CHAPTER 3

Several Miles from the Claw Mansion

Woodward County, Oklahoma

Hey, Kitten,

See you at the usual spot.

Friday.

Same time.

I eyed the yellow note before tucking the crumpled piece of paper back into my pocket, glancing around. There was no sign of anyone but me in the area — even when I lifted my chin, sniffing at the wind, I detected no one. My wolf rolled her ears back and my shoulders slumped. From my other pocket, I checked my phone again. No messages. Dave was now two hours late, which was unlike him. He wasn’t the most punctual of people in general, but when he said we’d meet, we met.

I couldn’t even think of enough instances he was really that late to count on one hand. And he’d texted or called each one of those times. My wolf whined softly, concern radiating off of her. She wanted to get up and pace, scent the bushes for any hint of the man we were waiting for.

Shoving my phone into the back pocket of my jeans, I resumed my pacing, trying to determine if I’d interpreted the message wrong. Dave was my mate, and surely my wolf would have felt some kind of disturbance if something truly bad actually happened to him. While he hadn’t actually claimed me yet, and that would strengthen our bond, we still had something. Bonds were powerful, but I was pretty sure they didn’t cover getting held up at home or having car troubles or something.

What if it was just some mundane issue?

I frowned deeper, fighting the urge to grab my phone again. It had only been half a minute since I put it away. I had more self-control than that, even if I hadn’t been able to meet up with Dave for a few weeks. He’d been increasingly busy since his father passed and he’d taken over as alpha of Lupus Claw last year. I understood that, but it was starting to feel like we’d gone well past ‘busy’ and somewhere into the ‘abject neglect’ territory.

My wolf whined again and I sighed. She was starting to wear me down. It was easier for her to forgive him. After all, he was our mate. There was no denying the magnetic tug we’d felt when I reached the age of majority. Our fates, our lifelines, they were inextricably tangled now. Unfortunately, the fact that he was being distant didn’t seem to impact her in the same way; my pride was wounded, and she simply seemed content to wait out whatever phase he was in.

I chewed on my bottom lip, still not fully convinced this was a phase. Dave had never been a man for public displays of affection. But on the other hand, my father and stepmother never did anything more than walk side by side in public. It wasn’t that weird. I hadn’t seen Dave’s parents – the pack alphas – do much more than share a chaste kiss on the cheek, and only at pack events.

Sometimes, I wondered if it made me strange that I wished he would at least hold my hand. But maybe he didn’t consider that acceptable. My father was a ranking official, not me. Maybe I wasn’t understanding the intricacies of social expectations, and Dave was the alpha now. There were undoubtedly some appearances he needed to keep up.

Still, there had to be some middle ground we could find. I didn’t need fireworks and the top of the Eiffel Tower. I didn’t need to make out in the park like horny teenagers, either, but it would be nice to actually be able to go on a date to a local diner or something.

My wolf huffed, clearly in some sort of conundrum. She was always happy to bask in the presence of her mate, but the changing status quo concerned her, and it was hard for me to ignore that sort of anxiety. I wasn’t entirely sure why. After all, asking Dave to make it official would only make things better, right? Sure, I had no idea what it took to be an alpha’s mate. His mother still lived in the Claw family home with him, though, and I couldn’t imagine why she wouldn’t give me a few pointers, if only to make her son’s life easier.

It would be nice if she actually, like, you know, accepted me as her daughter-in-law, but I didn’t want to get ahead of myself. One thing at a time. Today, I’d ask Dave if we could take the next step, and if he tried to talk me out of it — I wouldn’t let him.

I nodded to myself, pleased with the decision I’d come to and certain we’d be able to come to a compromise.

My wolf did not agree. She whined plaintively, leaving me staring sightlessly into the middle distance. Dave was our mate, and she wanted nothing less than to be publicly introduced as such. It was her right. It was our right. I could feel her frustration building, that I wasn’t willing to force the issue, that I got hung up on silly things like his public behavior. I sighed and shook my head, trying to shake off her unhappiness. It was so hard to make her happy — really, truly happy — and it was easier to cordon off her disappointment to one corner of my mind instead.

