Helena trotted through the woods, staying ahead of the other groups and being careful to avoid her own pack. Ash’s emotions rolled her like she’d been strapped to a roller coaster. Confusion. Longing. Anger. Betrayal. Desire. He’d run the gambit tonight several times over already. Not that it should surprise her—she’d caused it.

A branch snapped behind her and she started, dashing down a deer path away from the unwanted company. She recognized Kate’s bark, but she didn’t want to be near anyone right now, her cousin included. She didn’t want to hunt. She didn’t want to pretend everything was fine. That her world hadn’t just come apart at the seams. That her grandfather wouldn’t completely lose his shit on her.

She nosed through some low brush and came out on a low bluff, overlooking the river valley. So beautiful. And still so green.

Helena didn’t want to be a wolf right now. She pointed her face to the moon and growled. It had been wrong for her to run from Ash without trying to explain. But she couldn’t do anything about it now. She had to ride out the wolf moon and feel Ash’s pain and confusion until the moon released her from its curse for the month.

But one thing had become clear to her in her run tonight. She would make it right with him. She had to. He was her mate. Human or not. Fate had decided they were the best match for each other, and if Helena believed in anything at all, it was that Fate played an important role in wolves’ lives. Her whole life she’d been waiting for Fate to show her the path to the one person meant to love her. The one her soul would be joined to.

And it was Ash. She’d been drunk and completely out of touch with herself that night at the bar, but she’d still felt that draw…and he’d shown her what it felt like to be loved. The words hadn’t been said, but she’d felt his love. Felt herself love him back.

Whatever punishment her alpha had in store for her, Ash was worth it. That was why Aaron had forced the bond—he’d seen what she’d been too blind to see. Tonya had tried to give them time to talk, but Helena had been a coward. She’d turned tail and run.

Now she only hoped Ash would forgive her.

* * *

The moon widows had polished off another bottle of wine by the time Ash got back to the room, and Alyssa held up a glass in his direction.

“We’ve decided what your nickname will be, if you want to know it.”

Ash stopped in his tracks, standing a few feet away from the back of the couch. “I’m afraid to ask.”

“Ash is a nickname,” argued Penny, pushing on Alyssa’s arm. It was clear that they’d gotten tipsier since he’d left the room.

“Actually, Ash isn’t a nickname,” he said, walking to the back of the couch. “It’s my full name.”

“You’re not Asher or Ashley? You sure?” Alyssa arched an expressive brow.

“Just Ash.”

“Well, now you really need a nickname. We can’t just call you Ash.” The doorbell sounded and Alyssa stood, about to take a step over Penny’s legs, around the coffee table.

“I’ll get it.” Ash turned to walk back out into the foyer, but he heard the door open and close, followed by two voices engaged in quiet conversation.

“It’s just the rest of the girls,” Tonya explained. “Emma always rings the doorbell, and Kara always walks in.”

“What about Hash, then?” Alyssa said, calling after him. “Helena-slash-Ash equals Hash.”

He quirked up a brow. “Like Bennifer or Brangelina?”

“Exactly.” The dark-haired woman beamed at him, pretty proud of herself. He was really starting to like these women. A little crazy, but his kind of crazy.

Two pretty blondes walked through the door from the foyer with three pizza boxes, between them. They both stopped in front of Ash, glancing at him like there was something wrong.

“Um,” said the one with the ponytail, “Tee, you in here?”

“Come in, honey. That’s just Ash,” came Tonya’s voice from behind him. “He’s with the Quades.”

“Hash,” Alyssa said with a snort.

The blonde with loose hair pulled the boxes away and smiled at him as she passed. “We got a veggie blend this time. I hope that’s okay.”

“I hope you got meat, too,” Alyssa’s voice rang loud and Ash turned to find her still standing up, if swaying just a little. “I need meat tonight. And cheese. And carbs.”

“Hence the pizza, Aunt Lys,” said Ponytail. She extended her hand to Ash. “I’m Kara. And that’s Emma. You’re here for the run?”

