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Cynthia searched the entire house for her sister. The little bitch was dating when she told her that she wasn’t to do that until she’d dated them first. And if she thought that she was going to be all right with her running off like she did, then Cynthia was going to show her a thing or two about that as well.

She didn’t like that everyone thought that Cass was prettier than her. She didn’t see it. Her sister was so plain that she just didn’t even think of her as passing nice looking. Cass didn’t care if she had freckles all over her face, nor did she ever go and have her hair done up into a nice style. Her sister was just painfully plain. And she didn’t like her.

Ever since she’d been fourteen, Cynthia had been the center of attention. She’d gotten her boobs early and didn’t have any trouble using them with the boys to get them to like her. Cass had been born about the time she was able to get out on her own at sixteen, and it had been a competition since in getting boys and now men to look at her. Not that Cass cared if they looked at her. No, she was more into playing chess with their father and mucking out stalls around the ranch.

Once, she’d caught her hosing off at the stalls outdoors and had about fifty men watching her. Not really that many, but it seemed like it to her. Cynthia put a stop to that right then and there by going to her daddy and making it so that Cass no longer worked in the stalls. That was the first of many things that she put a stop to concerning her little sister. And now she was flaunting dating in her face.

Looking in the mirror in the front hall, Cynthia could see that she was beginning to look her age. Forty wasn’t anything that she could do anything about, but she’d not been married yet, and no suitors were coming to the door anymore just for her. And even though she’d never had a child to term, her body was beginning to look out of shape in places that she didn’t care for.

She had saggy upper arms. Her thighs were full of cellulite, and no matter how tight her pants or stockings were, she couldn’t hide it from anyone anymore. She also had a floppy neck. Chicken neck, one of her now no longer friends told her. While she was beginning to look like a forty-year-old single woman, her sister was at the prime of her life and didn’t seem to be getting anything that she had when she turned twenty-four.

Reduced to calling her, she wasn’t surprised that she’d not answered her phone. Pulling out her list of things that she’d done to piss her off today, Cynthia wrote down that she was to answer her phone when she called. It was mandatory for her to be able to speak to her at all times.

“Daddy will take my side on this. Her leaving the house is a big no-no, too. How am I supposed to keep track of her if she’s not here?” Mother came into the room she was in, and Cynthia told her to go away. “I’m busy doing things in here, Mother, and you’re not helpful with me concerning Cass.”

“Why don’t you leave her alone, Cynthia? She’s a grown woman and knows her own mind. If she wants to date everyone in the county, that’s no concern to you.” She told her that she didn’t understand what her dating could do to her. “Nothing. You wouldn’t be dating the men that she does anyway because she’s so much younger than you are.”

“What a nasty thing to say to me. I’m just as pretty as she is. More so, actually. She won’t even put on blush when she goes out. Or lipstick. How do men even find that to be appealing?” Mother asked her who knew the minds of men nowadays. “I do. And she’s not going to go out with men that might want to date me instead. I’m the oldest, and if she thinks I’m going to be all right with her taking over my dating pool, then she’d better be careful that I don’t ruin that ugly face of hers.”

“Cynthia Jane Warmer. What a terrible thing to say about your own flesh and blood. You should be ashamed of yourself.” She told her that she wasn’t and that if Cass decided to go against her, she’d teach her not to cross her. “I just don’t understand you at all anymore. You’re one argument away from having a stroke the way that you’re acting. You don’t want to go back to that home, do you?”

“No, never, and you’d better watch yourself, too, mother. I’m not so sure that you’re not going to be on my list of things that I have my daddy take care of for me.” She asked her why she thought that her husband would do anything against her. “Because I’ll tell him what I want, and he’ll do it for me because he loves me more than he does you. You’ll see. I’ll have you both in trouble if you don’t watch it.”

Mother left her there without another word. It was just as well; she didn’t want her around anymore anyway. Mother was forever telling everyone how old she was, and it was reflecting badly on her to know that her mom was in her sixties. Howie was still in his twenties—he’d just turned twenty-nine a few weeks ago. It was bad enough that her father had this brain tumor thing and was taking all the attention from her anyway. Now, her mother was acting up. She decided to call Howie to find out what he was going to do about Cass dating.

