I was hard as rock as I leaned back against the wall, nursing a beer as if it held the answers to all of my problems. Namely, the woman I hadn’t taken my eyes off of, who was eye fucking me from across the room as she swayed her hips and laughed with her friends.

I wanted to make her mine in every way possible, but she blocked me at every turn. You haven’t exactly asked her again. Yeah, because it hadn’t even been a week since we’d gotten married. No way in hell had she changed her mind so fast, not when she’d been so adamant in the first place.

Which left me with … waiting? Ah, shit. I wasn’t good at waiting, but I’d do it.

Or I could try and figure out what it was that was holding her back, so I could show her—

“So, this is what it’s like being mated.” Dylan slid in next to me, bumping my shoulder and tilting his drink at the dance floor. “Fuck, it makes me wonder if I actually ever want to meet my mate.” He drained his bottle, letting it swing between his fingers, his expression dark and brooding and so out of character for my friend, I actually managed to drag my eyes away from Bree for a moment.

“Everything okay, man?”

He grunted, tilting his head back and surveying the crowd through hooded eyes. “The sex is good, right?” His voice was a little slurred, but nothing more than a decent buzz, the scent of moonshine clinging to him like cheap cologne.

If anyone else would have asked me that, they’d be laid out on the floor right now. But this was Dylan. He got away with shit like this because the fucker never knew when to shut up. He wouldn’t know the line he wasn’t meant to cross if it smacked him in the face, let alone tripped him up.

But I still wasn’t giving him an answer.

He pointed at me, a sly smile twisting his mouth. “Shit. I’m right.” He went back to staring at the room. “I’m so fucking right. Fate is leading you by the dicks, the lot of you.”

“And?” I didn’t see his problem.

His jaw clenched. “I make my own decisions.” The way he spat the words out hinted at a story, but it wasn’t my place to dig. As his alpha, it was my job to make sure he stayed on the straight and narrow, didn’t lose his head and go off the rails. I wasn’t his fucking babysitter.

“We all do,” I settled for saying. Just like I’d made the decision to give my mate time to come around to the idea of forever. Even if the thought made me seriously consider hitting that bottle of moonshine myself.

He pushed away from the wall, setting his empty bottle on a shelf. “Well, my decision is I’m out of here.” Whipping his hands out of his pockets, he reached out and caught a human woman who had stumbled into him—on purpose, if the predatory gleam in her eyes was anything to go by—flashing her a wide grin that was more the man I knew while setting her back on her feet with a gentle push. “Steady there, darling.”

“Hello, handsome.” She trailed a finger down his shirt, leaning into him.

Catching her hand before it could reach his belt, he shook his head. “I think you’ve got me mixed up with someone else. He’s the handsome fucker.”

I watched as confusion filtered through her alcohol driven fuzz, her lips pouting and eyebrows bunching together.

Dylan, ever the comedian, winked at her. “I’ll point you in his direction, if you like? Tell him Dylan sent you.”

She blinked, a little slow on the uptake, and I bit back a chuckle when he spun her around, whispered something in her ear, and sent her in the opposite direction.

Taking a swig of my beer, I shook my head. “What the fuck, man?”

The grin had faded, but at least he wasn’t acting like the world was going to end anymore. “I don’t like saying no.”

My eyebrows reached for my hairline.

“What? I’m a nice guy. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings.”

I couldn’t help but ask, though I already had a good idea. “Who did you send her to?”

The grin was back, full on and devious. “Dante.”

Okay. That wasn’t the name I’d been expecting. I jerked away from the wall, scanning the room. “Fucker,” I snarled when I spied him hiding in the shadows, his gaze set on Bree. “What’s he doing here?” I was already winding my way around the room, my prey fixed in my sights. Moving up to his side, I yanked on my control, managing to restrain myself at the last minute from pinning him up against the wall. “Dragon.”

A flash of purple aimed my way, then, “Wolf.” His lips thinned with displeasure.

I didn’t give a fuck if he wasn’t throwing me a party anytime soon. “I didn’t think this place was your scene.” I waved a hand at the vast number of humans that filled the bar, set on enjoying their vacation to the max.

His lip curled, but amusement flashed in his eyes. “I’ve been to worse places.” He surveyed the crowd, lifting his shoulder in a half shrug. “Though this is a unique kind of torture, I must admit.”

I coughed, hiding my burst of laughter behind my fist. “Not keen on humans?”

“Only when I can keep my eye on them.”

This time I didn’t muffle my laughter. “No plans on sharing the family jewels with them, then?”

A sound of disgust came from him and I swear he held back a shudder.

