connection to a pack). A wolf's tether, a person or idea anchoring them to their humanity, prevents them from going feral. Witches wield tattoo-based magic and serve as pack advisors. Events from the previous novels form the backdrop: Thomas is dead, and in the battle of Caswell, Maine, the pack defeated the witch-turned-beast Robert Livingstone only after his son Gavin, a feral timber wolf who had lived among the Bennetts for years, shifted to human form to save Carter's life, then left with his father to protect the pack.

The novel opens with a childhood memory in which eight-year-old Carter tells his father that Kelly, his younger brother, is his tether because they need each other. In the present, Carter records a farewell video for Kelly, explaining he must leave Green Creek to find Gavin. He severs his pack bonds, the magical links connecting him to the other wolves, and drives away alone.

Interleaved flashback chapters trace Carter's life: his earliest memory of claiming newborn Kelly as "mine," Joe's birth and identification as a future Alpha, Joe's kidnapping by the treacherous Richard Collins, Thomas's trusted second, and the family's return to Green Creek, where Joe first meets Oxnard "Ox" Matheson, the quiet human boy next door. Joe speaks for the first time since his kidnapping, and the pack bonds surge. These memories establish the deep ties among the three Bennett brothers and the guilt Carter carries for failing to protect Joe.

Carter spends eleven months searching across North America, his mental state deteriorating. He hallucinates Kelly, a projection he calls Not-Kelly, who challenges his decisions but provides comfort. Carter encounters Madam Penelope, an independent psychic witch, who speaks cryptically about how Elijah, a hunter who had previously captured and enslaved Gavin, tortured him with silver. Carter finds hostile notes from Gavin telling him to go away. After a bar fight in which his eyes flash violet, signaling a slide toward becoming an Omega, a young female Alpha warns him he risks being swallowed whole. As months pass, Carter can no longer distinguish dreams from reality.

Carter locates Gavin's childhood home in Isabella, Minnesota. Hunters ambush him, but Gavin's wolf attacks and Livingstone, now a towering beast with one red eye, kills the rest. When Livingstone seizes Carter, Gavin threatens to abandon his father forever. Livingstone drops Carter, and Gavin shifts to human, demanding to know if Carter is real.

In Gavin's cabin, Carter spends weeks trying to convince him to return to Green Creek. Gavin refuses, insisting Carter leave. He reveals that Thomas visited him as a child and told him about wolves, that he later sought a wolf bite and became an Omega, and that he traveled to Green Creek looking for Thomas only to find him dead. Carter discovers that Gavin sees a ghost version of Carter, proving Carter is Gavin's tether. When Carter finds Livingstone feeding off Gavin in a cave, Livingstone breaks Carter's back and hurls him through a tree.

Delirious and near death, Carter hears his father's voice telling him to howl. He sings a desperate song, and Kelly and Joe appear, real and solid. Joe uses his Alpha power to pull Carter back from the edge. Gordo Livingstone, the pack's witch, is with them; the raven tattoo his father carved into him has been burned off by Aileen and Patrice, longtime witch allies of the pack, severing Robert Livingstone's magical control. Kelly confronts Carter with grief and fury, demanding to know how Carter could leave after witnessing what losing someone did to Kelly. Gordo speaks to Gavin as a brother for the first time, drawing a parallel between their shared experience of Livingstone's manipulation.

Gavin agrees to leave after Gordo offers him a place as family and Carter promises to stay if Gavin stays. During their escape, Livingstone pursues, but Gordo tears the road apart with magic. Dozens of witches raise a barrier of silver-laced blood magic to contain Livingstone. On the journey home, Gavin confirms Carter is his tether, whose heartbeat kept the feral darkness at bay.

Back in Green Creek, Ox, the pack's Alpha, welcomes Carter home. Carter's mother, Elizabeth Bennett, approaches Gavin warmly, telling him she once met his mother, Wendy Walsh, and recognized her goodness. In a pack meeting, Ox explains that Gavin needs a mate bond, a powerful magical pair-bond, to resist Livingstone's pull. Over the following weeks, Gavin transitions from wolf to human with help from Rico, Chris, and Tanner, pack members who were formerly human. Gordo gives Gavin a pink work shirt for the garage, marking him as family.

Threats escalate. Aileen reports that a traitorous teenage witch named Gregory has been letting wolves through the magical wards, the protective barriers around pack territories, to join Livingstone, who is building a new pack. When Aileen suggests sending Gavin back to placate his father, Carter erupts, and Elizabeth backs him. Robbie, a fellow pack member researching in Caswell, finds Thomas's annotations referencing Ox as an "equal and opposite" force alongside a single word: "Sacrifice."

Elizabeth reads aloud a letter Thomas wrote to Carter's future mate, describing Carter's fierce love and urging the reader to see his "secret heart." She gives Gavin the black stone wolf Thomas carved. Gavin tells Carter, "I like you," and Carter replies in kind. They exchange stone wolves.

When Ox, Gordo, Joe, Kelly, and Robbie leave to address the crisis in Minnesota, the situation collapses. Gregory shatters Green Creek's wards using tattoos containing Livingstone's magical knowledge. Gavin attempts to sacrifice himself, believing the book's reference to sacrifice means him. Carter chases him down and refuses to let go. They kiss for the first time and consummate their relationship, exchanging mate bites, bites that seal a magical pair-bond between them. Gavin's eyes change from violet to orange: He is no longer an Omega.

Livingstone's wolves attack, but the town has been fortified with silver traps and armed civilians. Carter kills Gregory. Will, the motel owner who organized the defense, is killed by Livingstone. Ox arrives with the full pack and wolves from Caswell. In the climactic battle, the pack enters a shared mystical vision where Thomas appears as a white wolf, speaking love and farewell. Ox, impaled by Livingstone, pulls himself along the beast's arm, catches his open jaws, and wrenches them apart, killing him. Ox collapses with a fatal wound, but Joe pierces his own heart with Ox's claws, sacrificing his Alpha power to save Ox as a rose blooms through the wound and heals it. Joe's eyes turn permanently orange: He is a Beta now, no longer the Alpha of all.

In the aftermath, Carter builds Will's funeral pyre. Gordo and Gavin bury their father together beneath an old tree where wild roses later grow. Gordo renames the garage "Bennetts'" in honor of the family that made him whole. Joe proposes to Sophie, the Alpha of the Glacier National Park pack, that the era of Bennett kings and queens end and a new form of leadership begin. Gavin legally changes his name to Gavin Walsh Bennett, honoring his mother and his chosen family. In the final scene, the pack gathers for their Sunday tradition. Carter spots a white wolf in the trees that vanishes, whispers, "And that's that," and joins his pack as they shift and run together under the full moon.