(Cassie POV)I must have cried in my car for a full thirty minutes. By the time I was done, I was determined that I was never going to be in that situation again. I would go home and sort myself out, and then I would come back just long enough to complete the rejection process. Hopefully Jason would keep it in his pants long enough to give me the time that I needed; I didn’t want to go through the betrayal pains again.As I was wiping my eyes and gathering myself back together, I realized that I now had guards on three sides of me. They weren’t approaching, but they were watching me pretty closely. That meant that they either saw me as a threat, or they were being directed to watch me by someone in pack leadership. Given how tonight’s events played out, it could be either one. Now that my tears had cleared, I decided it was time to leave. There was no reason to stay.As I started the engine, I saw a large black wolf out of the corner of my eye. My suspicions as to who it was

(Aaron POV) The Friday after the disastrous dinner, my dad asked me to go meet with one of the alphas of a neighboring pack in the hopes of establishing an alliance. My dad confessed that even he was beginning to become alarmed at the number of rogue attacks, and he worried that there was someone coordinating the attacks behind the scenes. For the most part, my dad and I have very similar mindsets. We have differences, as all father/ sons do, but nothing I considered earth shattering. The only disagreement we routinely had had to do with the transition of power. From my dad’s perspective, the increase in rouge attacks and the possibility that someone was organizing them was a threat that meant we needed stability of leadership –i.e., he needed to remain alpha until the threat had passed. For me, we needed exactly the opposite approach – we needed a showing of strength, and the best way to do that was to welcome the next generation of younger and stronger pack leaders. At least

(Jason POV)Sunday morning, I was in the gym working out when Aaron walked in and joined me. Josephine told both of us to find outlets for our stress, but neither of us were particularly creative, so we increased the number of workouts we did each day and called it good.I could tell Aaron wanted to talk about something, but it seemed like all of our conversations lately had to do with Josephine’s wedding or Cassie, and I really didn’t want to talk about either of those things right now.Finally, to break the ice, I asked him how his meeting with Alpha Ryan went. He told me it went well, but it was an interesting night.“Interesting how?”Aaron didn’t say anything. “If me asking you anything else is going to trigger another conversation about Cassie or about Josephine’s wedding, please can we save it for later. I need to be in a better headspace to talk about Cassie, and if I am asked one more question about flower arrangements, table linens, or dresses, I might shoot myself.”“Wh

(Danny POV) On paper, this has been a rough year for me. My mate, Kammie, left me about nine months ago. We had been together for a little over two years at that point. I should have been upset when she left, but honestly, I was relieved. Being with her never really felt right. I guess it hadn’t really felt right for her, either, given that she never let me mark her. Honestly, I never really wanted to mark her. Mating with her was fun –there is no comparison between sex with sparks and sex without sparks—but neither my wolf nor I ever felt a strong desire to sink our teeth into her. I’ve never heard of anyone else holding off on the marking process as long as Kammie and I did. When Kammie came to me and said she missed her family back home, I knew there was more to the story. It took her a while, but she eventually confessed that it wasn’t just her family that she missed. She had been in a long-term relationship with another wolf when we met each other by chance in the airp

(Cassie POV)Once the movers were situated, Danny led me to his SUV and we headed towards the lake. I asked Danny about my car, but he promised that the movers would take that to my parents’ house as well.I was largely silent during our drive. I knew I had to tell Danny about Jason, but I felt embarrassed and ashamed. Admitting that Jason was going to reject me was like admitting that everything my parents had said about me while growing up was true. The only thing that made me feel less awkward about the situation was knowing that Danny had recently been rejected by his mate too. So maybe, just maybe, he would understand.Periodically, Danny would glance over at me and smile. About twenty minutes in, he grabbed my hand and squeezed. “I’m not sure what is worrying you, Cassie, but you are with me now. Everything will be fine.”I smiled back at him. It felt good to feel wanted and taken care of. So good, in fact, that maybe I would hold off on confessing to him all my deep,