“Hey, let’s grab that bar table next to the dance floor,” Gretchen said, pointing and pushing their depressed cousin Helena forward. Kate nodded. She took Helena’s other hand, and between the two of them they managed to get her over to the table before someone else claimed it. The beat of the music made Kate want to sway and she squeezed Helena’s hand before letting her go.

“Promise me you’ll try to have fun tonight,” Kate said, holding Helena’s gaze for a moment.

“I need another drink,” Helena said, her lips still flattened into a semi-frown.

“Ma’am,” Kate waved down a nearby waitress. “Can I get a round of cosmos, please?”

“Three?” The waitress hollered back over the thrumming bass guitar.

“Yes, thank you,” Kate said.

“Feels just like home,” Gretchen said, her mouth curving into a flirtatious smile. “Except all the men are fresh meat.”

Helena giggled and shook her head. “Don’t you want to find someone special?”

Gretchen shrugged. “I figure if Fate has a guy for me, she expects me to get out there and find him. This is as good of a place as any for Fate to strike.”

“And anywhere is better than home.” It was their mantra. Had been for the last several years, since they’d come of age and started thinking about leaving their restrictive pack. When the Christian Kyle thing had been laid on Kate, she had decided it was time. Get outta Dodge. If she went home from this summit, Kate knew she’d lose herself. Her self-respect. Her individuality. Her freedom.

This weekend.

That’s all the time she had left. If this job with the Trewitts fell through, she wasn’t sure what she would do. Running wasn’t really an option, however tempting it was to try. The alpha bond to her grandfather would bring her crawling right back. She needed a reason to bond to another alpha, be it a new job or a mate. She couldn’t fail. Not at this. She’d figure out what Adam wanted more than that damn horse. Everyone had a price and she was willing to pay just about anything to escape the fate waiting for her back home.

“Let’s dance, girls,” Kate said, grabbing Helena’s hand. Gretchen jumped up from her chair and took Helena’s other hand. They all needed a good time and there was a dance floor full of possibilities before them.

They swayed together for few moments, lost in the drums and the beat of the newest Brent Kane single. Second chances and new romances. Kate smiled. Perfect theme for the night.

A few cute guys sidled up to them. All three human and all three adorable. “Wanna dance?” one of them asked Gretchen. The other two stood silent, waiting for the verdict.

“Of course.” Gretchen leaned against him and slid down his leg like he was a pole.

Kate’s face heated—she didn’t exactly want to dance with these guys—but she wasn’t going to be a party pooper. She gave one of them a wink and crooked a finger to motion him toward her. He was behind her in an instant, hands on her hips, swaying her to the music like they’d been dancing all night. Kate sighed. If only she had Ryan’s hands on her hips. Then part of her mission would be complete.

The last of the male trio stepped forward to talk to Helena. Kate frowned at the sadness in her friend’s eyes. Their foolish grandfather had dismissed Helena from the meetings, making it clear that he was pretty much the only person in their pack naïve enough not to realize that Helena was all but running the Quade operation. That old geezer never thought about anyone but himself and his damn rodeo legacy. But everyone was afraid to go up against him, including his own sons. So the whole pack suffered under his unyielding dictatorship. Especially the women.

She turned to the right, looking for Helena, but her cousin had left the dance floor and was talking to a different guy across the bar. Good for her. And their drinks had finally arrived, populating their table with pink.

Kate sidestepped her dance partner and scanned the crowd, but there weren’t any familiar faces. She hoped Adam and his friends would be along soon, because she had a job to do. Plus, a little flirting with Adam might just push Ryan into claiming what was already his for the taking.

All he has to do is ask.

She shook her head, clearing Ryan from her thoughts, and focused on Gretchen, who was all but making out with her human cowboy a few feet away on the dance floor. Talk about some serious dry humping. “Gretchen,” she hissed under her breath.

