When Helena’s eyes opened again, the same moonlight still shone through Ash’s bedroom window, bathing the room in a soft white glow. For a second, she considered just staying. Spending the whole night warm and happy in his arms. But it wouldn’t be fair to either of them. It would only make it harder in the end.

She lifted his arm and slithered out from under it, moving slowly to the edge of the bed. His breathing changed and he groaned. She froze, waiting for him to settle back into the mattress. Her body already felt the loss, too. She wanted to crawl back in next to him. Kiss him. Make love to him again.

Helena shook her head, as if the physical motion would help clear her mind and refocus on the task at hand. Finding her clothes. Leaving Ash. Her head still rung a little from the alcohol. Her mouth was sticky and dry. But she couldn’t let any of those things get in her way. She needed to get Kate to take her back to the ranch before she made a mistake.

Fumbling around the room, she found her panties and pants, her boots, but her shirt and bra were nowhere to be found. They must’ve gotten left in the front of the house. She opened the door to go look for them, but the sound of someone moving around in the kitchen made her close it again. Damn. Who was in his house? She racked her brain for at least a full minute before the still-drunk organ remembered him saying he shared the place with his sister. Her eyes widened and heat flushed her face. How much of what she and Ash had done would his sister have heard?

She grabbed one of Ash’s T-shirts from a chair in the corner of the room and pulled it on. It would have to do for now. No way was she going to go traipsing around his house naked while his sister was up. Might as well face the music and get it over with.

Helena glanced back at a sleeping Ash one more time. “I’m gonna miss you,” she whispered and then slipped into the hallway. She wouldn’t cry. Not for a man she barely knew, even though he’d made her feel special and cherished and uninhibited. Her night with Ash had been perfect—and that was the way she wanted to remember it. She wouldn’t cry. And she couldn’t stay.

She turned the corner into the kitchen and came face to face with a tall blonde woman who bore a strong resemblance to Ash. The soft glow of the kitchen overhead light hurt Helena’s eyes, but she stood there waiting to get the lecture that was sure to come.

“Want some coffee?”

Helena squinted at the woman and pressed her lips together, trying to decide what to say. “I hope we didn’t wake you.” She looked around the kitchen and saw a plate made up like the woman was about to eat breakfast. Eggs. Toast. Fruit. A cup of coffee.

“Nope. I have trouble sleeping, so I always have earphones and a mask on. I’d pretty much sleep through the apocalypse if no one thought to come and wake me.” Ash’s sister didn’t seem to be upset in the least.

“Why are you up so early?” she asked, pulling her phone from the front pocket of her jeans. 2 a.m. glared up at her from the face. She quickly texted her cousin Kate to see if they were still at Joe’s Bar.

“Opening shift. I work at Meg’s Bakery in town,” the woman answered. “I’m Lisa, by the way.”

“Helena. Nice to meet you. And that cup of coffee would be great.”

Kate’s text vibrated her phone, and Helena looked down. Can you make it back to the bar? She typed back a quick affirmative.

“Do you need a ride somewhere?”

“No, my cousins are still at the bar.”

Lisa nodded, handing her a cup of liquid heaven. Helena sipped on the dark roast and fought back a growl of satisfaction. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Lisa said, taking her plate and mug to the little banquette by the front window.

Helena downed the last bit of her mug of coffee and rinsed the cup in the sink. She walked to the front door and paused, looking over at Lisa. “Would you tell him I really enjoyed meeting him…and that I’m sorry I had to leave without saying goodbye?”

“You should know he never brings girls to the house. Ever.”

Helena’s heart squeezed at the thought. It’d been special. She’d felt the chemistry between them. “Ash is…special.”

“That’s one way to put it.”

“Will you please tell him that I’m sorry? I don’t think I could leave if I had to say goodbye face to face.” She hadn’t meant to say that, but for some reason the words just kept pouring out of her. Maybe it was the leftover remnants of the alcohol.

“Yeah, I’ll tell him,” Lisa said, giving her a strange look.

Now that she’d made things thoroughly awkward, it was time to go. Helena left the house, walking down off the little bungalow’s porch. Out into the night where the moon was almost full. Her wolf paced and whined inside, not happy they were leaving. “I’m not either, but this is the best thing for both of us, so just get over it.”

But the words didn’t sound convincing at all.

She made her way down the block and turned toward downtown, the way she’d come with Ash only a few hours ago. The closer she got, the more she could hear of the music filtering out of the bar into the quiet night. The rest of the town seemed to have long since retired for the night, but the thrum from Joe’s bar was like a slow-beating heart that pulsed with life. Kate was standing outside the main door.

“Where’s Gretchen?”

“She’s shacking up with a cowboy. Which is what I thought you were doing.”

“You haven’t found the right guy yet?” Helena grinned. Her cousin wasn’t even close to drunk, but she was slick with sweat from dancing. That was Kate’s favorite thing to do. Dance. Drinking wasn’t really on the list. Well, maybe it was at the very, very bottom. Helena couldn’t think of even one time when she’d seen Kate indulge in more than one drink.

They made their way over to the car and Helena sank into the passenger front seat with a sigh. The weight in her chest had gotten heavier with each step she’d taken away from Ash.

