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closer, Anya’s recognized her long dark hair and open green eyes, and she launched herself at Joanna. She hadn’t known she would feel so relieved to see her, but it felt damned good to know someone among all the strangers.
    Joanna hugged her back, squeezing until her back cracked and she buried her face against her neck and wanted to cry. She didn’t even know why she was so emotional.
    “What are you doing here?” Joanna breathed, easing back to arm’s length and studying her face in the flickering firelight.
    “He threw me away,” she whispered in a broken voice. It was partly true. Mostly true. She wished she could tell her the real traitorous reason she was here, but Nathan would banish her or worse, smudge her right off her family tree if she messed this up.
    “Oh, t hat asshole,” Joanna whispered.
    The big man crossed his arms beside them and his face darkened. The openness was gone, and now it was replaced by suspicion that caused a tiny pain in her chest she was helpless to sort out.
    “What’s going on?” a man with a bottled water in his hands asked as he strode toward them. This must be the alpha.
    “Riker, this is Anya,” Joanna introduced her. “She was thrown out of the Long Claws and has come seeking sanctuary.”
    “The Long Claws?” Chase asked. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
    “Chase,” Riker warned. “Why were you thrown out?”
    Everyone quiet ed, as if they were hanging onto her words and she stuttered. “I-I…”
    “You-you what? Came here to spy, that’s what.” Chase’s voice sounded venomous and he took a step toward her.
    “Stop it,” Joanna said, shoving him in the shoulder.
    Anya’s eyes flew wide. “Joanna,” she admonished. The woman was going to get herself flogged.
    Chase didn’t even growl at her and Anya couldn’t stop reeling. The rules she’d known didn’t apply here in this upside down place.
    As close to honest as she could manage was best, so she lifted her chin and inhaled. “I haven’t given Nathan a cub, and he said he has no use for me anymore.” Shame flamed her cheeks at the truth of it and she added, “I haven’t had a heat in a year and a half. The alpha of the Long Claws can do better than a sterile mate.” Nathan had said this over and over as she’d pleaded with him yesterday, but his repeated words made her want to curl into a ball and cry. But instead, she held Chase’s gaze and his eyes seemed to soften. Not much, but enough that she saw it.
    “You’re Nathan’s mate?” Chase asked.
    Kind of? She was feeling confused on what she really was to him but she nodded. Nathan called her his mate, so it must have been so.
    “Fan-fuckin-tastic. Get out. Go back to your mate and tell him you couldn’t dig up any dirt here.”
    “He’ll kill me if I go back.” Her voice shook because the words sounded so right. Nathan really would kill her if she failed.
    “Sounds like your problem,” Chase said. “Not ours.”
    “Chase, that’s enough.” The clearing filled with the crackle of power so electric, the downy hairs on her arms rose. “Sit down.”
    Chase turned his head but his eyes never left her. His arms flexed over his chest, puffing out the intimidating mass of muscle there.
    “Now,” Riker said.
    Gaze lingering on her, the giant man sat much more gracefully into the chair than she would’ve expected from the behemoth.
    “Surely you know war with the Long Claws is imminent, and we just received a visit from your mate yesterday. We can’t be too careful who we allow near us right now or it could get our people killed. You are more dangerous tha n you know, even if your reason for being here is pure. Joanna left Nathan two months ago and he’s only become more desperate to make us pay. Now you’re here. Does he know you’ve come to Bear Valley?”
    “Probably. He’s killed off most of the other clans who could offer me sa nctuary.” The admission was genuine and made her heart pull away from Nathan a little