Rebecca stood on one side of the kitchen island, cutting ingredients for the dressing while JV sat at the dining room table, peeling potatoes. With as many people as they expected, there were a lot of potatoes to peel. The two women chatted while they worked, comparing favorite movies and music. Steve had pulled out a paring knife and was helping with the potatoes. Nick had asked him to stay close to the house. There would likely be people in and out for most of the day and he didn’t want to have to worry about Rebecca while he was working. 

As he’d left, he’d said something about lost cattle that had to be found, then he’d disappeared through the back door. A few moments later, JV had heard the buzz of a snowmobile as he’d headed for the barn. 

Several hours had passed when Rebecca turned to Steve, "I take it from what you said last night, you’ve known JV a long time." 

"Almost all her life." 

"Are you close with her family?" 

"Her brother was my best friend all the way through school," he didn't seem to mind Rebecca asking questions and he answered them without reserve. 

"But not anymore?" Rebecca was curious about her new friend and she had no issues asking what she wanted to know.

"Not for a while, really." 

"You two fight about something?"

The buzz of a snowmobile grew louder, telling them someone was coming from the barn.

"No, I was gone for a long time with the military and only home for a little while before I left again. We simply grew apart. We're still friends. We see each other now and then, just not best friends." He tossed his peeled potato into the bowl that was half-full of similarly naked ones and picked up another. 

Nick came in the back door. He shed his snow gear in the mud room and went to the refrigerator. He pulled out a can of beer, popped the top and took a drink before sitting at the table across from JV. 

A knock sounded on the front door. Steve dropped his potato back in the bowl of unpeeled ones and got up. From where they were working, Rebecca and JV heard Steve open the door and every word that was said. 

"What are you doing here?" Steve’s voice was clear in the silence as they waited to see who was there. 

Instead of another voice, they heard the sound of someone being hit.

"Why'd you do that?" Steve asked. 

"That's JV's truck outside and I can smell her on you. You told me you left home because you wouldn't be able to keep your hands off her. Nothing's changed and you've touched my sister."  

Rebecca and JV both dropped what they were doing and rushed into the other room, Nick barely in front of them. 

"She's sweet and innocent and you're too damned hard for her." the new voice continued. 

"Matthew Joseph Wilkins! What the hell do you think you're doing?" JV was shocked to realize her brother was standing in the doorway glaring at Steve, who actively blocked him from entering.

The man in the door looked past Steve, to JV, "I came to take you home." 

"You've wasted your time. I'm not going anywhere." 

Matt's look darkened and he turned his attention back to the man between them. 

"If you hit him again I'll make sure you regret it." JV snarled, advancing on the pair.

Matt looked at her, the anger in his eyes unchanged, "You wouldn't dare." 

JV lowered her voice, moving closer, until Steve put out one hand and stopped her from getting nearer the angry man. "Do you want to try me? Really? I've been waiting a long time to prove to you I'm not in diapers anymore. I'm a grown woman. I make my own choices, my own decisions. I decide who I work for. I decide where I live. I decide who I sleep with. I decide where I go and where I don't. I'm damn near thirty, none of this is any of your business. It never was."   

"Did you know your sweet and innocent sister,” Steve’s voice was filled with sarcasm as he threw her brother’s words back at him, “carries a gun and has a concealed weapon permit?" 

Matt gave a short laugh, "No way, JV couldn't hurt a fly. Besides, we'd smell a gun." 

"It's not in the house anymore. I couldn't let her be armed in my Khan's house, but believe me, she carries. She's also found a way to keep us from scenting it."

Rebecca coughed, drawing everyone's attention. She turned pink, "I knew she had it. I knew before I brought her back to our house." 

Steve and Nick looked at her, shocked. 

"You knowingly let a stranger bring a gun in the house?" Nick asked. 

"Well, yeah." Rebecca said, as though obvious. "It made her more comfortable," she shrugged.

Nick turned to JV, "Where's the weapon now?" 

"Locked in my truck, like he said." She waved one hand in Steve's direction. 

Nick turned to Steve, "If you didn't smell it, how did you find out about it?"

"A couple weeks ago, when you took Rebecca, I came in to check on Jade. She didn't answer when I called, so I went looking for her. She was in the bedroom. I'd woken her, but she didn't know who was in the house. She had the gun in her hand when I opened the door." Steve looked at Nick as he answered his clan leader, but everyone else watched JV.

She looked around once then spoke, addressing Rebecca, "How would you have responded if you were alone in the house when you laid down, then the presence of someone else woke you? I hadn't been asleep long enough for you and Nick to be home yet." 

Rebecca was silent a moment, then lifting both brows, she turned to Nick, "She has a point." 

Nick didn't bother responding, instead he turned to JV. "How did you keep us all from scenting it? We should have been able to smell the oil."

JV gave a slight smile, "I didn't keep you from smelling it, I just masked the odor with scents you're used to, scents you expected."

Steve frowned.

Nick scowled, "What do you mean?"

"I mix a few drops of essential oil into my cleaning oil." 

Steve looked intrigued. "What oils?" 

"Juniper, pine, and lemongrass." 

"Could you teach me?" he asked. 

"Sure," she shrugged.

Matt looked at JV, his eyes wide as she didn't deny carrying a weapon, hell she’d even admitted it. He stared for a moment in disbelief, then shook his head, "I never would have believed it. Do Mom and Dad know?"

"I haven't told them, but I haven't hidden it either. I keep telling you, I'm not twelve anymore, Matt. I don't need permission for everything I do."

"I wasn't saying you are," Matt said.

"But you're here to protect my virtue from your friend and drag me home. You may not be saying it, but you're sure as hell acting like it."

He had the grace to look guilty.

"Are you planning to hit Steve again?" Rebecca interrupted. 

"I don't know yet," Matt looked at the other woman for the first time.

"Well, at least you're honest," she sighed. "If you can talk like adults instead of breaking down into a fist fight, you can come in. Close the door, all my warm air's escaping." She turned and went back to the kitchen and her cooking. 

"Who was that?" Matt asked after she was gone. 

"My Karhyn." Steve stepped back and let Matt inside.

JV waited until her brother was inside and the door closed behind him, then narrowed her eyes at him, "So, what? You think after leaving town so he could keep his hands off me, he'd lured me up here and take advantage of me?" 

"Well, no, but-"

"But what?" she challenged. "Am I too stupid to make my own choices?" 

Matt looked at the floor, "No, but-" 

"But what?" she repeated.

"What do I tell Mom and Dad?" 

"Tell ‘em I'm an adult? How about you tell ‘em I can find my own mate? Or, tell 'em they don't need to arrange a marriage for me, no matter how old I get? Better yet, here's a shocking concept, don't tell them anything."

Steve growled. 

JV ignored it and kept talking, "I don't even want to know how you found me." 

"It wasn't that hard. I called a friend and had him trace you're cell." Matt turned to Steve, "How did you convince her to come to your tiny corner of the planet?"

"Why do you assume he convinced me to come up here?" JV didn't give Steve a chance to speak. "Why couldn't I have found him and come on my own?" 

"You had no way to find him," Matt scoffed.

"Hello?" JV was exasperated, "I'm a tech geek and web designer. Do you really think it was difficult for me to look him up on line and figure out where he's been all this time?" 

Matt looked confused, "Why would you do that?" 

" I wanted to know." JV turned and went back into the kitchen, returning to dinner preparations.