“This is my place. I mean, our place,” I correct, as I pull her suitcase out of the trunk of Ronnie’s car. She’s grown quiet. I wonder if she was hoping for a bigger place. I’ve lived in the cottage since I became alpha.

I wonder what she’s used to. She doesn’t look like she’s lived in a mansion, but the frayed hem on her jeans could be intentional. Signe once bought a pair of jeans for two hundred dollars and they were just a bunch of threads held up by the side seams.

“It’s not much, but I’ve got some money stowed away and you can fix the place up. Just tell me what you want and we’ll get it down.” I want my mate to be happy.

She gives me a smile that trembles at the edges, and hugs her middle. She looks scared of something. I wonder if it’s me. I’m a big man and sometimes women aren’t into that. Ronnie prefers Kristian’s lean frame to my big one. Fuck, I wish I had more experience with women. I’d be able to read this one better.

If she were pack, I’d pull her into my arms. Touching each other can chase away the fear, but from the way she reacted at the airport lounge and the way she tucked herself into the corner of the car on the ride home, I’m guessing closeness makes her uneasy. If she had a bad experience with a man, I wish Ronnie would’ve said something. First, so I could go rip the man’s head from his shoulders and second, so I wouldn’t have been so reckless at the airport.

Setting myself an arm’s width away, I gesture her inside the house.

“You live here alone?” she asks.

“Yup. Perks of being an al-in charge.” I keep making the mistake that she knows about the pack. I wonder how I’m going to introduce that information to her. Again, I wish Ronnie had given me more information about this whole marriage-by-proxy thing. “We can either eat here or go up to the lodge and have dinner with the rest of the pa-people.”

“Here’s good,” she says.

I give her a tour of the place. “We’ve got the great room, the kitchen and a bathroom.” It might be small, but it’s nice. The main area is one big space with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the woods. The wolf whines as my eyes run over the dense copse of trees. If he doesn’t get to mate, he wants to run. I push the wolf’s voice aside and head for the bedrooms. “Here are your rooms. Why don’t you wash up while I get dinner ready. Steak okay?”

“Um, sure.”

“How do you like it done?” I brace myself for burning the meat black.

Her lips curve up in a rueful smile. “Rare. The bloodier the better.”

I perk up. At least we have this in common. “Two rare steaks coming up.”

She doesn’t take long and by the time the meat is plated, she’s in the kitchen helping me set the table. I try not to notice how her thin shirt clings to her body, outlining a pair of tits that make my mouth water. Immediately my jeans grow tight.

I hustle over to the table and take a seat. I’m going to have to walk around with my hands cupped in front of my dick until I can get some control over my body. I gulp down my steak in a few quick bites and then lean back to enjoy the red wine Ronnie picked up the last time she was in town.

Cassie looks beautiful in my kitchen. Her honey hair glows under the warm lights. The fire crackles behind us. It’s easy to imagine a couple more settings at the table and the sound of chattering kids filling the air.

“It’s nice having you here,” I tell her, hoping my admission doesn’t scare her too much.

“It’s nice being here.”

That sounded genuine. Encouraged, I keep talking. I’m anxious to get to know her. “You like your room?”

Her face lights up and the first genuine smile breaks across her face. I nearly swallow my tongue at how beautiful she looks.

“It’s gorgeous. The bookshelves are amazing.”

“I built those.” I can’t believe I’m bragging about putting together a few two by fours, but here I am.

“You did? I love them. After the contract confusion and all, I thought maybe you didn’t know a thing about me, but those two rooms proved me wrong. I couldn’t have designed anything so perfect in all my life.” She leans across the table. “But I realized in there that while you know me, I don’t know much about you at all. I mean, I know some stuff like that you’re super healthy and that you’ve got this big growing business, but I don’t know much about your past.”

I drop my eyes to my wine glass. I want to be honest with her, but telling a full human that her brand new husband turns into a wolf now and then isn’t likely to have a good outcome. I wonder how the Pine Valley alpha did it. I make a mental note to call him first thing.

“Well, I live here alone as you know. My parents passed away a while back in a fire. I wasn’t hurt much, but the smoke did a number on my eyes.” I tap my temple. “I get headaches when I have to read, which is why I prefer working with my hands.

“Ronnie told me. I’m sorry.”

“It was before I can remember. My pack raised me.”

“Your pack? Do you mean your friends?”

I start to make up a story, but at some point she’s going to have to learn. I might as well let her get used to our language. “They’re more than my friends. They’re my family and yours now, too. That’s why I call them a pack.”

“Like a…wolf pack?” Her eyebrows beetle together.

“That’s right. A wolf pack.” I hold my breath to see how she takes it.

“That’s cool,” she says, but there’s a shadow behind her eyes. Ever since we entered Rule territory, she’s been retreating. "It was very nice of you to help me move and pay for my travel here and all."

"It’s the least I could do."

There’s a strange note in her voice, as if she wished I hadn’t paid for everything. I feel as if she is hiding something from me.

“We went to a wolf retreat once on a school trip. They were so majestic and beautiful.” She sighs. “I would’ve loved to have gotten a dog, but I was so busy that I didn’t feel like I could be a proper pet parent and then my ex, well, he didn’t like animals. He felt that they were too dirty.” Her little mouth turns down.

