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He throws his head back, a deep, throaty laugh pouring out of him.

I watch him, unsettled by all the plans they must have spent years dreaming of, but doing my best to hide it. What happens when those plans don’t come to fruition? Who will Franklin and the rest of these men take it out on? Me? Shane? Or Mack, when he refuses to take the mantel that Franklin is so determined to hand him?

His eyes dip to my belly and I edge back half a step when he reaches a hand toward me.

Shane steps in front of me and Franklin’s lips twist in a mockery of a smile. “Mack will have a new life here with us.” Helooks me right in the eye over Shane’s shoulder. “You will have a different life with Shane.”

He walks away, hands in his pocket, his pose casual.

I watch him stop to talk to a couple of the workers on his way back to the farmhouse. Shane leads me in the other direction, toward the small wooden bench we were walking to before Franklin surprised me.

I stop short of it, pulling on my arm so he knows to let me go.

“You realize what’s going to happen here, right?” I ask him. “We are expendable to them. They want Mack to lead. You—and me—are just a way for that to happen. They are not your friends or even your allies.”

“We have an understanding.” He looks at the bench. “We can rest here for a bit before we return to the house.”

I hesitate, not eager to sit down. The bench is low and standing is going to require effort. The Raleigh construction workers are still busy with their tasks, but they keep turning to look at us and their attention is not friendly.

Suddenly, being inside is vastly preferable to being outside.

It’s been a while since I’ve felt like an outsider like this. I felt it back in my dad’s pack, and more keenly with the Dacres when Shane took me there.

Now we’re both outsiders. I’m not sure what Shane thinks about it because he shows no sign he’s even the slightest bit aware of the looks aimed our way.

“It’s just a bench, Aerin,” Shane says, gesturing to the bench as he places a basket down on the table. “You need to rest and so do I.”

It doesn’t take much to tire me out, and Shane drove hours and hours from Winter Lake, probably getting little to no sleep to get us here as fast as he did.

I sit down.

Shane doesn’t speak as he sits on the other side of the bench.

I’m not sure why I think of it, but something about sitting outside near the trees with a wind rustling through the leaves reminds me of the picnic I once had with Mack. That time, we escaped our bickering dads for a lazy afternoon where we ate a picnic he’d prepared for us in the forest behind his house and made love in the stream.

That day was perfect.

This…

This is something else.

“I can make you happy,” Shane says, puncturing my memories.

I shake my head as I focus on the workers lifting a window into one side of the house. “You can’t.”

“We’re compatible, Aerin. Fated mates.”

I look at him. “Compatibility didn’t stop you from treating me like I was a worthless bit of trash that had blown in through an open door. You cheated on me with Bree. Over and over again, and you didn’t care what I saw or even heard.” He opens his mouth. “And you never did tell me what happened to Bree. Did your wolf kill her? Is that why you’ve decided you want me after all?”

He blinks, evidently surprised by my refusal to accept this new life he seems determined for us to have. “You didn’t use to be like this.”

“Like what?”

He shakes his head, but I know what he means.

“Tell me you didn’t expect me to just happily and meekly accept this?”

He doesn’t respond.

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