I creep inside the pool past the 'closed' sign; my she-wolf curled into a ball, her snout tucked under her paw. The water glimmers in the dawn light; peaceful, bewitching... deadly.

The sound of tinkling glass breaks the silence. The window hasn't been replaced yet. Most of the glass is gone, but the swimming class is here early this morning to move the equipment and the benches. Two other wolves are swimming deep under the water with fins and goggles. In their hands, they are holding what looks like a big, black vacuum. Every once in a while, one of them will pop up to breathe. All around the pool is yellow caution tape.

Slowly, everyone becomes aware of my presence. Even the swimmers stop, standing in the middle of the pool to stare at me. Everything is quiet for a long moment before Owen clears his throat. "Let's get going, everyone." They all start moving again, sweeping up glass. I walk over to Owen, joining him in silence as he stacks the chairs in the far corner.

"Ili, can I talk to you?" Owen asks me quietly twenty minutes later.

I follow him into the swim office, my she-wolf's head hanging low. He looks at me, his warm brown eyes soothing after everything that just happened yesterday. No judgment or anger in his gaze, which makes me feel absurdly grateful.

"I'm so sorry, Owen," I begin lamely.

"Did he hurt you?" he whispers. His eyes are large, a golden brown that is almost entirely obscured by his dilated pupils. His wolf is scared, and I don't blame him one bit. No one wants an abusive, out-of-control alpha-male rampaging through the pack. Higher-ranked wolves may not care, but the others, especially lower-ranked males, get nervous.

I shake my head 'no.'

Owen gives me a distracted smile. "Ili, why did you want to learn to swim?"

I am taken aback. I think for a minute. It looks kind of bad. Braxton's overreaction must seem like it hit out of nowhere. I decide Owen deserves the truth about my fear. "I'm terrified of pools," I tell him bluntly.

His nervous smile eases into a real one, "I can tell," he murmurs.

"Yeah," I smile sheepishly before straightening, "I can't be afraid of anything, Owen. I need to conquer this."

He nods slowly, before blurting out, "is that Beta Sean?"

Everything in me freezes.

I spin around to see Sean enter the pool area with a heavy frown. If I caused a stir by showing up this morning, Sean is giving the swimming class fits. The two wolves in the pool are so unnerved by an angry dominant male entering their space for the second time in the last twenty-four hours that they abandon their equipment in the pool and scurry into the locker rooms.

Owen and I have the same idea as we both leave his office to meet Sean poolside. "Beta?" Owen greets him first by stepping in front of me. Sean's harsh reprimand of him yesterday must have made Owen feel guilty.

Sure enough, my never-mate opens his mouth and inserts his foot. "Now you protect her?" he snarls at the hapless male. Owen stammers an apology while I fume.

"Don't yell at him," I snap. "Beta," I use Sean's title belatedly.

Sean's eyes turn to me and soften. "Lili, you left without breakfast this morning."

I huff, crossing my arms over my chest. "I don't eat in the mornings," I tell him.

His eyes narrow at me. "You do now. I'll bring you to the diner."

"I'm not done cleaning," I tell him cooly.

Sean's lips curl into a small smirk as if my stubbornness amuses him. "Half an hour, baby." I glare with all the futile anger of a two-year-old pup facing down a grizzly as he turns and saunters off. Luna Bailey and I should have onioned-and-fish-filleted Sean's truck, too. What a wasted opportunity. Admittedly, I have no idea what my excuse for including Sean in our prank would have been. Then again, Luna Bailey may have just gone along with it.

"Is... um... is Beta Sean your lover?" Owen asks softly.

His words fall like a lead balloon, crashing down to the pool deck. My stomach seizes. Yesterday it was Braxton and now... holy crap, I didn't even think about what my conversation with Sean would sound like to an outsider.

The pack knows that I'm MateLess. My she-wolf gives a little agitated shake of her fur. Anyone who has seen Sean with me over the last few weeks believes that he is protecting me for Georgina's sake. At least... that's what I thought. Georgina is his lover, not me. It makes my stomach turn over to think that rumors about me and Sean are now going to run rampant through the pack. I can hear the gossip wheels a-turning already and they don't sound good.

Will everyone think that I am trying to steal the Beta from my own sister? Or worse, that Georgina and I are the same sort of female? The kind that takes an unmated male and doesn't care about his future mate? A rankwhore of the finest order?

