“This is really nice,” I say as I look up at the big white building in front of us. We’re visiting Lachlan’s mother in the assisted living home where she lives on the outskirts of town. It’s beautiful, with a forest in the back and huge gardens for the residents to hang out in.

“It’s pretty nice,” he says as we walk up to the front door. “They take good care of her.”

The starting of a motorcycle catches Lachlan’s ear and he whips his head around. When I see his jaw tighten, I turn too and see a biker riding away. He has a leather jacket on with Hell’s Howlers stitched onto the back over a picture of a paw.

Lachlan’s hand tightens on the door handle as he watches him disappear around the corner.

“Everything okay?” I whisper. My heart starts beating a little faster as I look up at him with worry.

“Yeah,” he says, pulling the door open. “Let’s just go.”

He puts a protective arm around me and we walk into the building. I can’t help but gasp at the beauty of it as I look around at the marble foyer with the gorgeous waterfall against the far wall. “When I’m old and wrinkly,” I say, “I want to stay here.”

Lachlan checks in with the girl at the front desk as I walk to the large windows overlooking the spectacular gardens.

“Actually, I want to stay here now,” I mumble to myself. Colorful tulips line the walking paths that wind around the tranquil property, weaving around the old trees that stand tall and proud like the residents shuffling around.

This place must cost a fortune. It’s nice of Lachlan to provide this for his mother.

I’m thinking of how wonderful he is when he sneaks up behind me and wraps his arms around my stomach. “Mmmmm,” I moan as I look at our faded reflection in the window. I’m wearing the cowboy hat that he bought for me. I’m really liking it now.

“Ready?”

“Just one more minute,” I say, smiling as I hold his forearm in place. This is too good to leave.

A few minutes later, we’re walking into his mother’s room, and I’m kind of nervous, not knowing what to expect.

Lachlan explained that his mother had early-onset Alzheimer's in her fifties and she deteriorated rapidly. So, it’s a bit of a shock to see someone who looks too young to be here. She’s sixty-two and looks fabulous.

“Lachlan,” she says, smiling as she gets up from the couch. There’s a game show playing on the TV, which she shuts off.

“Hi, Mom,” he says, giving her a kiss on the forehead and a big gentle hug. “How are you doing?”

“Oh, good, good,” she says, blowing off his question. She turns to me and smiles.

“Mom,” Lachlan says. “This is—”

“I know who that is,” she says with a knowing smile. “The girl who sells the lottery tickets in Bakersville. I won a thousand dollars one time because of you.”

“She does look like that girl,” Lachlan says, nodding as he places his hand on hers. “But this is someone else. Her name is Jessie.”

“Oh,” she says, suddenly looking embarrassed. “I’m sorry. It’s these glasses. I need a new prescription.”

“Don’t worry about it,” I say, offering my hand. “It’s nice to meet you. Lachlan has told me so much about you.”

“It’s all lies,” she says with a sly grin. “I’m a saint.”

Lachlan chuckles. “You sure are, Mom.”

“So, it’s not every day that you bring a pretty young girl to meet me. Is this girl special?”

Lachlan looks at me and my skin explodes into goosebumps.

“She definitely is special,” he says, looking at me with heated eyes.

“Girlfriend special?” his mother asks.

My cheeks start getting hot as he smiles at me. “You could say that.”

I make some tea as they sit down at the kitchen table and catch up. I can’t keep my eyes off of him. It’s so cute to see how sweet and gentle he is with her.

Later, we go walking outside with her, and I tell him how adorable he is. His mother leaves for a moment to say hi to one of her friends, and I slide my hand into his as I take a deep breath of his musky scent.

“You know, you’re sweeter than you think,” I say looking up at him with a fluttering in my chest. “You think you’re no good and a danger to society, but all I see is a caring man who has endless patience for his mother, his horses, and the girl with more problems than Jay-Z.”

He just stares ahead with a blank face. “That’s only one side of me.”

I squeeze his hand as I rest my cheek on his shoulder. “It’s the genuine side of you. It’s who you truly are.”

His mother returns and he’s quick to change the subject. “Mom, I was telling Jessie what a big fan of The Spice Girls you are.”

Her face lights up, and I can’t help but smile as well. “I only pretended to like them because Lachlan was such a big fan.”

“What?!?” Lachlan shouts, looking indignant.

She just ignores him and turns to me with a conspiratorial look. “When he was a boy, he used to stand on the coffee table and dance to their songs. He would sing into my purple hairbrush.”

“Mom,” he says in a warning tone.

I’m giggling as his mother goes on. “It’s true. Lachlan was always Ginger spice. She was his favorite.”

“Oh, really?” I say, grinning as I turn to him.

He’s shaking his head, looking like he’s regretting this whole outing.

“Oh, yes,” his mother says, loving that she’s making her son blush. “Lachlan and his cousin Carter would put on the most fabulous shows for me.”