Gretchen gave her a side eye that clearly said back away. Kate shrugged and turned her attention back to the man dancing in perfect time to the song beating through the atmosphere of the bar. Like the air itself thrummed. Kate loved when the music literally made the air quake. Her entire body sank into the rhythm of the two step and she couldn’t help but smile when her dance partner twirled her with skills only a dance instructor would possess.

The energetic music landed on its last bar and Kate stomped the floor in time with the heel of her boot. “Great dance. Thank you.”

Her dance partner’s grey eyes twinkled. “It’s not every day I find someone who can dance like you.”

“Ditto. Most guys are on this floor for that,” she said, thumbing her hand over her shoulder at her cousin and the dude who were still dry humping in public.

“Can I buy you a drink?” He flashed her a gorgeous smile, but somehow it didn’t do anything for her. He was hot. A great dancer. Sinfully cute in his wranglers and black hat. But her fate was already sealed with a stubborn bulldogger and she had no desire to change it.

“I’ve already got mine for the night. One is plenty.”

“Don’t hold your liquor well?”

Kate huffed. “Just not my thing.” She certainly wasn’t going to tell a complete stranger that she was running from her family because her grandfather was trying to force her to marry some hard-partying cowboy. She refused to be saddled with someone like that for the rest of her life. She deserved a mate who would care about her. One who would be there for her…one who’d want more from life than the next party. Thus, her desperate need to find a job far, far away from her pack and its chauvinistic alpha/grandfather who thought the entire damn solar system revolved around his legacy.

“I’m a social drinker. My girlfriends are here, so I ordered one. But otherwise I don’t drink.”

The guy squirmed a little, but kudos to him, he didn’t give up. “No worries. I’ll buy you whatever you want to drink.”

Sorry, dude. Just not interested. The only man who would ever turn her on again was locked away in a summit meeting doing his best to avoid her. So she’d pivoted her focus. Right now, she had her sights set on securing the job with the Trewitt pack. All she needed was Adam VonBrandt to fall into line. Her cousins always kidded that she could charm an angry bull into a giving her a hug. How hard could it be to get a man to sell a horse?

A flash of familiar blonde hair caught Kate’s eye. Ryan’s cousin Dee had just entered the bar and was working her way through the crowd along the wall. The girl was newly mated, but there was no sign of Will. Something was up.

She turned to the cowboy, who’d introduced himself as Johnny. “I’ve actually got to talk to someone right now, but thank you again for the dance.”

It was a soft let down. She really had enjoyed dancing with him. She hadn’t met a dance style she didn’t love—western, salsa, ballroom, swing. If she could learn it, via YouTube or lessons, she did. Her parents had never indulged her love of dance as a kid, but as an adult she secretly devoted every spare minute to learning and enjoying all kinds of dance. Helena knew about Kate’s hobby, but she was the only one. Without planning it, they’d taken the same belly dancing class, so they’d shared their secrets with each other—Helena loved to belly dance and Kate loved to dance. Period.

“Sure, you know where to find me if you change your mind,” he said, his voice showing more hurt than he probably intended.

“Have a good night,” she said, moving away from the dance floor. She scanned the room again for Dee and spotted her close to the bar. Kate wound her way through a sea of bodies. It had certainly gotten more crowded since she and her cousins had first arrived. She plopped down in a chair at Dee’s table and smiled. “So what brings you all the way out here without Will on your arm?”

“I’m pretty sure you know,” the other woman said, a smirk turning up the corners of her mouth.

“It’s nice to know he cares, even if he’s determined to do his best impression of pushing me away.”

Dee’s face fell. Like there was something going on Kate wasn’t privy to. “You know he has to. He’s going to be alpha. They aren’t allowed to have mates.”

There was that damn rule again.

“Then why did he send you all the way into town to check on me? He already acts like I’m his, swatting men’s hands away, half carrying me to his truck.”

“I don’t ask questions. When my alpha says to do something, I do it.”

The comment stung Kate, hard. That was what the ‘good girl’ version of Kate would have said. Until her grandfather had insisted she mate with a no-good playboy cowboy. She tried to smile past the hurt, but she was sure it showed on her face.

