"Nope. It's a surprise. But you're totally going to thank me when we get there."

"You lying, conniving son of a bitch! Let me go, Brendon Shaw!" Ronnie tried to dodge past him again and he grabbed her around the waist, forcing her up the porch steps while he continued to argue with his sister long distance.

"Look, Rissa, I'll be home in about a week," he barked into the phone. "You should be able to manage the hotel until I get back. This isn't brain surgery."

"I know that but it's been a while, Bren. And all I'm saying is a little warning before you went traipsing off with your Huckleberry Hound would have helped considerably."

"Get over it. I've gotta go." He disconnected and took firm hold of Ronnie so he could haul her over to the door.

He'd hoped she'd be too tired to put up much of a fight. The hotel party lasted until five in the morning. A great night of drinking, food, and Ronnie. He couldn't think of a better way to bring in the New Year. After the party, Brendon took her back to their apartment and fucked her senseless for several hours, gave her only three hours to sleep, then carted her off to the airport. He got her on the plane and wouldn't let her get any sleep by bringing up her college plans, which she still hadn't made up her mind about, but the discussion caused a nice bit of panic that kept her wide awake.

But as soon as they got off his father's private plane and she realized where they were, he'd been having a hell of a time keeping track of her. She tried to ditch him at the rental car place and then at a gas stop on the way. And he'd already had to chase her into the surrounding woods once. He had no desire to do it again...unless, of course, they were naked.

Before she could squirm away, he knocked on the door and the fight in his female became decidedly worse.

But as soon as the knob turned, she stopped fighting and turned to face the horror on the other side.

If he didn't have Ronnie already in his arms, he'd have assumed she'd just opened the door...and aged a few years. Wow, he thought in surprise, she's gonna be hot when we hit fifty.

"Rhonda Lee." Powerful arms crossed over a Randy Travis T-shirt. "What brings you here-after all this time?"

"After all this time? I was here four weeks ago."

"But Christmas passes and no word from you. Think that's fair to your daddy?" With a resigned sigh, Tala Lee Evans motioned to them with a wave of her hand. "Well, y'all might as well come on in since you're here. Your brothers got here a couple of hours ago."

"Why are they here?" Ronnie demanded without going inside.

"You'll have to ask them. I'm assuming they wanted to spend New Year's Day with their parents. Unlike some other ungrateful children I could mention."

"That's it." Ronnie threw her hands up. "I'm leavin'."

Brendon caught up with her on the porch steps and had to pry her fingers off the banister.

He carried her into the house, and her mother motioned to the living room, apparently unfazed by her grown daughter having to be physically forced back into her childhood home.

"Go on in," Tala sighed. He'd never heard a female sound so put upon before. Almost every sentence started after a deep, heartfelt sigh. Yet he didn't get any real anger or annoyance from her. Just drama.

Tala watched Brendon carry Ronnie into the living room and place her down. Still, he had to take firm hold of her jacket before she could take off.

"So...a cat," Tala said.

With a nod, "Yes, ma'am." One hand still held Ronnie's jacket while he stepped forward and extended his hand. "Brendon Shaw."

Tala stared at his hand and, with that dramatic sigh, "Want some coffee and sweet rolls, Brendon Shaw?"

"That would be great, ma'am." He briefly wondered if she'd always call him by his full name.

"Well then, you may as well sit down for a spell." She glanced at Ronnie. "Your brothers are in the barn. They'll be back soon." She raised an eyebrow at her daughter and walked out without another word.

"What was that about?"

Ronnie slapped Brendon's hand off her jacket. "My momma thinks I'm going to have sex with you in her pristine living room."

He wouldn't exactly call Tala Evans's living room pristine. More like tidy and comfortable. But just this morning he'd begun to notice that Ronnie's clothes seemed to find permanent spots on the bedroom floor. He had a feeling his female was a messy gal, so she probably did think her mother's house was pristine.

"Aren't we going to have sex in her pristine living room?"

"Yes," she snapped in exasperation. "But she shouldn't assume we will. My own momma thinks I'm a whore."

