"You want me to do what?" Stormy, grey eyes met a pair of sparkling, chestnut orbs.

"I want you to play the part of my chosen mate in exchange for returning your family home. Though, you would use the term fiancée, I suppose."

The voice remained calm and steady, with no hint that its owner was preparing any kind of punchline, but hearing the sentence a second time did not in anyway make it any less insane.

"You can't be serious!"

"I don't recall smiling when I suggested it." Lips that appeared designed to carry a permanent smirk curled up slightly at the edges, one perfect eyebrow rising all of its own accord.

Katherine sat poised on the very edge of the chair, her mouth half-open in incredulous surprise. Several tendrils of hair had escaped from her carefully selected bun, and in her agitation her fingers rose to twist them into an angry corkscrew. "I... I..."

Her brain refused to form a complete sentence. After all, What do you say to such an absurd proposal? Instinct drove her from the chair to the far corner of the room, wringing her hands in agitation.

He calmly watched her pacing, his eyes never wandering far from her face.

“You must be completely mad!” she finally blurted out. “Marry you? Why the hell would I agree to that?”

“Your reaction is not entirely unexpected,” he observed dryly, “but, you seem confused. Perhaps I didn't phrase it quite right. You don't actually need to mate with me – " she flushed crimson, and his lips curled further upwards, “I simply want to hire you for a task of some delicacy for which I feel you are highly suited. Your payment will be the deeds to the house, and any expenses you might incur along the way.” He sounded as if he were discussing the price of a new pair of shoes. “I am only in need of a temporary mate.”

A temporary mate... Her mouth formed the words silently, her brain still struggling to wrap itself around the suggestion. She sank back into the chair, forcing herself to think clearly. “You want to hire me?”

“Yes.”

“To pretend to be your... your... fiancée?”

“Yes.”

“And then you'll return the deeds?”

“Yes. Not forgetting you'll also get the considerable pleasure of jilting me in public.” He tilted his head, full of curiosity. “Is breaking it into pieces helping?”

Not really... Katherine stared at him for the longest moment. “But what for? I've never heard of anything so... so ridiculous.”

“My father...” He trailed off, lips pursing. “No, perhaps not the best way to begin. My bro –” He broke off again, a rueful expression developing. “To be honest, I hadn't given much thought on how to explain it.”

Katherine was fairly sure that he hadn't put much thought into it at all, but she remained silent, watching as he mulled it over.

“The Alpha –” He looked at her quizzically, once again interrupting his own train of thought. “Did you ever read the pamphlet?”

Katherine grimaced. Created not long after the pack and village merged, the pamphlet outlined a basic summary of werewolves and how they functioned. Kept at the library, it could be accessed by any local over the age of sixteen; an easy way to learn more about their unusual neighbours.

She knew Jonathon had perused it extensively, but Katherine refused to entertain the idea. She’d no desire to know more than she was already forced to; especially when there were no guarantees any of it were true. She shook her head.

“That's what I thought,” he murmured, showing no surprise. “That does make it harder to explain –"

Summarise, her expression warned.

“But, to keep it simple...” He smiled. “Every pack lives under a strict hierarchy. It keeps our wolves happy and prevents them turning feral by creating order and controlling their wild instincts.”

Well, that made sense, Katherine was all in favour of anything that kept them contained in any way.

“An Alpha, that's me, usually rules alongside a Luna – a female, or occasionally male, counterpart. Many believe a pack cannot be truly complete without one.”

“But not you?”

“I have no desire to settle down,” he confessed. “I do not find myself yearning for true love, or companionship.” His eyes flickered almost involuntarily towards the mantle piece. “Nor do I believe my pack will struggle to function without the aid of a Luna.”

Katherine’s frown grew deeper. While she could understand his desire to remain single – Katherine herself had no interest in ever falling in love again – it still didn't explain why he wanted to play pretend.

“My older brother was recently,” his face took on a reflective look, “let's use the word married, for simplicities sake; he was recently married. To his true mate, as it turns out.” He paused as though the words should hold some deeper significance, but all Katherine could offer him was a blank look.

“His soulmate,” he tried to elaborate. “The woman he's destined to spend the rest of his life with... his true love.”

Ah, now that made more sense. The clarity must have shown on her face because he visibly relaxed.

“As he’s now the star of his own blissful fairytale, my father has come to the conclusion that I should join him and find a mate... a Luna of my own. So much so, that he has taken it upon himself to choose one for me.”

“That's absurd!”

“I'm glad we agree.”