"He's not. It's not - Sean knows I skipped out on breakfast and now he's taking me to the diner because he was there at my house. Not like - it's not a date. I know it sounded like a date after he was in my home in the earliest hours of the morning. You know, like he was there early because he was there late. Which he was, but not because it was a date... " Oh. My. Goddess. Iliana, shut up.

Owen spares me from my continued babbling, "everyone knows that he and your sister aren't mates, Ili. The way he reacted yesterday... It was intense. I could feel his wolf raging at me," Owen confesses. His eyes travel over my face, and I wonder what he sees there.

I swallow and shake my head, 'no.' I am not sure what I am denying, but this is dangerous territory. I told Alpha Alexander that I was MateLess. Lying about that is punishable. Not to mention the fact that my mate knew about me when he decided to date my sister. The pack didn't care about them before because wolfpacks are notoriously loyal to their own. The assumption was that both Sean and Georgina's mates are from other packs and who cares about those nameless, faceless wolves? If anyone figures out what Sean did to me, to one of our own, then it risks his position as Beta and my chances at alpha female.

No love interests. That's my plan.

Owen suddenly relaxes. "I'll teach you to swim. Our morning lessons would probably be best. Before most people are awake," he explains.

I perk up, "really?!" It's the perfect time to learn to swim, before my classes. My impromptu decision yesterday was pretty dumb of me. Of course, I didn't expect to use Owen as a liferaft.

He laughs softly, "yeah. You're a good female, Ili. Any help I can give you, I will."

I blush, "thanks, Owen." I would be more embarrassed and uncomfortable, but Owen is happily married to a sweet she-wolf. "Tomorrow?" I question.

He winks at me, "sure. Five o'clock in the a.m."

I just smile back. The crack of dawn is not a problem for me. I don't sleep well, anyway.

---

She stabs the sausage with so much force the tines of her fork scrape the plate. With a petulant little pout on her very kissable lips, she brings the sausage to her mouth and bites into it. Sharp, white teeth rip and tear the meat apart. Victorious, she gnashes and mauls the bitten piece like a little feral animal.

"More," I tell her after she swallows.

My wild girl growls softly but takes another equally vicious bite. When she is finished with that one, she lowers her fork to rest next to the plate.

"Lili, finish your meal."

"I can't," she scowls at me.

I eye her plate. I got her the Hungry Wolf Breakfast Platter; two large sausages, a slice of ham, scrambled eggs, gravy, two fried tomatoes, and hashbrowns. She's only eaten a third of it.

"You have a tiny tummy, sweet baby."

"Don't call me that."

"Drink your juice."

If she could chop my nuts off with her eyeballs, I would be a eunuch. Gritting her teeth, she brings the glass to her mouth. "Are we done?" she asks me.

"I suppose," I murmur. I'm reluctant to let her go off on her own. Who knows what shit she'll get up to next, but I have to get to work.

Lili stands, still glaring at me. Picking up her wallet, she starts to leave the booth. I snag her wrist and shake my head. "I pay."

"It's not necessary," she snaps.

Stubborn female. "Where are you going now? I'll drive you," I tell her.

"No," she hisses in exasperation. "I don't want the speculation. People may think you're so protective of me because of Georgina, but the more time we spend together, the more they talk." Her grey eyes dart to the diner's counter, where more than one packmember has been parked for our entire meal, eyes cataloging our every interaction.

I stand abruptly. I'm insulted that she doesn't want her name bound up with mine. I shouldn't be offended by her lack of interest. I don't have the right. It doesn't stop me from feeling this way. She's barely spoken to me the entire time we've been sitting here.

She hurries to the exit while I pay. I slap some cash on the table. It's probably three times what the meal cost, but I don't have the luxury of being upset. I need to catch Lili.

She quickens her pace as I catch up to her outside. "I'm fine, Beta," she says when I adjust my stride to match hers. "You can leave."

"I can walk my mate home," I stress.

"Where is Georgina?" comes her snarky little answer wrapped up in polite words as she muses thoughtfully.

"Lili-" My wolf stretches out of his eternal slumber, eyeing his stubborn, ferocious mate with heat in his eyes.

"Stop calling me that," She spits at me suddenly. I'm taken aback by the fierce rage burning in her gaze. "Little Loser Lili, right?" she chokes out.