“His mate is out in the woods,” Tonya called, and Ash held up his wrists.

Kara held hers up too. She had similar tattoos with a slightly different pattern. “That’s like our greeting now. Whose tattoos do you have?”

“I belong to Noah,” Emma said from behind him. “VonBrandt. He’s one of the twins.”

“And I belong to the other one. Luke.” Kara threaded her arm through Ash’s and dragged him to the back of the couch. “Who do you belong to?”

The question stopped him, because he knew the answer, but he was afraid to say the words out loud, in case Helena really intended to leave him in the morning. He didn’t want to embarrass her with questions from a bunch of people.

“Helena Quade,” Tonya said.

“Where’s my meat pizza?” Alyssa’s question cut off any further discussion, thankfully.

Kara handed two of the boxes over and then pulled on Ash’s arm. “Hey, why don’t you come watch Jurassic World with us?”

“Yeah,” Emma said, turning with a pizza box in her hand. “Hang with the cool kids.”

Ash nodded, thankful for the invitation. The moon widows were definitely a lot to take. All the inside jokes and name-trading. Crazy-cool. But a smaller group would be easier.

“We’ll be over in the den,” Kara announced to the other women. Then she and Emma ushered him away from all the wine and estrogen, leading him through several more rooms before they hit what felt like the back of the house.

The room they ended up in had wood floors; thick, comfortable rugs; and orange Swedish-looking reclining couches with cup holders between them. This was clearly the movie-watching area of the house. The TV screen hanging on the wall looked to be at least sixty inches.

Emma set the pizza on a big table along the side of the room and spread out some paper plates. “I hope you’re okay if we took the veggie. Although you’re more than welcome to go back in with the moon widows and get some meat-lovers.”

“I’m good with whatever’s here,” he said, grabbing a plate and sliding a thick slice of pizza out of the box. “Melted cheese on bread. Everything else is gravy.”

“So this is your first run?” Kara sat on the far side of the three-person couch.

“Yeah.”

“I haven’t been doing it a year yet, and I don’t like it either,” Emma said, sitting on the near side. Ash had no choice but to sit in the middle. It felt like they were ganging up on him. But he had fresh meat plastered on his forehead, so perhaps it was to be expected.

“I was with Emma on her first run.” Kara took a big bite of pizza and pulled her lips to one side as she chewed.

“I couldn’t handle all of the moon widows on my first run.” Emma bit into her own piece of pizza and pointed the remote at the TV. It came to life quickly.

“It’s a lot easier to watch movies and eat pizza, your first time,” Kara said.

Ash took in a deep breath. First time, like there would be a thousand of them. But he still wasn’t sure about that. Helena had freaked out so completely, and she was still jumping from emotion to emotion, even as she roamed the forest. Apparently, being a wolf didn’t prevent her from having human emotions. Although, like Tonya said, the bond was definitely less intense and insistent than when she was a human.

“I’m good for pizza and movies,” he finally said. “Although… Jurassic World? I mean, I’m all for sequels, but this is just getting ridiculous.”

“You’re stuck. It’s the only DVD we rented. We just need some beer,” Kara said, and Emma jumped up with a promise she would be right back.

Kara settled her plate on her lap and stared at Ash. It was sort of unnerving, how she was studying him.

Like she was looking for something.

“How long have you been mated?” she asked, quietly.

Ash glanced at his watch, calculating the hours. “Less than a day,” he said. He wasn’t sure whether she was asking if he’d had sex with Helena—which had apparently activated something, in Fate’s eyes—or if the question was about the tattoos. This seemed like a good compromise.

“Yikes.” She touched his arm. “So you’re new to all this, then?”

He nodded. “I still don’t know any of the lingo, and I have no clue what’s happening. Like at all. Except the pizza. I get pizza and beer.”

“Good.” Kara patted him and then picked up her pizza again. “It’s easier to focus on what you can control. The shift is not one of those things.”

“Or the way I can feel her.”