After telling him everything on her list, she asked him which ones she could cross off that he was going to take care of for her. He blustered around for a few minutes, trying like her mother did to figure out why she’d care about what their little sister was doing.

“Because she’s annoying me to no end. This whole dating thing has to stop, and you should be upset, too.” He asked her why, as if he couldn’t figure it out on his own. “You’ll see what is going to happen. I’m going to have to take charge of her, just as I should have done when she was born. Mother has let her get by with too much, and now my daddy is going to have to take her on to keep her in line. I have rules. Rules that she’s breaking.”

“You see, that’s where we differ. I don’t care who she dates, and it has no effect on me whatsoever. So long as we’re not dating the same person, I’m fine with her—” She told him not to be disgusting. “I’m just saying, Cynthia, you should be finding yourself a husband and leave her to her own self. There is nothing to be done about her dating, and I hope she finds someone that treats her right.”

“You bastard. Why is it just me who has to do everything? Well, there’s no hope for it. I’m going to have to get into her business and make sure that she’s not doing anything to harm me. She will, too, just because I told her not to do it.” Howie asked her if she was off her meds again. “I don’t take those anymore. I’m better without them. Besides, that’s nothing to do with Cass. She’s behaving badly, and it’s reflecting back on me.”

“You’re insane. Again. I’m going to call Mom and Dad and let them know that you’re not taking your meds. You were told not to stop taking them about fifteen years ago when you had that episode. Remember that? They had to lock you into one of those homes.” She said that they were wrong to do that to her. “It saved your life, didn’t it.”

“I was just fine. And I don’t know what you’re talking about saving my life. I was doing things that needed to be done, and I was getting them done when I was taken to that home.” Howie told her that she really did need to get back on her meds. “I’m not going to spend the rest of my life doped up because some quack said I was mentally insane.”

“He didn’t say that. He never said you were insane. He said you have a chemical imbalance, and when you’re on your medications, you do better with everything. You’re not thinking well, and that’s going to get you into trouble again.” She hung up on him. He wasn’t making any sense when she was talking about her sister, and he was going on about meds. She didn’t need them for the first time in years. She was thinking right.

“He’d better not tell Daddy either. I’ll show him how all right I am if he does.” She tried to call Cass again and when some man answered. “Who is this, and what have you done with my sister?”

“Nothing. She’s having a nice dinner with me.” She screamed at him. “You must be the older sister that I’ve been hearing about. You might as well get used to the idea of the two of us seeing one another. She’s my mate.”

“I don’t care what she thinks she is to you. You’ll be dating me first. And if I decide that you’re not good enough for me, which I’m thinking right now isn’t going to happen. I’ll allow her to date you. But just because she’s broken the rules, I’m going to marry your ass and see how that goes with her. I’m her boss.” He laughed. “What do you find so funny? Nothing that I don’t approve of either, I’m assuming.”

“Your dad approves, so I’m not worried about you.” She asked him what he’d done with her daddy. “He’s having dinner with us right now. Never have I seen a man enjoy a shake and French fries like he does. I’m guessing you don’t approve of him having a good dinner with me, either. Well, Cindy, you’re in for a lot of things not going your way in the future if I have anything to say about it.” She screamed again, this time right into the phone.

“You put my daddy on the line right now, you idiot, so that I can have a private conversation with him.” He said he’d put it on speaker. “You’ll do as I tell you, or so help me, I’ll ruin your fat face. Then who would date you? No one, including my sister. Better yet, let me talk to her. I have a few things that I need to tell her about right now.”

“No.”

She waited for him to say that he was joking or to at least put her sister on the phone. But he didn’t say anything at all for several seconds. When she told him again, the line went dead, and she couldn’t believe what was going on with her family right now. Someone had actually hung up on her when she was trying her best to do right by them.

“I’m going to kill them all. Starting with that man.” She realized that she hadn’t gotten his name and was pissed about that too. Holding her head, she needed to lie down or be sick again before she dealt with anyone else in her family. They were all getting on her last nerve.