He tenses up at the mention of Carter.

“Where is Carter?” his mother asks, looking confused. “He hasn’t visited in over a month.”

“Mom,” he says, softly. “Carter died about six years ago.”

“Oh, that’s right,” she says, looking at the grass with a pensive look. “Car accident, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah, Mom,” he says as he slips his hands into his pockets and looks at the ground. “It was a car accident.”

He still looks upset as we continue walking toward the forest.

“Oh, will you look at this,” his mother says, shaking her head in frustration at the garden of beautiful flowers. “They never take care of the weeds fast enough. I always tell them, but they never listen.”

Lachlan looks like he’s somewhere else as he slowly walks along the stone path while his mother rushes over to the garden, drops to her knees, and starts picking out weeds.

“Are you okay?” I ask after catching up to him.

“Yes.”

“You don’t look okay.”

“I’m fine.”

His answers are more grunts than words.

“Is this about your friend Carter?”

He takes a deep breath, keeping his eyes on the trees ahead. His body is tense. He looks like he’s holding something painful inside.

“Can you tell me what happened?”

He exhales long and hard. “He was in a car accident.”

“Okay,” I say, slipping my hand into his. “Now what really happened?”

He turns to me and the tension melts away from his face, replaced with something else. Something worse. A deep sadness that breaks my heart.

“Carter was my cousin and my best friend,” he says in a soft voice. “When we were teenagers, we started running with a crew.”

“A crew?” I ask, raising an eyebrow. “Like a gang?”

“Something like that,” he mumbles. “This town was rougher back then. Carter and I joined The Grisly Grizzlies because that’s what shifters like us did.”

“Carter was a shifter too?” I ask, still marveling that there is a grizzly bear hiding inside him.

He nods. “A grizzly bear shifter. About six years ago, a new gang descended on the town and cleared out all of the criminals.”

“What new gang?”

“I can’t tell you.”

I roll my eyes. “I know there’s a bear in here,” I say, poking his chest. “I know that you’re the world’s biggest Spice Girls fan, and I know what your cock looks like. You can trust me.”

“Let’s just say they’re more powerful than bears,” he finally says.

“More powerful than bears?” I say, staring at him in disbelief. “What are they? Dinosaurs? Dragons?”

His eyes flicker when I say dragons. But, it can’t be…

“Dragons?” I ask, my mouth suddenly going dry as I stare at him with wide eyes. “Are you serious?”

“It doesn’t matter,” he says, shaking his head. “They came in and cleared out the bad. Our alpha, Maximus, wanted to give up the outlaw life and try to do some good in the world, so he made a deal with them to help. Me and Kneecap went along with him, but the other five members of the crew didn’t. The second in command, Bledsoe, broke apart from our crew and took Skin, Rigs, Colton, and Carter with him. They wanted to join the fight against the dragons, but they only ended up fighting us.”

“Carter didn’t stay with you?” I ask, feeling my chest tighten as I listen to the pain in his voice.

He shakes his head. “He made his choice. We avoided each other for the most part until Bledsoe ordered him to kidnap Maximus’ girlfriend so he could use her as a bargaining tool.”

I get a quiver in my stomach when I hear that. I know all about being used as a bargaining tool. I know what’s it’s like to be treated as a piece of property.

“Her name was Kennedy, and Maximus was utterly in love with her,” he continues. “We had a betting pool going on when he would finally bond to her. We all knew it was inevitable, we just didn’t know when.”

“What happened to her?” I ask.

“I came over to Max’s house one day during the war,” he says, rubbing his forehead as he closes his eyes. “Carter had her. He was trying to take her to Bledsoe when I walked in. I just wanted to talk, but things got out of hand and we started fighting. His bear came out. He always had a wild bear. The thing was crazy when it got mad.

“I pulled my bear out, and we fought in the house,” he says, pausing as he takes a deep breath. “Kennedy got caught in the middle and a flying paw from Carter’s bear sliced her face.”

“No,” I gasp, feeling like I’m going to be sick.

“She had four long gashes across her face and was bleeding pretty heavily. Luckily, Maximus came in and got her to safety. I was trying to pull my bear in to talk to him, to tell him ‘look what you’ve done.’ But my bear was uncontrollable. He flew into a murderous rage at the smell of his alpha’s girlfriend’s blood, and I couldn’t restrain him. I couldn’t do anything but watch as he killed my best friend and cousin.”

He shivers, looking nauseous. “I can still taste his warm blood in my mouth whenever I think about it. That was the day I learned my bear can’t be trusted around the people I love. I could have talked Carter out of it. I could have made him see. But there was no holding back my bear.”

We don’t say anything for a few minutes. His mother is still busy picking weeds from the garden as I process the disturbing story.

“Your bear did the right thing,” I say, cutting the silence.

