The trill of a phone woke him out of a deep sleep. Kate was wedged against his body, and they were both still naked. She gathered her wits before he did and handed him the stupid device. Ryan still hadn’t bought a new cell phone, so they’d been keeping the cordless house phone with them in bed.

There had been so many calls. Bracken still hadn’t quite internalized that Ryan could no longer be his replacement. And if it wasn’t Bracken, it was one of the other family heads, updating him on the progress of their various journeys toward Durant.

Aside from a few minor incidents, he and Kate had spent most of their time together—and a lot of it had been spent in bed. Hence all the sleeping. He’d never been so exhausted in his life. But he couldn’t get enough of her.

“What time is it?” she croaked out, into the crook of his elbow.

Ryan glanced at the alarm clock on the bedside table. “Four thirty.”

“In the morning or the afternoon?”

He laughed, kissing her hair and rolling onto his back. “Afternoon.”

“What day?”

“Sunday.”

The phone continued to ring, but Ryan didn’t want to answer it this time. It was still bittersweet, being the one people turned to, even more so because he would have become alpha today. Hell, the transfer was supposed to happen when his pack convened in…shit…an hour.

“Answer the phone, babe,” Kate whispered. She could feel what was going on inside him, which both unnerved and comforted him. It meant he had to talk less. Share his feelings less. But it also meant he couldn’t hide.

Learning curve, to say the least.

“Yeah,” he said, staring at the stupid black piece of equipment in his hand like it would be the end of him.

“You’re still their leader, Ryan.” Kate turned over, kissing his chest, and meeting his eyes. “You don’t see it, but you are.”

He pulled his brows together and his nostrils flared. She didn’t understand. Her pack was used to following the alpha, come what may. Heck, those Johnny Cash lookalikes had stood aside as their alpha attacked an innocent wolf who was brokering peace. They were the lock-step army type.

His pack was different. He’d run out of different ways to explain it to her. After all this time, she still believed they’d waive the rule so he could take over as alpha just because he said so. She was as bad as his mother.

They were the biggest collection of stubborn, redneck jackasses in the entire world. He loved them for it. They stood up for what they believed in. But this was a situation where that stubbornness would work against him.

Now, he didn’t love it as much.

He held the phone up to his ear on about the fortieth ring, and finally pressed the call button. “This is Ryan.”

“It’s Bracken.” A short pause, in which Ryan could hear voices behind his uncle. “The Pollacks are early. You wanna get over here?”

“Yeah.”

“And bring Kate.”

“Will do.”

The line clicked away and Ryan let the phone fall back onto the bed. He slipped his arms around Kate’s warm body and rolled over to the other side of the bed so his back was against the wall. He only had a full-sized bed, and his room was not very large, so they’d used the wall as a prop this morning. Pressing Kate’s hands against it this morning so he could take her from behind had been inspired revelation. She looked amazing from every angle.

But this time, he put his own back against the wall and held her tight to him, looking in her bright blue eyes. No sex. They needed to go, but part of him didn’t want to leave the bed.

“I’m just about out of clothes, by the way,” she said with a giggle, pressing the end of her nose to his and rubbing. “Your T-shirts are all too big, and I…” Her voice hitched. “I don’t want to wear any of my black clothes.”

Ryan hugged her tighter into his body, burying his face in her hair. “I’ll buy you such a big damn wardrobe, Kate. You’ll never have to wear black again.”

“I never really liked it,” she said, giving her head a little shake in that cute, shy way she did sometimes. He loved that he was learning her mannerisms. Getting to know her in such an intimate, everyday way. He would always want to know her more.

“I actually thought that, the first time I saw you.” Ryan chuckled at the memory. “I thought, this girl should be wearing pink.”

Kate’s full-throated laugh filled him with peace. “I love pink. And purple. And blue. And yellow. I love all the colors.”

“I bet you do.” He kissed her neck, suckling there for a moment, and her legs parted, nestling him closer against her body. “Oh, no, girl,” he whispered into her skin. “We can’t do that.”

