Ryan reached out through the bond, feeling her move away from him. He pushed his way through doors, moved through the rooms of the house, determined to find her.

Have to make her understand.

Purposeful, he kept striding through spaces where she wasn’t, following the bond that would always allow him to find her. If he had to chase her to the ends of the damn earth, he was going to get to her. He needed to make her understand how much she meant to him. How much he needed her.

Ryan was out on the back porch in a few seconds and his eyes scanned the horizon. But she wasn’t there. She was closer than that. Where?

He looked off to the side of the yard, where he’d felt her, and saw her sliding into one of his old swings on the swing set. Relief flooded through him and he jogged toward her, bare feet plodding through the dew-heavy grass.

Kate sat down in the black rubber swing and her body weight pulled her along the ground slowly, her back to him. She leaned her head against the metal chain that held it up and he felt something constrict in her chest through their bond.

Ryan crossed the grass and she sniffed as he came closer.

“Don’t,” Kate whispered. “Please don’t say anything.”

He gripped the cool metal and came around to stand in front of her. She wore a gray T-shirt with Boomer Sooner in maroon on the front, and he couldn’t help feeling pretty turned on by the sight of her in his shirt. It was like he’d marked her all over again.

“This hurts, Ryan.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “You didn’t have to bond with me. If you didn’t want me, you should have let me go.”

She wasn’t looking at him, and he wanted her to. But he didn’t want to push her. Didn’t want to force her. And he deserved everything she was going to unleash on him.

“Now, I’m trapped again. Just like I would have been with Christian. Only, now, I want…” She trailed off, turning her head to look off toward the sunrise. “It’s worse to actually want you.”

Ryan tried to come up with words that would prove to her that he had changed, but the enormity of what he’d done weighed on him. He’d tried to make decisions for her, not with her. He hadn’t treated her as a partner. With burning nostrils, he knelt in front of her, holding the chains.

“What are you doing?” she asked, aversion in her voice. But she didn’t touch him.

He lowered his head to her lap and exposed his neck. It was a gesture that only a predator would understand. Only a wolf.

The sound of her hard-caught breath made emotion burn through him. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I can’t…I’m so sorry, Kate.”

She sat there for a long moment—unmoving, unbreathing— and Ryan had no idea what thoughts were going through her head. He could feel some burning in her chest, like she was holding something back, and he wanted so badly to make her sadness go away.

“I was only trying to keep you safe.” He kept his cheek pressed to her thigh, holding himself so he didn’t put too much weight on her. “I want to protect you, even if I have to protect you from myself.”

“What brought this on?” she asked in a tight voice.

“I put so much stock in Fate when it came to pack matters, but I ignored the fact that Fate wouldn’t have matched us if there wasn’t a reason. I wanted to make up for my father’s mistake…so much…too much.”

“Suddenly, you believe that Fate really matched us?”

Ryan pulled himself back on his heels and looked up into her stunning blue eyes. “Of course I do. I’ve always known that. I just…I tried to deny it at first, like an idiot. I never considered what that would do to you. Gods. I care about you too much to be away from you even long enough to handle this stuff with my pack.” He swallowed, looking down at his useless hands. “My mother called it torture. She said it would torture you.”

Kate’s fingertips snaked across his cheek and she stroked his face, sadness in her eyes. “You care about me?”

“Of course I do,” he said, all urgency, but he forced himself to stay leashed and on his knees. She needed to understand that he realized what a complete and utter dumbass he’d been…and that he was eager to make up for it. “Gods, Kate. It’s been all I could do to keep myself from pinning you up against every single wall since the library.”

She took in a breath and licked her lips. “It has?”

“Shit.” Ryan slicked his hand across his scruffy stubble, where her fingers had touched him. “All it takes is one look.”

A shiver ran through her and she shook out her hair so it flowed down her back. “Ryan. Ryan Travis Joseph or whatever…”

“Joseph Ryan Travis. The third,” he added helpfully. “It’s my you’re-in-trouble name.”

“Well, I’d better learn it, then.” Her smile was small, and half-hearted, but it was a smile. He’d move the moon to see a big, satisfied grin on her face.

“You can call me whatever you want when you’re mad.”