“Surely he can't make you –”

“Oh, believe me, he can.” Asher's eyes darkened. “Once my father decides something, it is usually inevitable. It may be hard to believe, but If I don't take steps now, I will soon find myself bound forever to a woman I've never met, and haven't chosen.”

Katherine grimaced. It wasn't that hard to believe. She had seen first hand the devastation an order from Avery Hunter could cause. “But what has any of this got to do with me?”

“I thought that was obvious.” He unleashed the full force of his devastating smile. “I’ve no desire to be a pawn on my father's playing board. So, I'm taking over the game. When he next rolls up to this pack, I want to present you as my mate-to-be.” He leaned back in his chair as though he'd reached a logical conclusion.

Her frown spoke volumes. "And I'm guessing you won't return the deeds if I refuse?"

He leaned on his elbow, his chin resting lazily on one hand. "I won't risk giving your brother a chance to lose them to an outsider. The consequences could be disastrous, both for you and my pack."

They were already disastrous. Frustration welled up inside her. "This is blackmail!"

"Hardly that," he disagreed. "More a business arrangement. A trading of services, if you like." He tapped one long finger against his lips. "Our agreement should give you a chance to redirect your brother onto a less destructive path. In the meantime, a good lawyer can look at the legalities of returning the deeds to your Grandmother's name."

Maybe so, she fretted, but where on earth would they find the money to retain such services?

"I'm offering you time, Katherine. Something, if you don't mind me saying, that you seem to be rapidly running out of. All I'm asking is that you give me some of yours in return."

She scoffed. Is that all?

"Is a few months in my company really such a terrible sacrifice for your brother?"

A few months! Katherine stared down at her hands, unconsciously rubbing at the finger that had, until recently, sported a delicate gold band. Familiar grief tightened her chest, and she pressed her lips together. Never.

He watched her. Or rather, he watched her hands, his face showing a disquiet that once again suggested he knew exactly where her train of thought had led her. But how could he? She had told no one about Robert, not even her grandmother.

What she really wanted to do was fling his obnoxious proposal right back in his face and flee Little Ashton once and for all, never looking back. But, how could she with her grandmother refusing to even contemplate leaving her childhood home, and Jonathon still so... so... Jonathon.

The distress on her face must have been clear, as Asher leaned forward to place one hand over hers, ceasing her frantic knotting.

"I don't expect an answer straight away," he said softly, attempting to catch her eyes once more. "You need time to think things through before deciding whether or not to accept my offer."

She stared at his hand, barely registering the words he spoke. His warmth soothed her icy fingers, offering her a comfort she hadn't felt since...

No. She snatched her hands away, guilt flooding through her. None of this would be happening if it weren't for them, she reminded herself. I'd still be back in the city where I belong, and Robert would still be...

Katherine rose to her feet so fast she risked once again knocking the piles of papers to the floor. "A few months pretending to be your... your...?" she spluttered, " I'd rather jump off the nearest cliff!”

For a split second, Asher's urbane expression slipped, and Katherine thought she saw a touch of hurt deep within his eyes - but that was ridiculous. She couldn't fathom a werewolf feeling any concern by the rejection of a human. Especially this werewolf who, if gossip in the village was to believed, had the constant company of half a dozen beautiful and eager women every evening.

Which brought her back to her original protest. Why me? Why not one of his own kind?

Because with you, he has leverage, a cruel voice in her head replied.

Silence fell between them. Asher’s eyes never left her face, but he made no attempt to argue or persuade her in any way. It appeared he was, as promised, giving her time to think.

She avoided meeting his gaze, terrified that if she did every rational thought she had would scatter. Her eyes darted frantically around the room; she couldn't possibly be expected to figure this out while he was staring at her so intently.

"I have to go." She fled towards the door, but before she could pull it open, it swung inwards of its own accord, the man who had greeted her so politely earlier hovering on the threshold.

“You called, Alpha?” His voice was soft, little more than a whisper, and his towering figure looked straight over her head towards Asher.

“I did, thank you, Luke,” Asher answered despite having made no obvious effort to contact anyone beyond the study. “Miss Haversham was just leaving. Please arrange a lift back to the village.”

She turned to stare at him incredulously, ignoring the faint amusement that danced once again behind his eyes. “I don't need any help finding my own way home, thank you. I will think over our discussion, and... and give you my answer..." She trailed off. When? How long could she stall while she sought another solution to her predicament? “In a few days."

"Marvellous," Asher murmured, for all the world sounding as though they were arranging a dinner date. "I'll look forward to it.”

Luke’s eyes flicked between them both, curiosity clear on his face.