Her room was a mess. She’d had a temper tantrum earlier when one of her new dresses didn’t fit her. They’d either given her the wrong size or something. Now, every article of clothing was lying on her floor, and a couple of drawers had been pulled out and emptied and scattered all over the room. Christ, she hated messes but was too sick to be able to find someone to take care of it now.

As soon as she laid down, she had to rush to the bathroom. It wasn’t her lack of meds that was making her feel this way, but the anger she had toward her family. Throwing up several times, most of it bile, she crawled through her room’s mess and laid on the rug that was by her bed. She couldn’t get up another time.

As she laid there, plotting and planning, she thought of her sister again. Cass wasn’t going to be able to get away with this today. She’d told her yesterday that she was going to start behaving or she’d have to take her to task. Cynthia had gotten a whip from the barn that she was going to use on Cass again if she didn’t start doing what she’d been told.

When she woke up, she was slightly disorientated. Figuring out that she’d been on the floor to sleep didn’t help her mood, but her head was feeling better. Going into the hallway, she found the maid coming out of her mother’s office and told her she’d have to fix her room next. When she told her she’d get right on it, for some reason, she wanted to slap the shit right out of her. There was a tone there, and it bothered her that everyone was against her all the time. She was going to have to have a talk with Daddy about that as well. People were all against her, and she couldn’t figure out why.

After getting herself something to eat, she was ready to face her sister and father. Daddy would have to side with her as he wasn’t going to be around all that much longer, and she’d have to take over his duties as well. He’d better was all she could think about.

She was also going to have a word about his having this tumor, too. He was dragging her down all the time with his sad face and talking about how he was going to be dying soon. She wished he’d just get it over with and die already so that she could have the attention back on her again. His lingering around was just stupid. Perhaps she’d talk him into having the doctor speed things up for her, and that would be the end of him being so needy.

He’d not been. That was another thing she was going to have a talk to him about. He and Cass were always hanging out together. Playing that horse game. He’d never invited her to play the horse game, and she wasn’t going to allow them to play anymore if they weren’t going to invite her to play. There were plenty of pieces. They just have to make room for her. Writing that in her little notebook, she was going to have to have a talk with her daddy that lasted all night the way things were going right now.

~*~

Conri couldn’t believe his luck tonight. He’d taken Cass to the burger joint, and her dad was there getting him something to eat. He had explained that it was cook’s night off, and he treated himself to a burger out when that happened. Also, he’d have a shake, he told them, but no fries. He didn’t care all that much for them. Conri had been kidding when he told Cindy that he was enjoying them with his dinner.

“She has this notebook that she’s writing things down in. Things that she wants to talk to you about, Dad.” Before her dad had joined them, he had just asked Cass what was wrong with her. It took him ten minutes to find out that she’d been hit with a riding crop by her sister. And if that wasn’t bad enough, she told him that she’d hit her with one before, but never had she drawn blood before. He was about as pissed off as he’d been about meeting her.

Cass was nothing like he’d imagined her to be. She was beautiful in every sense of the word. Her smile made his heart beat a little faster. The fact that she didn’t need makeup or wear it led him to think that she was a natural beauty rather than a made-up one. Her voice, even when she was upset like she had been, wasn’t shrill or loud. She calmly told him that she was upset with her sister and then that she’d been hit by her. Conri wanted to slay her dragons, but she asked him to wait. Not that she didn’t want him to do anything about her sister, just to wait until she was in a better frame of mind to talk to him about her.

“I’ve seen her writing things in that little book of hers. She used to do it a lot when she was younger, keeping track of things that she wanted me to know about. It’s only until recently that she’s been writing things in it that have to do with things that she wants me to—I spoke to your brother on the way in here, and he said she’s not taking her medications anymore. I’ll have to speak to her about that, too. It’s dangerous when she’s not taking them. As you’ve witnessed first-hand.” Conri asked what was wrong with her. “She’s bipolar, for one, and she has a serious chemical imbalance too that when she’s not taking her medication, she goes into this fight mode. Everything is against her, and she’s the only one that can fix that. I should have noticed that myself and might have been able to nip this in the bud before now. If she refuses to take the medications, then she’ll end up in an asylum again. This time for a lot longer than before. When she gets in that sort of mood, she’s a danger to all of us and herself as well.”

