My father, as though to prove a point ever since I refused the ceremony, will only ever agree to see me if I've shifted. In my half animal form, my brain doesn't function at the same level, less argumentative, more compliant. His control is maddening, and at some point, I wager we'll be reduced to a physical fight. We don't see eye-to-eye much anymore.

The doors to the throne room are thrown wide, and I prowl in. My father is on the throne and beside him is my mother. As the eldest of four children, I'm the rightful heir to where he's seated. My betrothed from another clan would be beside me. Should have been beside me by now. Turns out, I don't take betrayal well.

"Father," I snarl.

"Son," he says with a small smile. "Your adventures last night were costly. I've got the sheriff tidying up your mess."

"That was Rig and Donovan. I want you to tell them to lay off the human."

"The human?" My mother sits forward. "The one you've been tailing as though your life depends on it? None of us have said anything until now, but this dalliance won't change your course. At some point, you need to forgive and forget where Clara is concerned. She's in your blood, and you're in hers. There's no escaping that connection, no matter how long you want to deny it."

My father glances at her, and there's a silent exchange between them. One I can't access while they sit there and I'm down here. I didn't realize they knew about Emmerson. Should have, I suppose. They've got their fucking fingers in every aspect of clan life. Could dig into my thoughts if they were so inclined. Had they and I didn't notice? If that was true, I'd lost even more in the last year than I realized. The physical weakening is obvious, but the rest is a discovery process.

"Yes," my father says. "You've lost the ability to sense when we're in here."

He doesn't say it out loud, and I curse him out without opening my mouth.

"Give in," he says out loud. "I can have Clara here by morning. At one point, you were very agreeable to this arrangement."

At one point, Clara and I fucked like bunnies. Couldn't get enough of each other. From the moment we met, the connection was mutual and undeniable. If I think about it too much, my blood heats because I can still remember what it felt like to be with her. Hot and slick and eyes rolling back in my head kind of pleasure. A drug. The best high. Can't deny that I miss that, and sometimes I think her loss is what's drawn me to Emmerson. As though I've subconsciously sought someone I can never have to counteract Clara's betrayal.

If I'm meant to sit on that throne, I need someone I trust beside me. That's not Clara. Could never be Clara. While I might have been ready to surrender to my destiny last year, she was not.

"You realize you're doing this to her too," my mother says. "Her parents tell me she also grows weaker. Your twenty-first birthday should have been your ascension to the throne."

"Are you that keen to retire?" I sit at their feet and stare at them.

"I'm that keen to keep us all safe. A weak kingdom is ripe for another clan to try to seize. To cleanse our clan, they'd murder children, force anyone of childbearing age to be impregnated by one of their own. The elders like me and your father would be disposed of."

It's nothing I haven't heard before, and of course I know other clans are out there. But it sounds like an old wives' tale. When was the last time another clan was the aggressor? Never as far as I know. The history books are rife with war hundreds and thousands of years ago. But now? We leave each other alone. Prefer to keep to ourselves. Upper royals meet other clan elders to suss out blood connections, but we don't go to battle.

"If this preoccupation with the human doesn't end, we'll end it." My mother leans back in her throne and glares at me. "None of us want that."

Even the mention of them disposing of Emmerson raises my hackles, and I bare my teeth. I'd kill you for it.

"You could try," my father says. "But you grow weaker by the day. Soon, that threat won't have any teeth—quite literally."

"We haven't hit the point of no return," my mother says. "But when we do, you can be sure we'll do what we have to do to make you comply." Her green eyes glimmer, and she bares her own teeth. "I didn't raise a son who only thinks of himself."

But she did raise one who thinks for himself.

"Careful," my father says. "Your arrogance is showing."

~ * ~

My brother flips a football above his head while he lies on his bed, and I pace the spacious bedroom. Our estate lies on the outskirts of the town, on a cliff near the lake. In theory, this land is a state park, but it's been home to my family's clan for centuries. Our territory isn't ruled by conventional state and national lines. We have treaties and rules of engagement amongst our lot that supersede anything a government who believes we're a myth could impose. 

But we still have to be careful. It only takes a certain amount of stupidity to jeopardize our way of life. We've got friends in high places here and throughout the government, but no one likes covering up the sort of mistake that Rig and Donovan made last night.

"They weren't even mad about what Rig and Donovan did," I say. Normally, they'd be strung up, quite literally, for that level of idiocy. The gas station is a pile of rubble.

"If they'd succeeded, would have solved your human problem. Mom and Dad wouldn't have been mad about that."

I growl, and a tuft of thick fur rises along my back. He'd better not be implying Rig and Donovan meant to kill Emmerson. It's one thing for Mom and Dad to threaten it, but if my cousins weren't just stupid but deadly, I'll start a war within our clan. If I find out my parents ordered it, there will be hell to pay.

"You actually have a thing for a human—a human who can't even know you exist, will never see you," Kaden's voice brims with disbelief.

He's right. Doesn't change the way my blood heats. The inexplicable compulsion to be around her. Some of us can pass for human, but I don't have that luxury. Even if she didn't become a puppet the minute I get too close, she'd never remember a single interaction. Every time, we'd be starting fresh, and the thought alone makes me weary.

