Rafe Hudson was going to rip his little brother’s intestines out and use them to choke him to death. It was a fantasy he’d been living over and over in his head for the past few hours. It was a fantasy that he would have fulfilled already if only she hadn’t stopped him.

Her. Zoey. His mate. He was still trying to wrap his head around how that was even possible.

All of those years out there in the big, bad world. All of his time spent roaming from city to town to countryside. He hadn’t been out there looking for her but he was what he was. He was a shifter and it was hard coded in him to seek the woman that was meant to make him whole. In the back of his mind, every time he encountered a new woman, a new wolf or other shifter, he’d wondered if she was the one.

He’d wondered if he would find her at his next stop or the one after that. He’d wondered where she was and if she was looking for him too. And, in his darkest moments, he’d wondered if fate had even seen fit to give him a mate when he’d already failed to protect those that meant the most to him once.

He’d failed his family, his entire pack. He had been the one to run past the boundary line. He was the one the hunters had followed back to camp. He was the reason they were all dead, every one of them.

His proud father, the leader of them all. His mother, the sweetest wolf to have ever been born. And Gabe, his littermate, his twin, his other half in every way. The only member of his family that hadn’t been in the woods that day was Michael and because fate liked to throw punches when you were already down, Rafe knew that the reason his little brother hadn’t been there was because he’d been with her.

Zoey.

To find out, after all of this time, that she was his? That she’d been his all along? That she was his but that she’d been here with his brother? Well, that was an injustice he wouldn’t, and couldn’t, tolerate.

Any other wolf being anywhere near her would have been enough to incite him to violence after he’d caught her scent. The fact that he’d scented her for the first time in his brother’s home had been shocking but not altogether unrealistic. Michael had taken over the position of Pack Alpha, it was reasonable for him to have invited a member of the pack into his home. But her scent hadn’t been casual or fleeting in Michael’s home and that had been his first clue that something was wrong.

Her scent had been strong because she’d spent a lot of time there and realizing that his brother’s scent and his mates were so closely intertwined had felt like the first blow in a fight he hadn’t known was coming. Not at the time. Not until Michael purposefully tried to keep her from him, going so far as to refuse to tell him who the scent belonged to.

Rafe had left town after the attack on his family. He’d been injured, weak and damaged. He should have been dead. He’d wished he were dead. He’d known he was in no shape to take his rightful place at the head of the pack and he’d known what would happen if he stayed.

Somebody would have insisted Michael challenge him. The pack would have demanded it. He’d been weak and a Pack Alpha couldn’t be weak. His little brother would have been next in line and he’d always been strong. He was the logical choice.

So Rafe had left. He’d refused to fight the only member of his family that was still alive for something he’d never wanted in the first place. Gabe was the one that had wanted to follow in their father’s footsteps and lead. Not him.

Looking back, he could have simply stepped down. They probably would have let him. Nobody had wanted him as their leader then. A barely twenty-year-old Pack Alpha that was physically wounded and mentally unstable? No. They would have let him step down and stay but he hadn’t wanted to stay.

He’d needed to get away. Get away from the people that stared at him, wondering how he’d survived when the other, stronger wolves hadn’t. Get away from the little brother that kept telling him that it wasn’t his fault, when Rafe knew that he was wrong. He’d just needed to get away from all the reminders of what he’d lost.

All he’d wanted was to live his life in peace, to mourn the loss of his family and find his mate, to have the chance to make a new family for himself, one he swore he would protect with his last breath if only fate would give him another chance.

He’d never have suspected that by giving up his life here he would be forfeiting years with the one woman that could make him whole again. He hadn’t fought his brother to become Pack Alpha, to lead the pack or even for the right to the only home he’d ever known. But he would fight for this, for her.

She was his.

He growled again, or was still growling. He couldn’t seem to control it. Every time he thought about her and Michael, he wanted to rip his brother apart with his teeth and his claws. He was barely holding his skin, his wolf scratching at the surface, willing Rafe to set him loose on anyone that dared keep his mate from him, even the brother they loved.

