Clint’s low, creaking growl rattled over me. Marcus’s wolf, shimmering red with his golden eyes blazing, advanced. I put a firm hand on Clint’s back. His tail slashed upward as he bared his huge fangs.

“Marcus,” Pat cried out. She knew. God. If Marcus tried to attack Clint, he’d get his head ripped off.

Marcus snapped his jaw and sidestepped, pushing Pat further behind him. Out in the paddock, Sarah tripped over a bucket as she backed away. The clang as the bucket overturned drew Clint’s attention. I grabbed him, digging my fingers into the scruff of his neck. I pressed my lips to his ear. Marcus hunched lower, poised to strike.

“Don’t,” I whispered. “You’ll kill him.”

Marcus knew it, but he held his ground. My heart twisted. Marcus was willing to die to protect both Pat and me. I loved him for it. But, Clint was willing to do the same if I didn’t find a way to get them both to back off. At the same time, my wolf flared hot inside of me. It was Aunt Pat who grounded me.

“Lucia,” she said, her voice steady and calm. “Get him to stand down. Do whatever you have to.”

I acted on instinct. In hindsight, it might have been foolish. Marcus saw Clint as nothing but a deadly threat to both Pat and me. Still, I stepped between them. Marcus growled a warning. Clint flashed those massive, deadly fangs again.

I put one hand on Clint’s head, the other on Marcus’s. “I’m safe with Clint,” I told Marcus. “He’s a...a friend.”

I was barely hanging on. My own wild nature clamored to get out. Pat understood. She stepped around Marcus and stood by my side, putting her within inches of Clint’s reach.

“Take him up to the house,” Pat said. “Clint, is it? If you’re a friend of Lucia’s that’s good enough for me for now. If you try anything, you know you’ll have every wolf pack in Michigan after you. Big as you are, you can’t take them all on at once. Do we understand each other?”

She was so brave, so calm. Only a tiny flicker in her eyes told me how scared Pat really was. But, it was enough. Letting out a warning chuff, Clint took a step backward. Marcus stayed still as granite. I pulled my hands away from them, slowly moving toward the house.

Clint pawed the ground and gave one last fearsome roar that sent all the horses in the barn into a stomping frenzy. Sarah had the presence of mind to run to them. She was human, but like Pat, she’d been around shifters her whole life. Incredibly, she wasn’t afraid.

I took a chance, turned my back and began the slow walk up to the main house. Clint followed. Thank God. He followed.

I couldn’t bear to look behind me to see what Marcus did. He was Pat’s to deal with. Harold stood on the front porch, gripping the railing. He didn’t need his eyes to sense something big had happened. When I reached the porch steps, I stopped to face him. How the hell was I going to explain any of it to him?

“You okay, honey?” Harold asked. Though he couldn’t see Clint’s tiger, he sure as hell sensed it.

“I’m okay,” I answered. “I suppose you heard everything?”

Harold gave a slow nod, turning his face toward Clint. “I expect you plan on following her in here.”

I opened my mouth to answer for him, but Clint shifted. Harold sensed it. He took a step backward.

“I’m not planning on letting any harm come to her,” Clint said, his breath coming heavy.

“Well, that makes at least two of us,” Harold said, his mouth splitting into a wry smile. “Honey, you think Marcus has called your brother’s pack by now?”

My heart lurched. I’d been so preoccupied trying to keep Clint and Marcus from attacking each other, I hadn’t even thought about what else might be going on in Marcus’s head. I didn’t feel Jarred though. For whatever reason, Marcus had kept my secret.

Clint stood in the hallway, coiled, predatory fury. He kept his fists curled at his sides and the shadows of his tiger stripes rippled across his chest. I went to the hall closet and pulled out a pair of jeans for him. Pat was used to shifters traipsing through her house after whatever skirmishes they faced outside.