"Only with me."

When she glared at him, he wandered away to look at the pictures of Ronnie and her brothers from birth until now. They filled the small room, proving just what Brendon had been thinking. They may argue from sunup until sundown, but clearly Tala loved her children. Even Ronnie. He guessed especially Ronnie.

"I can't believe you tricked me into coming here," she grouched, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I didn't trick you," he drawled, and smiled down at a picture of Ronnie as a howling pup. "Tricking you is putting you in the car, driving you five miles from home, and releasing you in a field. Which would be very wrong." He barely ducked her fist and laughed as he pulled her into his arms.

"I wanted to meet your family, Ronnie, and waiting until one of them died-which was your suggestion-is unacceptable."

She growled and pouted but rested her head against his chest and her arms around his waist. "You owe me for this, Shaw."

"I owe you for a lot, sexy." He kissed the top of her head and then her cheek. She went up on her toes and touched her lips to his. That was all it took. Her fingers tangled in his hair, moans easing up the back of her throat while Brendon pulled her tight against his body, holding onto her the way he planned to hold onto her for the rest of his life.

She reached down with one hand and gripped his cock through his jeans, making him instantly hard and ready. Her nipples were hard under her sweater, and he was mere seconds from pushing her onto the couch and fucking the living- "Rhonda Lee Reed!" The snarled words slammed across the room, startling the two away from each other. "I know I don't have to tell you that you will not be having sex with that boy in my living room."

Suddenly Brendon felt like a horny fifteen-year-old caught on his girlfriend's couch. He even had to turn away for a bit to get his cock back under control.

"And let me tell you something else"-Tala slammed down a tray with two cups of coffee and freshly made sweet rolls-"y'all are sleeping in separate rooms."

Ronnie gasped in outrage. "What? I'm not sixteen, Momma. You can't-"

"Oh yes I can, little girl. This is my house. Will be until they bury my bony ass in the backyard. Until then, I will not have your poor father hearing the two of you having...relations. Understand me, Ronnie Lee?"

Giving a dramatic sigh of her own, Ronnie turned away and stared out the window. Nothing like a Reed female standoff.

So Brendon answered for them both. "We understand, ma'am."

Those dark hazel eyes, so much like Ronnie's, looked Brendon over. "At least the cat's got some damn sense," she muttered. "Now when your daddy gets back from his still, Ronnie Lee, y'all better have more control than what I just witnessed."

Tala walked back into the hallway but stopped and turned toward Brendon. Uh-oh. "Ham do you for dinner tonight, Brendon Shaw?"

Startled she asked, and realizing he was being invited to dinner among wolves, Brendon quickly answered, "Yes, ma'am."

"Good. Gotta have pork on New Year's Day. It's good luck. I'm even making my famous redeye gravy and biscuits. You'll like it." The "or else" definitely implied.

"Sounds wonderful, ma'am."

She grunted and headed back to her kitchen.

Ronnie turned away from the window and punched his arm. "You suck up!"

He pushed her back. "Shit starter."

They glared at each other for a moment, then the two of them grabbed hold of available body parts, viciously tickling while tripping their way over to the couch. They barely controlled their laughter, made worse for the fact that they didn't want Ronnie's mother, who had wolf hearing no less, to catch on to their wrestling. Or, as Ronnie liked to call it, "tusslin'."

Suddenly the weeklong vacation in Tennessee seemed way too long with the idea of separate rooms, and at the same time Brendon couldn't think of anyone he'd rather sneak around with, trying to cop a feel.

The one thing he could say about his Ronnie Lee, she made nearly anything fun.

The front door opened, and he and Ronnie scrambled to separate corners of the couch.

A large, unfriendly hulk of a wolf stopped in front of the living room and stared at them.

"Hey, Daddy!" Ronnie jumped up and ran to her father, throwing her arms around his neck. She kissed his cheek and the old man hugged her back. But those wolf eyes stayed locked on Brendon.

"I missed you, Daddy."

"I missed you, too, little pup," Clifton Reed said gruffly. "Who's this?"

