Ryan’s mother got up from her chair and crossed the room to stand in front of her son. She gave him a hug and Kate couldn’t help but return Rosalee’s wide grin as the older woman turned to greet her next. The embrace was just as big and firm and accepting.

“It’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Travis.”

“Mmm-mmm, honey, call me Rosalee.” She went back to her chair and sat down, then impatiently gestured for them to take a seat on the couch. “I can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re putting all this alpha nonsense about uniting the pack to bed.”

“What?” Ryan’s voice was hard. “I thought you wanted me to be the alpha.”

“Well, you’re stubborn like your father. Wouldn’t have done a lick of good to argue with you. You’d made your choice.” Rosalee’s tone was so matter-of-fact. She made eye contact with Kate.

“He is stubborn,” Kate said, without meaning to interject.

“Get used to it. It never goes away.” Rosalee leaned back in her recliner and rocked a few times. “I just can’t even tell you how happy I am that you’re mated, Ryan. Being alone is not good for our wolves.”

“Uncle Samuel was fine. Bracken is—”

“That’s a load of horseshit. Being alpha and being alone ripped my brother’s soul clean out of his body. His wolf is angry. He’s angry. Everything about that man has changed. Not all at once, mind you,” she said, shaking an accusatory finger at her son. “But he’s not the man he was thirty years ago. It broke my heart to know that’s what would become of my boy.” The last sentence came out in a cracked voice. “It would’ve ruined you.”

Ryan shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Kate felt his discomfort, felt how much he still wanted to fix his pack. Felt how unsettled he was. He couldn’t possibly still be entertaining some fantasy about putting her aside, could he? He’d chosen her. They were mated. She wasn’t sure she could handle it if he was still planning to break her heart after claiming it as his own. She shook off the fear and tried to close down the bridge between them a little so she didn’t feel everything quite so acutely.

“His father never wanted the pack united, y’know,” Rosalee said, her tone bordering on angry.

Kate’s eyes widened.

“He was crazy,” Ryan shot back.

“He wasn’t that crazy. The whole single wolf thing worked with Samuel because he was happy single. That man wasn’t made for the family life, but it’s ruined every other man who’s tried it. It would’ve destroyed you too.”

“Pops killed people. He murdered Donny Culver and his dad. The feuding will never stop if something doesn’t give,” Ryan said, struggling to keep his voice steady.

His mother’s eyes flashed. “The feuding hasn’t stopped because there are too many of you who think we should all be one pack. Your daddy was trying to protect you.”

“He murdered people, Ma. He left Ellie and Candace both without their mates. I wanted to end the feuding by building us something better. Something that would bring us all together, not tear us apart.”

“You seem to forget that Uriah Culver killed your father. I was left without a mate too, Ryan,” Rosalee bit out, standing abruptly from her chair. “Your father was protecting our family. He was doing what he thought was right. Your father knew the single alpha thing was a mistake, but Bracken was so determined to keep Samuel’s legacy alive. And hell, he was going to use you to do it.”

“Well, maybe Bracken was right.” Ryan’s jaw set in a hard line.

“Wait…” Kate started. “You said—”

“I’m done talking.” Ryan stood up suddenly, pulling Kate along with him. “You have no idea what’s going on here, Ma. Kate and I are leaving for Kansas this afternoon. Falcon will protect her. And then I’ll be back in time for the pledging ceremony—”

“No,” Kate wrenched her arm free. Tears pooled in her eyes. “You said you picked me, but you didn’t. Not really.”

“Kate. I do pick you, it’s just…I have to protect you.”

“You should’ve just let Christian take me instead of making me believe for five minutes that I could actually have you.” Her whole body vibrated. Everything inside her was coming apart. He’d lied. Even after they bonded, he’d still been planning to send her off on his friend until he was done playing superhero with his pack.

Kate backed away from him.

“Kate,” he said, his voice breaking. “Please. I owe them an—”

“That, that word. Owe. That right there is the problem, son. You don’t owe this pack shit. You don’t owe Bracken anything.” Rosalee rose from her chair.

“I deserve better, Ryan. We may be mates, but you’re breaking my heart worse than Christian ever would have. At least with him I knew what I was getting.” Tears poured down her cheeks, burning as they fell. “He never lied to me. But you’ve given me everything in one breath and taken it back in the next.”

