The ride from the VonBrandt ranch into town couldn’t go fast enough. Ash’s disappointment and confusion and pain had urged her to find him inside the house. She hated that he felt so alone…like she’d felt. She’d never wanted to hurt him. She loved him, dammit.

But she didn’t want to explain that in the car. No, she wanted to look at him straight in the face when she said those words. Her head was such a confusing place to be at the moment: she was still adjusting to the new alpha bond. Adjusting to the realization that she wasn’t returning to El Paso. While she would never have to deal with her grandfather ever again, her heart was broken by the thought that she likely wouldn’t ever see the rest of the pack, either. Her cousins were like sisters to her.

Aaron had been so kind. So quick to adopt her into his pack.

And yet, her feelings for Ash were sure and solid. They were undeniable.

The truck jolted and then stopped. Helena looked around, surprised to find they were already in town. Ash had parked in a little lot behind the café he’d claimed made the best waffles in the world.

The big picture windows were painted with murals of turkeys and pilgrims, even though it was nearly seventy degrees right now and the people leaving the restaurant were wearing shorts and flip flops. Autumn in Texas was like a roller coaster at a Six Flags amusement park—up down and all around, never staying in one place for very long. Most of the time it was still summer right up until it was winter.

Ash walked around the hood of the truck and opened the door for her, offering her a hand as she stepped down. His touch sent desire flaring through her body, but she tamped it down. She needed to talk first. They needed to talk. She only hoped he would give her another chance.

“Thank you,” she whispered as he released her hand and closed the truck door. He snaked an arm around her waist and tugged her along the sidewalk toward the restaurant’s entrance. But he didn’t speak. His mind and emotions were still awash with the same hurt and disappointment she’d sensed back at the ranch.

The hostess sat them in a booth by the window. Helena sat first and Ash sank into the bench across from her. He seemed distant, wrapped up in his thoughts and worries.

“So, the best waffles on the planet, huh?” she asked, raising a brow, hoping to engage him in conversation.

“Definitely.”

She opened the menu. “What kind do you get?”

“I’ll order for you. Get you the best ones.”

The stilted, uneasy conversation was making her crazy. She put her menu down and looked at him. There were so many things she wanted to say. But she couldn’t find the right words. It felt like there was a gulf between them—something she’d realized all too clearly upon seeing his easiness with Luke VonBrandt’s mate. They’d been so open with each other that first night, if only…

Jump in and be brave, Helena. It’s the only way.

“So, you called Kara a moon widow, I’ve never heard that term before.”

Ash’s eyebrows rose slightly. “There were a pile of them at the ranch house last night. All of them are humans mated to wolves. They sit together for the runs. At least that’s what I gathered between the clinking wine glasses.”

“Oh, I see.” Helena bit her lip, a little jealous that Ash had spent the entire evening with a houseful of women. It was ridiculous. They were all mated.

“Why didn’t you know what they were? The moon widows, I mean,” he asked, keeping his voice low as he sipped on his water.

“I don’t. I mean, we don’t…” She took a deep breath and looked up into Ash’s blue eyes. “There are no moon widows in El Paso. They’re not allowed.”

“Not allowed?” he asked, his expression darkening. “How can one pack be so different from another?”

Helena shook her head. “We’ve always been a small, tightly knit pack. People who marry out never come back. And people who marry in are always wolves. Never humans. Ever. Except for my mother and father. They broke the rules. They challenged my grandfather and—”

Ash just sat there quietly. He didn’t goad or push. He just waited for her to tell him what she needed to tell him.

She took a sip of water the waitress had already dropped at the table. “There are things I should’ve told you. Things about my parents.” She rubbed a stripe in the condensation on the glass. “My parents love and hate each other in the same breath. They stayed together, outside the pack, until I graduated high school. When I chose to live and work on the ranch, my dad moved back, too. My mother gave up on me, and we’ve barely spoken since. The pack always excluded her. Was mean to her. They met and mated in the space of a weekend…without telling his father.”

“Your grandfather?” Ash muttered.

Helena nodded. “My dad’s the only person in the El Paso pack to have defied tradition like that. And my parents have paid for it over and over and over.” She wiped a stray tear from her cheek and pasted on a smile as the waitress approached.

“What can I get for you two today?”

“Two plates of the original blueberry waffles,” Ash said, pasting on his own fake smile for the waitress’s benefit. “Thank you.”

“Perfect. I’ll have those out for you in a just a minute.” She scratched the order down on her pad and left the table with quick nod.

“The thing is…I was trying to protect you. Both of us, really. You have a life here. I have—well, had—to stay with my pack in El Paso, and my pack would’ve hated you. Been cruel to you like they were to my mother and father. I didn’t want to ruin your life.”