An ex? Is this what she is hiding? Is my mate still in love with another man? The wolf inside me roars. We will go and hunt down this ex and kill him and then she will have no choice but to fall for me. In our world, each person has only one true mate. Deviate from that path and suffer the consequences, like Kristian.

But…Cassie is a human and humans have other ways. Still, I can’t take a human to mate even if she is the right match so I force myself to ask.

“Do you still love him?” The wolf whines and covers his ears with his paws, and I steel myself for an answer.

“I don’t believe in love.”

I blink in surprise. She doesn’t believe in love? That is the whole purpose of mates—to love and cherish each other until death. My parents died together. My mother had dragged me out of the fire and then returned to our home to retrieve my father. He had been trapped under a steel support beam that had fallen to the ground. When she was unable to move the beam, she laid down next to him and they burned together.

I would’ve done the same—as would any mate. "What do you believe in?"

"I believe in rational decisions like our marriage. We both have a need and the other was able to fill it."

I roll the wine glass between my fingertips, debating whether to continue this discussion with her. It never occurred to me that my mate wouldn’t love me. I didn’t know that such a thing could happen between mates.

"What is your need then?"

"Actually, we should talk about that. When I said earlier that I wouldn’t break the agreement, it was a selfish statement. Now that I’m here and see how many people you have…" She pauses. "Edon, I have to confess something to you. When I signed the marriage contract, I needed to get away, but I know that’s a mistake now. I shouldn’t have brought anyone else into this mess of my life."

She says other things about targets and victims and terrible, shifty exes, but all I can hear is that my mate is trying to leave me. The wolf roars his disagreement. I can feel the shift trembling under the surface. My wolf is convinced he can make her stay. I know better. Seeing me change now would terrify her. If she can’t love another human, she could never love a shifter like me. Still, she’s my mate and I won’t let her go.

"No."

"What?"

"No, you can’t leave." I remember the scene outside the airport when I told her she could leave if she reimbursed me for the ticket. She might not believe in the pack, in loyalty, or in love, but she’s honorable. I’ll hold to that for now. "You have nowhere to go."

"I know, but that’s wrong." Her eyes fall to her lap.

"If it’s the sex, then we wait. As the contract says, it’s your choice."

"No. It’s not that. I mean, you probably know that I do want you."

At her words, my vision blurs and the wolf inside me roars with triumph. She wants me. My mate wants me. I sweep my arm across the table, scattering plates and wine onto the wide oak plank floor.

She jumps up in surprise. I catch her to me, capturing her lips with mine. The first taste of her is better than the richest, most expensive wine. She parts her mouth, her little tongue flicking out to greet mine. None of the fear from earlier is present. She’s all soft, needy want. I ravage her mouth, exploring every inch.

For years, I have waited for this. For years, I have brushed aside all invitations from humans and wolves alike. I wanted to save myself for my mate, and my patience has been rewarded with the sweetest flavor in all world. I can’t wait to taste more. I bend her back over the table and drag my mouth along her plump cheek to the little shell of her ear. She moans and digs her fingers into my shoulders.

"Dig those nails deep, girl. Mark me as yours," I rasp harshly into the delicate skin of her neck.

"Edon, I…ohhhhh—" She breaks off as I thumb one pert nipple poking insistently against the thin fabric of her shirt.

I’ll buy her a new one, I decide. A closet full of black thin t-shirts. A semi-full of them, if she wants. But right now I need this shirt off. I need to see her precious tits and suck on her firm nipples. My hands shake when I tear the shirt in two. She gasps as the severed sides fall away, exposing her creamy skin. She wears no bra and her tits bob eagerly before me.

“Ah, skatten min, look at how beautiful you are.” The endearment falls from my lips. My treasure. I cup her bounty in each of my hands, rubbing a thumb over the tips that pucker and harden under my touch. The urgency to rut has passed. All I want to do is to spend a lifetime drowning myself in the feel and scent of her. I take a long drag to fill my lungs with her intoxicating arousal.

"Edon, please," she whispers.

My wolf preens at her passionate pleas. We dreamed our mate would respond beautifully but the reality of it is breathtaking. I trace her collarbone with my teeth, noting with interest how sensitive the hollow of her neck is. She shivers and shudders when I lightly brush my hands against the sides of her tits. She arches against me when I take one of those hard nubs into my mouth.

She moans my name again. And again. And again. The third time, the discordant, almost distressed tone, breaks through my arousal. I raise my eyes from her beautiful tits to see her blue eyes filled with agony.

This isn’t passion. She’s not crying out my name because she wants me. What is this then? Doing her duty as part of the business deal? This isn’t how our mating should be. Our coming together should be a joyous thing.

I push away from the table. “You don’t have to sacrifice yourself for me,” I snarl.

“It’s not a sacrifice,” she huffs, pulling the sides of her tattered shirt over her bare chest. “Besides, I do want you and you want me.” She points to my erection—the one that’s about to punch through the zipper of my jeans.

I force myself away from the table. “Not like this.”