"What the fuck?! I've never called you that!" I protest immediately. My mind races. There's something strikingly familiar about those words. Fuck. Did I ever call her that?

"No? You've called me a loser. And your precious sweetheart called me that ever since I can remember. No one calls me Lili. Not since Josh Greymark called me Lili in second grade and I burst into tears."

"I didn't know- I'm sorry, L - Iliana. Fuck, baby, I'm sorry." My wolf circles slowly. A thread of panic thrums through my brain. I can't lose control of him right now. Not with Iliana right here.

"My friends call me Ili," she whispers. "Only you and Georgina call me Lili. You don't even know my name. Don't call me baby or Lili. Don't call me anything."

"I don't...." I shake my head, trying to remember when it started. Her name is Lili. It's her fucking nickname, right?

"You were always happy to follow that cunt's pussy, right? Following her lead on everything." she furiously points right in my face. "You've called me a loser for years and never understood when Georgie would laugh about it, right?"

Iliana used to call Georgina, Georgie-Porgie. I remember that. Georgina used to cry buckets of tears. I thought the name-calling was normal sibling shit. Don't Conner and Braxton tease each other?

But, shit... Little Loser Lili... I do remember that. The name Lili was made up from shortening Little Loser. Fuck. Fuck me.

I'm breathing so hard I'm practically panting. "Sorry," I grit out. "I didn't know, and I should have." I back away, feeling like a piece of shit all over again. "I won't call you that anymore, baby."

"Don't 'baby' me!" she snarls furiously.

"Iliana," I say softly. "I'm sorry, babydaisy."

"No!" she sobs. "You can't c-call me that, either!"

"I have to call you something," I tell her quietly. "Remember you used to weave those crowns all the time? I called you that?" The nickname just slipped out. I used to call her babydaisy when we were young. She loved the flowers, always weaving them into crowns. She wove me one, once. I must have been eleven, and she was only six. Georgina tore it from my head and threw it to the ground, telling me it would attract bees. I remember thanking Georgina because I didn't want to be stung. Lili - Ili - didn't speak to me for two months.

"Stop!" Her hand comes swinging at my face. I should probably let her hit me, but instinct and training let me catch it easily. "Ili," I warn lowly.

She struggles to free herself from my grip. Her face is red and teary with strain. She's like a helpless kitten against me. I should have made her eat more, damnit.

"Let go of me!" she hollers.

"Don't try to hit me again," I warn, completely serious. She's untrained and fragile. Slow. She could seriously hurt herself by trying to hurt me, ironically. She scowls but nods her agreement.

I release her fist but still have my hand on her elbow. Sparks are running up and down my arm, her skin warming to my touch. My wolf, silent up to now, lets out a low growl that rumbles up from my chest. For once, we're in agreement. Ili needs protection from everyone, including herself.

"Let go," she says through gritted teeth.

I don't, stepping closer to her so that we touch, just barely. "Ili," I say just her name. I have to remember to never, ever call her Lili again. My free hand slides up her back to cup her nape gently. Her skin is soft and cool under my palm.

"Stay away from me," she begs. A tear slides down her cheek. I catch it on my finger, looking at her in wonder at my stupidity.

"I really fucked up," I breathe. "Don't cry, love. You never deserved this."

She sniffles, "I want to go home and study now. "

"Yeah. Go home and maybe sleep a little more, Ili. Rest for school. Call me," I swallow, "call me if anything, OK?"

She swiftly walks away, huddled into herself. I follow at a distance to make sure she's OK but let her have some space. I've pushed her enough today.

---

The truck rumbles to a stop. I wake up from my doze instantly, scanning my surroundings without moving my head.

"Got a text from your uncle," Sarj explains. "He wants us to check out this house."

"Why?" I examine the older farmhouse in front of me. It's pleasant-looking, I guess. The wood siding is painted a pale yellow with white shutters and trim. A few hanging baskets of flowers, the kind you buy at the supermarket, are hung on the porch. It's simple but nice enough. Innocuous.

"Intercepted communication about possible MateLess females hiding here," Sarj says with a grimace.

"Fuck," I let out a sigh, leaning my head back against the headrest and closing my eyes for a moment. "Uncle Alex is really running with this MateLess shit." Uncle Alex started with Carm's pack over a decade ago. All of the MateLess LoboGris have to trot over to ClearHowl to attend four mating events every year. Just my fucking luck that the next one is in a month when I'll be stuck in Canada, training.