I was so tangled up in my thoughts that I hadn’t noticed another wolf approaching until I heard the snap of a twig only a few lengths away. I grinned, whirling around to sweep Dave into an embrace and I took two strides before I stopped dead in my tracks. The scent was all wrong. “Mar—”

“Hah!” a familiar voice crowed. A cold sweat burst over my skin and I took a step back. A lanky form bounced out of the forest, a shit-eating grin plastered on his face.

Fuck.“Where’s Nyx?” I growled at Nox.

I didn’t need to ask after my half-brother. Not a breath later, the boy’s identical match stumbled out of the woods, mirroring his twin right down to the grin. They both looked like a pair of cats who’d caught the canary and gotten the cream, too.

“Right here,” the second boy cooed. I don’t know how an eleven-year-old managed to sound so condescending, but if any child could do it, it would be Lynn’s. Frankly, I wasn’t even sure how we were related, even if we all had the same father. The twins weren’t regular little bratty kids, they were full-on menaces. I scowled.

“How the hell did you even find me?” I demanded. This had been my secret spot to meet with Dave for years! I was pretty sure I’d always been careful when I had snuck out to our place to meet with Dave.

“Does it matter?” Nox asked, raising his brows. Not only were they little jerks, but they had the super annoying habit of alternating when they spoke, finishing each other’s sentences like we lived in some sort of prime-time sitcom. (I made sure I never mentioned as much, though. It could be worse. They’d absolutely find a way to make it worse if they knew it irritated me.)

I opened my mouth, about to tell the pair of boys off when I realized they were probably smart enough to figure out I wanted them out of here because I was supposed to be meeting someone. I had to think fast.

Putting my hands on my hips, I gave them the best annoyed-older-sister look I could. “I dunno, maybe I just see enough of you guys on a day-to-day basis. Going out for a run by myself doesn’t feel like I’m asking for a lot, here. I have to go to the city to meet someone in a bit.” Maybe the idea of exercise would make them get bored and wander off. That was my hope, at least.

Nox mirrored me, hands on his hips as he did his best impression of an ‘annoying girl’ while his brother spoke. “You only run like twice a year,” Nyx snorted, shaking his head. “Who’re you meeting?”

“Friends,” I snapped, waving a hand.

“Pfft. You don’t have any friends!” Nox replied.

I scowled, but didn’t argue. It didn’t matter what I said. Any name I listed, they’d find a reason why that person wasn’t my actual friend. Frankly, I didn’t want to hear it. The truth of the matter was, while I had a handful of acquaintances around town, I didn’t feel close to anyone. I certainly didn’t hang out with anyone enough, which made it even harder to argue with Nyx and Nox. And while I certainly did spend more time with Dave than anyone else, we never went anywhere. He was always so tired or whatever, he just wanted to stay in the little cabin we met in. (It might have been a hunting cabin at one point, I wasn’t sure. But it had definitely taken a bit of effort to make it a comfortable place to meet.) No one ever saw us together, so even if I did list him, why would they believe me?

My wolf grumbled and I folded my arms over my chest, fighting the urge to take an even more defensive posture. They were eleven! Annoying. Badgering. Obnoxious. But still, only eleven! “I have a fitting for the Moonmate ceremony later,” I sniffed.

Unfortunately, trying to distract them with dresses and other so-called ‘girly’ things didn’t work, either. Nyx fixated on me with a laser-like focus. They never missed a chance to tease me for dying to dress up for a night out, arguing I wasn’t a girly girl at all. There was no winning with them. I wasn’t sure why I tried to argue with eleven-year-old logic, anyways.

“Liar,” Nyx said, looking entirely too smug. “You aren’t getting a new dress. I heard Mom tell you so.”

“Yeah,” Nox chimed in. “Mom said. No new clothes if you have no good reason.”

