“What’s the plan?” Kate stared at the engagement ring Julian had laid in her palm.

“Well, I thought on it all night and I figured…what’s the worst thing that could happen to Ryan?”

Kate shook her head slowly. “No clue.”

“For his plan to work. For you to choose another man.”

“Are…are you sure?”

“That’s what he claimed to want at the bar last night, but I don’t think he really meant it. If we announce our engagement, we’ll be calling his bluff. That’s what you want, right?” Julian took the ring from her palm, turned her hand over, and slid the ring onto her finger.

“I want Ryan to choose me. That’s what I want.” Kate twisted the ring on her finger. “Where did you find such a beautiful ring?”

Julian’s face shadowed for a moment. “I already had it. There was this girl once. I loved her. I was going to propose.”

“What happened?”

“She decided I wasn’t what she wanted. Left one day. Ran off with another man. All I got was a note on my pillow saying sorry.“

“Julian, I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head. “I’m fine. But, as a member of the male race, I can honestly say that losing a woman you love is the worst possible pain. If anything will get his priorities straight, this will. Or—”

“Or he really doesn’t want me.”

Julian shook his head. “He wants you. Trust me.”

Kate’s spirit lifted just a bit. She stepped forward and threw her arms around his neck. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, honey.” Julian hugged back and chuckled. “So…who should we tell fir—”

A low rumbling growl echoed through the space. Julian stopped speaking and turned toward the barn entrance. Several of the horses nickered nervously, and the kenneled dogs on the other side of the barn started a chorus of barks.

Kate looked around Julian’s shoulder. A dark gray wolf with a streak of black running from nose to tail stood there, lips curled in a snarl, hackles straight up, eyes flashing with gold. A shifter. And one who was pissed as hell. Ryan? She hadn’t been around him as a wolf, so it took her a moment to be sure. Scents were altered in their animal forms, so he wouldn’t smell like his human self when he was all furry. But the magickal signature was unmistakable and the mate pull was as inviting as icing on a birthday cake.

She took a step toward him. “Ryan.”

The wolf didn’t give her time to speak again before running off. She hurried to the doorway, but he was already halfway to the woods, a wild howl cutting the air.

Julian walked up beside her and slipped a comforting arm around her shoulders. “It was him?”

“Yes,” she whispered, then clutched her head as pain rippled through her brain, down her spine, and all the way to the tips of her fingers and toes. She crumpled, but Julian held her upright.

“What’s wrong?”

Kate fought to breath. Fought to think through the blinding pain. She’d felt this way before, but it had never been so strong. “Alpha,” she croaked out.

“Fuck!” Julian shouted and stepped in front of her, putting his body between her and her family—her alpha. “Kate is my fiancée,” he snarled out. “Leave us alone.”

“You’re a fool, VonBrandt. You’re all self-entitled assholes. You think everything is yours for the taking. Well, she’s not. She’s part of my pack. I own her and she will bond with the man I choose.”

Her grandfather was approaching rapidly. She could feel the waves of his alpha magick surround her now. Another man walked at his side. No. She squinted into the bright sunlight. It couldn’t be. And her grandmother was with them too. Shit. Shit. Shit.

“Kate Quade, I’m disappointed in you,” her grandmother said. “I was informed my granddaughter had taken a fiancé. Which is unfortunate since she’s already promised to another.”

The grey-haired alpha grabbed Kate’s arm and yanked her away from Julian’s grasp.

“No!” She yanked and twisted, but the pain in her head and her body only increased. Philip Quade always got what he wanted.

Everything had been for nothing. Meeting Ryan. Trying to get the job with the Trewitts. None of that would matter now. She’d been doomed to this fate the second her grandfather had decided it was hers—just as all the female Quades were subject to her grandfather’s whims.

She heard Julian yelling through the fog in her mind. Her grandfather shoved her backward and she crumpled into her grandmother’s arms. Then she heard the familiar words of the bonding spell. “No. Grandmother, please. Stop.” Fear clawed at her insides, like a thousand tiny knives all stabbing her at once. “Please. Don’t do this.”

“Stop fighting, Kate,” Christian’s voice carried to her through the din of the shouting. “It will be easier for both of us if we just do what he says.”

Her wolf snarled inside, pushing to the surface.

The pain stopped just as suddenly as it had started. Flesh and bone crunched into each other. Not hers. The scent of Julian’s blood floated in the air. He was fighting for her. She wrenched away from her grandmother. The spell wouldn’t work without a physical connection between her and Christian. She glanced down at her wrists. Nothing was there yet.

“Kate, shift and get out of here. The spell won’t work if you’re a wolf,” Julian shouted and ducked an angry right hook from her grandfather.

“Stop,” her grandmother said, her voice hissing like a serpent in a horror flick.

“Kate, please,” Christian said, begging her.

Kate turned to face him. “I’d rather die alone and miserable than be stuck with you for my entire life. Can’t you see that? I’m sorry for what he did to you…it wasn’t right…but I’m not going to stand by and let all of you ruin my life.” The air shimmered around her body and her clothing ripped and shredded, falling to pieces on the concrete floor.

“Run!” Julian’s voice carried over everyone else’s yelling.

She glanced back at Julian and caught his gaze for a split second. Her grandfather had already given him a black eye. His glasses were missing. And his eyes were flashing with gold.

Go. He mouthed the word.

She dodged grab attempts from her grandmother and Christian, though he managed to come away with a hunk of fur, and leapt through the barn doorway into the bright sunlight of the morning. Her wolf caught the scent of the male who’d been here only a few minutes earlier. Her mate.

Kate followed the smell across the corral. Into the trees. She ran, her paws barely touching the ground. Leaves and branches whipped at her face. The smells of pine and earth were strong, but nothing close to the draw of her mate. He was her only focus now. About a half mile in she realized he was headed for the shifter cabins. She picked up her pace even more, not stopping to verify the trail.

She needed Ryan.

Now.