“Thanks,” Clint said through tight lips. My heat still thundered inside me. This was bad. Horrible. Marcus may not have called to the pack when he sensed a threat, but it was only a matter of time before he filled my brother in. There was really only one thing to do now and it shredded my insides.

I couldn’t breathe. My body still quaked not only with Clint’s close call with Marcus, but all the things I’d heard just before that. I slumped against the wall and buried my face in my hands.

Clint was on me. He slid his hands beneath my elbows and pulled me back up. His forehead creased with worry and his green eyes glowed brighter as he searched my face. The memory of his kiss lingered in my mind. After everything that happened, I still wanted more.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked, his voice ragged.

“Tell you what? Which thing? I can’t even…”

“You know exactly which thing.” His voice gained strength. He let go of me. Running his hand over his face, he charged down the hall until he ended up in Pat’s kitchen. The delicious scent of her homemade chicken soup hit me full on and my stomach roared with hunger.

Clint turned on me. Pat had a long farm table in the center of the room that seated twelve. With cabinets painted green, she had copper pots and pans hanging from hooks near the stairs off the back of the kitchen. He’d lived in the house his whole life, but Harold constantly banged into them. I knew both Harold and Pat would be here any second. They would have more questions I didn’t know how to answer.

“This Peter,” Clint said, pacing. Rage colored his face. His footsteps fell so heavy, I worried he’d fall through the hardwood floor. “He’s made a full on challenge for you. Why didn’t you tell me?”

I was angry. I wanted to shout that it wasn’t his business. I had enough keyed up wolves in my life, I didn’t need to add a tiger to that mix. And yet, heat and desire flared through me as Clint’s possessive anger made his eyes flash even brighter.

“It’s pack business,” I said, knowing full well it wouldn’t satisfy him one bit. It was the kind of thing Jarred would say.

“Bullshit!” He whirled around and crossed the distance between us in two powerful strides. His stripes appeared again. On instinct, I reached for him, running my hands along his chiseled upper arms. Clint’s tiger instantly quieted; his stripes receded.

“Okay.” I tried again. “Then, it’s complicated. You heard what Marcus said the same as I did. And by the way, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t try to rip off the heads of any more members of my brother’s pack. Aunt Pat was right. If you’d lost your cool and attacked him out there, you’d have more than just a bunch of Venezuelan jaguars after you. And they’re not just Jarred’s pack. They were my father’s. They’re mine.”

The words felt hollow in my mouth. Were they mine? I’d lived my whole life surrounded by my father’s men. They were loyal to my brother now. Marcus had just proved he was willing to put himself between a full grown tiger and me. Even if his emotions were misplaced, he’d done it for me. At the same time, I’d never felt more isolated from the wolves of Wild Lake than I did right now.

“They’re willing to sell you off to the highest bidder!” Clint couldn’t hold back his roar any longer. It bounced off the walls and shook the pots and pans. His hands were on me, pulling me toward him. His anger stoked mine. Fire burned inside of me and my vision went white. I knew my wolf eyes blazed right back at his tiger’s.

There was movement toward the front of the house. The front door slammed shut and heavy footsteps clomped down the hall. Clint pulled away from me. Reason had won out and he seemed to know how much harder it would be if Marcus or any of the others found me in his arms.

Harold, Pat, Marcus and Sarah walked into the kitchen together. Of the four of them, only Sarah shot me a smile. That girl might have been sixteen, but it seemed she had the soul of someone older and wiser. It was one of the reasons she spent more time here on the farm than back in town with girls her own age.

“You okay, honey?” Pat asked, though she kept her stare leveled at Clint.

“I’m fine. I’ve been fine.” I wanted to say so many other things. I wanted to rail and scream and ask them why no one had ever told me about my father before. He left for me. He’d died because of me. He’d wanted to mate me off to keep the peace among the packs. I hated and loved him all at the same time. But, most of all, I missed him. The grief I’d pushed down for so long rose up. Behind me, Clint seemed to sense the change in my emotion. I felt his hand lightly touch the small of my back. It bound me to him. Tethered me. At the same time, it took my breath away.