“I know. Bracken needs you. We should go.” There was no uncertainty in her voice, and he loved her so much in that moment, he thought it would bring tears to his eyes. Gods, this woman. She just gave and gave…

Maybe he didn’t deserve her, but he’d never stop trying to.

Ryan pulled her up, out of the bed, and they got dressed together. Her in the same jeans she’d worn the day before—washed, so they didn’t have his blood on them anymore. She put his Sooners shirt back on, too, like she knew how much that would mean to his pack, to see her marked like that.

Even in a gray T-shirt and blue jeans, she looked like a goddess.

His outfit almost matched hers, only his shirt was maroon with white lettering. They looked like they were on their way to a tailgate, and he slipped his arm around her waist as they left the house, like they’d been doing this their entire lives. It was heady.

Bracken’s house wasn’t far away. Just on the other side of the big barn. Ryan walked Kate around the familiar spots, enjoying how she felt at his side, and how she seemed genuinely interested in what was going on at the ranch.

Over the last day, their conversation had kept returning to the running of the ranch. She wanted to hear what his plans were, like they would still happen. And he told her, even though he knew they wouldn’t. In an hour, he’d be the past, and someone else would be the pack’s future.

He was impressed by the questions she asked and opinions she offered. She must have been pretty involved in the running of the Quade ranch—although she didn’t seem to like talking about it—and she thought of things he didn’t. Like Dee always had.

Dee hadn’t told Bracken what she planned to do yet, now that they were staying in Durant, and no one had pushed her. But Ryan imagined that she would settle back into her old role, and it would be him and Kate who would have to find something new to do.

When they reached Bracken’s, Kate slipped her hand into his, and they took the wide stairs together. The house was almost a hundred years old. Their family had been in the same place for more than a century, and before Bracken had lived in this big farm house, it had belonged to his uncle Samuel.

“Stay by me,” he said, as she rang the doorbell. “When we get inside, just…stay by me.”

She pulled his head down to hers and whispered, “Always,” against his lips before she kissed him.

Bracken opened the door and ushered her inside, then led the way down the narrow hallway. He could hear voices chattering, many in heated tones, throughout the house. When he stepped into the living room, which gave him a perfect view into the kitchen, he looked around. There were members of his pack everywhere. Savory smells began to curl around him. His cousin Heinrich, the chef of the family, gave him a wave from the stove.

There was an intense discussion unfolding in a little group of high-back chairs nestled under the narrow stairs, and Ryan caught the tail end of it before it was abruptly cut off. The head of the Pollack family huddled with his son and the head of the Young family. The two old men were always fighting about something. Thank God there was a no-alcohol policy in Bracken’s house, or there might have been an out-and-out brawl.

The four arms of the Trewitt pack represented the original line. A hundred years ago, three Trewitt sisters had chosen to break away from their brother. They’d turned their mates into shifters and moved to distant corners of the state.

The Culvers were the smallest—there were only three of them left—and they were the only ones who hadn’t arrived yet. Everyone else seemed to be chomping at the bit. No wonder Bracken had asked him to come early.

“Ryan,” said Tim Young, the head of his line, standing to shake hands. “What’s this I hear about you being mated now?”

Rather than release Kate, Ryan shook with his free hand. “Yes. This is Kate Quade. She’s my mate.”

“Fated match?” Tim asked, one bushy white brow winging up.

“Yes.”

“Hmmmmph.” The old man sat back down in the big chair. “Lucky you, boy. Those don’t come along every ten minutes. Why, I lived my whole life and never found one.”

“You married me sixty years ago, y’old jackass,” called out Carla from the kitchen. Tim’s wife was a buxom, gray-haired human, and their sniping made Ryan alternately edgy and entertained. Like a lot of things around here, they were a powder keg waiting to light up.

“We were never Fated matches and you know it,” Tim yelled back, then looked Kate up and down. “Well, she seems like good stock, anyway. A little gamey for my tastes, but you’ll fatten her up when she gets pregnant.”