Ronnie walked back to Brendon's side as he stood up to face the man who had hurt a lot of males he felt weren't worthy of his daughter.

"Daddy, this is Brendon Shaw. My mate. Brendon, this is my daddy. Clifton Reed."

"Mr. Reed." Brendon stepped forward and shook the old wolf's hand. "Nice to meet you, sir."

The old man grunted. "Boy." He looked back at Ronnie. "Your brothers are bringing in wood for a fire. Look like it might snow. Where's your momma?"

Ronnie sighed good-naturedly. "Where she is every day at this time for the last thirty-five years y'all have been mated. She's in the kitchen."

"That's all that needed to be said, little pup." With another grunt in Brendon's direction, the wolf walked off.

Ronnie beamed up at him. "He likes you," she whispered.

Brendon frowned. "Likes me? The man grunted at me. Twice."

"You're still breathing, aren't you?" Brendon didn't even know how to respond to that, which Ronnie took as agreement. "Exactly."

The front door opened again, and heavy footsteps could be heard as Ronnie's brothers marched in the room, their arms filled with either wood or Mason jars filled with that paint thinner they tried to pass off as liquor.

Rory stopped first, staring at the pair. "What y'all doing here?"

"He tricked me," Ronnie said simply.

"You decided to get involved with a cat." Rory dropped a pile of wood by the fireplace. "What exactly did you expect?"

Ricky Lee took off his heavy winter jacket and carelessly tossed it onto a chair.

"Don't you leave that coat lying around, Ricky Lee," his mother yelled from the kitchen.

"How does she do that?" he demanded while snatching the coat back up and taking it to the hall closet.

Ronnie opened her mouth to reply and Rory cut her off without even looking at her, "And don't say Satan, Rhonda Lee. It wasn't funny twenty years ago, it's less so now."

"Are you guys staying with Smitty's Pack?" Brendon asked as he walked around the room, taking everything in. Enjoying this side of family life he'd never experienced before, but might now that he had both Marissa and Mitch admitting blood connections.

"Yup. Already talked to Daddy. He knows it's for the best."

"Besides," Reece added, his big fingers affectionately scratching Ronnie's head as he passed her to help himself to the entire plate of sweet rolls, "he likes the idea of us keeping an eye out for this little monster."

"I don't need y'all watching out for me."

"Is that right?" The big grin on Rory's face had Brendon's eyes narrowing. Crouching by the fireplace, Ronnie's brother looked back at Brendon. "Rhonda Lee ever tell you how she and Sissy Mae made money while traveling the world?"

"No. How did she-"

"Hookin'," Ronnie Lee tossed in desperately. "I was a prostitute. A damn good one too."

"Stop lyin', Rhonda Lee," her mother called from the kitchen. "I doubt you were good at all."

Brendon grabbed hold of Ronnie before she could go after her mother.

"She was not a prostitute," Ricky Lee said, scooting by Ronnie but not before flicking her forehead with his middle finger.

"Try illegal racing," Rory said, and his grin grew.

Brendon blinked. "What?"

"You heard me, hoss."

"Her and Sissy Mae," Ricky Lee added.

"Sissy Mae would set 'em up and Ronnie Lee would knock 'em down." Reece laughed. "They still sell her T-shirts in Japan and Korea."

Her face red with embarrassment, Ronnie Lee walked away from them all and threw herself into one of the plush recliners.

"What was their motto again, Ricky Lee?" Rory asked, his hands held in front of a now-roaring fire in the fireplace.

"A rich boy and his money will soon be parted."

"That's right. Sissy Mae would find some rich boy with no sense and a hot car. Challenge him to a race, and the brain surgeon over there would race him. By the time they were done with him, they'd have the winnings, the poor sap's car, and sometimes real estate."

"Which they'd sell and invest. Sissy Mae can turn a dime into ten thousand dollars in an hour."

"That She-wolf does have a gift."

"I don't want to discuss this anymore," Ronnie snarled.

Nodding, Rory stood up. "She's right. Might as well save the really good info for tonight's dinner."