When Ash called Tonya, she asked him to come out to the ranch. Begged him, practically. It will be better for you, she’d said. And something inside him knew she was right. The farther he’d gotten from Helena, the more itchy his insides became. Just the thought of going back out to the ranch made him relax.

He had a quick dinner with Lisa and listened to her complain about Tyson’s advances. He was pretty damn proud that she’d shut Ty down. That wasn’t an easy feat. But Lisa was strong. She was only twenty-two—a full six years younger than Ash—but she was an old soul. They’d both had to grow up fast.

He was proud of his sister. For the last four years, he’d been gone more often than not, and he found himself wondering what he’d missed. She’d gotten this job at Meg’s Bakery, and she’d fallen in love with baking. She was pretty damn good at it, too.

When he left, he kissed her on the forehead and promised he’d be back in the morning. She’d be at work, of course, making kolaches and cupcakes, but he’d see her when she got home. He’d see her every day.

It was a comforting thought.

If nothing else, meeting Helena had helped him realize it was time to settle down. He was almost thirty years old. The roving wanderer thing was a young man’s game. And while he’d enjoyed most of it, that lifestyle would have grown stale at some point. Best to give up on it before that happened.

The road back to the VonBrandt ranch seemed longer this time. And all the silence in the pickup truck was eating away at him. The realization that someone else had touched Helena wasn’t sitting well with him, but more than that, he didn’t understand her. If she honestly didn’t have feelings for him, why in the hell would she trap him in this nightmare?

He pressed in the gate code at the keypad, and the big, heavy metal thing moved up, allowing him access. He drove up, steering past a fence where a couple of horses were chomping on grass. It was such an idyllic picture—the well-manicured lawn, the animals roaming, the gorgeous old house—and most people would never know what was hidden underneath.

But Ash did. He wished he didn’t. Wished he could have left well-enough the hell alone. If wishes were horses, though… yeah, no use wishing. Realistically, there was no way he could have not approached Helena in Joe’s Bar. She’d drawn him in like a magnet. A thousand do-overs, and he’d go up to her every time. A thousand do-overs, and he’d bring her home every time. Make love to her every time.

Ash pulled up beside the Kidnap Car and made his way to the door. Tonya VonBrandt opened it before he could even knock. She stood there in the fading sunlight, hand on her hip, nodding in solidarity.

“I figured you’d call.” She gave him a sad smile and invited him inside. “It’s not easy to be separated from them, Ash. It really is better for us to be here together.”

“Us?”

Tonya ushered him into the living room. Several women were seated on a couple of facing leather couches. A wide, dark wood coffee table sat in the middle of the gathering.

“I call us the moon widows,” said a woman with jet black hair, holding a big wine glass. “Pull up a chair.”

Ash took a seat in an empty chair near one of the couches, and looked around the room. There were five women, including Tonya, and they all had glasses of wine in their hands.

The oldest—a woman with a tight bun of gray hair—had been busying herself at the coffee table. There were a few empty glasses next to several bottles of wine, and she’d poured him a drink. “Welcome to the club,” she said, handing it over.

“That’s Aunt Evie,” Tonya said, indicating the bunned woman. “All our husbands are out on the run. That’s why Alyssa calls us the moon widows. Although there are a few of us missing. Kara and Emma are still on their way.”

“Drink up, boy. We’re about two glasses ahead of you,” Alyssa said, tossing her black hair over her shoulder. “If you expect to get any of the chocolate, you have to finish all of your wine.” Sure enough, there was a big box of chocolates behind the row of bottles.

“That’s Alyssa.” Tonya smiled at the brash woman. “She’s the wife of Aaron’s cousin, Jason. Their sons are just about the same age as mine and Aaron’s.”

“My youngest is on his first run tonight,” Alyssa said, downing the last of her red wine and then passing the glass to the brunette on her right. “Top me off. I’m old.”

They all laughed, but there was still tension under the humor.

“He’ll be fine,” said the brunette pouring the wine. “Aaron will take good care of him.”

“Thanks, Penny,” Alyssa took an immediate drink of her topped-off glass. “I’m not worried about him. I was there last month when he shifted for the first time. He’s a pro already.”

Ash took a long sip of his wine, trying to follow their conversation. He had no idea what half the things meant. First shift, first run, moon widows. It was like being inducted into a very strange secret society without orientation.

“That’s Penny, there, with the wine,” Tonya said, leaning toward him from the couch. “And that,” she pointed to a middle-aged blonde woman who looked like she could have been a model, “is Teresa.”

“My daughter is here for the run,” said Teresa, straightening and crossing her long legs. “Although her moon widow is not here.”

“Neither is Judith’s,” said Alyssa. “Sorry, Evie, but it has to be said. When their husbands don’t come, it makes it harder on their families.”

All the moon widows nodded, and Ash just nodded along, even though he had no idea what any of those things meant. Tonya leaned toward him. “Judith and Courtney are both wolves who are mated to human men.”

“Like you,” Alyssa said, finishing a long drink of her red. “Only you have the sense to be here. Unlike Douche Van Smoot.”

There was a rumble of giggling, and Tonya said, “Judith’s husband. We don’t like him.”

“Got it.” Ash raised his glass. “Fuck Douche Van Smoot.”

Their laughter was loud and genuine and he covered up his smile with a sip of wine. He wasn’t much of a wine guy, but it seemed like that was the order of the night. There were probably five open bottles on the table. And a few more unopened. It was like he’d stumbled into girls’ night.

“I like you, Ash.” Alyssa raised her glass. “And he really is a douche.”

“Well, Judith likes him,” said Evie primly, putting down her goblet and crossing her hands in her lap.

