I insisted on driving. Jarred wasn’t yet able to form words. He stood, fists clenched in front of the driver’s side door of our father’s old pick-up truck.

“Give me the keys or I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said, planting my feet wide.

Behind us, Peter and the remnants of the Matthews pack high-tailed it out of town, heading for their lands to the northwest. They had free run of the state park bordering Wild Lake. Brent and Jeff from the Lanier pack wisely stayed inside the bar. Well, it may have been wisdom. More likely, they’d gotten a command from their Alpha, Andre Lanier.

“Jarred?” I held out my hand and tapped my foot. Eyes wide, his dark hair, a match to my own, stuck out in disarray from when he’d torn his hand through it. Jarred’s jaw twitched and his wolf eyes glowed with emotion.

I was done waiting for him to collect himself. Snatching the keys out of his pocket, I shoved him aside and climbed into the cab. Slamming the door, I rolled down the window and stuck my head out.

“You coming?”

Jarred’s shoulders quaked as he drew in a deep breath. He smashed his fist into his thigh but finally turned and went around to the passenger side. Jamming the stick into reverse, I barely waited for him to shut the door before peeling out of the parking lot.

By the time I’d made the turn away from town, Jarred pulled himself together enough to yell at me. “How many times do we have to keep having this fight, Loosh?”

I hated when he called me that. Jarred braced himself with his hands flat on the dashboard. From the corner of my eye and in his simmering rage, he really looked just like our father. His dark brown hair looked almost black unless he was in direct sunlight. He had the same deep cleft in his chin that deepened when he was angry. And his eyes. Jarred’s eyes flashed bright silver, almost white when his wolf bubbled up. They hadn’t always been that bright. They used to be more like mine, liquid mercury. They changed to their more brilliant glow when he claimed his place as pack Alpha.

The knife went into my heart when I thought of it. I knew it had always been Jarred’s destiny. But, we had to lose our father for it to come to fruition. He’d died in a fight with some wolves from Kentucky who had tried to encroach on our lands a little over two years ago.

“You’re the one who wants to fight,” I said. “How many times do I have to tell you, I know how to take care of myself. And I’m not a child. I’m five minutes older than you, in case you forgot.”

Jarred slammed a fist on the dashboard. I hated when he got like this. It seemed he was always like this when I was around. That was another byproduct of Jarred’s new position in the pack.

I pressed down harder on the gas. The old truck took a minute, then lurched forward. I expected Jarred to give me crap about my speed next. Mercifully, he didn’t.

“Turn left,” he shouted when I slowed at a fork in the road. “You don’t get to hide at the Bonners’ farm tonight. We had a pack meeting, and you know it. They’re expecting you.”

“I haven’t been hiding out,” I said, hating that my voice cracked with anger. I knew it made me sound childish. Gripping the steering wheel hard, I turned left. “I thought I was doing you a favor getting out of your house.”

I don’t think Jarred expected me to say that. It was the truth. I slowed the truck as I made my way along the winding dirt path through dense woods.

My brother couldn’t read my thoughts, but he could sense my moods with almost perfect precision. “Lucia, it’s your house too.”

Once upon a time, it had been. The headlights illuminated the underbrush as I drove into the clearing and parked in the middle of the circular drive. The main house was a two-story, craftsman-style farmhouse. Our father had built it fifteen years ago, intending to live in it with our stepmother, Pat Bonner. We never had though. We all ended up preferring to live up at the bigger Bonner farm a mile to the west. He’d willed it to the both of us after he died.

I put the truck in neutral and cut the engine. Lights were on in the big pole barn behind the house. I sensed the pack inside, waiting for us. My throat went dry. I turned to my brother. Some of the anger had left his face.

“We’re just worried about you, that’s all,” Jarred said, softening his tone. It didn’t quite work; his eyes still danced with anger.

“I’m not going in there with you if all you’re going to do is lecture me about my proper place in this pack. I mean it, Jarred. You might as well just let me go back to Aunt Pat’s.”

I got out of the truck and tried not to slam the door. The porch light flipped on. The screen door opened and Camilla came out. At the sight of her, I felt Jarred’s anger cool. It was like that with them all the time. Even if they’d only been separated a few minutes, their faces would light with that secret joy only the happily mated seemed to share.

Camilla practically floated down the porch steps. Barefoot, she wore a flower-patterned dress with a billowy skirt. She had her own timeless, bohemian fashion. Her fire-red hair hung loose around her shoulders. Whatever rage my brother still held evaporated at the sight of his mate.

It had been that way since the instant he set eyes on her four years ago. Theirs had been an arranged mating. Camilla came from a pack up in Washington State. As a full-blooded female shifter, his nature would have called to hers no matter what. But, the incredible had happened. Jarred tried to explain it to me once but couldn’t find the right words. The moment she got close enough for him to sense, he said he knew instantly what she was. They were fated mates. A rare enough thing between humans and wolf shifters, it was practically unheard of between two full-blooded shifters.

