Kendall couldn’t help but snort and then laugh in earnest.

“You are unbelievable,” he said when he recovered from the bout of laughter. “I’m this close—” he made a gesture with his thumb and index finger almost touching “—to tearing apart your clothes and bending you on the first available surface, and you come out with such an outrageous thing to say.”

“You don’t want my babies?” Juliette asked, all innocence.

“I want your babies very much, and if it were up to me, we would’ve spent the entire day—since the very first moment I met you—going at it with great enthusiasm. You might’ve noticed that I’m walking around sporting the most painful boner that would win a Guinness record for length and hardness if the category existed.” He moved his legs, but didn’t feel any respite. Talking of his condition hadn’t helped either, because her eyes had promptly looked down, increasing the size of his arousal, if possible. “If blood keeps rushing down I’ll faint, and it will be all your fault.”

Juliette’s eyes crinkled, and finally she burst into a giggle that soon became a full-on laughter. “You are the most hilarious man I’ve ever met,” she said, wiping her tears with the back of her hand as she tried to stop chuckling.

Kendall had his comeback ready, but her comment made him pause. “I’m not funny.”

“Believe me, you are a riot. I haven’t laughed so hard in a while, and today I have very little to laugh about. I even feel a bit guilty about it but can’t help myself. You say the most outrageous things.”

“Nobody’s ever found me comical before.”

“How’s that even possible when I can’t stop laughing?” She tried to suppress a giggle and failed.

“I haven’t had any reason to be carefree or happy in a long while.”

Her expression immediately sobered. “I heard about your brother—”

“I would’ve been surprised if you hadn’t. I am the laughingstock of the werewolf society.”

“I don’t see it that way and am sorry that happened to you. It must’ve been horrible.”

“It was.”

It was. Past tense. For so long, Ax and Aimee’s betrayal had shaped his days. From morning to night, every waking minute reminded him of what they had done to him—

Not any longer.

Startled, he realized that since setting foot on the island, his thoughts had wandered in any direction but their usual route. The painful memories of Ax and Aimee hadn’t haunted his mind since the day before. First the Hunger, and now Juliette kept him prisoner, but he liked the feeling.

Being powerless had never felt so right.

Juliette’s hand rose to his jaw for a caress. The rest of the world disappeared. It was just the two of them, suspended in time.

Juliette’s eyes softened, and she stepped closer to him. “Again, I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

“I’m glad it happened.” As he said the words, the weight that had crushed his heart for so long lifted. It had been lessening for several hours, the pain receding as his mind and body were primed for Juliette, but only now did he realize the magnitude of the process that had just taken place. “I wouldn’t have found you otherwise.” Or worse yet, they would eventually meet, in one of the many occasions the Cascadia Packs organized—like the Summer Solstice Celebration—and he would be mated already, to the wrong woman. Pain ripped through his chest at the thought. “My nana was right. There’s no fighting the Hunger, and it all happens for a reason.” He leaned to brush the point of Juliette’s nose. “I’ve been blind and deaf all this time because I didn’t want to see the truth, but my brother had no choice.” His lips sought hers. “As I have no choice now.”

A throat cleared, breaking the magical moment.

“What is it, Lily?” Juliette asked, her question a suffered growl that made her beta cringe.

“Alpha, I apologize but the Rojas’ parents-in-law aren’t happy with their accommodations—”

“Can’t you take care of it?” Juliette’s voice was low and scary.

Kendall could hear his mate’s accelerated heartbeats and her scent was a tantalizing reminder that they desperately needed some quality time alone of the adult variety.

“The Rojas Alpha asked for you.” Lily worried the hem of her shirt.

“Where is he?” Juliette’s eyes scanned the crowd that was now moving toward the gazebo and the tables laden with food. Waiters walked around, offering morsels of succulent roasted pig and sweet bread.

Kendall’s stomach rumbled at the mouthwatering smells and Juliette gave him an amused glance. “Still hungry,” he sheepishly admitted, snatching a meat-stuffed Hawaiian roll from a passing tray.

“I need to deal with the Rojas,” Juliette said. “You can stay and eat. I’ll come back as soon as possible.”

The Hawaiian buffet called to Kendall, but instead of joining the forming line for the food, he took Juliette’s hand. “You aren’t the only one who needs to deal with the Rojas’ alpha.”

“Bad history between you two?” She indicated one of the trails that departed from the clearing.

“Complicated history between our packs,” he said. “The Rojas are the Seattle Wolf Pack’s closest neighbors. They have gone through three alphas in the last year and a half. The old one was a good friend of my father, but he was succeeded by the scumbag who sent rogues to kidnap my ex a day after my father’s funeral. He didn’t leave me a choice but to challenge him in combat, and I killed him. The Rojas Wolves were left in disarray for a while, and the new alpha was appointed by the Council only a month ago. We haven’t met yet, and this is as good an opportunity to clear the air as any.”

“Hopefully, it won’t come to blows.” Juliette squeezed his hand.

“I promise to behave.”

“You better.” She tugged at him and headed into the shadowed path that led toward the bay.

“It’s hard, isn’t it?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“Extremely,” he replied without thinking.

She sighed. “Not that.”

“What, then?”

“Being alpha.”

“I was told I would be one when I was sixteen and it changed my life for the worse. My brother hated me, and I would’ve given anything to give him the title.” Kendall still thought that their lives would have been easier if Ax had been alpha, but he couldn’t change the past. “It’s hard to fill the shoes of an alpha like my father.”