“So, you protected me…by…letting some random guy put his hand on your boobs and your ass? Or is there another mate I should know about out there?” There was so much hurt underneath his words, and Helena shook her head, trying to understand what he was saying.

“I didn’t let some random guy—” She snapped her mouth shut. Oh, wait. Except… “Did you feel that?”

His jaw dropped open, hanging there, but he didn’t say anything. Then he licked his lips and met her eyes. “Woke me up out of a dead sleep.”

Helena snapped her mouth shut and wiped away another errant tear. “I’m so sorry I hurt you. I never wanted to hurt you. That was me trying to forget you and find a wolf to be with. The guy…Adam…he’s Aaron’s brother…he was trying to help me.”

“By copping a feel?”

“He was trying to help me figure out if we had a mate bond.” She shook her head. “It was less than nothing. It only proved that you were the only one for me. No one else. But I felt I had to try with the wolves, for my grandfather—”

“No one else?” Ash asked slowly. He looked like someone awakening from a nap. “No one else but me. Is that what you’re saying? That you want me?”

Helena covered her mouth to stifle a sob. “Gods, Ash, I’ve wanted you from that very first moment in the bar. And then I realized I had to protect you from my grandfather…from my pack…from myself. I love you so much. But I didn’t think I could have you.”

She could feel hope rising like the sun inside him. “But you can. Aaron fixed it. Their pack allows humans. And even if they didn’t, I would be a wolf for you, Helena.”

A wolf? Helena pinched the bridge of her nose and took a deep breath. She’d love for Ash to be a wolf, for them to take runs together, but he wasn’t. And why would he ever think that was possible? People couldn’t just be changed into wolves. Didn’t everybody know that?

Ash pulled out his wallet and tossed a few bills on the table before he stood. He grabbed her hand and pulled her up from her seat. His mouth descended onto hers like a starving predator that’d just caught its supper. The salt of her tears mixed with the sweet taste of his mouth. Warm. Safe. She belonged to him. And she loved that feeling, especially after the empty gulf she’d experienced this morning when her grandfather took away the alpha bond. When she thought about it, she’d never really felt a sense of belonging with the Quades. Now she had Ash, and the future felt like a wide expanse of possibilities.

“Come on,” he whispered. “We’re leaving.”

“What about the waffles?”

“I’ll make you something at the house,” he said against her lips.

“Get a room, kids,” someone shouted from across the restaurant.

Ash’s mouth curved into a grin against hers. “Guess we should stop making out in the middle of the diner.”

“They’re just jealous,” Helena whispered.

“Truthfact,” Ash chuckled. He grabbed her hand and hauled her out of the restaurant and back to the truck. His mouth was on her again before they got the door open. Her back hit the side with a thud and she wrapped a leg around his hip, arching so that every inch of her was pressed against him. She wanted him inside her, but that would have to wait. Having sex in public wasn’t on any of her lists.

“Would that help?” Ash asked, pulling his lips off her neck. “Would it make it easier if I were a wolf?”

“I-I—I’ve always wanted a wolf mate, Ash, but you’re human. Humans can’t just choose to be wolves.”

“Tonya said there’s a spell that you can use to turn a man into a wolf—”

“Wait.” She put her hand up. “What are you talking about?”

“It only works on men or something. I tried to listen to everything she said, but there was so much coming at me from so many directions. But I can do this. Whatever you need.”

“I…I…I need to think.” Helena shook her head, trying to process what she’d just heard. Men becoming wolves? “I didn’t realize…”

She looked up at him. Is that really what I want? Do I want to be a wolf?

“You don’t need to make a snap decision, babe. We have all the time you need,” Ash said, kissing her neck again and cupping her breast through the tank top. Her nipples peaked instantly and her entire lower body ached with need.

“Damn, I can literally feel your response to me.” He pulled in a ragged breath. “The way you’re coiling up on the inside. It’s like it’s happening to me too.”

Helena could feel Ash’s arousal too. The hard erection throbbing between his legs. His desire to take her right there and then. “Not here.” She put a hand on his chest. “I want you so much, but not out here. Take me to your bed, Ash.”

He crushed his mouth against hers one more time, thrusting his tongue deep and tasting all of her. She briefly considered revoking her public sex ban, but then he opened the truck and lifted her up into the passenger seat, breaking their kiss.

“I need to be naked in your bed, right now,” she gasped when he climbed into the cab behind the steering wheel. She wanted to taste him. To feel him inside her. To be in his arms. Even the few minutes it would take to get to his house would seem like an eternity.

“Hold that thought,” he said with a wide grin, all for her.

He was so beautiful with those big dimples and sparkling blue eyes. He wanted her, still, after everything he’d seen and been through. Hell, he was willing to become a wolf.

For her.