This was going to work.

It was not going to fucking work.

It was going to work. He would make it work.

For three weeks, he argued in his head, every minute of every day. He tried to do everything—lead his pack, manage his brothers, do all the duties of an alpha—with the scent of apples in his nose. Apples and goodness and sometimes that sweet, unbearable scent of arousal that made his wolf go crazy.

She was, quite simply, the best thing that had ever happened to him. It had hit him from the first, when she’d said she’d go to the permit office. It was like a baseball bat to the back of his head. She is the best thing to ever happen to you. And you don’t deserve her in the least.

It started with the permit office, which she sorted out. But it went from there. Anything to do with lawyers, real estate agents, banks—in other words, humans—she took on. Everything to do with talking to people, sorting out problems, ruling on disputes, keeping everyone in line—that was Brody’s. He was supposed to be alpha, but when he had Alison with him he felt like a man who has been given a prosthetic leg after hopping his whole life. He had no idea how he’d done anything before. And in true Brody fashion, the idea worried him. Because what if she left?

She could leave so easily. Just walk out. He’d be finished if she left.

His wolf wanted her, and he wasn’t handling it well. Brody was starting to notice the soft curve of her hips in her jeans, the fall of her auburn hair on her back, the way the t-shirts she wore draped over her small breasts. He was starting to notice the tilt of her chin when someone had irked her and the rare, very rare, smile she gave when she laughed. Heath could make her laugh, and sometimes so could Ian. Brody sure as hell couldn’t. He didn’t even try.

He was starting to notice the way she rubbed a knuckle over her lower lip when she was thinking hard, the fact that she liked tops with flowers on them paired with her jeans, the fact that she liked chocolate. Tops with flowers on them was out of his skill set, but chocolate he could do. He took to having some around the house when she came over. You’re going to make me fat, she’d say when she’d take it—because she always took it. All those years eating Patty’s food and you never got fat, he replied. It ain’t gonna happen now. That got him a smile, which made that a good day.

He wanted her. Not just as his mate—because it was becoming clearer to him every day that that was what she was. His mate, and there was no other woman for him. But what he wanted was her. Just Alison. That spark that was in her, the quiet steel. The shyness, the vulnerability, the unwavering loyalty. He needed all of that, wanted it to be his. To be no one else’s. Deep down, he wanted her to give him everything she had.

Which was a lot to ask of your assistant when she didn’t understand.

His brothers knew. They said nothing—they had each gone through their own trials in getting a mate, and they all understood how painful it could be. The period when you knew, and she didn’t, and you had no way to tell her. The period when she knew, but she hadn’t said yes yet. It could make a wolf a little crazy, or a lot crazy, so his brothers simply understood and left him alone about it.

It was Heath who brought it up, the day they demolished the Dirty Den. The permits showed up, the crew was chosen and hired, and on the scheduled day half the town turned out to watch, standing in a crowd on Howell Street. It was cold now, past Halloween, and Brody wore a jacket over his plaid shirt, along with his baseball cap, so he would fit in with the humans. He stood on the sidewalk as the crew got working, hands in his pockets, watching along with everyone else.

Heath came and stood next to him. People noticed—everyone knew who they were, and Heath was especially distinctive—but they were left alone. That was the best thing about the Falls. People accepted the Donovans ruled the place, and then they went about their business.

Bulldozers moved in, as did a big piece of equipment swinging a wrecking ball. The crowd made an appreciative aaaah noise. “This is a good show,” Heath said. “Nice work.”

“Not my work,” Brody said. It was hard to get used to, that he wasn’t doing everything. But he made himself get used to it by repeating it every day.

“I know,” Heath said. He nodded toward Alison, ten feet away, wearing a coat and mittens against the chill and hugging a clipboard to her chest as she watched. “Jesus, Brody,” he said. “Tessa is the most beautiful woman in the world, but if I had to, I’d probably put Alison second. Especially now.”

“Shut up,” Brody said.

“I know what it’s like, you know,” Heath said. “Working with your mate when she doesn’t know. I didn’t listen to my wolf for months when I worked with Tessa. Those were the stupidest months of my life. And that’s not an easy contest to win.”

“Shut up, Heath.” He said it again, because he meant it.

“But I know where you’re coming from,” Heath said, ignoring him. “This isn’t just some woman, any woman. This is Alison. She’s pack. Everyone loves her. She’s good, and she’s innocent. I think if you hurt her, I’d maim you myself.”

Brody closed his eyes, seeking patience. “Why?” he said. “Why won’t you shut up?”

“Tessa required some strategizing,” Heath said, “but Tessa is tough. If I’d done it wrong, been clumsy, she would have simply walked away. But Alison…” He seemed to think it over. “I think it’s okay to say this now, isn’t it? She’s been in love with you for as long as anyone remembers. And you’d think that makes it easier, but I think it makes it all that much harder.”

In love with him? He’d figured out a lot of things in the last three weeks. Seen things he’d never seen before. He understood now. “She’s not in love with me,” he said. “She’s in love with an ideal she’s created. He doesn’t exist.”

“She thinks you walk on water,” Heath said.

“She’s wrong,” Brody replied through gritted teeth. “I do not walk on water. I never have. That’s the problem.”

“You are an asshole,” Heath agreed. “But she’s worked with you for three weeks, and she hasn’t run away screaming. I admire her fortitude, if not her sanity.”

“Why do I put up with you,” Brody said, “when you never shut up? Just once, Heath. Shut the hell up.”

Heath clapped him on the shoulder, hard. “Good luck with it, dumbass,” he said, and walked away.

The building was coming down now, the walls crumbling under the wrecking ball. People were aaaahing, and some were clapping. These were his people, his pack, and they wouldn’t have to look at the eyesore of the Dirty Den, with all of its bad memories, anymore. This was a good day.

He glanced at Alison, but she was gone. A second later he smelled apples as she sidled up next to him. “Isn’t this great?” she said to him, excited.

He watched another wall fall, thoughtful. “It’s good,” he agreed, reluctantly.

Alison punched him on the arm. “I swear to God, Brody,” she said, and then she aaahed with the crowd as there was another crack and dust clouds rose in the air.

Brody watched, and thought. Inside him, his wolf howled.