Tenlee’s hands wouldn’t stop shaking. It was so bad she had trouble holding the cell phone in her hand.

She sat straddled on Kurt’s Road Glide, eyes on the back door of the precinct. Karis and Gunner were sitting in Colt’s truck waiting with her for the Clan to be released.

She’d felt something strange in her chest all morning, ever since she’d gotten the call that they would be released from custody. It was a sick feeling. Like a poison in her soul. A darkness she couldn’t get rid of, and she didn’t understand where it was coming from. It made it hard to breath, like she was on the verge of panic. She couldn’t have ridden in the truck with the others if she tried. She would’ve Changed, and it wouldn’t have been a pretty one. Her animal felt half rabid inside of her.

Any minute now, she would see Kurt’s face.

Feeling watched, she checked the trees again but didn’t see any crows.

They hadn’t come around the ranch either, though she and Karis had been paranoid and hovered around Gunner obsessively while they waited for the Clan to be released. She’d never felt so exposed than when she had her Gunner Boy to protect. She’d kept Colt’s old Peacemaker with her at all times as she and Karis had worked from dawn to dusk to keep the ranch going.

She’d grown to accept and adore Karis before she’d shown the Clan her human side, but working a ranch with someone, protecting a child with someone…well, it changed the make-up of a friendship. And Ava was now sitting in a cage beneath the precinct because she’d Changed in public to protect Tenlee.

Love.

She hadn’t known much about it before, only what she’d read in a few books she’d found on a shelf in Momma Crow’s house. Those had told her love was all mushy and perfect and between two people, but the books had gotten it wrong. There were different kinds of love.

When she looked at Kurt, he was everything. The sun and the stars and the moon and the air she breathed, and she would die for him. But it wasn’t always perfect and easy. Life wasn’t some bright sunshiny day on repeat. It was gritty, and love for her and Kurt meant tackling whatever came, and doing that together.

And then there was her love for Gunner. Her sweet, tough-as-nails Gunner Boy. He was currently hanging out the window with a shiny blue pinwheel, trying to catch breezes. To anyone watching him, he looked like an innocent human boy, but she’d seen him go fierce and claw at a grown man to protect Tenlee. His smile was medicine for a hard day. She would do anything to keep him safe and make his life happy. She often got emotional around him in this body. She wanted to make happy tears and hug him up all the time. That wasn’t in the books she’d read.

And then there was her friendships with Colt, Trigger, Karis, and Ava. That love definitely hadn’t been described in the books. That love had surprised her the most. It wasn’t a romantic feeling, but it held the same level of devotion that had grown inside of her for Kurt—devotion that had grown from a tiny seed into a mighty oak.

These people, and Kurt especially, had changed her from the inside out. From the marrow in her bones to the tips of her fingers. She wasn’t the same squirrel who had run away from a bad situation. She felt empowered. She felt in control of her life. She felt as though she could protect the Clan because they made her brave.

She blew out a breath and dialed Ramsey’s number on Kurt’s cell phone.

“You have some serious balls calling me after what you done, Kurt,” Ramsey snarled out.

“This ain’t Kurt.”

There was a breath of silence. “Tenlee?”

“I go by Ten now.”

“I’m not calling you a name those assholes gave you.”

“Fine. It’s the only one I’ll answer to though, so you’re gonna get real tired of me ignoring you. Your choice, though. That’s the beauty of this life, Ramsey. We have choices.”

“What is this about?”

“You want me?”

“Yes,” he muttered. “Yes and no and yes again. I wish I didn’t, but I’m stuck, and I’ll have you the hard way or the easy way.” The devil was in his voice as he ground out, “Another choice.”

“I have requests.”

“Denied. Come home or I’ll drag you home.”

Ten laughed and shook her head. He would never change. She hated him. “I’ll come back willingly and I won’t run again, but you have to take back the death oath on the bears, and you have to give me your word that you’ll never retaliate on them again. You have to forget about them.”

“Forget about them? Are you serious? Do you realize how many of our people they have killed?”

“Your people, and you were the one who was dumb enough to send your people after fucking grizzlies and polar bears and cougars. What did you expect, Ramsey? For them to roll over and show you their bellies and die easy so you could get what you wanted? Take accountability for your own actions. Your people died because you failed them as an Alpha.”

“Stop.”

“I’ll never love you, I’ll never give you children, I’ll never be comfortable in Red Dead Mayhem—”

“Stop!”

“And I will never be easy to be around, but if you’re fine with staying bonded to someone who pines for another man, okay. You don’t understand love. That’s what I’ve learned. When you love someone, you want them to be happy, and Ramsey, you don’t give two shits for my happiness. I learned about real love, and I want Kurt to be okay, and his boy and the Two Claws Clan. So if me sitting in the cage of the crows is what keeps your bloodlust at bay, I’ll throw my life away for—”

“I said stop!” Ramsey roared.

“Rule number thirty-something, you don’t get to fuckin’ talk to me like that. I’m not your people. I’m not your Clan. I’m not your MC. I’m rogue, and because of your decision to keep me chained to you, I will always be rogue.”

“Stubborn woman!”

“You haven’t even seen stubborn yet! I’m going to spend the rest of my life making you as uncomfortable as you make me. You want to know why? Because you are taking everything from me. I fell in love. Real love. The selfless kind that hurts and is scary but at the same time is the best feeling in the whole world. I have to give that up to protect my people because you only like things that you can’t have. I have to give up my shot at raising…fuck.” She swallowed hard and blinked a few times. “I have to give up my shot at raising a son. I have to give up my friends, and I know me. I’ll obsessively watch their lives from afar for the rest of my days and feel gutted that I’m not a part of their story. These are all. Your. Choices. And if you ever go back on our deal and hurt a single hair on their heads, I’ll douse your fucking Clan in kerosene and light a book of matches. I will poison Red Dead Mayhem from the inside out, Ramsey. I’m not the girl I used to be. I don’t run anymore. Leave them alone for always.” She slammed the heel of her boot onto the asphalt and shook her head hard. God, she couldn’t believe she would have to do this. “Three days. I’ll come to you in three days.”

“No, if I’m giving into your negotiations, I want you here today.”

“No deal. I want a chance to say goodbye to my people.”

His voice was low and dangerous and shook with rage when he said, “Rike said there is a claiming mark on your throat.”

“And you’ll always have to look at it and know you aren’t my true mate. More choices. Kurt is mine.”

“No! You’re mine! Always were. Always will be. My crow picked you. You! Little, submissive nothing! I lowered my standards to choose an animal for a mate! I should kill that cougar in front of you and then rip you apart you for your treachery, Tenlee.”

The doors to the precinct opened and there was Kurt, her light, the man whose memory would get her through the rest of the hard days of her life.

“My name is Ten. And you already did kill me.”

She hung up and positioned her mouth into the forced smile that humans used. Because for the next three days, she was determined to give Kurt the best memories that she possibly could.

They would have to last them a lifetime.