"The unintended consequence of taking on MateLess wolves," Sarj says quietly.

"Shit, Sarj, Uncle Alex fully intended to be in control of this fuckery." I open my eyes to stare at him. "You're his greatest failure," I say with a grin.

Sarj smiles weakly. "Fated MateLess have a harder time finding mates," he points out quietly. "My wolf can't connect to anyone."

I shrug. "Dad worked his situation out."

Sarj's smile grows into a real one. "Your Dad is a fucking inspiration to every MateLess male. You know several packs have passed laws making taking more than one mate illegal? Well," he amends as he opens his door, "they've tried. Even my sister, Lyri, has three mates."

"They try a lot of shit," I add to his statement as I step out of the truck, too. A sharp movement in one of the windows catches my eye.

"Hold. We're waiting for Devel's wolves to get into position," Sarj says in a growl. He saw the curtain move, too. We wait until his phone beeps, then casually walk to the front door.

I take point and knock politely. Trying to look completely innocent, I shove my hands in my pants' pockets and fix a pleasant, dull look on my face. If whoever is in the house doesn't answer, Uncle Alex will send a team here to assist us. Wherever here is, although if I had to guess, it would be Montana. The farmhouse is surrounded by vast hay fields that stretch into the wide-open blue sky. I know we didn't cross the border yet.

The door creaks open, just a crack, much to my surprise.

The scent of she-wolf wafts over me. I look into the one large turquoise eye staring at me with pure suspicion. I inhale again, hearing an echoing inhale from Sarj.

She reeks of fear and chemicals. And... if I'm not mistaken, there are at least two females in the house and maybe one male. Young, desperate wolves, maybe just past their first shifts. My wolf looks at her curiously. The misogynistic asshole is wondering why females like this aren't pupped in their den. Yeah, I'm keeping his thoughts about that on the down-low from Ili, that's for sure. No sense in letting her know just how chauvinistic my wolf is. She can figure it out later, preferably after I have her pupped in our den.

"Hello," I say gently.

Her one eye narrows. She doesn't bother to reply with her greeting, just gives me a sharp scowl.

"I'm Braxton Grim, and this is Sarj Genome, from-"

The door slams in our faces.

"Well, that's not polite," Sarj mentions blandly.

A few seconds later, I hear a scuffle and a soft scream, cut short. Moments later, one of the males on Uncle Devel's team swings open the door. I step inside to see the female sitting on the floor, looking shocked and frightened, her hands zip-tied to her feet. Next to her is a smaller, brunette female with hair shorn close to her scalp. Thin, malnourished, they both smell of a hospital.

What a clusterfuck. "Hi sweethearts," I crouch down to their level, "can you tell me your names?"

The younger one sniffles and hides her face in the older girl's shoulder, eyeing me out of the corner of her eye.

"Rori," the slightly older one mutters. Her hands twist in the zip ties, not as if she's trying to escape, more a nervous reaction to her sudden situation. When she moves her wrists I can see marks running up and down the soft undersides of her arms. Track marks from needles. She doesn't look strung-out enough to be an addict, which makes the mystery of these females all the more important.

"Can you tell us what happened, Rori?" Sarj asks quietly. "How did you get here?"

"Where are you taking us?" she shoots back defiantly.

"We're from ClearHowl and RustClaw." Rori's face pales. "You've heard of us?" I ask her.

"They mentioned you," she whispers.

They? Goddess, tell me that these females weren't taken by the mad scientists we've been hunting for months. "Can you please tell me who you are and where you're from?" I ask gently. "These males will run your prints and get info, anyway, but if you just tell me now I can call your family sooner."

"RedPaw," Rori says softly, moving away from us as far as she can with the wall at her back. "Can you call my brother, Kade? Please? Not... not my dad."

I stare at her. I've heard of RedPaw. It's barely a wolfpack, with barely an alpha. They were allied to RedMoon, before ClearHowl took over. Now they're our problem. In fact, the alphason of RedPaw, Kade Red, has moved to ClearHowl territory to train with us.

I stand and look at Sarj. "Give me a moment?" He nods, and I walk outside to pull out my cell. When I hit the buttons, I don't call my uncle, or Dad, or Conner. I sure as fuck don't try to call Kade Red.

"Grim."