Owen was awake before me in the morning. He was sitting upright with is head cradled in his palms – a pose I had come to associate with abject misery. I reached out tentatively and put a hand on his shoulder. "Owen?"

He shook his head a little like he was trying to bring himself out of a daze, and when he looked at me, it was with clear eyes and a tight smile. "Good morning, Penny. Sleep well?"

I grinned at him. "I slept fine. I liked the other parts of the night better, though."

Dimples flashed in his cheeks as his smile turned genuine. "Me too." He pressed a kiss to my forehead and stood up, crossing to his suitcase and digging through it. "Do you think your brother and friend would mind if my friends joined us for breakfast?"

"Of course not!" I glanced at the clock and stood up too. "Do you think we can meet them downstairs in half an hour?"

"I'll let them know," he said. Then he shut himself in the bathroom and I was left to start getting ready. I shot off a text to my brother and hurriedly got dressed. Then, since the bathroom door was still firmly shut, I started dabbing makeup on my face in the only mirror in the room. It was in a poorly-lit corner and I was left trying to apply my makeup one-handed while I held my phone in flashlight mode with the other. The result wasn't quite as neat as I preferred, but I made do.

Owen still hadn't come out of the bathroom yet fifteen minutes later. Was this what the rest of my life would be like? Having my mate hog the bathroom with no warning? I shook my head at myself. I was being silly, I knew that. We would learn how to be together. I checked my phone and saw that Jasper and Serena would be ready on time. That was good. Nerves fluttered through me and I wiped suddenly sweaty palms on my jeans. It was so odd, having to formally introduce Owen to them... and would having his friends there be awkward? We would just be two factions of strangers, joined by the fresh bond Owen and I had established last night. It was a bond I could feel between us even now, and when I focused on it, I could feel that Owen was upset.

"You okay?" I called through the door, suddenly worried.

"Fine," he said.

I frowned. What was it with people saying they were fine? It almost always meant that they weren't. Besides, he should know better than to try that on me. I knew the turmoil that was roiling through him – I just didn't know what was causing it. Since he clearly wasn't going to come out any time soon, I settled down in front of the dim mirror and started braiding my hair. Since I didn't have a curling iron or a straightener, it was the only way to tame my hair without slicking it back, which I hated.

I couldn't help glancing at the door every few seconds. What was going on? I didn't know him well enough to know whether this was normal. He wasn't running the shower and I couldn't hear anything else, either. Maybe he had some kind of bowel condition and just took a while to use the restroom? Colitis or something? That seemed like an awkward question to pose on our first morning together, so I decided to wait him out.

Only, a few minutes later, Owen called through the door, "Why don't you head down without me? I'll meet you there soon."

I was too shocked to respond right away. Why would he ask that of me? The whole point of this breakfast was to introduce each other to our traveling companions. That would be kind of hard if only one of us showed up.

"Please?" Owen asked.

My chest felt tight and I could feel tears just under the surface. The last thing I needed was to start crying over what could be nothing. Until I had reason not to give it, Owen had the benefit of the doubt. I cautiously felt for him through the bond again and gasped, tears spilling from my eyes as I registered just how upset he really was. I couldn't parse it all. Guilt, anxiety, pain. And he clearly wasn't going to explain why right now.

Well, he had said please... and there was no point to staying where I wasn't wanted. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay with you?"

"I'll be down soon, Penny."

So I shoved all of my things into my bag and left.

Once I was partway down the hall, I realized I didn't have his phone number. I also didn't have a card key to his room. I had nothing except the bond between us, and it wasn't doing me much good. My hurt hardened into anger as I walked down the hallway alone. I sprinted down the stairs, enjoying the rapid pounding of my feet and the impact when I jumped down the last few stairs to the landing below. I didn't want my brother to see how upset I was, so I stayed in the stairwell until my breathing was calm and I was mostly sure I could keep my expression neutral.

Jasper and Serena were already at a table when I reached the breakfast room. Owen's friends were with them and they looked confused when I approached the table alone. It was awkward, having to pull out a chair and sit down while everyone stared at me with the same question on their minds.

"Owen sent me down ahead of him. He's still getting ready," I said lightly.

Logan smiled at me. "Took the bathroom first, did you?"

I cleared my throat and glanced at Serena and my brother for help. "How are you?" Jasper asked, studying me closely.

"Great! Hungry." I knew he wouldn't be fooled, but he was good enough to drop the subject when I so clearly didn't want to talk about it now.