I sighed, initial flood of rage having fled the building and leaned my back against the wall. It was tempting to knock my head against it, if only to clear it. “Why are you here, Dante?”

His hand cradled a drink, bringing it to his lips. He looked to be weighing his next words carefully, which was so unlike the arrogant bastard, I braced myself instinctively. “She’s not as hidden as she thinks.”

“Bree?” I confirmed, keeping my voice steady despite the jackhammer going off inside my chest. He knew something.

His gaze never left the dance floor, his voice low. “Lucky.”

Fuck. If I’d been in wolf form, my hackles would have been up and fur bristling as I shoved away from the wall, crowding him. I growled. “Are you threatening her?”

He sipped his drink, as if having a pissed wolf shifter getting up in his face didn’t bother him in the slightest. “Did you ask her to explain?”

I gritted my teeth. “No. Not yet.”

“You should.” I didn’t miss the undercurrent of warning threaded through his words. “For some strange reason she’s chosen you.” He sounded … perplexed, and if I hadn’t been in the mood to punch him in the face I might have been amused.

“What the fuck, is your pride wounded?”

He tutted. Yep, actually tutted at me, like I was a small child not old enough to understand. “Pride … ego … honor—it’s all the same thing really. She made her choice.”

Satisfaction rushed me. Yep, she’d made her choice all right. “Because you wanted her to choose you?” And didn’t that just make me want to beat on my chest with my bare hands?

“I wanted her to make the sensible choice.” His voice clearly said that wasn’t me.

Fuck this shit. Dancing around it obviously wasn’t getting me anywhere with this guy. Sucking in air in a hope that it might give me a measure of calm, I ground my next words out as slowly and as clearly as I could manage, “Do you want Bree as your mate?”

He met my eyes and held them for the first time, his gaze assessing and piercing. “You’d give her up?” With those words, I knew for sure that he knew we weren’t properly mated.

I slammed him into the wall, barely keeping my hands from closing around his neck, instead using my shoulder to pin him there. “Just answer the fucking question!”

He shoved back and we swayed, caught in a wrestling match that wouldn’t declare a victor unless one of us was willing to start talking with their fists. “Answer mine first.”

Blood boiling, my mind trapped in visions of Dante swooping in and luring Bree away had me fighting the urge to involuntarily shift for the first time since adolescence. “No,” I snarled, putting us nose to nose, letting him see the conviction burning in my eyes. “I will never give her up because she is everything to me. She’s not a pawn or a trophy or a goddamn game. She is everything to me and whatever she chooses is fine by me, because it’s her fucking choice, not mine. Not yours. Not anybody’s but hers.”

“And you’d be content with the scraps that she throws you?” He wasn’t sneering, he seemed … intrigued.

My chest was heaving as my wolf pushed at my skin, the burn of the truth that had just clawed its way out of me leaving my heart a complete mess, twisting and pounding inside my chest, but my head was completely clear. “I would do anything for her. Anything.”

He shoved me away, managing to gain an inch. “Good.”

I shook my head, the adrenaline easing its way out of me at the look of satisfaction on his face. “Good?”

His hand clamped onto my shoulder and I almost knocked it off, but then he shoved me around and my knees threatened to buckle under the weight of the aquamarine eyes staring back at me.

“I don’t want her as my mate. I never have.” Dante’s voice in my ear didn’t manage to break the spell that had fallen over us as I tried to figure out exactly how much she had heard. “I’m a friend of the family. Think of me as a distant uncle, but definitely not related.”

Her eyes shot to Dante, widening as she took a step back, stumbling into someone and jerking away. “What kind of friend?” she asked.

“Very distant, but enough that I wanted to look out for you.” He moved up beside me. “You have your father’s eyes.”

Confusion drew her eyebrows together, erasing the panic that had previously tightened her features. “No, I don’t.”

“You also have your mother’s sharp tongue, which I would have preferred not to experience again, but that’s life.” He shoved his hands in his pockets, observing her with a wry expression that I’d never seen before on his face. Almost … paternal?

Bree stared at him, as if he was mental. “I’m nothing like my parents.”

He sighed, scrubbing at his jaw. “I’d have preferred to have done this somewhere a little more … private, but you refuse to come visit me.”

“Because you’re an arrogant ass,” she shot back.

Yeah, she was definitely the perfect woman for me. A spitfire even when the ground beneath her was falling apart.

Dante chuckled. “Yes, you’re so much like your mother.”

She scowled, planting her hands on her hips. “Quit babbling and start talking, old man.”

The smile he gave her was almost apologetic. “No, you’re right. You’re nothing like your adoptive parents.”