“You were eavesdropping?” Of course they had overheard that conversation. I didn’t want to have to ask Lynn, but getting anything more than a dress from the discount rack at the local department store required more than I had in my clothes budget. I really wanted Dave to claim me officially this time — and I really wanted to look like a woman who belonged next to the pack alpha, too. “You little shits. You know your mom hates a snitch.”

Nox stuck out his tongue and blew a raspberry at me.

“Whatever,” Nyx said, rolling his eyes more dramatically than any teenager I’d ever met. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes right back — the longer I engaged with these two punks, the less time I’d have with Dave. Hell, if he chose now to show up with my half-brothers still here, he might turn back around, and I couldn’t even blame him for that.

I didn’t want to risk anything right before this year’s Moonmate ceremony. Last year, his father had only just passed away; he was overwhelmed with the alpha’s duty of escorting pack members seeking mates to the Moonmate ceremony. York Rock had hosted it last year, over in Shadow Rock territory. I was pretty sure that was in New Mexico. It was a neighboring state, sure, but that was a lot of work to take on last minute. There were wolves who depended on him, and Dave didn’t want to let them down. I couldn’t get frustrated with him for that. The year before, his father was sick. Before that, he wanted his father’s blessing.

This year, though. He was the alpha. There was no one to ask for permission. He already got the first one under his belt as the leader. There was no reason not to claim me. My wolf’s tail wagged hopefully and I barely swallowed down my smile, not wanting to let my brothers on to anything.

I was running out of time, and I couldn’t waste any more on these two. I turned back on my half-brothers, and curled my upper lip back to expose my teeth. My wolf surged up towards the surface, her irritation rumbling deep in my voice. Perhaps my eyes had flashed to her brilliant gold because suddenly, all the color drained from the twins’ faces. One peeped and the other yipped, and two lanky pups stood where the twins had moments earlier as their wolves pushed to the surface and took control. I could practically smell the fear and adrenaline pouring off of them. I’d never actually lay a finger (or a claw) on them, but maybe Lynn’s harsh manner had left a deeper impression on them than I’d realized. They didn’t waste a second to run off, tails tucked so deeply between their legs they were practically curled against their bellies.

I sighed, shoulders dropping as I watched them disappear. Oh, I was plenty glad to be rid of them, but I’d definitely hear about this later. Lynn might not care one way or another for me, but her boys? It didn’t matter that all I did was give them a little scare; I wasn’t even mean to them. Honestly, I didn’t even want to be mean to them. The house could be hostile enough. By the time it got back to me, the twins would surely spin a tale so terrible Lynn would have ‘no choice’ but to punish me.

I had gone through so much through middle school and high school. It wasn’t my fault my mother died; I certainly would have preferred to stay with the woman who’d raised me since birth and stayed in the school where I’d had friends since my very first day. I’d never asked to be put into my father’s custody, and I’d never wanted a replacement mother, regardless of what Lynn thought of me and what she thought I wanted. My father’s wife made it quite clear that her own children came first, then my father, the house, probably a whole bunch of things I’m forgetting about just now, and then, finally, me.

If she had a choice, she would have pruned me off that list altogether, but her marriage to my father must have meant something to her. I was so inconsequential. Never mind I was a grown woman. I was ‘still her step-daughter’ when it was convenient for her, and a ‘woman who needed to figure herself out’ when it wasn’t.

I stared in the direction the twins had run off for a few more seconds. Should I go after them? After another moment, I shook my head. There was nothing I could do to change whatever story the boys had decided on.

More importantly, Dave still hadn’t shown up. I reached for the phone in my back pocket. Only twenty minutes had passed, but there were still no new messages. Sighing, I shoved it back in my jeans. Maybe Dave had come and heard the voices, but… I was fairly confident that even if I didn’t notice him, my wolf would have. She was sensitive, even more so to the presence of her mate. She had no choice, really. If Dave had shown up, she would have noticed, even if he immediately high-tailed it out of here. I frowned; I needed to talk to him before this year’s Moonmate ceremony.

Turning around and heading out, I made up my mind.

I have to go find him.