She crooked up one side of her mouth and looked at the sky. “Jackass?”

“Yup.”

“Jerkface?”

“Absolutely.”

“Douchefuzz?”

He snorted out a laugh. “I’ll answer to that.”

“Douchecanoe?”

“Your wish is my command.” He gave a little bow and she finally cracked that smile he’d been hoping for. But it only lasted a second, and she was back to looking somber. It was such an unusual look on her, and he hated that he’d put it there.

“You hurt me, Ryan.”

“I know I did. I was a jackass and a douchefizz.”

“Douchefuzz,” she corrected, touching his shoulder like a queen knighting a soldier. Or a lady comforting a servant. He would take whatever he could get, given what he deserved.

“I don’t ever want to hurt you again,” he said, a dark rumble in his chest. “I mean that. I don’t know how I can prove it to you, but I really do mean it.”

“I can feel how much you mean it,” she said, moving her hand back to her own chest. “With the bond, I can feel what you feel.”

His mouth went dry as he considered, really considered, what being separated would have meant for them. Knowing that Kate was in pain, and so far away. He never would have been able to stand it. Especially knowing he was the cause of it. No matter how short a time he’d assumed it would be, he couldn’t hurt her like that.

“I had no idea how much it would hurt to be apart,” he said, feeling his voice break at the thought of being separated from her. “Even just being separated from you now, I could feel the lack of you. I don’t ever want you to feel that.”

“Oh, Ryan.” She took his face in her hands. “I don’t want you to feel that pain either.”

“You need to know, Kate. I don’t regret bonding with you. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t listen to you sooner. We should have bonded immediately and figured out the rest together. It was wrong of me to make plans behind your back” He shook his head, leaning back on his heels again. “I just…I didn’t realize what an idiot I was being.”

“Your mother did warn me about you being stubborn,” she said with a little laugh.

That sound was like music. As much as he hated these hard moments, he knew a lot more of them were coming. They would have to deal with her grandfather. His pack. But he hoped there would also be more of her laughter, because if there was a way to make her laugh all the time, every day, for the rest of their lives, he was going to make it happen. He loved her laugh.

Almost as much as he liked to listen to her come.

“I’m pretty pigheaded,” he agreed. “I’ll only admit that to you, of course.”

“Why only me?”

“Because you’re my mate. I’m always bared before you, Kate.”

Her intake of breath encouraged him to slide forward just the tiniest bit, though he stayed on his knees in the dirt below the swing set.

“I’m taking it back,” she said, her voice low and husky, like it was for him alone. “You’re not pigheaded.”

“I’m not?”

“No. You’re…principled.” Her eyes twinkled, that time, when she smiled. “And you’re not stubborn.”

“Really? Because I’ve heard otherwise.”

She traced a finger down his chest and heat flamed under her touch. “No. You’re not stubborn at all. You’re determined.”

“I’m not sure you’ve met me.”

“I see you, Ryan Travis.” Kate pitched forward, into his arms, and slipped her legs around his body, so that they were both in the dusty earth together. He loved the feel of her body pressed against his. He wanted more.

“I hope your intention is to turn me on, woman.” Ryan pulled her just close enough that he could feel the pressure against his erection. “Because it’s working.”

“You are respectable and loyal and you want what’s best for your pack,” she said, laying her head on his shoulder so that her lips were practically on his neck.

“I really mean it about turning me on.”

Her lips stayed on his neck, alternately kissing and sucking between her words. “You are fierce and protective and I feel safe in your arms.”

“Dammit, Kate,” Ryan said, his throat thick. He threaded his arms around her and crushed her to him. “I don’t deserve you.”

“Ryan…”

“No, I mean it. I must have done something good for Fate to decide that you belong to me.”

She kissed the flesh underneath his jaw, giggling. “Did you just quote Captain Von Trapp to me, mister?”

He laughed, leaning back onto the ground so he could look up at the pinking sky. “My mom has a thing for Rodgers and Hammerstein.”

“She taught you well.”

“I mean it, Kate.” He tipped her chin up and gazed into her eyes as she lay against his chest. “I don’t know what I ever did to deserve you.”

Her nostrils flared wide and she smiled. “You picked me.”