Conri didn’t want to be afraid for Cass and her father, but he found himself being just that. If Cindy, as he’d been calling her, which Cass said that she hated, did anything else to his mate, she was going to have to deal with him. And that wasn’t going to be pretty.

After dinner, he took Cass to his home. Mom wanted to meet her, and while Cass wasn’t keen on meeting his mom right now, she was polite and nice to her and his brothers. They seemed to be falling all over themselves, proving to her that they were there if she needed them.

That just pissed her off, and it was funny to see her tangle with the five of them when she’d had enough of them handling her. They were, too. Like a kitten or pup that they’d just gotten, and everyone wanted to hold her.

“Behave yourselves, or I’ll teach you some manners.” They each backed away after welcoming her to the family. “We’ll see about that. I have my own family crisis to deal with right now. With my sister off her meds and my dad sick, I’m barely hanging on here. So just behave yourselves, and I might get to like you all.”

Mom invited her to stay the night as they had plenty of room. She agreed that she didn’t want to face her sister and her list right now but would have to call her parents and tell them where she was going to be. As she left the room to make her call, he looked at his brothers. He needed them to understand something as well.

“Howard said she was dangerous. Not only has she hit Cass with a riding crop, but she said she was going to ruin my face as well. I’m taking this very seriously right now. Especially if her sister is saying that she was going to kill Cass if she dated me.” Yuri told them again about her insisting that she date him before Cass, and it really bothered him that she wouldn’t take no for an answer. “If you see her out and about, though Howard said that she’s not much of a townie person, but if you see her in town, avoid her at all costs. And I’d like for you guys to keep an eye on Cass and Mom while they’re out without me.”

“You think that she really will hurt Cass?” He explained that she already had. “I know that, but I mean, do you think she’ll kill her given the chance? If that’s right, then you have to proclaim her as your mate soon. It’ll give her immortality and save you the heartache of losing her.”

That’s how they’d been able to get their father and Carol out of their lives. Conri hadn’t ever proclaimed her as his. They’d slept together and had had a lot of sex in those first few months, but he’d never claimed her as his own. So, she was never given immortality. Mom had claimed that she no longer wanted to be regarded as a mate to his father. That took away his immortality, too, when it was needed to seek pack judgment against him. It had been a bit more complicated about their father, but once it was finished, he was as well.

“I don’t want to rush her.” He had a feeling that she’d not be rushed into anything. After she came back into the room, he was happy when she sat down next to him. “Is everything all right with your family?”

“Yes. Dad convinced Mom to meet him in town, and they’re going to stay at the bed and breakfast for a few days. They’ve not told Cynthia and don’t plan on it. But my brother knows, so he won’t tell her. Mom said that she threatened to kill me and Conri if I was really dating him. Is that what we call this between us? Dating?”

“We can call it that for now. But as my mate, in our pack or any other pack, we’re considered to be married. Nothing will come between us so long as—we’ll live forever if you were to tell me that it’s all right to claim you.” She didn’t immediately tell him no, for which he was grateful. But she did ask him what that meant. “I just say to a group of wolves that I claim you as my mate for all time. It’ll make you safer being around your sister. Also, you won’t gain any weight—unless you’re breeding, nor will you get sick with any human diseases, either. Plus, while I don’t know how much or what it would be, you’ll get a bit of magic too—more so because you’ll be the female version of myself as alpha.”

“Can I think on that? At least for the night?” He told her that it would be totally up to her. But she shouldn’t just not take it because they don’t know one another just yet. “I understand that you’re trying to protect me from Cynthia, and I will admit that I’m afraid that she’ll hurt me. I just need to think about what that will mean to the rest of my family and their not being immortal. They can’t be, can they?”

“No, I’m sorry. I can’t give it to them unless the king of our kind says it’s all right. I can contact him and ask him about it. I know about your father. But that will be completely up to him.” She said that is why she wanted to think about it. “All right, you think about it, and I’ll do my very best not to piss you off any more than I already have.”

