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too much to ask to be left alone?”
    “No. But the chances are you wouldn’t be left alone.” He could imagine it. A bunch of women in one undefended house would be a magnet for every filthy woman stealer in the state. His wolf screamed at him to do something, to save the woman he’d chosen. “Miss Connie,” he began, but words failed him.
    She continued to limp back and forth in the cold room, her breath puffing faint clouds to stream behind her. “I wish to God there was a way for us to stay here and open our restaurant like we planned. I know we could make a success of it. If only we could afford to hire guards! If only this stupid, fucked-up world wasn’t so fucked up, we could do it.”
    The bed groaned when she dropped back down on it. Her head sank into her hands and in a smothered voice she moaned, “What am I going to do?”
    His big brown hands trembled when he reached for her wrists to tug them down. “I have an idea.” He swallowed when she lifted her face to stare at him with fresh tears gleaming in her eyes. “You might not like it, but it’s a way for you to open your restaurant and for all the women to stay here, single, and safe, for as long as they want.”
    Cautious hope bloomed on her face. “How?”
    “Marry me.” He kept his eyes on hers, gentle and steady. “With me and Stag and some other men from the Clan and Taye’s Pack living here, the house will be protected. I’ll make sure everyone is safe. None of your women will be forced into marriage.”
    Her eyes unfocussed as she thought. “I have to marry you?”
    “Yes. That’s the deal. You marry me; I protect you.”
    “You want to marry me? Shouldn’t you wait for your mate? I mean, your inner wolf is the one to choose your wife, right?”
    The doubt and confusion in her voice made him want to laugh. “You are my mate. I knew it when I saw you at the Clan’s camp. Why else would I have asked you to be my mate?”
    She pulled her wrists from his grip and shook her head. “When did you ask me that? I don’t remember it.”
    Well, wasn’t that a kick in the balls? He asked a woman to be his mate, and she didn’t even remember it. His empty hands threatened to clench. “You’re my mate. I asked you the day I first saw you in the Clan camp.”
    She hooked her hair behind her ear. It immediately fell out again, but she ignored it. “I barely remember the first few days I was with the Clan. The pain from my broken ankle was so bad, I was out of it most of the time. I told you no ?”
    He nodded.
    Her shoulders hunched, as if the ghost of the pain in her ankle slid through her. “You never said anything about it again.”
    “You said you never wanted to marry.” He made himself relax. “I wouldn’t try to force you.”
    “But you helped me with Dick Dickinson so many times I lost count.” Her eyes unfocussed again while she thought. When her gaze returned to him it was sharp and determined. “You have to promise you’ll never let any of the women be forced into marriage. You have to swear you’ll take care of them and keep them safe no matter what.”
    “Okay.”
    She stood up, her pale blond hair almost glowing in the light of the lamp. “Swear!” she demanded.
    He stood too, looking down at his beautiful mate with fiercely triumphant joy singing in his blood. She was going to marry him! “I swear I will protect you and all the women in this house. No one will ever hurt them or force them to get married. They will be my pack and I will keep them safe at any cost. That is my solemn oath.”
    Her breath shuddered out of her in a long breath. “Okay. Good enough. That’s good.”
    From the way she twisted her hands together and looked everywhere but at him, he guessed she didn’t know what to do or say next. He took her hands. “We’ll be married tomorrow afternoon at the den.”
    He could see that jolted her. “Married? So soon?”
    “The priest will be here for only a day or two. There will be other