Dane Magnus slid into a booth at The Hot Spot Diner the moment it became empty and picked up the menu from the table. He was so hungry that he could probably eat three full entrees. Breakfast and lunch had been missed courtesy of the lengthy business he'd had to tend to at the bank. His stomach had growled the whole time he was there scanning through pages and pages of documents. Although he was tired as hell, sleeping on an empty stomach never did him any good.

He scanned the various dishes listed on the menu and tried to drown out the sounds of the quaint little diner situated on the outer edge of Aspen Valley. Not only were the kitchen staff working furiously in the background trying to keep up with all the orders being shouted at them by the waiters, the place was jam-packed and the noise level was high. On any other day the crowd would have been an unusual occurrence, but at nearly midnight, the town had received plenty of guests courtesy of the big business convention held here every year.

The Hot Spot Diner catered to all, both human and shifter alike, so there was a mix of bodies in the place tonight. His belly rumbled on, reminding him that he wasn't here to check out the scenery.

"Magnus." Sharon, the waitress, appeared by his side and set a glass of ice cold water down on a coaster. "I haven't seen you in a while."

Sharon Stetson was born and raised a small-town girl—a small-town shifter for that matter. Her uncle had owned the diner before he'd handed it over to the eldest son. From what he'd learned, Sharon had been working here since her fifteenth birthday, bussing tables and dishing out friendly smiles even to the most hostile customers.

Dane regarded her with a nod. "That's probably because I've been cross country for the past two months on business. I only just came back two weeks ago."

"Hmm, that's why your boys haven't been behaving themselves." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Brock, Raoulf, and Garrett have had several run-ins with the law. They've been in the news more times than I can count on one hand and the human police have been in here several times asking questions about their dealings and whereabouts."

He sat back and ran the pad of his thumb along his jawline. "You know how folks these days bend rumors. Don't worry about my brothers. If they've gotten themselves into any mess, I'm sure they can get themselves out of it."

She nudged him on the shoulder. "It's you I'm worried about. I don't want your brothers giving you a bad reputation with the humans. It's time they settled down with their Pack with you being the Alpha and all. Speaking of settling down…that Meredith chick was boasting about your skills in bed at Haney's party last night."

Dane flexed his jaw muscles in irritation. Evidently, bending rumors wasn't the only thing folks loved to do. People liked to spin tales out of rumors these days. "Not true. I can't remember the last time I've been with Meredith. It's been at least six months now."

Sharon and him and were cool like that, and being a woman, she always seemed to have all the latest gossip in their small community.

"There's talk in the village that you're looking for a mate," Sharon said in a teasing voice, quirking her eyebrows at him.

"Like I thought, rumors get bent."

"It would be so much easier on you if you had a woman to go home to tonight, don't you think?" She winked. "After a hard day's work…you wouldn't have to come to this noisy place anymore. I'd be sad about that, though…but I know just the woman for you."

He gave her a knowing look. "Who?"

"Cindy Porter. The judge's daughter. She came in here trying to sell us some fancy computerized order-taking system and had nearly every man in here drooling at the mouth. I have to admit, she's a cutie. Little innocent thang too."

He knew exactly who Sharon was referring to. He didn't want to burst her bubble by telling her that Cindy wasn't that innocent after all. He knew three shifters by name who had already bedded the chick, including his oldest brother, Garrett.

"Too young." Dane shook his head. "Stop trying to set me up."

Sharon had been trying to hook him up for months. Everyone in the pack knew he was mate-less. Of course, this fact didn't agree with many of his followers given the fact that he was the Alpha and leader of the pack.

An Alpha with no mate. He smiled inwardly. Heck, he'd take the title. After all, he'd been known to stir things up in and out of the shifter community.

"Well, the next time you stop by I'll have another candidate for you. Are you into cougars these days by any chance?"

He glared at her pointedly. "I'm a wolf. What would I need with a cougar?"

She put a hand on her hip. "I meant an older woman, Magnus."

"I know what you meant, but I don't like getting set up."

"Fine." She shrugged and dug a pad and pen out of her apron. "I've got eight tables to serve so I'll have to chat with you later. The usual?"

"Yeah. The usual." Dane's stomach rumbled once again just thinking about the T-bone steak with a healthy side of potatoes and cheddar-smothered broccoli florets.

As he waited, he pulled a small envelope from the inside of his jacket pocket. He swallowed in apprehension as he peeled back the broken seal and slipped the letter out. The words were already ingrained in his short-term memory, but he read the note again.

Mr. Dane Magnus,

You are hereby called to appear before Judge Henry Wright at Tellevue County Court on October fifteenth at noon to settle the matter involving the property deeded to Debra Smyth Magnus located off 1806 Cedar Loop Trail. Failure to appear will result in all properties deemed abandoned and expropriated by the County. In addition, failure to present proof of rights to claim the property by this date will result in it being expropriated by the County…

Dane's blood pressure began to escalate yet again, and he crumbled the document in his palm. In fifteen days, the county court planned to take back the property his mother had worked so hard to keep. It wasn't fair that the humans could take something like his childhood home where memories lingered long after his parents had perished. It wasn't fair, but it was the law.

Debra Smyth was the only daughter of a farmer who owned the land in question before she became mated to Dane's father. When she became pregnant with Dane, they married with blessings from Debra's father even though a marriage between a shifter and a human was looked on as taboo. Since the land was part of human-marked territories as measured by each U.S. state's county appraiser's office, a shifter could not officially own human property unless they were married or mated to one.

When Dane was thirteen, he lost both parents. And because he was a shifter and his parents' will had never been endorsed, he was faced with losing their marital home. It took the humans seventeen years to dig up the deed and find out that the property wasn't legally his.

Word in town was that the county wanted to convert the whole lot into an industrial zone. They were trying to strip the property right out from under him. They didn't want to offer a fair price for his land…no…they wanted to take it.

And that wasn't going to happen.

Dane chewed at the inside corner of his mouth as his eyes drifted about the quaint diner and over to the door where customers walked in and out.

He wouldn't get his pack mates involved and he wouldn't cause an uprising. This was his personal matter. One that he should've taken care of over a decade ago, but now the situation had come back to haunt him.

He had a better plan. A plan that would involve what he'd been avoiding since he was awarded the Alpha position of the Aspen Valley Wolf Pack. Taking a mate.

In all of his thirty years, he'd never met his match. Maybe finding a true mate wasn't in his future. That was fine with him. He'd just play the cards dealt to him.

One thing was certain, he wanted to keep what rightfully belonged to him. To achieve this, he'd have to marry a human.

In this age, marriage between a human and shifter was considered legit after six weeks, at which time all possessions—including land—were said to be commingled and fair game to claim by either spouse upon divorce.

With marriage, he could take a bride, have her sign the documents relinquishing all rights to claim his land, keep her for six weeks, divorce her, and then send her on her merry way. In the end, he'd have his property for good and no humans could claim it.