Katherine ignored his unspoken question, reluctantly returning his polite smile as she swept past him towards the main doors. When he moved to follow her though, she warned him off with a look that promised all sorts of terrible consequences if he even thought about trying to accompany her out of the house. “I said, I'm fine.”

He paused and shot his Alpha – who was now casually leaning against the door – a questioning look. “Should I follow her?” he asked over the link, the target of his enquiry already halfway down the driveway.

She'd arrived on foot and she'd bloody well leave that way.

“And risk her wrath?” Asher's voice was full of mirth. “No, let her be. But send one of the warriors to keep an eye on her... tell them to keep their distance, though,” he added. He didn't want to give her more reasons to reject his offer than she already had.

They watched her retreat through the window, Asher admiring her confidence in an environment she was so clearly uncomfortable in.

“She's feisty,” Luke observed out loud. “For a human.”

“Yes, she is.” Though his gamma said nothing else, Asher knew he hoped an explanation for their meeting would be forthcoming. All in good time, my friend. I hope.

Two hours later, Asher found himself slumped at his desk, reading the same line of the monthly budget report for the fourth time without absorbing any of the details. Try as he might, he couldn't muster up the concentration levels needed to tackle the mountain of paperwork in front of him.

Since becoming Alpha, he'd discovered it took an average of three spreadsheets, two reports and approximately five signatures to get even the simplest things done when it came to the running of a pack. Yet another thing his father had left him to discover on his own.

We could just burn it all? he suggested, more to himself than his wolf, his gaze drifting to the view beyond his window. Though still shrouded in winter, the gardens were a riot of green in every conceivable shade, the melting snow revealing the white and yellow blossoms of winter honeysuckle, snowdrops and newly established winter aconite.

Asher was yet to be convinced that allowing any form of wolf’s bane loose upon his territory was a wise idea. But his pack doctor had convinced him to allow it, citing its many uses and the difficulty acquiring this particular variety elsewhere. In just two years, like a creeping invader, the aconite had spread across every corner of the once formal gardens, and was at serious risk of invading the forest itself. He sighed. They'd have to get around to tackling it one of these days; I'll add it to my ever-growing list.

The list wouldn't be so long if we were concentrating, his wolf scolded lightly. And no, tempting though it might be, fire should never be an option. We live in a forest, remember?

I remember. Asher had long ago learnt the futility of trying to explain the intricacies of human language to his wolf.

You know she hates us, right? Zephyr, as always, homed in on the real reason behind his human’s lack of concentration.

Yes. A hatred rooted in more than one form of deep, personal trauma. Her foolish brother had been brought to his attention months before her arrival, though Asher suspected he had no real idea just how much debt the boy had managed to get himself into.

Curiosity, and a desire to protect his pack should the need arise, had led him to make inquiries with the former Alpha of Darkmoon, to find out what he remembered about the Havershams.

“Never paid much mind to the humans as long as they didn't make any mischief. But I remember that family,” his father recalled. “The Havershams lived in the village long before I took over.” He rubbed at his ear. “The head of the household... Margaret, I think... she still alive?"

“Yes. What do you know of her grandchildren?”

“Practically nothing. Margaret's son was a good 'un. But he made the mistake of marrying an outsider without doing due diligence. She never did integrate well, disliked us from the very start.”

That sounds familiar, Zephyr observed, in the here and now.

“When her husband died,” his father had continued. “The wife blamed us, of course.”

“Was it our fault?”

Avery had snorted shaking his head. “No. The lad knew exactly what he'd signed up for. But to hear her scream about it you'd have thought we'd fired the bullet that killed him. Took the children and stormed off to goodness knows where. We took steps to secure our secret, and then... I believe one of our Etas helped Margaret gain some level of visitation with the children, can't recall who. Sad affair all round. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, no reason,” Asher had answered at the time. “The grandson lives here now and he's proving to be a bit of a handful.”

“Nip it in the bud,” his father had advised. “Make an example, if you have to, but if there's even a hint of exposure...”

He hadn't needed to finish his sentence, and now Asher wondered with some trepidation exactly what steps had been taken to keep Katherine's mother quiet.

Of course, an excellent reason for his enquiry had just stormed out of his house a couple of hours ago. One with a voice like melted butter and eyes that changed colour with every emotion. From the moment he'd first laid eyes on her, bedraggled, windswept and blissfully unaware of how close she'd come to real danger out on the cliff road, she'd intrigued him.

I wonder if she knows how expressive she is? He could read her every thought as easily as the pages of a book. It was endearing, in an innocent sort of way.

It's inconvenient, if you expect her to play make believe, Zephyr pointed out, his cynicism clear.

We can work around it, Asher murmured. It must have taken an awful lot of courage to venture this far into the wolf’s den.