The rest of the evening was spent getting to know each other. His brothers, one by one, headed to their own homes, and since he was living in the pack house with his mom, he only had to show her the rooms of the place and let her pick out one for herself. He was glad when she took the old room that he had. Having her sleeping in his old bed was something akin to having her in his big bed in the master suite of the house. Conri felt like if anyone heard what he’d been thinking, they’d never let him live it down.

Going to bed that night, he had to sit down when he thought of her being his mate. He’d gone to see her pissed off, and the little bit of time that he’d spent with her had him changing his mind about everything. While eating with her, he’d probed her mind for anything that he’d found in Carol’s mind, and all he could find was that she wasn’t lying to him and she didn’t know what it meant to be his mate. Just honesty was all he found, too.

Getting up when all he was doing was tossing and turning, he pulled out his laptop and began a search on her family. And because he ran background checks on everyone who worked in the house, he did one on her and her sister. Howie, too, but he could only find that he’d been married once before and that six months after they were wed, there had been a horrific accident that had taken her life and that of their unborn child.

Cynthia was a different story. There were so many articles in the newspaper that he was surprised to know that she’d been released from the hospital for the criminally insane. She’d killed four people one afternoon when she couldn’t get in touch with her father. She believed that the four people who had died by her hand were keeping him from her. He read the article about her trial.

She’d been deemed unfit to stand trial. Her thinking was that it had been all right for her to have killed those people because she’d not been able to find her father. The article went on to say that they’d had to lock her up and put her into restraints before they finally got her on the medication that she needed. Cynthia had only been out on her own for the last ten years. She was deemed fit so long as she took her meds on time and was monitored daily by a doctor. He’d bet anything that no one had been to see her in a few months and not have anyone notice that she’d been acting up again.

He made a mental note to ask Cass about it when he saw her in the morning. He also wondered if that was the reason she didn’t live at home, that Cass was somehow a trigger for the older woman. Another thing that he was going to talk to her about. Just as he was closing up his computer, there was a knock at the door. Going to get it, he was glad that he’d not undressed completely when he’d gotten in the room. It was his mom.

“I remembered that I had this cleaned for you a couple of months ago.” She handed him the small box from the jeweler. “I thought that if she allows you to claim her, you should give her a ring, too. It’s one that your father didn’t give me, but I purchased it for myself.”

The ring was a simple band that had a wolf’s paw print on the inside of the ring. There was a slit in it for someone to be able to shift and not lose a finger while doing it. He didn’t know why, but he had a feeling that Cass would like this ring over any diamond that he could give her. She’d not like cut flowers either, he thought. She would prefer plants over cut ones.

“I love it, Mom. Thank you very much.” She nodded once and then began to walk away. “Do you like her?” She asked if that was important to him. “Yes. She’s my mate, but I want her to be liked by the family. Especially by you.”

“I do like her. She’s very friendly but knows when to cut you guys off when she gets upset. She’s not an angry person either. Just calm and, like you said, not loud when she’s upset. I hope she allows you to claim her, son. I don’t want anything to happen to her either.” He said he wasn’t going to force her into anything. “Good for you. I do like her and hope that I can come to love her as much as you will be in love with her. There haven’t been any women around here for far too long now. It’ll be a nice change for her to be a part of the family. But I am worried about her sister.”

“I was looking her up. She’s been put away for murder. I didn’t see how long she was away, but I have a feeling that it was a few years. I also think that somehow Cass isn’t joking when she said she’s afraid of her. She’s scary.” Mom said she thought so as well. “Be careful when you’re out and about. She more than likely doesn’t know who you are yet, but just be careful. I couldn’t stand for anything to happen to you or any of the others.”

“I will.” She hugged him then, and it felt good. “I’m going to be in town in the morning for a couple of meetings. The two of you will need to get Cass settled someplace where she’s safe like her parents have.”

“Thanks again for the ring, Mom. I know she’ll love it.” At least, he hoped that she would. He didn’t know much about women and less about his mate, but he had a feeling that she was going to like the simpler things in life rather than her sister, liking to be the center of attention all the time.