“Well, that’s not a good sound. What happened?”

“He’s human,” Helena answered once Kate pulled the car out of the parking lot and onto the main street. “I liked him too much. If I had stayed until morning, it—”

“It would’ve been harder,” Kate finished for her.

“God, Kate. I really liked this guy. I’ve never had a connection with anyone like I did with him. The chemistry was off the charts.”

They turned off the downtown roads and headed down the wide highway that would lead back to the VonBrandt ranch.

“But we can’t be with humans.” Kate voiced the unspoken rule of the Quade pack. “I mean you could, but it would be cruel. To you and to him.”

“I know. That’s why I couldn’t stay. I don’t want to repeat my parents’ mistake. Look what their issues with the pack did to them! My parents hardly ever see each other, and when they do, they just sleep together for a single night and then split again. If my dad had been willing to leave the pack for good, I think they would’ve been fine.” That realization slammed against Helena’s chest like getting kicked by a horse.

“Nobody leaves the pack unless they marry into another one,” Kate said, speaking the truth Helena knew deep in her gut. Her cousin was right. It was her only hope for an escape from the Quade pack.

“I can’t go back, Kate. I can’t take being ground into the dirt over and over because people want to punish me for my dad’s choices. I need to get out. Especially now that Grandfather basically fired me.”

Kate pulled through the big gate for the VonBrandt ranch and they took the quick turn up toward the shifter cabins. She and her cousins were staying in one of the cabins tucked into the woods. “Well, you’ve picked the perfect time. There are single wolves here from all over. I’d say it’s time to go mate hunting.”

Mate hunting. Helena sighed. She lived a strange life. Instead of dating around, she’d be sidling up to every single male wolf at the VonBrandt summit to see if Fate sparked between them. Speed dating with magick.

“How do you know who’s here?” she asked, getting out of the car as Kate parked in front of their cabin.

“I pay attention to these things,” Kate said, a slight giggle in her voice. “You’re not the only one with a plan to get away from our backward-thinking, chauvinistic family.” Kate slammed the car door and strutted up the path. “Come on, you can start a list. It will make you feel better.”

“I left my planners up at the VonBrandts.”

Kate shook her head as she unlocked the cabin and pulled the door open. “They’re in the back seat. I grabbed your bag on the way out. Girl, you were so drunk already, you didn’t even see me.”

My planners. Helena closed her door and rushed to open the back. Sure enough, the bag packed full of planners was there. She grabbed it and joined Kate inside. Kate had already turned on one of the lamps, illuminating the cute living space. She was sitting on the couch, waiting, and she patted the cushion next to her.

“Come on. Let’s do this. We need a plan for tomorrow.”

Helena smiled and set her bag down on the coffee table before sinking into the cushion next to her cousin. Grabbing one of her journals from the bag, she pulled the pen out of its loop and opened to a blank page. She wrote Eligible Wolves at the top of the page. “Ready.”

“Well, there’s Ryan and Beau Travis. So hot. Tall and dark. You know Ryan is a rodeo champion. His younger brother Beau is a little more redneck. Which is fine if that’s what you’re into. Then there’s Adam VonBrandt. He’s single. And hot enough that I’d lick him from head to foot so no one else touched him.” Helena and Kate giggled as she wrote down the names.

“I think I saw him for a minute when we first arrived.”

“Killer smile. Shoulders that go on forever.”

Helena nodded. “Yep.”

“Then his cousin Julian is single, and a super hottie.” Kate smiled and leaned back against the couch cushion. “Then there’s Rainier Dubois…oh, no, wait. He’s not with his pack anymore—heard he’s with the Rangers now—but damn, girl. He is smoking.”

Helena chuckled. “How do you know everyone?”

“I have connections,” Kate drawled.

“Okay, who else,” Helena yawned. She needed at least a few hours of sleep before she started hunting wolves in the morning.

“Well, there’s Allan VonBrandt too, if you like big and mean. He’s the sheriff here in town.”

“Wow, that’s got to be tough. Working such a public human job.”

Kate nodded her agreement as her eyes fluttered shut.

“No sleeping yet. Tell me more,” Helena said, shoving on her cousin’s shoulder.

“Umm, right. Miles and Lee Trent are enforcers for the VonBrandt pack. They are sexy and single too.” Kate yawned again and snuggled against Helena. A moment later, her cousin was snoring lightly and Helena found herself staring into the lamp on the table across the room.

Ash. She couldn’t stop thinking about him. Surely there was a man on the list who could replace him. A man who would be her Fated mate. Someone who would love and treasure her and make her feel safe.

What scared her most was that she didn’t want any of the men on the list to be a good replacement for Ash. How could anyone ever measure up to what she’d experienced tonight? But they had to. She needed a proper wolf mate. One who would understand her life. The lives of her family. One who had a pack that would accept her and love her.

She needed stability. That’s what her planners were for. They kept life smooth and orderly, something she’d rebelled against tonight. Tomorrow would be better. Tomorrow she would get back on the wagon and find a man. Fate would help her. She had to trust the magick.

Helena’s head started to do the nodding thing and sleep claimed her troubled mind.