"You said sex with Clara was the best of your life. Otherworldly was your exact word for it. Dude, I still don't understand how you turned your back on that." He tosses the football again. "When I get my mate, I'm putting that pussy on lockdown. Get her a tattoo that says, 'Serving Kaden's dick exclusively for the rest of eternity.'" He lets out a guffaw. "Maybe that's where you went wrong. Should have branded the bitch."

"I didn't care that she fucked someone else." I cared. Of course I cared. Once we found each other, that was supposed to be it. The sex had been incredible, like nothing I'd ever experienced before, but that had been the extent of our connection. The minute we were in a room together, we were finding somewhere to fuck. 

I'm not sure at what point that mating instinct died down—the first pup, maybe—but we hadn't been anywhere close when I called it off. Reason number one that I've refused to see her since. My libido can't be making clan-based decisions. "She lied. I can't rule our people beside someone who is a fucking liar. I won't."

"Yeah, well, it's not like whatever this obsession is with the human can last long. Mom is seriously pissed that you're being so stubborn. Dad thinks it's fucking funny because you're so weak." He eyes me before tossing the football up and catching it without looking. "Mom's always had the better instincts."

"About us, not the clan."

"In this case, they're the same though, aren't they? You are the clan. The clan is you."

I roll my eyes at his attempt to be wise. Until I succeed my parents with my life mate, I'm no more 'the clan' than he is. I'm simply the oldest. "I wish I could just step aside, let you have it."

"Go get yourself killed and then it'll be mine." He gives me a wolfish grin.

He's the spare, but I'm the heir. The order of things never bothered me, and I didn't question it until Clara fucked me over. My younger sisters will never rule, even if Kaden and I died in some sort of fluke event. If they're lucky, they'll match with a high ranking family from another clan, get their clout elsewhere. But here, our rules are clear. 

The line of succession is male, and our match always comes from outside our clan. Had I joined with Clara as I was meant to do, we'd be on the hunt for a match for Kaden for his twenty-first birthday next year.

Another reason the pressure is mounting on me. He can't seek his mate until I've secured mine. All these fucking rules weighing down on my shoulders.

"I won't go through the ceremony with Clara. Mom and Dad will just have to find me someone else."

"There is no one else." Kaden chuckles darkly. "You get one. One person in all the land that our blood responds to. The perfect mate. The one who'll carry the line of succession for another generation. Everyone else in the clan gets a choice—reject or accept the call of the blood. We don't. You reject her, and we die out. It's not a fucking joke, Aidan."

"Never said it was a joke," I mutter. The idea of being with Clara again is confusing—sours my stomach and makes my dick hard. And if I only get one, why do I feel like I do around Emmerson? "I just think Mom is exaggerating." As much as I don't want to, part of me understands I'll have to give in. "Maybe with some time..."

"Sure," Kaden says. "Or maybe Mom and Dad will get tired of letting you call the shots and bring Clara back to the estate. As soon as you smell her, you're fucked."

He's right again. But what I'm counting on is that Clara is fighting our union as much as I am. Our blood might be compatible, but our hearts and minds are not. Eternity with that much fucking misery isn't on my to-do list.

There's a knock on my brother's door, and I sense who it is even before I draw it open. Another one of my cousins, the sheriff's errand boy, Will, is on the doorstep, a note crumpled in one hand.

"Here," Will says, thrusting it at me. "He wants to see you. About last night."

"That wasn't my fucking fault."

He shrugs, but he waits for me to follow him out.

Sometimes I wonder why we bother with paper at all. Will has a mouth capable of delivering a message, and we'd never commit anything to paper that might cause a problem. I suppose notes are the most reliable word for word communication.

Cell phones don't work for us, and mind-to-mind communication wanes with distance from each other and from the ruling family. Not to mention, my personal strengths aren't what they once were.

"How was she?" I ask.

"Alive." The way he says it causes the hackles on the back of my neck to rise in response. Can't be helped. A threat to her is a threat to me.

"She'd better stay that way," I mutter.

"Humans can be so fragile," Will says.

In a flash I've got him around the throat and I've pinned him to the wall. It's not really him I want strung up—it's Rig or Donovan or even my parents, but he's the closest target.

"No one touches her."

"You can't imprint on a human," Will gasps. "This is why you should have accepted Clara. You're getting all fucked up. Confused."

"Think what you want," I snarl close to his face. "Tell everyone, if they touch her, whether my parents order it or not, they'll be dead by dawn. Cut into tiny pieces. And I'll roast their flesh on the pyre of their family's bodies. Understood?"

"I didn't—" Will tries to suck in a breath. "Yes."

I shove him against the wall before releasing him. "She's under my protection, and the next person who fucks with me or her will pay the price." The games Rig and Donovan have been playing are over. My patience for their foolishness has run out. The other night went beyond a fun game.

My family's attitude about her is pissing me off, and there's a whiff of genuine danger in the air. Before anyone gets any ideas about trying to get in my parents' good graces by removing an obstacle to my union, I'm shutting that avenue down. Emmerson doesn't even know I exist, and I won't have her killed when she's ignorant to our world beyond her reach.

"Understood," Will squeaks out.

We take the wide stone stairs down to the spacious front entrance, and I hope that my uncontained interest in Emmerson Pollock hasn't doomed us both.

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