Camilla folded herself against my brother. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and kissed her cheek. Camilla’s smile warmed even me. She stood only an inch shorter than my brother. Her eyes sparked with the same silvery light as his. She had an exotic beauty with a long, straight nose, full lips, wide, brown eyes framed with thick, dark lashes. She’d been a ballerina before marrying my brother. Her every movement came with an easy, athletic grace.

I’ll admit, I wanted to hate her at first. Camilla was an outsider. A free spirit who seemed never to have a harsh word to say about anybody. I mean, who needs that? And she was so easy in her own skin. She could be sweet, ethereal, graceful. Then, within the span of a heartbeat she could become brutal, fierce, teeming with feral, protective rage if anyone she loved was threatened. I was lucky enough to be one of the people she loved very much.

“I was worried about you,” Camilla said, resting her head against Jarred’s shoulder. “Lucia, I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“I’m fine. I just...needed to let off a little steam.”

Jarred’s eyes narrowed. He drew in a sharp breath, ready to launch into another lecture, no doubt.

“Well, of course you did,” Camilla said, trying to shut him down.

“Lucia, when I call you back, you need to listen.” It was the same lecture, but at least Camilla’s calming presence kept him from yelling at me. “I’m going to have my hands full dealing with Peter Matthews tomorrow.”

“You should,” I said. “Seems to me he was out of line.”

Jarred gritted his teeth. “Lucia…you were out of line.”

“What?”

He pulled away from Camilla and started toward the house. “You cannot go traipsing off alone anymore. Wearing...that!” He made a circular gesture in the air around me.

I was well and truly dumbstruck. I looked down to make sure I wasn’t losing my mind. Nope. It was just me wearing the same pair of jeans and silk blouse.

“What are you talking about?” Camilla and I said it at the exact same time.

Jarred had made it to the front porch. He gripped the post and turned. My brother had an infuriating habit of going very still and cold when he was truly angry. He brought brooding to an art form. Before Camilla, the women of Wild Lake used to go nuts for it. Well, actually, they still did. They just knew better than to do it anywhere near Camilla. She lived as a traditional she-wolf Alpha’s mate. She belonged to the pack, but Jarred belonged only to her.

He pressed his hands together and touched the tip of his nose to his fingers. Then, he clasped them together as if in prayer and leveled his hard eyes back at me. I met it with my own cold stare.

“Lucia,” he tried again. Over my shoulder, I knew Camilla had probably transmitted something to him along the lines of keep your temper.

“You have to settle down,” he said. Oh, Lord. Here we go.

I let out a snort. “Don’t. Do not.”

I started to brush past him, heading for the house. Jarred pushed off the post and barred my way. On the step above me, he towered over me, glowering.

“I’m sorry, but if you go out to someplace like the Backwoods by yourself, you’re going to draw attention we don’t need. I wish it weren’t true. You think I enjoy having to call you back?”

“Yes!” My answer flew out of me before I even really gave thought to it. Once it had, the floodgates opened. “As a matter of fact, hell yes! I think you love lording your position over me. Or trying to. What do you want from me? You want me to twiddle my thumbs here? Or stay locked in some tower somewhere so none of the rest of you have to feel uncomfortable? Because that’s what we’re really talking about, isn’t it? I’m not the problem. The rest of you are. If the wolves of Wild Lake can’t keep their testosterone in check, how is that my problem?”

Jarred slowly closed his eyes and shook his head. “It’s not. It’s my problem. But why the hell do you have to make it worse? You really think this is fun for me? Every other day I’m on the brink of a damn civil war. You need a mate, Lucia.”

I threw my hands up. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

“I can’t believe you just made me say it. Do I think it’s fair that you can’t go into town alone without leaving a pheromone trail a mile wide? Do I like the fact that Peter and those like him lose their manners around you? I would have ripped his lungs out tonight, Lucia. You know how close I was.”

Oh, I knew. My skin still prickled with the rage he stirred. Only Camilla’s presence kept him from going full wolf. Part of me wanted him to. Jarred and I hadn’t had a good wolf-on-wolf scuffle in years. Maybe it would do us both good.

“I wish things could be like they used to be,” Jarred said.

I bit the inside of my mouth to keep from shouting my thoughts. I wished they could too. It had been so much easier when my father was still alive. He always seemed to know what to say to both of us.

“Jarred,” Camilla said. She stepped forward, tucking herself beneath Jarred’s arm. Thundering footsteps and a crash came from inside the house. Camilla looked over Jarred’s shoulder and smiled.

“I better get in there before those little boys tear the house down. Tucker and Asher are having a sleepover.”

Tucker was my three-year-old nephew. The same age, Asher belonged to Marcus Tully, the oldest member of Jarred’s pack. He’d been our father’s best friend. Part of me wished Marcus would have risen as Alpha after my father died. It might have made things simpler between Jarred and me. But, he’d lost his own fated mate just after Asher’s birth. The double loss of his wife and best friend had almost destroyed Marcus too.