“Kate—”

“No. I need you to go.” She backed away from his outstretched hand to stand behind Rosalee. Her voice slid into a bitter tone that made her soul hurt. This wasn’t her. This was what she’d tried to avoid. She’d tried to leave so he could become alpha. Ryan had taken that choice from her. She was trapped now.

She’d forever feel him no matter where she went. Always want him. How could he have done this to her?

“I’m not leaving you,” Ryan growled, stepping closer to Kate and his mother.

“She asked you to go, Ryan.” Rosalee moved to block her son.

Kate wanted to melt into the floor. Or run. Running was an option too. Instead, she just stood there, frozen in place.

“I said I’m not—”

“You, come with me. Right now.” Rosalee crossed the room and disappeared into the kitchen. Ryan followed her in, and the slam of the door made Kate jump.

She was alone.

After all Ryan’s promises, and all his bond spells, and all the sex…she was alone. Again.

---

***

---

Ryan followed his mother through the kitchen door, through the front door, and all the way out into the yard. He couldn’t process anything, couldn’t think. Kate’s emotions swirled through him and he wanted to fix the whole world for her. But he couldn’t force his pack to accept him as a mated alpha. He owed them an explanation.

His mother whirled on him as soon as they were out in the dark morning. “Joseph Ryan Travis the third, you are the most pigheaded jackass I have ever met, besides your father.”

“This isn’t the time for name-calling,” he said, trying to wave her off.

“This is exactly the time for name calling. Sometimes it’s the only way to get through to you.” She smacked his arm. A good, solid thud that stung. “Didn’t you even bother to look at those marks on your wrist? Don’t you know what they mean?”

He lifted his arm and studied the green tattoos seared into his skin. Double bracelets. Bonded.

“I know what they mean,” he said.

“I don’t think you do. Because I’m pretty damn convinced you have no idea what’s going to happen to that poor girl after you abandon her.”

“It’s only temporary, Ma.” But Ryan’s chest constricted. This was the first time they’d been physically separated since the bond, and he could already feel the lack of Kate. How much worse would it be when she was miles and miles away from him?

“Being forcibly separated from your mate is…” His mother turned her back on him, shoulders raising in tension. “When your father died, it almost ended me.”

“But you’ve been strong,” Ryan said, shaking his head, moving toward her like he would comfort her. “You’re a survivor.”

“Maybe it seems that way to you.” Her dark head shook back and forth, denying the truth of his words. “And it’s true that I had no other choice. But it has been torture, every night, with him gone.” Her voice hitched and Ryan closed the distance between them, taking his mother in his arms. “Once you know what the mate bond can be like, living without your mate is…the worst torture.”

He held her, so tight, trying not to remember the night Pops had left to handle the situation with Donny. He could still remember…sitting on this porch with his mother, watching Pops walk down the stairs with his jaw set like he’d decided the fate of the world. He’d come back bloody.

Two days later, he was dead in a ditch.

The pressure in Ryan’s chest stopped his breath and he held back what felt like a tide of emotion. “I should have stopped him,” he whispered into the dark morning air. “I should have kept him from leaving that night.”

He’d never said those words out loud before.

Ma pulled out of his iron grip and took his face in her hands. “Ryan. Honey. Why would you say that?”

“I could have stopped him. His pigheaded…he wouldn’t listen.”

“Your father was right, sweetheart. His methods may have been wrong, but he was right. And you couldn’t have stopped him…not even if you’d stood in front of the truck.”

He swallowed down his argument. So she had seen that. He’d always wondered.

Ryan had gone after his dad that night. Kept arguing with him for a solid minute. Gotten a swift punch in the face for his pains.

He’d tried to get to his feet. Tried to jump in front of the truck, but Pops had been too fast for him. Ryan had believed so strongly that the families should be one pack, he’d actually considered throwing himself in front of the truck anyway. Giving his own life for it.

“I wish I could have stopped him, though. Or stopped Uriah. For you. So you wouldn’t have to feel…” He almost couldn’t say the word out loud. “Tortured.”

“You couldn’t have stopped your dad. You couldn’t have stopped Uriah. Honey.” She pressed her hands tight on his cheeks like he was a little boy, one who’d messed up royally. “You’re only one man.”

But there was still a part of him—the part that had been preparing to be the alpha for most of his life—that believed it was his responsibility. Wanted it to be his responsibility. Knew he could make a difference.