Juliette had a faraway look when she said, “I fought and almost lost my life to become one. I couldn’t stand another day under the thumb of a tyrant doing nothing. I did the right thing but a day doesn’t pass without being reminded that I am a usurper and that I’m not worthy of the responsibility of taking care of a pack. I’ve bled for the Honolulu Wolves so that the new generation will never know what it’s like to go to sleep every night with the terror that your alpha is going to visit you, forcing you—”

Kendall stopped walking and pulled her to him. “You are a great alpha, an inspiration for all of us to do better.”

She shook her head. “I don’t know. Look at tonight’s mess. I can’t even ask for help from the neighboring packs because they’ll use my request to challenge me before the Council. I have skirted countless proposals of marriage to unite Honolulu to the rest of the islands. And as soon as I say no, the challenges and threats start.” She leaned against his chest. “I’m so tired.”

“You aren’t alone anymore,” he said. “And I’ll never tell you what you should do.”

She stepped away, putting some distance between them. “But how’ll we make it work? I hate to admit it but Renault is right. Two alphas, two packs, and we don’t even live in the same place. We have a six-hour flight and a three-hour time zone dividing us. How can we possibly make it work?”

“We will.” The Hunger and his unfulfilled physical needs didn’t help Kendall’s reasoning functions, but he couldn’t envision any other outcome that wasn’t being with Juliette. “We’ve just met and we are dealing with a crisis. One problem at a time. But I promise you, we’ll find a solution because I’ll fight for my happily ever after with you.”

She walked back to him, stepping to his side as they resumed walking. “What do you know about the Hunger?”

“I’d never heard of it until the day my ex left me for my brother. Meredith, my nana, told me about this farfetched tale about fated mates who fell under the spell of a devastating hunger that consumed them. No food would satisfy their cravings, and hunting prey wouldn’t cut it either, no matter how big the game was because the Hunger starts when two true soulmates are close to each other.”

“Like it happened to me earlier today. I swear I hunted and ate anything that passed through that part of the reserve, but I still felt starved. Then, when I met you, all of a sudden, the pangs ceased. I didn’t realize it had happened until you said it.”

“It’s how the Hunger works. In my case, it all started the moment I exited the plane. In less than an hour, I consumed more spam musubi than a Hawaiian family eats in a month.”

“I make a killer spam musubi. It’s my guilty pleasure.”

“I didn’t think you could be any sexier than you already are, but the mere idea of watching you eat spam musubi is fueling my ardor again. Never understood how fetishes worked until now.” He licked his lips, his heart speeding up against his ribcage. “And you must make some for me when all this craziness is gone.”

“The Hunger—”

“Yes, Meredith tried to explain what Ax and Aimee were going through, but one can’t truly understand until they’ve got the Hunger. Then you can’t even think, you just feel. When my wolf saw your wolf, I finally understood.”

“I was mad at my wolf at first for taking the choice from me, but we never had a choice, did we?”

“No, not really. I don’t regret it though. I’m glad our wolves did what was right. When you find your true mate, it’s love at first sight. We were lucky we found each other.” Kendall caressed her fingers. “I owe my beta. I wasn’t going to accept your invitation. He did it for me.”

“I swear I could see Little Wolf wink at me through the phone.”

“I’m sure he did. The man is a prankster, but if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be here and my life would still be full of misery.” He shuddered. “Or worse. Meredith told me that if Hunger mates don’t find each other, they will eventually become unstable.”

“That’s the only thing I remembered about it.” At his silent question, she answered, “When I was a kid, my grandma used to tell me all these stories about soulmates who were struck by this impossible hunger and that they would go mad if they didn’t end up together. I don’t know if it’s true, but she swore that it happened once in our pack, a century or so ago. The alpha went rogue because he got the Hunger but his soulmate died before he could reach her.”

Kendall shuddered. “I’ve thought about it. What if Ax and Aimee—”

She stopped him. “No sense on dwelling in what didn’t happen. Only the present matters.”

“You are as smart as you are beautiful, my mate.” He smiled at her, leaning to kiss her soft lips.

His body had a mind of its own, and what started like a sweet peck soon transformed into an all-encompassing kiss. His hands roamed up and down her luscious curves, and a moment later, his fingers moved under her top as he cupped her breasts and pressed his hardness against her. He walked her to the nearest tree, then turned so he would lean against the large trunk instead of Juliette for fear of hurting her. She jumped, anchoring her legs to his waist and arching her throat in a silent invitation to finalize their union. They had been dancing around the issue since the moment they met, and now neither seemed to be able to wait a moment longer.

A first mating should be performed as a sacred ritual, but the constant denial spurned their most basic instincts, making them more animal than human, and the frenzy to be one in every sense of the wolf nature won over propriety.

Kendall could only see the tan expanse of her swan-like throat offered to him. His fangs lowered as he yanked his pants down. She straightened her legs to remove her shorts before he would tear the fabric in his haste to mate with her. Skin to skin, he grazed her throat with the point of his fangs. She moved in his arms, her mouth lowering to his shoulder.

Keeping himself at her entrance, he made to pierce her flesh when the marine breeze carried angry voices from the cabins behind the line of Hawaiian trees.

His wolf howled in pain, and Kendall’s curse was heard in a mile radius. Letting Juliette down with great care, he leaned his forehead against hers. “I swear the universe conspires against us.”