He turns to me with a shocked look on his face.

“He was trying to kidnap Kennedy,” I quickly explain. “They were going to hurt her and use her as a bargaining tool. I know what it’s like to be treated like a piece of property, and nobody deserves that, Lachlan. Carter made his choice. Your bear was just protecting the innocent. I know it’s hard to hear, but he did a good thing.”

“But he was my blood. He was my best friend.”

“He tried to kidnap an innocent girl,” I say, shaking my head. “He was trying to do to Kennedy what Luca is trying to do to me. Can’t you see that?”

He looks at me for a long while as he thinks about it.

“I’ve learned a lot since being here with you, Lachlan,” I say, feeling frustrated that he would even consider feeling bad for Carter. “I learned that I do deserve to be loved, and that I’m not someone else’s property. You made me see that. I hope that I made you see that everyone else deserves that right too. Carter was trying to take Kennedy’s freedom and your bear stopped him. That doesn’t make him bad.”

He stands in silence for a while before whispering a ‘maybe.’

“Henry?” his mother starts calling as she looks around frantically. “Henry. Where are you?”

“Henry was my father,” Lachlan whispers as he turns to his mother. “He died when I was ten. I should bring her back to her room.”

“I’ll stay here and give you some privacy,” I say, stepping out of his way. His mother’s frantic look immediately fades once she sees him kneel down beside her.

He’s a good man with a good bear, no matter what he thinks. I just don’t understand why he doesn’t see it himself.

I watch as he guides her back into the building, taking her back to her room. The sun is shining with a nice cool breeze, and I’m starting to feel better as I wander down the path into the forest.

My mind is busy thinking of the story he just told me with Carter and Kennedy and Maximus. I’m wondering what happened to Kennedy when a twig snaps behind me and I turn around.

“No.”

Luca is standing there with three goons. His dark eyes are on me as he rubs his stubbled jaw. Luca would be a good-looking man if every single cell in his body wasn’t totally despicable.

“Normally, it’s customary for a bride to bring her husband on the honeymoon,” he says, not looking amused at all.

My initial shock turns to dread then quickly turns to anger.

“Normally, it’s also customary for a bride to want to get married in the first place,” I snap back. My eyes dart around, hoping to see Lachlan racing over, but all I see is trees.

And criminals.

Luca brought his three biggest goons, and he’s going to need all three of them once Lachlan gets here.

“Did you really think I’d let you embarrass me like that and get away with it?” he asks, stepping forward in his alligator-skin shoes. “You belong to me.”

“No, I don’t,” I say, taking a step back. My body tenses as I glare at him. “I’m nobody’s property. Not anymore.”

I’m not leaving with him. No matter what.

I’ve had a taste of freedom, and I’m not going back to being a prisoner.

He lets out a vile laugh as he looks at the cowboy hat on my head. “Take this ridiculous thing off,” he hisses as he slaps it off my head. I cringe as it falls to the ground and rolls away. “You’re not some yokel hick cowgirl. You’re my fiancé and will soon be my wife. Start acting like it. Now get in the fucking car.”

I thrust my shoulders back, keep my chin up, and stare at him as I try not to tremble. “No.”

“No?” He looks almost amused.

“I’m not going back.”

He steps forward, and his designer jacket swings open, revealing the handle of the gun hanging inside. I’ve done this once before…

His horrible breath is like an assault as it washes over my face. “You’ll do whatever I say,” he hisses.

Before I can tell my hand that this is probably a bad idea, it darts out and snatches the gun that’s hanging beside his ribs.

I yank it out and point it at the middle of his chest. I’d aim for the heart, but I know he doesn’t have one. “No. I. Won’t.”

The wall of goons steps forward, reaching for their own guns, but I’m too furious to focus on anyone but the sweating man in front of me.

“Neither you or my father get to tell me what to do ever again,” I say in a voice that’s bubbling with rage. “My will is my own, and anyone who tries to take it from me again will get a bullet in his chest.”

His hand darts forward, and my finger pulls the trigger.

The gun doesn’t make much more than a whiff thanks to the silencer on it, but the bullet does its job. Luca stumbles back as his blue silk tie turns purple.

I glance down at the smoking gun and swallow hard, wishing that Lachlan was here. It all happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to think about it.

His hand darted out. My finger pulled the trigger.

And now I’m about to be a murderer.

But instead of falling to the ground, Luca stands back up. His face is red, his nostrils are flaring, and the ugly vein on his neck is throbbing impossibly large as he stares me down. He yanks his tie off and rips his bloody shirt open as I quiver in front of him.

All I can do is watch in horror as he flexes his chest—his face straining with the effort.

Like magic, he squeezes the bullet back out of his chest, and I watch as it falls to the ground with a ping.

His wounded chest heals before my horrified eyes.

I raise the gun to shoot him again, but he slaps it out of my hand and grabs me.