He hated that she was even standing next to his brother and seeing Michael touch her had ripped at the last shreds of humanity he’d been holding onto tonight. Maybe it had been stupid, definitely crazy, because the Sherriff was right. He could arrest him for the unprovoked attack. Worse, he could be subjected to pack punishment for attacking the Pack Alpha. But he hadn’t cared then and he didn’t care now.

If Michael touched her again, Rafe was going to launch himself across the small space and take his brother’s throat.

His little brother. The only member of his family that was still alive. He should want to protect him, and he did, but that thought got all jumbled up with the anger and jealousy that had overtaken him when he realized that his mate was Michael’s Zoey.

No. Not Michael’s. She wasn’t Michael’s. She couldn’t be. She was his and if he had to beat that truth into his little brother, then he would.

Zoey wouldn’t like that, the little voice in the back of his head warned. He growled at the sliver of reason. She’d already stopped him once. She would try to do it again and he couldn’t risk her jumping between them. His pride would be hurt if she tried to protect Michael over him but worse than that she could be physically hurt if she stepped between them.

She was human. Damn it, had he ever considered his mate being human? It felt like another cruel twist of fate. She wasn’t supernatural which meant she was weak, frail, mortal. She could be hurt far too easily. She could die far too easily.

And he’d already lost too many people that were important to him.

A low moan filled the night air and it took him a moment to realize it was coming from him. It was a wolf’s lament, his pain escaping the only way it could. And every wolf in the vicinity heard it and responded in kind.

A dozen people or more had piled through the back door of the lodge to see what was going on. The Sherriff was still standing between him and Michael, his head on a swivel, trying to keep an eye on both sides. His brother winced at the sound, his head tilting in recognition though his muscles remained tense and ready for the next attack.

He’d give Michael that. The boy had always been smart. Because Rafe might not have intended to let his grief emerge but now that it had, for just a split second there, he’d thought about using it to his advantage. If he moved quickly enough, he could drop Michael while he was distracted, grab his mate and run.

The thing that stopped him, again, was Zoey. She turned back to him at the sound of his moan. His mate’s eyes met his and his heart pounded in his chest when she softened, worry filling her every feature, worry for him.

Automatically, she took a step in his direction and he started towards her. Magnets, that’s what they were now that he’d scented her, and the need to be near her, to be with her, would only grow until he mated her. The need to claim her rode him hard and he knew that she was feeling the effects of the bond too.

She might be human but she’d been made for him. Her soul and his were two halves of the same and needed to be rejoined. She was itching to get to him too by now, the need to touch him, to put her scent on him as real as his need to have his on her. She might not know what it was, might think it was a simple spark of instant attraction, but it would grow into an all-consuming need as real and deep as his own.

It had already started.

He could see it in the way her eyes dilated when she looked him over. He could hear it in the increasing tempo of her heart rate. Her breaths were coming faster just from being near him and he needed to get them out of here, get them somewhere private, soon. Because he had a feeling if he scented her arousal here, in the open, he’d take her to the ground and seal their fate with his brother and half the pack watching them and damn the consequences.

He couldn’t get over how damn pretty she was. He’d always thought she was pretty. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he’d noted the small, pale human that was always hanging around his brother was pretty and he remembered her clearly. But this woman, the one before him, wasn’t that same girl. She’d grown up since he went away. It was like seeing her for the first time and she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever laid eyes on.

Her hair was a bright, coppery red. It tumbled down around her shoulders in soft curls and framed a face that promised sin and salvation. Her big green eyes were innocent but her full, red lips were made for seduction. She was a tiny little thing compared to him but he knew for a human she was about average height. There was nothing average about her body however. She had the kind of curves that should have come with warning signs and the red scrap of material she was wearing showed off miles of unblemished, porcelain skin.

Red. Red. Red. She was human but she’d lived among their kind since childhood. She knew what that color meant. She had to. It was an invitation at best and one he was willing to bet no member of the pack had missed, least of all his brother.