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Hawk shook his head, and relief instantly rushed through me. Whatever it was, at least I wasn’t going back to prison. Not today, at least.

“Then what? How bad is it?”

“It’s not work related,” Hawk said. “But it’s important. You’ve got to come with me, now.”

Blakely touched my forearm. “Come on, Ace, if it’s not work it can probably wait an hour or two…”

I shrugged off her touch. “Gonna have to take a rain check, Blakely.”

Hawk nodded, and I followed him through the crowded clubhouse to the front door. I ignored Blakely calling my name and glanced over my shoulder at Striker. “You’re in charge, Striker!”

He saluted in acknowledgment.

Our pack ran like a well-oiled machine. I was grateful I could leave on a busy night like tonight and know the clubhouse was in good hands.

I followed Hawk out to his old Mustang—I assumed Mia had the sedan with the car seat in the back—and slid into the passenger seat. “You gonna tell me what the hell is going on?”

Hawk threw the Mustang into reverse and pulled out from the clubhouse. He headed down the gravel road that circled the lake, toward the cabin on the other side of the lake, where he lived with his wife and daughter. As he drove, he glanced sidelong at me. “I can’t tell you, but I need you to try to stay calm, okay?”

I waited for my dragon to sense a lie. But there was none. Whatever was going on, Hawk really couldn’t tell me.

That only worried me more. What the hell was going on?

Hawk pulled up to his cabin, turned off the car, then took a deep breath. “Please remember to stay calm.”

“Saying that over and over isn’t helping.” I climbed out of the car and slammed the door a little unnecessarily hard. My dragon was alert, sniffing the air. He could sense something, and I did as well—a tingling under my skin.

“Ace—”

I needed to find out what this was about. Now. I marched up the steps to Hawk’s porch, then pushed open the front door.

My heart stopped. I froze in place. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this. It wasn’tHarley.

The woman I’d spent years trying to forget about.

The only woman my dragon wanted.

My fated mate.

She was seated on the old leather couch in Hawk’s living room, looking just as beautiful as I remembered—hell, she was evenmorebeautiful. She was perfectly curvy. Her thighs filled out her dark jeans, and a soft pale blue sweater with her alma mater on the front accentuated her perfect waist and full breasts. Her long, auburn hair was piled into a bun at the top of her head, but a few strands escaped to frame her round face and her bright, warm blue eyes.

My dragon thrashed inside me, whining his demands. That wasHarley.Our mate—ourfated mate.She was the only one we were supposed to be with.

“Hi, Stephan,” she said softly.

Smoke burned the back of my throat.

I never thought I’d see her again. And here she was, on my brother’s couch. Like a ghost. Like a dream.

But that wasn’t all. There was something else in the house. Someoneelse. Family. Not Mia, not Bella, not Hawk. An unfamiliar presence, but one my dragon recognized all the same.

“Who else is here?” I looked between Harley and Hawk. “There’s someone else here.”

Whoever it was, their presence was making my dragon thrash harder inside me. He wanted to escape. He wanted to search this place from top to bottom like a dog.

The back door swung open, and a bright laugh rang through the house. A boy, no more than eight or nine, bounded into the living room with Hawk’s puppy Zoey in his arms. The little German shepherd wriggled and yipped as she licked the kid’s face. “Mom, she’s so cute and already so good at fetch! Can we get a puppy too? Please? Please please please?”

Harley brushed a few sweaty strands of blond hair out of the boy’s eyes. “I’ll think about it, kiddo. A dog’s a big responsibility.”