“These are pack lands,” Marcus snarled to Clint. Pat reached for him, touching his arm. Marcus’s eyes glowed gold, but he kept his wolf in check. “But you knew that, didn’t you? You came anyway. Jarred knew there was something wrong at the Backwoods. He told me he sensed something. I figured Lucia just had him all keyed up. So what the hell are you doing here? You know it’s within my rights to call all the packs down on your head.”

“Enough, Marcus,” I shouted, sensing Clint’s anger rising. I couldn’t bear to look back at him, afraid my own feral side would win out. “Clint’s not here to cause trouble.”

“The hell he’s not!”

Clint’s thunderous growl shook the pots again. Harold moved, putting himself at Aunt Pat’s side. Sarah watched everything with a kind of detached curiosity. It was odd that she was still here though. Why hadn’t Pat just sent her on home?

“Clint’s here because of me,” I answered, straightening my back. “As a friend to me. He needed a place to stay.” I was about to give Marcus the highlights of what Clint told me, but as I started to, I realized it wouldn’t help one bit. Clint was on the run from another group of shifters. Telling Marcus that wouldn’t do much for his resume.

Finally, I did look back at him. My heart dropped. Clint was barely hanging on. His eyes glowed like green fire and his stripes were out again. If he shifted here in the middle of Pat’s kitchen, Marcus would rightly take it as an act of open aggression.

“Clint, is it?” Harold said. “You may be a friend to our Lucia here, but I think even you can see how you’re being here is stirring up trouble she doesn’t need.”

“She needs someone to protect her,” Clint glowered.

“We protect her!” Marcus charged forward. I got my hand up just in time and shoved him back hard. He slammed into the opposite wall.

“Enough!”

Marcus’s fangs were out. Aunt Pat shot me a pleading look. There was just no way these two could stay in the same room together much longer.

“Honey,” she said. “Why don’t you have your friend go wait out at the cabin? I think he knows the way.”

Her look was kind, but devastating. She knew. She’d known all along.

“I’m not leaving her alone with…”

I turned on Clint. I hated asking him to leave, but Pat was right. Until Marcus calmed down, this was going nowhere good. “You don’t have to worry about leaving me alone. I told you. Marcus is part of my brother’s pack. And it’s not like I’m defenseless. You all seem to keep forgetting that. Just go to the cabin. I’ll come find you in a little while when everything’s...calmer.” It was a lie. Nothing could possibly get calmer after this. He knew it, but he also knew Marcus hadn’t given him an idle threat. If he brought the packs down on our heads, things would go from bad to horrible.

“I’ll go,” he said, a vein popping near his temple. “But I won’t be far.” He turned his attention to Pat and Harold. “I owe you my thanks for your hospitality.”

“Just see that you don’t dishonor it,” Harold said. Blind though he was, he seemed to stare right through Clint.

I knew Clint had more to say. I also knew how hard it was for him to turn his back and walk away. Because it was ripping me apart too. He dropped his head in deference to Pat and Harold, but refused to look at Marcus. Then, he found the back door and left us.

Shaking, I turned back to Marcus. He gripped a chair back so hard I thought he might break it. Pat peered up at him and tried to smile.

“What do you expect me to do?” he said, leveling a hard look at me. “What the hell have you been thinking?”

I wanted to yell, stomp my foot, remind him that I was a grown woman and this was all my own damn business. Except, I knew it wasn’t. Not now. I might be all those things, but I was also a Wild Lake wolf and I’d kept something big from all of them.

“You should go too, Marcus,” Pat said, her tone softening. “You know Lucia’s safe here. You need to calm down first, then we’ll all decide what to do.”

“Do you want me to lie to him?” Marcus’s voice rose to almost a shriek. Pat was still talking, but he directed his rage at me.