Ryan felt warmth spread through Kate’s body and she sidled into him, almost stepping behind him. But while the talk embarrassed her, he could tell she liked the idea.

So did he.

“You might have had a Fated match out there, too, y’know,” Carla yelled, coming through the kitchen door with a white towel in one hand and a butcher knife in the other. If it had been any other night, the sight would have made Ryan nervous. But they seemed good-natured enough.

So far.

“Aww, hush-up, woman. I married ya, didn’t I?” Tim muttered.

“Well, I’m just sayin’. You wanted a Fated match so bad, you shouldn’t’ve sat on your ass in Nowheresville, Oklahoma, waiting for her to drop in your damn lap.”

Kate was giggling into the back of Ryan’s shirt and it distracted him from the rest of their banter. Dammit, he loved her so much. She could even make his family’s dysfunction enjoyable.

“Both of you, hush, now.” Ma’s voice cut through the whole room, and everyone shut down their conversations. With the whole house silent, Ma stood from her chair, where she’d been watching everything unfold, and wiped her hands on her jeans. “Ryan’s mated, and that’s good for a wolf.”

“Rosalee,” warned Bracken from over Ryan’s shoulder, and the feel of the dominant alpha magick rolled through the room.

“I know what you think, brother. But as the boy’s mother, I’m glad he’s mated.” She pushed her way into the kitchen, muttering, “If everyone in this house had a little more sex, there probably wouldn’t be a damn feud.”

That had Kate laughing out loud, and Ryan couldn’t help chuckling at how much she’d enjoyed the comment. Before he knew it, the whole room was joining in.

Except Bracken. He still just looked pissed.

But Kate led the laughter like a choir director, and as they all settled down, it seemed like the tension in the room had eased a little. The doorbell rang and Ryan glanced at the clock. Damn. It wasn’t even five yet, and almost everyone was here. They were all pretty anxious to get started.

“That’ll be Beau and Judson,” Ma called out from the kitchen. “They’ve been out looking for Ellie.”

The whole room suddenly went uneasy. When Rosalee Travis had gone on her hunt for Christian, the one person she hadn’t been able to find was his cousin, Ellie. Christian was in the wind, but so was Ellie, and they’d all been out looking for her, on and off. At first, it had just been a casual check-in, but Rosalee was worried. Bracken wasn’t as worried, of course, because Ellie was bonded to him, and if she’d been in distress, she could have reached out through her alpha bond to call for help.

The enforcers had finally gone out in teams to search for her in nearby farms and ranches. Ellie could get uber-focused at times, and they didn’t want to mount a full-scale offensive if she was doing on-site surgery on someone’s horse and forgot to take her cell phone along. Her truck was gone, after all. And her dog.

But Ryan’s mother was worried, and Bracken agreed to do some searching to appease her, mostly. A few teams of enforcers had been out, scattered to the four winds. Now that Beau and Judson were back, only Will and Dee were still out doing some inconspicuous searching in town. Low-key had been the buzzword.

“We did pick up a scent for a while,” Beau said as he entered the room. “But with the sporadic rains, the trail didn’t last long.”

“What kind of scent?” Bracken asked.

His brother came to stand beside him, giving him a nod and smiling at Kate. He already treated her like she was one of the family.

William Quade hadn’t found as much acceptance with the Trewitts. There was still too much tension over the fight. The only thing keeping the guy alive was that he’d pledged to Bracken. Ryan had encouraged him to help find Ellie, hoping it would endear the others to him. Prove his loyalty in a way they could understand.

Ryan believed he was a good guy, deep down. Maybe a lot of the Quades were good, deep-down. But they had to take a side, and Will had taken a side. As far as Ryan was concerned, that made him pack.

“It was definitely a wolf,” Beau said, his voice dark. “In animal form, so I can’t be sure it was a shifter, but it would make sense.”

“Shit.” Bracken ran a hand over his face, pulling on the ends of his beard in frustration. He glared at Ryan. “Have you heard from Will and Dee?”