Zephyr's ears flicked forward. Or stubbornness, he countered. And a healthy disregard for her own life.

Perhaps, but Asher suspected there was more influencing her current behaviour. As he did with all newcomers to the village, shortly after her arrival, he’d asked one of his wolves to investigate Katherine's intentions.

They’d swiftly learned she worked for a city newspaper as a copywriter, and had gained a small but loyal following writing a book review column once a month. She'd also just applied for an eight-week sabbatical, so clearly intended to be long gone before the end of summer. However, eight weeks had swiftly turned into twelve, and then twelve into sixteen, and Asher had dug deeper.

It hadn't taken long to uncover her engagement to a semi-successful food critic working for the same paper, nor the news article reporting the collision that had taken his life just a week after she'd arrived at Little Ashton. Curiously, Katherine hadn't returned for his funeral, but he'd read the obituary she'd written on his parent's behalf, and her devastation was clear.

Aside from the twinge of guilt he felt at asking a grieving woman to pretend to be in love with someone else, the revelation actually suited his purposes quite well. After all, a woman still mourning the love of her life was hardly likely to try and hold him to his fake proposal when the time came to end the charade.

“Alpha?” His Gamma's soft voice spoke up from the doorway.

Asher turned from the window, a small sigh threatening as his eyes fell on the reports once more. “What is it, Luke?”

“Joanna has the body laid out ready for... further investigation.” He hid a grin, knowing full well how his Alpha felt about autopsies. “She erm... wanted to know if you wished to attend?”

Asher shuddered. “No, I can't think of a single way I'd be of any help down there. You might want to ask the good detective though.”

Luke's lip twitched. “He's been camped out in the hospital for the last two hours. Joanna keeps offering him tea.”

“Poor Arthur,” Asher murmured. “Let her know she can start, put him out of his misery.”

“Will do.”

Asher retrieved his pen, reluctantly conceding that seemingly endless papers would never get any less if he didn't at least make an effort to plough through them. A sudden thought made him pause.

“Teddy isn't at the hospital, is he?” The enmity between the Beta and the detective was a thorn in Asher's side that required almost constant supervision.

“No, I think he's still tracking the van.” The tension in Luke's voice matched his own, and he spoke his next words carefully. “Can I be frank?”

Asher looked as his Gamma affectionately. Luke was his oldest friend; they'd practically grown up together. Asher had watched him mature from a gangly carefree youth, full of enthusiasm for strategy games, into a practised, confident warrior, well versed in multiple forms of combat and defence. When the time had come, there had been no one else Asher had been willing to consider as Gamma. “You can be Julie, if you like, but I think Luke suits you better than Frank.”

Luke responded with a quick grin, then his face folded back into a more serious expression. “You really need to deal with those two at some point. They're becoming a problem.”

“You mean Teddy is becoming a problem.” Asher sighed. His Beta seemed to gravitate towards conflict with increasing regularity, and most of his fights were with Detective Arthur Hollister.

“Arthur has plenty of moments as well,” Luke reminded him, his loyalties showing through. “And he's not pack.”

No, but he is necessary. “I'll have words,” Asher promised. Again. “In the meantime, see if you can find out what Teddy's real problem is, he's been stewing about something for months. If we can get to the bottom of that, we might just get somewhere with the pair of them.”

“Will do,” Luke agreed.

And we'll tackle the good detective, Zephyr muttered. Remind him who's pack it is.

Gently, Asher warned. Remember, a growl is better than a bark.

A growl is good, Zephyr agreed. A bite is even better.

Asher grunted and turned back to the droning of whichever Eta had written the latest report. I could sell these as cures for insomnia. Silence fell, and for a few moments he actually managed to read several paragraphs unimpeded.

He's still here, Zephyr pointed out.

What? Asher looked up. His Gamma remained hovering in the doorway. Oh, what now? He narrowed his eyes.

Luke's face wore an expression of harassment that only a single member of his one hundred and eighty strong pack was capable of compelling, and Asher sighed inwardly, once again throwing the pen across his desk in defeat. He wouldn't be getting anything else done today. “It's alright Luke, you can let her in.”

"Let me in?" A strident female voice, intimidation ingrained into every syllable, rose from behind the figure blocking her entrance. "Let? I suggest you move aside before I let my cane find the back of your legs."

"Be nice, Aunt Sarah," Asher murmured, leaning back in his chair in an effort not to look like he was bracing himself. For his aunt to voluntarily venture into this particular room, whatever she had to say was either urgent, or meddling in the extreme.

And he had a sinking feeling he knew exactly which direction this particular conversation was headed.