Tegan shook her head. “No. My anchor is still alive. In cases where the mate dies and the anchor is mated to someone else, the wolf who moves to another mate doesn’t need to do the tri-bond again. So no insanity for me.”

Megan laughed and squeezed her sister’s arm. “I’m glad to see your sense of humor back. I’ve missed it.” She looked up. “Ah the rest of the cavalry has arrived I see. Hey, Lay.”

Layla came in, dropping her bag before delivering a kiss to each woman in the room.

“Have the control twins heard yet?” Her voice was low.

Tegan shook her head. “No, but they will soon enough. And we have to find a way to keep them off Ben’s back. It’s hard enough for him to have to deal with this, the last thing he needs are Cade and Lex on his ass.”

They all agreed to that. “Okay, but I need to talk to Ben. Because I’ve been where he is and because I love you, Tee, and he needs to deal. If I’m guessing right, he’s got to be jonesin’ pretty bad for you right now. He may listen to me easier than anyone else,” Nina said.

And that’s when Cade and Lex came in. At first it was howls of joy until they heard the whole story. That’s when all hell broke loose.

Cade stalked to the door, ignoring Tegan’s cries to wait. Until Tegan pulled a weapon and put it to Cade’s head. “If you leave this room and go to harass my mate, I will kill you, I swear it.”

Cade stopped and turned to face his sister slowly. Nina, Layla and Megan held Lex back. “You best be putting that gun down, Tee. I’m not joking. He needs to deal with his responsibilities.”

“I’m not! Don’t piss me off any more! He’s my mate and I’ll protect him. This is not your affair.”

“The hell it isn’t. You’re my sister and one of my wolves. He can’t just f**k and run.”

“He did not f**k and run! My God, we’d just started to date and then this metaphysical thing happens out of the blue and ties him to me in this rather permanent way. He’s shocked and trying to deal with it. Let it be. I mean it, Cade, don’t do this. I lost one mate, I will not lose another. I won’t.” A ragged sob tore through her and Cade took the gun, tossed it to Lex and pulled his sister into his arms. He rocked her back and forth, smoothing a hand over her hair as she wept tears she didn’t know she had inside her anymore.

Suddenly all of them surrounded her and comforted her, giving her love and support.

Some minutes later Cade pushed her into a chair and shooed the other guards who’d come running at the commotion, sending them off to patrol.

“We can’t let this go on, Tegan.” Cade’s voice was gentle.

“I’m going down there to talk to him about it.” Nina stood. “I’ve been where he is.

Maybe he’ll listen to me. Certainly he’ll hear me easier than you two.”

“Nina,” Lex started but just stopped, knowing she’d made her mind up and that she was right. “Okay, I’m going too. As a guard. I won’t go into Stoner’s office or anything. I swear.”

“Fine. Let’s go.”

Ben’s stomach hurt. His back ached and he’d thought of nothing but Tegan since he’d left her place the night before. He’d heard her start to cry once he walked out, and wanted to go back to comfort her but not more than he needed to be away.

He’d driven for hours before going back to his house. Sitting in the dark of his living room, he’d thought about the situation until the sky had begun to pinken with dawn.

While he really didn’t like the idea of this mate thing, he couldn’t deny that he’d been strongly attracted to her from the start.

Ten years ago there’d been Sarah. The great love of his life. Or so he’d thought.

They’d lived together and planned to be married. He’d given her his love and a home and his trust. Until she’d broken it and betrayed him, cheating with his partner at the time.

He’d been utterly destroyed. Thrown himself into his work with such dedication that he’d been promoted to detective the next year. But he’d shut off his heart and his emotions, moving from one several months’ long relationship to another. He deliberately chose women who didn’t challenge him, who didn’t stir him. It was nice to sleep with them and then move on with no engagement of emotions on his part. But there had been one woman about a year ago, who’d been his girlfriend for nearly seven months. In her, he’d found his will to top a woman again.

In the last six months or so, he’d come to the conclusion that he wanted a woman in his life again, a girlfriend and a submissive. When Tegan Warden walked into that room at Club De Sade, he’d known she was meant for him.

Certainly not in the sense that it apparently meant now. He didn’t love Tegan. He liked her, desired her, wanted to know her more, but to him, marriage meant love.

He’d gone to work in a daze and sat looking at the papers on his desk in between phone calls and meetings until Nina Warden tapped on his door.

Warily he asked her to come in and motioned for her to sit down.

“So wow, huh? That magic se**n is something else,” she said brightly and he blinked rapidly. “Ben, you know why I’m here. You may not have known that any werewolf can scent the bond on Tegan and now you, but we can. She walked into the house looking like death warmed over and we smelled you on her and the bond and oh boy was it an exiting morning at my house! Tegan held a loaded gun to Cade’s head when he threatened to come and talk to you.”