“They’ll find her,” he said, wanting badly to believe it. “You know Ellie. She’s always running off after injured animals. Hell. She might be under a bridge somewhere trying to make small talk with a butt-hurt raccoon. We should just give them time to find her.”

It was too soon, in other words. There’s no way the Quades could have gotten their alpha chosen and bonded to him quickly enough to send someone after Ellie. And it would be ridiculous for them to choose her, anyway. She was the human daughter of a man whose brother had been turned into a werewolf. Before she married a Culver wolf, she was a Travis, and didn’t even bear the Trewitt name. No one would even know she was part of the pack unless they really knew the family.

And Ryan didn’t want to think about what that could mean.

Ellie had been through enough with the death of her mate three years ago. She was probably just hiding with an animal somewhere, trying to nurse it back to health. That was Ellie.

Kate tightened her hand in his. He was getting tense again. She was trying to push her calm toward him, and he could feel it flowing through him across their bond. They’d only just learned how to do that, and she took full advantage of it.

The doorbell rang again.

This time, Beau went to answer it, leaving Bracken with them. The big alpha paced to the center of the room. “That’s probably the Culvers,” he said. “We should move out into the backyard so we can all stand in the circle.”

Bracken had a thing about circles for the big pack meetings. Ryan understood the need for it, but it seemed so much more intimate for them to all lounge in the living room together. Even if some of the pack members were in the kitchen, they could all hear and see.

But Ryan wasn’t the alpha…and he never would be. He’d made peace with that, but it still stung.

The family all filed outside, through the wonderful-smelling kitchen. Heinrich put the stew on a low simmer and caught Ryan’s shoulder as he walked past.

“Congratulations, Ryan,” said the big blond Viking of a man. If he weren’t so tied up in his restaurant in Tulsa, Heinrich would have made a fantastic alpha. As single as the day was long, and even more single-minded than he was single. He knew how to let everything else fall away and only focus on what mattered. Ryan had always admired that.

Unfortunately, for Heinrich, “what mattered” was Polish food. Not quite a mesh for pack leadership. Still, he made the best pierogis in a ten-state radius. There had been national press about his restaurant at one point, and he’d been featured on the Food Network. The man knew how to do his job.

“Thanks, Heinrich.” Ryan punched his cousin’s shoulder. He was the only one of the Pollacks who seemed to have taken a shine to their new would-be alpha, but they got along great. Ryan only wished his entire pack could get along so well.

“She’s hot,” his cousin whispered, even though it was obvious the whole family could hear him.

“Thanks,” Kate piped up, a smile in her voice. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“You should.” Heinrich nodded, like his comment had been completely normal and sensible. Of course, he was right as hell. But his cousin was strange. Still, Kate just took his behavior in stride.

A pang shot through him. He thought about what Aaron VonBrandt had told him in the dining room in Texas. About how Tonya made him a better alpha. He knew Kate would make him a better leader, and he only wished his family would give him a chance to prove it.

Bracken called the meeting to order. Dee and Will and Ellie were still missing, but Bracken wasn’t waiting for them. Clearly, he thought everyone was ready to start.

“I want to start off by discussing what transpired yesterday with the Quade family,” Bracken began, stretching his arms out. He was backdropped by the low, golden sun, and it gave him a gravity that his alpha magick almost couldn’t compete with.

This was how their pack meetings always started. Near sundown, in the backyard of the alpha’s house, all of them arranged in a circle, with Bracken at the head. Everyone equal, but submissive to the alpha’s leadership.

If only they could all be this way, all the time.

“We’ve all heard,” called out Uriah Culver from off to Ryan’s right. “Beau called us.”

“And Dee called us,” said Tim Young.

“And Rosalee called us,” said Soren Pollack.

“It’s war, Bracken,” Ma finally said, filling the silence that followed. She looked at her brother, shaking her head. “They tried to kill one of ours. I think you’ll find the Trewitts are ready to put our differences aside and unite behind one man.”

Bracken nodded solemnly as he looked around the circle, and when his eyes finally landed on Ryan, he said, “I couldn’t agree more.”