“Behave,” Camilla said, tugging on Jarred’s nose. He gave her a playful swat on the butt. He cleared his throat and let her go.

“And just tell her,” Camilla added. “Trust me. Do it now. Not in front of the whole pack.”

Jarred opened his mouth, but his answer died on his lips as he looked up and met my withering gaze. I crossed my arms in front of me, bracing for whatever Jarred had really dragged me back here for. My chest felt hollow. I feared I already knew.

Jarred waited for Camilla to close the front door behind her before he met my eyes. “Loosh, come sit on the porch swing with me. We need to talk.”

“We are talking. And I’m fine right here.” He knew what I meant. Standing in the yard still, I had a clear shot at the woods if the mood to run struck me.

He gave a frustrated growl. Deep, masculine laughter rose in the barn behind us. The rest of the pack were probably already a dozen hands into a Euchre tournament. They would have grown restless waiting for us.

“All right, fine,” Jarred started. “We’ll just have it out then. Just promise me you’ll hear me out before you try to rip my head off.”

“No promises. But, I’m listening right now, so spit it out.”

A hint of a smile lifted the corner of my brother’s mouth. “Fair enough. Lucia, I’ve had three mating proposals.”

I raised a brow. My heartbeat skipped, but I kept my composure. “Wow. Didn’t know you were planning to change teams.”

Jarred dropped his chin and growled again. “Don’t be cute. They’re for you, and you know it.”

“Who?” My head started to pound. I didn’t want to hear this.

“Andre Lanier, Jack Monroe and Peter Matthews.” He paused a fraction of a beat before saying the last name.

I staggered back. His words punched me in the gut. “Lucia.” Jarred advanced.

“No.”

“No, you don’t want to hear it, or no to the proposals?”

I put my hands on the top of my head as if it might pop off. “No. No. No.”

“It’s your choice. You know it is.”

“Then I choose no!”

Jarred reached for me. The urge to run thundered through me. They knew. They all knew. I whipped my head around, looking at the barn. From the window, I could see Marcus and Charlie Devane. They sat at a card table, but all conversation had stopped. Jarred had probably given them a telepathic heads up that I might be ready to blow.

Camilla was inside with the boys. She knew too! And yet, Jarred was still talking. They were all considering this!

I jerked my arm out of Jarred’s grasp. My whole body quaked with simmering anger. “I don’t want this. I don’t want any of them.”

“Will you just calm down? Will you at least think about it?”

“I’ve thought about it long enough that I’d like to puke. The next words out of your mouth better be that you told them all to sod off.”

Jarred’s silence gave me his answer.

“You told them I’d consider it?” I shook my head and backed away even further.

“I told them it was up to you. But, I told them I considered these serious offers. And so should you. Lucia, these men are pack Alphas. From our lands. Allies. Will you just think about what it could mean for the future?”

“So, it’s not enough you want to be my Alpha. You want to be my pimp.”

Jarred blanched. The color drained from his face. A part of me regretted saying it. The rest of me wanted to hurt him. He recovered.

His own rage took root. “You know...I’ve about had it with you. I mean really. What is wrong with you? You’re a she-wolf, Lucia. You’re the only one in Wild Lake in a generation. You’re supposed to want this. It’s supposed to be instinctual.”

“Well, I’m sorry I don’t fit your mold.” My words felt bitter in my mouth.

“Think about Camilla. Hell, talk to Camilla. She was in your exact position. You realize that, don’t you? Our father...your father made a proposal for her on my behalf. It was no different. And she came! She’s the love of my life. If you would just be reasonable, you might even find out it’s the best thing that ever happened to you.”

I wanted to slap him. I knew if I tried he’d stop me. “Don’t you dare bring up our father to me. He would have never stood for something like this. He wouldn’t have even considered anything like this for me. You’re not the Alpha he was. You’re not even close.”

Rage put me out of my body. For an instant, I saw myself through Jarred’s eyes. I stood before him, dark hair flying wild, breasts heaving, eyes glowing bright and silver. My words had hurt him. Badly. I hated myself for saying them. I wanted to crawl into a hole. I wanted to take them back.

I thought my brother would break. I expected his anger. His fury. Instead, I got his cold stillness.

“Maybe not. But, he not only stood for this...he made me swear I’d see it through.”

My knees buckled. No.

“That’s right, Lucia. Dad made me promise just before he left the last time. Andre, Jack and Peter made their proposals for you to him. I’m the one who’s put them off this long. Dad knew it would be good for you and good for the packs.”

“Shut up. You’re lying.” Except, I knew in my heart he wasn’t.

A fierce wind kicked up, as if my rising anger had made it. Maybe it had. I couldn’t think. I couldn’t breathe.

I did the one thing Jarred knew I would. As he stood there, eyes filled with anger and pain, I turned and ran for the woods.