Three years later…

“Come on, Scarlet,” I said to the tiny little wolf racing around the back field with all the energy in the world. “It’s time for dinner. Your father’s going to be upset if I let you show up late for the pack meal.”

Scarlet stopped in her tracks, looked at me like she was going to listen, then darted away through the high grass.

“Scarlet, I’m not kidding!” I told her. “Don’t make me go get your father.”

I heard a human sigh from the tall grass that let me know Scarlet had listened and shifted back.

“You’re no fun,” she said as I heard her pulling her clothes on. Moments later, she emerged wearing the floral-patterned dress Chrissie had made for her. Her hair was a brilliant strawberry blonde, and her eyes a fierce unyielding gray. Her skin shone a brilliant caramel beneath the evening sun. She was only two, but had grown fast and looked and behaved like she was twice that age.

“Oh, I’m not, huh?” I asked her with a smile, lifting her up with one arm. “Well, maybe I’ll stop sneaking you extra desserts then after dinner?”

I turned and stepped through the back door of the lodge where I’d made my home for the last two years or so. Chrissie was inside making dinner as usual. Chrissie was my little sister who’d come back from Colorado after a disastrous relationship with an alpha who she’d described as a “total douche.” Thankfully, she’d linked up with my buddy, Martin, and they were happy as could be.

“What’s on the menu tonight?” I asked her, setting Scarlet down on the floor. “Go find your poppa!”

Scarlet grinned a full set of white teeth at me and scampered into the lodge.

“We are making good old-fashioned steaks tonight,” Chrissie said with a smile. “With mashed potatoes and asparagus. Although I’m having a hard time finding my co-chef…”

“I’m right here,” a voice said from the door. I turned to see Kyle grinning at me, Scarlet curled up happily in his arms. “Don’t finish without me! I’d feel awful letting you do all the work.”

“Oh, I bet you would,” Chrissie teased.

“How are ya, Bryce?” Kyle asked me, stepping over to the stove and examining the steaks laid out on the cutting board.

“Hanging in there,” I told him. It sounded casual, but it was the truth. Ever since Kyle had given birth, I’d felt a strange longing come over me. I knew what it was.

It had been three years – three years since I lost my fated mate, and I was still no closer to finding him again. Seeing Kyle be claimed and bond with his mate, then get pregnant and have a child, had reignited that flame that had been burning inside me for the last few years, and I missed Clarence more than ever.

“Where’s my little girl!?” Another voice spoke from the door. I turned as Tate stepped into the kitchen looking happy as ever. He was all smiles, as he’d been since Scarlet was born.

“Shhh, I think she’s sleeping!” Kyle whispered.

“Oh, that’s my little girl,” Tate grinned, kissing his daughter on the forehead. “Hey, Bryce? How are ya?”

“Okay, Tate,” I told him, forcing a smile. “Doing okay.”

Tate was our pack leader, and I’d never met an alpha more deserving of the title. We’d met at The Love Knot when I took the bartending job. He’d been the bouncer, and one night had run into his fated mate being attacked in an alley by an alpha named Lucas.

He’d fought him off and taken him home and formed his own pack. Martin and I basically pressured him into it. We’d been packless for too long and knew he’d make a great alpha. He’d accepted, and we’d come up here to the lodge that his father had bought before he died.

He knocked up Kyle and we thought we’d all live happily ever after, but that’s when Lucas came back. He and his pack started scouting out our territory, hunting up by the water tower and casting their scent across our lands. They wanted Kyle back.

A group of fox shifters, led by Red, had come to our aid. Lucas had been infringing on their territory as well and they offered to join up with us in our fight. With their help, we’d managed to defeat Lucas and his pack, but they lost one of theirs in the battle.

Ethan.

He’d had long straight red hair, and that’s where Tate got the idea to name his daughter Scarlet.

It had been a mess, and even I’d been wounded in the fight. One of Lucas’s betas had gone for my jugular. He’d missed, but it was still a pretty bad bite. Luckily, Osana, one of Red’s foxes, was a doctor and she’d fixed me right up.

Since then, we’d all been living in relative peace, taking care of one another, maintaining the lodge while Kyle and Tate raised their beautiful daughter. It was great. But there was something missing in my life, and I’d been thinking about him a lot lately.

Clarence…

To tell the truth, looking at Tate and Kyle together pained my heart. I was Tate’s second in command, almost a co-leader of the Scarlet Mountain Pack, and I knew my place and did my job. They spent a lot of time together, and while their love permeated the lodge and filled everyone with their happiness, my heart had been aching since Scarlet was born.

“Bryce,” I heard Red say behind me and turned to see him standing in the living room. “Can I speak with you for a moment?”

“Sure, Red,” I replied, stepping out of the kitchen. It was hard to admit, but I actually felt better when I wasn’t around Tate and Kyle these days. Seeing their happiness, the love of two fated mates, only reminded me of my loss. And the fact that I didn’t even know what had happened to Clarence, where he was or if he was safe, made things even harder.

Too many questions with no answers.

“What’s up, Red?” I asked him.

Red was a funny guy. He had this old school kingly sort of air about him, like he belonged in another time. It took a little while to get used to the way he spoke, but he was dependable, a real alpha and a good friend.

“Don’t say anything to Tate,” he said quietly. “We may have a situation, but I don’t want to alarm him yet until I’m sure.”

“A situation?”

Red nodded. “Kitchi and I took a trip back to our old den down at Mirror Lake to pick up some things, and we caught a scent.”

“Another pack? Foxes?”

“Wolves,” he said. “A scent we haven’t caught before, so we tracked it over the ridge and down toward Stone Falls.”

“That little redneck town full of trailers and rundown motels?”

“Indeed,” Red scowled. “I don’t think we were spotted, but their scent was all over our old den. They should have kept their distance, but they didn’t. I think they’re reckless, and I want to check them out now and know whether we’re going to have ourselves a situation in the future.”

I nodded slowly. This wasn’t the best of news. Shifter packs usually kept distance between each other out of respect, but every now and then you’d run into a pack that just didn’t care, or even worse, was hostile and out to take what you had for themselves.

But right now, it was a welcome distraction.

“When do you want to go out?” I asked him. “Kitchi coming?”

“He is,” Red replied. “We’re going tonight, just after dark. Please don’t bring this up with Tate or the others. I don’t want to cause a commotion if this turns out to be nothing.”

“I understand,” I told him, patting him on the shoulder. “Count me in.”