Conversation ground to a halt until Serena jumped in. "So, where are you all headed next?" she asked.

They glanced at each other. "We don't really have an agenda. I guess that's going to depend on what Owen and Penny decide to do," Brian said.

I shrugged. "We haven't had a chance to make any plans yet."

"That's already TMI, woman," Brian replied, eyes dancing.

I blushed and looked away. When my gaze landed on Jasper, my cheeks blushed so deeply I could feel them burning. Brian guffawed and said, "I'm going to enjoy having you around."

Logan's phone rang and he frowned when he glanced at the display. "I'm sorry, I need to take this." He quickly left the table and the conversation died again.

I resolved myself to the awkward silence and let my mind drift. When Char brought Simon to breakfast to meet the three of us, she and Jasper were going to take a walk but Simon pulled her back and said he didn't want to stretch their bond yet. My heart had positively overflowed with joy for them and I had been so excited for my own mating, for the person who wouldn't want to be separated from me even for a little while. Instead, Owen had sent me away from him almost first thing in the morning. The bond between us was stretched almost as far as it could handle for now – in the beginning, it was less elastic and more tender. If he didn't come down soon, there was a good chance I would end up sitting outside of his hotel room just to make the ache that was building in my chest go away.

Jasper caught me rubbing at my chest with the heel of my hand and frowned at me. He leaned in closer and whispered, "You okay?"

I nodded, since I honestly had no idea whether anything was wrong yet. Maybe Owen would come downstairs in another minute. It was very possible that I was reading too far into his behavior and seeing problems where there weren't any. "You were right, Jasper," I said.

That would normally have made him smile, but his frown deepened. "About?"

"Being mated to someone isn't enough. I want him here with me more than anything, but I don't know him at all."

He wrapped an arm around my shoulders and pulled me against him, pressing a kiss to the top of my head. "You're going to figure this out together," he said.

I barely refrained from saying, if he ever shows up. Instead, I nuzzled his shoulder and breathed in the scent of family. There was no telling how much longer I would get to see Jasper. Maybe Owen would rather stay with his friends. I couldn't blame him if that was the case. "Are you going to continue with the road trip?" I asked.

"Serena and I talked about it last night. We're both going to keep traveling together, at least for now."

I looked at Serena, surprised. I had thought for sure that she would decide to go back home now that she and Jasper were the only two left. She smiled broadly at me. "I surprised myself, too," she said. "Your brother's good company and we're thinking about looping back to see Charlotte after a couple of stops. I might stay near her for a while."

"Why not go home?" I asked. It might have been a rude question, but I was too curious to bite my tongue.

"Now that I'm away from my home, I realize I really enjoy being away. Everything there is so stale. I see the same people all the time, go to the same job, and have this routine set up that I follow blindly. It's been really nice to get some separation from that."

I gaped at her. "You? A routine?" Char had always painted her as some kind of party girl.

Serena just shrugged.

Ten minutes later, Logan still hadn't returned, Owen hadn't put in an appearance, and things were getting really awkward.

"I might just go see what's taking so long," Brian said. I thought it was just an excuse to escape the stiff atmosphere and really couldn't blame him.

"What's going on?" Jasper asked as soon as we three were alone.

"I wish I knew," I said.

--

A full half-hour after Owen sent me downstairs alone, he finally put in an appearance with his friends trailing after him. Oddly, none of them would make eye contact with me. I glanced at Jasper, wondering if he noticed that too, and knew that he had. He was glaring at Owen. It had been a long time since I had seen my brother get so worked up about anything, and I didn't understand how we had come to this. Our breakfast today should have been a little uncomfortable at worst. This was a major stepping stone in the life we were supposed to be building together. I felt sick to my stomach.

"Where were you?" Jasper asked.

Owen put on a smile that was so obviously fake, he might as well not have bothered. "Sorry, I had a couple of things to take care of this morning. Phone calls. I didn't realize they were going to take so long."

I put my hand on his under the table and he flipped his hand to palm-side-up so our fingers could entwine. The knot my stomach had tangled itself into loosened until my brain caught up to my body.

He hadn't been on the phone while I was in the hotel room. You couldn't hide a phone call from a shifter – our hearing was too good. So had he sat there and waited until he could reasonably send me on without him before making his call? For what purpose? It seemed like he might be hiding something big.

I liked to think I wasn't a suspicious person, but I couldn't quite convince myself I was just being paranoid. Every time I tried to catch Owen's eye, his gaze would slide right past mine again.

Oh, yes. He was hiding something.