His mother’s laugh made him look down at her. Her lips were pulled to one side, and she was shaking her head like she knew exactly what was going on in his mind.

“You don’t see it, do you?” She stepped aside so that the path back to the house was open to him.

“See what?”

“You’re doing the same thing to Kate that your father did to us.”

He drew his brows together, backing away from her. “What are you talking about?”

“You are. And it’s worse, because you’re hurting yourself too.” That disappointed look hadn’t left her face.

“I’m just trying to do what’s right.”

“You’re torturing that poor girl so that a bunch of dumb assholes who don’t like each other can pretend to like each other—because you’re paying them to.”

He pushed air through his nose, hard. “No. That’s not it.”

“That’s exactly it. Those families don’t like each other, Ryan. They never have. And you’re prepared to sacrifice Kate, and yourself, on the altar of stupidity because you believe more in some twisted sense of pack loyalty than you do in Fate.”

“That’s not true.”

“Oh, it is.” His own mother snorted at him.

Ryan walked backward for a moment, away from the house, away from her accusations. Back toward where he and his father had made their last stand.

Small families couldn’t fend for themselves. If the other offshoots of their pack didn’t get an infusion of cash from somewhere, they were going to lose their farms. And where were they going to get that cash? It couldn’t be from their own coffers. Most of them had nothing at all.

His family was the one with the earning potential. They were the ones with the business that could be grown.

But it wasn’t his place anymore.

And yet, there was still this certainty in his heart that he was supposed to do something for his pack. Lead them. Be their alpha.

His failure to them, to Bracken, weighed on him.

“What’s going on in that head of yours, Ryan?”

He bit his lip, not wanting to say the words out loud. He knew it was his to own, but somehow, saying it out loud would make it real.

“I failed, Ma.” He took a long breath, staring out into the navy sky that was starting to show signs of light. “I was supposed to bring the packs together, and I failed. And I think part of my wanting to take Kate to Kansas is…” He swallowed, hard. “I don’t want her to have to see that.”

“You have to believe that Fate brought her to you for a reason, Ryan.” His mother’s hand was on his shoulder, and her words sliced straight through him. They were the same words Bracken always used when he talked about their responsibility to the families. The ones whose Trewitt blood was so diluted they no longer bore the name.

Fate put us in this position for a reason, Bracken would say. And Ryan knew he was right. He believed in the grand design. Didn’t he?

“I don’t know what I believe anymore.”

“The only thing we can know for sure is when Fate speaks like this. She’s been pushing the two of you together for your whole lives, and this is the time she chooses to bring you together. You can’t tell me there isn’t a purpose there. Just as you’re about to face the packs, she brings you Kate.”

“But I have to…” He paused. He had to go in front of his family and tell them he couldn’t be the alpha anymore. Only, it wasn’t his failure. He’d chosen. Sure, there had been a moment of pure lust, but it hadn’t been just that. He had chosen.

Kate.

Her intrepid hopefulness. Her beauty. The way she’d given herself to him, even before he’d given himself back. She was so much more than he deserved.

His mind drifted back to the meeting with Aaron VonBrandt, where he’d talked about his wife, and her contribution to his alpha reign. How she grounded him. How she completed him. That’s what Kate did for Ryan. If only his pack could understand.

Even if they didn’t, he couldn’t ignore the fact that Fate drew them, and continued to draw them. Taking her to Falcon was a cop out. A cover, so he didn’t have to think about her while he handled his pack. While he handled her grandfather. But if Aaron was right… Everything inside Ryan knew it. Kate belonged at his side.

Ryan turned to his mother, emotion crowding his throat. “I have been such a jackass, Ma.”

“You’re your father’s son, honey. It would’ve made you a great alpha. But don’t make Bracken’s mistake. Go get your girl.” She kissed his cheek, pushing him back toward the house. The sun was rising somewhere behind it, and it gave the house a halo, like all the hope in the world was beaming out of it. And it was.

It came from Kate. She was his hope now.

He returned his mother’s cheek-kiss and ran up the porch steps, taking them in one big leap. The front door banged behind him as he ran inside, calling her name.

Ryan took the corner at a run, needing to see her. Feeling the absence of his mate in such a real way, he needed to feel the touch of her hand to know that everything would be all right.

But the living room was empty.

Kate was gone.