“No,” I said, struggling to keep from yelling right back. One of us had to stay calm though. “I’ve never lied to you or my brother. And I never lied to my father either.” He understood my implication and it made him go pale. It just started to dawn on him that I’d overheard everything out at the barn.

“Lucia, your father…”

I held up a hand to silence him. “No. Not now. I’ve heard enough from everyone. Aunt Pat’s right. We all need to calm down first. I’m not asking you to lie to my brother. I am asking you to let me be the one to tell him. Can you at least give me that?”

Marcus swallowed hard. He curled his fist. He seemed ready to launch into another tirade, but once again, Pat’s steadying hand on his arm calmed him.

“Fine,” he said. “I’m heading to Traverse City in the morning to meet Senator Logan at his office there. We’ve still got a business to run in spite of all this...chaos. Jarred thinks I can talk some sense into him about this highway project. But, I’ll be back by tomorrow night. If you haven’t told your brother about...him, then I’ll have no choice.”

I nodded and spread my hands wide as a gesture of peace. Well, not so much peace, but maybe a temporary truce.

“A tiger?” Marcus said, his voice rising. “You let a damn tiger onto Wild Lake lands? Lucia, what the hell are you thinking?”

“Come on,” Harold said, coming to my rescue. “Patsy and I will walk you out. There’s nothing more to be done tonight, Marcus. This will be between Lucia and her brother now.”

I knew Marcus had so much more to say. So did I. But, he let Pat take him by the hand and lead him back down the hall. Harold followed close behind. I stood frozen in the middle of the kitchen until I heard the front door close. Only then did I sink into a chair at the kitchen table and bury my face in my hands.

I don’t know how long I sat there. I’d forgotten that I wasn’t alone. Then, Sarah quietly slid into the chair beside me. When I looked up, she was smiling.

I threaded my fingers through my hair and turned to look at her. Her wide brown eyes held both kindness and wisdom. I’d known her since she was little. She had a knack with Aunt Pat’s horses and seemed able to anticipate their movements before they made them.

“I’m sorry about all this, Sarah,” I said. “Clint didn’t mean to scare you. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She rested her chin in her palm. “Oh, you didn’t.” The smile hadn’t left her face. Sweet as she was, Sarah was an odd girl, too. To me, she always seemed to be living in her own little world apart from all the rest of us. Pat said it was because she could see things we couldn’t. I never understood what that meant.

“Oh, Sarah. I’ve made a real mess of things, haven’t I?” I folded my arms on the table and rested my head on them.

Sarah reached over and rubbed her hand gently over the curve of my skull. “It’s not your fault, Lucia. It’s fate.”

“What?” My heart skipped. My wolf stirred as if sensing a threat. But there was no one here but Sarah and me.

Sarah laughed. “You seriously don’t know?”

I sat up. “I’m sorry. I’m just not in the mood for riddles.”

Sarah sighed and sat back in her chair. “I saw it the minute I laid eyes on your tiger. I’m surprised you didn’t.”

“Saw what, Sarah?” I didn’t like the look she was giving me. Too calm. Too...happy.

“Clint, is it? Your tiger? Lucia, for a being with preternatural senses, you’re sure pretty dense about what’s right in front of you sometimes. But, don’t worry. I told you, I saw it in a vision. I’m never wrong about these things. That tiger is no ordinary tiger. He’s yours.”

I couldn’t breathe. It got hard to see as if every light had just gone dim. My heart thundered and excitement flooded through me. I wanted to ask her what she meant, but that would just be a deflection. I knew. She knew I knew.

Sarah shrugged and got up from her chair. She grabbed a kitchen towel from the counter and started toward the sink. Pat had a pile of dishes that needed washing. “It’s gonna get real interesting around here, that’s for sure,” Sarah said. “Who would have ever thought Jarred McGraw’s sister, the only Wild Lake she-wolf in a generation, had a tiger for a fated mate?”

Her lilting laugh cut straight through me as my heart beat wildly with the truth of her words. Clint was mine. I was his. My God, we were fated mates.