She wasn’t being a good girl by trying to get this job. Or by testing Ryan’s will power.

Forget being a good girl.

“What are you going to do?” Dee asked, cocking her head.

“Right now, I want to get your job. I’m not going back to my pack. I can’t. Then, once I get the job, I can hopefully convince Ryan to change a few rules in the pack. He’s got to choose me, Dee. He’s got to choose his fate.” Kate sighed and leaned back in the rickety wooden chair. “What’s he gonna do?”

“He doesn’t want you to get the job.”

“That much I know,” Kate snapped back, unable to keep her annoyance leashed. She’d had just about enough of his interference, and now he’d sent his cousin to stall her as well. “Okay, since you’re the expert, what can you tell me about Adam VonBrandt?”

Dee’s face flushed. “We were on and off together for nearly ten years. The sex was good and he is one of the sweetest men I’ve ever known. The woman who ends up as his mate will be so lucky.”

“But he can’t see that right now. All he’s going to see is that you dumped him, right? For Will.”

“For my Fated mate. I couldn’t not mate Will.” Dee ripped at a little corner on the paper napkin in front of her. “Look, if you want to win Adam over, you need to be a little…spur of the moment. He likes to have…well, you know…in places where people might see you.”

Kate’s eyes bugged out, and she scooted her chair back from the table. “I am not having sex with Adam. I may be desperate for this job, but I would never do that to Ryan, even if he doesn’t want me right now,” she said, mumbling the last few words.

Something in Dee’s demeanor changed. Kate couldn’t quite put a finger on it, but her words had definitely relaxed the Oklahoma wolf. Dee’s shoulders dropped and her attention shifted from Kate to the door, like she was waiting for someone else to appear.

“Is he coming?” Kate whispered.

Dee shook her head. “Ryan has to stay for the summit meetings. He can’t follow you.”

“But you can. You can tell him I didn’t do anything inappropriate with Adam.” Kate’s voice rose as realization struck. This woman could ruin her chances completely with Ryan with one word. “Please. I’m telling you, I would never betray Ryan. But I have to get this job. Help me get this job.”

“Why do you want to leave El Paso so badly?”

“Personal reasons,” Kate said, sitting back against the chair. Dee was about to join the Quade pack—the last thing she wanted to do was sour her to the prospect of her new life with Will. Besides, Christian Kyle was her problem. Her grandfather was her problem. She didn’t need Ryan or Dee or anyone getting mixed up in it. “Can you help me out with Adam or not? He seems different than I would’ve thought. The glasses for one. What’s up with that?”

Dee hesitated for a split second. “It’s part of his persona,” she finally said. “He likes them. He enjoys Shakespeare. Someone who can use quotes from his plays would really impress him.”

“Wow, he really isn’t the cowboy I was expecting.” Kate reached across the table and laid her hand over Dee’s. “Thank you. This chance with your pack means the world to me. Literally.”

Dee nodded, keeping her eyes downcast. “I’m sorry Ryan’s being such a jerk to you.”

“He’ll come around. Eventually,” Kate answered back quickly and stood from the table. She wholeheartedly believed that Ryan would change his mind, but something in Dee’s voice—especially in those last few words—made all the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Something was off with Ryan. Dee knew it. Kate could feel it. But right now she needed to focus on Adam…and apparently brush up on her Shakespeare.

“Kate,” Dee called out. “He likes to get matching tattoos too.”

She whirled around to face Dee again. “Did you get a tattoo with him?”

“Yes, we both have an outline of a stallion on our hip.”

Well, damn. The only tattoos Kate was interested in were the green ones Fate would imprint on her wrists once she bonded with Ryan. She wasn’t sure she could get a matching tattoo with a guy who wasn’t meant to be hers. But what choice did she have? If she didn’t get Adam to sell Black Guardian, she’d have no choice but to return to El Paso and Christian, and her grandfather would make sure she never left again.

This job was her last chance.