“Or that.” There was a somber note in her voice. “That’s never easy. In fact, sometimes, you’ll know what she feels before she does, because they’re coming at you from the outside. That’ll unnerve her. Or, it unnerves Luke. He can’t hide anything from me anymore.” Her lips curled into a secret smile. “But he’s learning to love that, too.”

“And can she feel me, the same way I can feel her?”

“Oh yeah.” Kara took a big bite. “Although because of their alpha bond, they’re probably more used to the intrusion of magick in their lives.”

Yes. Those were the words he’d been looking for. Intrusion of magick. He’d never considered that he’d allow someone else to enforce their will on him again…and yet magick had made him its bitch. Because it had brought him closer to Helena, he couldn’t resent it. But the fact remained that he hadn’t planned for this. She hadn’t either, but apparently their plans weren’t the ones that mattered.

Fate.

Ash sucked in a breath and scratched at his jeans. “Do you trust Fate?”

“What?” Kara asked, pizza hanging out of her mouth.

“Fate. Do you trust it? Like…” He ran his fingers along his jeans, gripping his leg. Can’t stop now… “Fate makes these choices for you. But what if they’re counter to everything you thought you wanted. Do you trust Fate?”

“Like, me personally?”

“I mean, like, is it a benign force?”

She raised her brows, sitting back against the orange material like she was deep in thought. “That’s a good question, Ash. I don’t know if I can answer it. I guess…Luke trusts Fate. Aaron trusts Fate. The people who are closest to me all trust Fate.” She pushed out a long breath and her gaze shifted across the room. “I’ve had days where I didn’t. But I’m not sure that Fate controls things like car accidents, bad hair, or weather. The things the VonBrandts attribute to Fate are things I’m comfortable entrusting to it.”

“Like what?”

“Like bonds, and the presence of magick. The wolves. I’ve seen them…” Her voice caught. “I’ve seen them save people’s lives. Luke saved mine. Aaron uses his alpha instincts to run VonBrandt Energy, and he does so much good with his company. Helps so many people. I believe Fate plays a role in that.”

“And bonds?” he asked, looking down at the plate in his lap. “Mates? You trust those?”

“I trust my mate. I trust my bond.” A little smile crossed her lips, and she glanced up as Emma came back in with three dark bottles in her hands. “You trust Fate, Em?”

The pretty blonde sat beside him, offering him a bottle. “You want to know if you should believe the wolf who tells you that she’s your mate?”

“I want to know if Fate knows what it’s doing.” The words surprised him when they came out, but he could feel how right they were.

“As a rule, I would say yes,” Emma said, sipping her beer. “I know I wouldn’t have met Noah without Fate’s help…” Her eyes got a little glossy. “And I couldn’t imagine my life without him.”

“For a human, trusting Fate is hard at first.” Kara jumped up, grabbing a red packet with a white word on the back from the coffee table, and kneeling down to open the DVD player. “It’s easier for the wolves. They grew up knowing Fate, talking about it. They have a different understanding of it.”

Ash pulled his brows together and cocked his head at Emma, who was nodding. It was easier for the wolves. And yet…he was the one who trusted the feeling inside, who wanted to be with her more, who wanted her. Helena was the one who questioned their bond. What was up with that?

He opened his mouth to tell them about the hand-on-boob-hand-on-ass moment—and then promptly closed his lips. He couldn’t let people into Helena’s world like that. He didn’t know what the circumstances had been. For all he knew, it could have been some forced mating ritual her pack foisted on her when they found out she had a human for a mate. One thing had been made crystal clear to him: he couldn’t expect an open-armed welcome from her grandfather and pack.

The movie came on, and he settled in to watch it, trying to forget about what was going on with Helena. He tried to ignore her emotions, which were still roiling inside him. Everyone had assured him everything would be all right in the morning, but Ash wasn’t sure he believed that.

If Helena came back and had decided she didn’t want to be with him, it would slice him in half, and he might never recover. The longer this night went on, the more certain he was that he needed her.