“Judith just wanted to live in the Hamptons with Courtney. She doesn’t care how douchey her husband is. She married him for the money,” Alyssa snorted. “Pay attention, Ash. This is important.” She leaned in, pointing a finger at him with the hand that held her wine glass. “It’s all well and good for wolves to marry humans, but when a wolf is repressing her culture because her human mate doesn’t want to have to deal with all that wolf nonsense, that’s the day she should hit the door.”

Tonya reached over and put a hand on Ash’s arm, and he realized he’d been tensing. “She’s just blabbing, honey. Really. That’s a long-standing beef with Judith and her husband.”

“Douche Van Smoot?”

“Yeah.” Tonya squeezed his arm. “You’re not him.”

“No, you’re not.” Alyssa agreed, reaching over to clink her glass with his. She was a little unsteady in her seat, and he couldn’t help a little laugh. If nothing else, these women had managed to get him out of his head, though they were confusing him with all this talk of wolf culture.

“So, tell us all about you and your mate, Ash,” said Teresa, the hint of an upper-class accent in her voice. “Enough about our family drama.”

“He and Helena only met yesterday,” Tonya broke in, saving Ash from having to make the awkward one-night-stand-and-then-she-was-kissing-some-other-guy-by-noon conversation that he couldn’t get out of his head. He didn’t need to put all that on them.

“She’s from the El Paso pack?” asked Aunt Evie.

“Yeah,” Ash said, even though he honestly had no idea what pack she belonged to, how many packs there were, or any of that.

“She’s a Quade,” said Alyssa with a significant glance at the other women. Her tone implied there was something bad about that, and they all nodded, almost sadly. Uh-oh.

“Every pack is different, honey,” Tonya said. “We’re all VonBrandts here.”

“The Quades’ moon widows all stayed back in El Paso.” Alyssa drained the rest of her glass and set it down on the table, reaching for the chocolates.

“They don’t have any moon widows,” Tonya corrected, pushing the box of candy toward her.

“How can they not have moon widows?” said Alyssa.

“I don’t know. There aren’t many of them. I guess they all mated wolves.” The alpha’s wife selected a chocolate out of the box for herself and passed it to Ash.

He kept passing the box, as he hadn’t finished his wine and wanted to follow the rules of this new club. He didn’t finish the sentence that seemed to hang in the air…

All except Helena.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, and Ash put his glass down, excusing himself. When he pulled his phone out, he saw it was Tyson and rolled his eyes. Did he really want to deal with his friend right now?

But he walked into the foyer and did just that. “Where are you, man?” Ty’s said as soon as Ash accepted the call. There was noise in the background. They were probably at Joe’s Bar. Hopefully, not getting their asses kicked this time.

“I’m at a friend’s place.”

“Ooooh. The dick chick?”

Ash squeezed his free hand into a fist, wishing Tyson was in front of him so he could take out some of this pent-up frustration. It would be good to fight. He didn’t know what he wanted to fight about, but there was so much tension inside him that needed a release.

“You’re a dickhead,” he finally said.

“We’re taking off in the morning.”

“Sounds good.”

“You wanna meet us at Meg’s Bakery for the sendoff?”

Ash let out a long breath. Tonya VonBrandt had followed him into the foyer and was looking at him with open concern. All he could do was shrug. He was sick of making excuses for Tyson.

“I gotta go, man. Just, don’t drink and drive, okay?” He hung up before Tyson could say anything else hurtful about Helena.

Maybe he and Helena weren’t mates in the truest sense of the word—not like those moon widows and their partners—but he was sick of Tyson taking shots at her.

“Sorry about that,” he said to Tonya, shoving the phone back into his pocket.

“You okay, honey?” Tonya put a hand on his shoulder. “You haven’t relaxed since you showed up.”

“I don’t even know why I’m here.”

“I do,” she said with a sad smile. “You want to be with your mate, and she’s out in the woods somewhere.”

He stopped to think about that. Was that really what he wanted? To be with Helena? It felt like he’d come out here to yell at her. Or confront her. Or find her. Or pour his heart out to the alpha’s wife and get some advice. But then all the women waiting for their mates had derailed him, and all he could think about was how his life would change if this became his world.

What would it be like to let Helena shift and run without him? What it would be like to sit with the moon widows every month? There was a part of him that wanted it, but Helena didn’t. She’d run out of his house, she’d kissed another man, and then she’d bonded Ash and trapped him here. None of it made any sense.

“I guess I’m just confused,” he finally said. “There are so many things we didn’t talk about before we did this.”

“There always are.” Her solidarity didn’t do much to alleviate the tension in his chest, but it did help to talk to someone who knew more about this world than he did.

“I feel like I’m tethered to a woman who doesn’t want me.” Saying the words aloud had almost cracked him open, but now his feelings were out there, acknowledged for God and everyone.

She tipped her head to one side and pulled him into a hug. “You’re going to be okay, Ash. I promise. These first days of the bond are disconcerting. That’s why I’m so glad you came back. You need to be with us. With other people who know what this is like.”

He nodded, pulling away, trying to get his shit together. He didn’t need to fall apart like this with a stranger. What he really wanted was to talk to Helena, but that wasn’t in the cards. Not tonight, anyway.

“It will be better when she comes back.”

“I’m not sure it will,” he said, sadly.

“It will.” She took his hand, pulling him back toward the moon widow gathering. “Stay with us. Talk with us. Like I said, you can sleep in one of the bedrooms upstairs. You can be here when Helena comes back in the morning. You two need to sit down together and have a real talk.”

Ash let her lead him back into the living room, even though every instinct in him urged to go find Helena. He couldn’t talk to her, as a wolf. It wouldn’t be fair for him to hunt her down and throw accusations at her when she couldn’t talk back.

He’d wait for her.

Even if she didn’t want him, he’d wait for her.