Luke’s dream had come true. Taking Quinn as his mate had been everything he’d imagined. Quinn and her body fit him perfectly, and his satisfied wolf couldn’t agree more. Two seconds after, his worst nightmare happened. The shit stain of a bear, Trey Steele, held his mother and was threatening to kill her.

“Don’t move,” Trey said.

Quinn walked over to her dresser and pulled out a pair of shorts and a tank top. She ignored Trey’s warning, which really worried Luke.

“Quinn?”

She looked at Luke. “He’s still subject to the law, if not clan rule then human justice. He won’t hurt your mother.”

Luke took a step toward Trey.

Trey pointed the gun at Luke, and he let slip a small sigh of relief. Better him than his mom.

“I said put your fucking clothes on,” the blustering bear demanded.

“If you had an ounce of true alpha in you, none of this would have been necessary. I would have happily given you the clan, but that’s the problem, isn’t it? You aren’t a true alpha. You’re a tiny little bear all wrapped up in a gigantic dick.”

“Quinn,” Luke warned. Now Trey turned his weapon on Quinn.

“I know what you want, Steele. What you’ve always wanted. Gather the clan, and I will give it to you. I swear it on my father’s place with the sky gods. I will give you exactly what you want.”

“And what do you think I want?” Trey snarled.

Luke’s gut tightened. What was Quinn up to?

Trust me. It was Quinn’s voice in his head. He’d only ever been able to hear thoughts when he was in his wolf form, and only when the person speaking was in their animal form. So why could he hear Quinn now? Neither of them had shifted, even though his wolf was begging to get loose.

I won’t let him harm your mom. Trust me, she said again.

Luke nodded. He did trust her. More than anyone, even the soldiers in his unit and the team he’d assembled for his security agency.

“I will give you a chance for the rightful rule of the Orsino clan.” Quinn narrowed her gaze on Trey. “All of the clan, not just the sycophants who would blindly follow into rush hour traffic even if it meant getting squashed.”

Luke heard Monica gasp from the hallway. “Quinn, you can’t,” she cried out.

“Shut her up!” Trey shouted, swinging his pistol wildly. “You heard your Ursula. You all heard her. Tomorrow. I will call the clan to Artio’s rock, and you will all witness as Quinn officially hands over the reign of the Orsino Clan to me.”

He backed down the hallway, Ronnie still in his grip. Luke noted there were twenty men, along with the two prisoners John Wilkers and Carly the beautician, with weapons trained on Marigold, Sonya, Rick, Melody, Monica, and Alisa. That’s why there had been no warning. Trey and his thugs had managed to take them by surprise. He’d have a lot of questions for Rick if they all managed to get out of this unscathed.

“Let her go,” Luke said.

When Trey got to the front door, he shoved Ronnie, propelling her into Luke’s arms. He caught his mom as she sagged with relief against him.

“Tomorrow,” Trey said. “Six a.m. Don’t be late.”

****

Quinn looked around the room. Everyone seemed to be accounted for except for one sly old wolf. “Where’s Mrs. Wilder? Is she okay?”

Melody frowned. “She left after you absconded upstairs. She said her job was done.”

“I guess it’s lucky she missed the explosive finale,” Quinn said.

Monica, who’d been pacing back and forth, practically wearing a trail in the carpet, rounded on her sister. “What in the world were you thinking?” she demanded. “You can’t give him the entire clan. Brandon’s…” She shook her head. “You’ve betrayed both Brandon and Marigold. You betrayed all of us,” Monica sobbed.

Quinn gave her sister a moment to pull herself together. When she’d seen Trey with Ronnie, a strange sense of calm had fallen over her, and she knew at that moment what she had to do. And what she had to do didn’t include running away from a fight.

“Don’t worry, sis,” she told Monica. “I’m not going to give him the clan.”

“But you swore it. You can’t go back on your word. He’d still win.”

“I didn’t say I would give him the clan. I said I would give him a chance at rightful rule. Which means, he has to win a challenge against the alpha if he wants to take our people from me.”

“Luke can’t challenge him. He’s a wolf shifter, not a bear.”

“I’m not talking about Luke.” Quinn smiled. “The rules state that only a bear shifter can challenge for leadership of a clan. It doesn’t state that the bear has to be a man.”

“You can’t be serious,” Luke protested. “This is your plan? You’re going to challenge Trey Steele to a death match?”

Luke’s words stung for a moment, but she took into account his fear of losing her. Fear often made people say stupid things, especially to those they loved. She looped her arms over his shoulders and clasped her hands behind his neck.

“How is the ass feeling, honey?” She clawed him pretty good earlier. The thought of her marks, the one on his chest and the grooves in his buttocks made her feel alive. “Have you ever heard the expression, grower not show-er?”

“I don’t think I like where this is going.” Even so, he wrapped his arms around her. He dipped his mouth to her ear. “Don’t make me bite you again.”

“Oh, but I want you to, again and again. I’ll never beg you to stop.”

Luke chuckled.

“Oh, for the love of all that is merciful, could you two stop long enough for Quinn to tell us how she’s going to fix this,” Monica said.

Quinn disengaged her arms from Luke. She had been feeling surges of strength all week long, and until Trey had ruined a perfectly perfect evening, she hadn’t known what it was all about. She’d been coming into her power, her own true self.

“I am alpha,” Quinn said to Monica. She turned so everyone in the room could understand. Can they see the energy pulsing through my body, she wondered.

She heard Luke’s voice answer. I see it, my love. You are magnificent.

“Some people, like Steele and his minions, believe an alpha rules from a place of fear. That an alpha is someone who takes what he wants and expects everyone to bow to his whims. It’s easy to mistake a bully for someone who is strong, but really an alpha is just the opposite. A true alpha is someone who puts the needs of his or her people before his or her own. A true alpha loves, protects, and most importantly serves. I know this now. Trey Steele will know it tomorrow. He is not a true alpha. He is a coward disguised an alpha.”

“You really think you can beat him?” Monica asked.

“She will beat him,” Luke said. He put his arm around Quinn. “She will kick his ass to Alpha Bootie and back.”