Ox is nervous to tell his mom that he’s bisexual, but she embraces him and tells him that she doesn’t think it’s weird or bad. She is becoming more and more a part of the pack, even training with them, and her relationships with Thomas and Elizabeth are deepening. Carter goes away to college, and Ox visits him. They go to a nightclub, where Ox kisses and receives oral sex from a man. A year later, a man named Nick gets stranded in Green Creek while Gordo repairs his motorcycle. He and Ox have a brief sexual fling, after which Joe doesn’t talk to him for three weeks.

When Ox turns 22, everything is going well. Then one day, a woman stops Ox on his way to the diner, and Ox immediately knows there’s something wrong about her. Her eyes flash violet; Ox realizes she is an Omega, a wolf that’s lost touch with its humanity and become dark and feral. Ox’s mother checks on him from the door of the diner, but he sends her inside to safety. Gordo appears shortly after this and warns the Omega that Thomas is on his way.

Two nights later, the Omegas attack during dinner. Gordo senses them through the magical wards he’s put into place. The fight ensues, and the Bennetts are winning until a fifth Omega appears from behind and grabs Maggie. Joe knocks the Omega’s grip on her loose, and Ox kills him with his silver-laced crowbar. After the battle, Thomas tells Ox more about werewolf history. There were once many packs, but they’d fought amongst themselves and were hunted for sport by humans and other monsters. He explains that the Bennett name carries a certain esteem and tells Ox that he will do “great things” and that people will “stand in awe” of him (125).

Time passes, and soon Joe turns 17. Carter briefly dates someone, but it ends quickly. A wolf named Osmond comes to visit and seems dismissive of Ox. A classmate of Joe’s, Frankie, follows him home and trails Joe everywhere, He is scared of Ox, which Joe finds amusing. Ox walks in on them kissing and leaves, feeling happy for Joe but not sure what the twisting in his stomach means. One night Joe comes over very late, pounding on the door. He clings to Ox and says, “Frankie,” which leads Ox to start plotting the boy’s murder. Joe tells Ox to look at him and then says that Ox doesn’t really see him. The next day, Joe apologizes, and they walk the dirt road holding hands like they have for the last six years.

Shortly before his 23rd birthday, Ox realizes that he finds Joe attractive. He immediately becomes a stumbling, incoherent mess, which leaves the wolves baffled—but not for long. Ox rushes home to get some distance, tries to shower the smell of lust off of himself, and douses himself in cologne before he goes back, hoping it will confuse the wolves. It doesn’t work. Ox’s rapid heartbeat is obvious. At first, they think he is afraid or under attack, but Carter quickly figures out what’s going on. Ox drags him away from the group before he can say anything to the others.

Carter simultaneously teases and comforts Ox about his attraction toward Joe. He tells him that it was always going to happen, and that the wolf Joe gave him was a symbol of devotion, not just friendship. Ox says that he’s not going to do anything about it because Joe is young and has a life ahead of him. Carter wishes him luck in holding that line once Joe figures it out. He sends Ox home to shower the cologne off of him. When Ox returns, Joe pulls him aside and questions if he’s okay. He quickly figures out what Ox is hiding and flirtatiously tortures Ox all night with closeness and touching and sucking on a straw.

Things that were once confusing make more sense to Ox now: Joe’s discomfort with Jessie, Joe’s disappearances after Ox slept with other men, Frankie. Joe gives Ox three days to worry over it and then comes over to ask Ox’s mother for permission to court Ox. He’s dressed up and wearing a bowtie and has written a speech on an index card—the speech quickly becomes mortifying for Ox, and more so when he realizes the entire Bennett family is lying in the grass outside the open kitchen window, listening. Joe declares his intentions to be with Ox forever; Ox can’t understand why Joe—amazing, wonderful, future Alpha Joe—would ever choose anyone like him. He asks why, which upsets Joe. Joe furiously tells him that he’s wonderful and that he will always choose to have Ox in any way he can have him. Ox wants to believe that there’s something in him that Joe sees. He says yes.

Ox learns that wolves take mates. He tells Thomas that if he’s going to be with Joe, he deserves to know more about what happened to him. Thomas explains that Joe was kidnapped by a werewolf and former Alpha named Richard Collins. Richard and his family had been part of the Bennett pack, but his mother, father, and many more were tortured and killed in front of him when human hunters attacked. Thomas and his father had been away at the time. After the attack, Richard blamed the Bennetts. He went away and somehow became an Alpha—“Magic, maybe. Murder. Sacrifice.” (149). He became known for his cruelty and violence. Thomas and some other packs searched for him for years, but couldn’t find him—then, one day, Joe was taken. Richard called after three days. For the next eight weeks, he called the Bennetts and tortured Joe while they listened. Ox asks if Richard is dead, but Thomas explains he’s in a magical prison. Thomas values mercy. Ox doesn’t think he would have shown any.

As his first act of courting, Joe leaves a dead rabbit outside of Ox’s house. Ox and his mother look up a recipe and cook it for dinner. The second act is a huge basket of mini-muffins from the local bakery. Gordo is displeased to hear about the mating and warns Ox that it’s a huge decision to make at his young age. Ox tells Gordo that Joe gave him the wolf when he was only 10; he realizes suddenly that Mark must have given Gordo his wolf, too.

The wolves run with the moon for the first time since Ox’s and Joe’s relationship started. Joe is possessive in wolf form, which Ox finds charming. Later that night, Joe kills a deer and drags its carcass to the clearing for Ox. Joe confesses to Ox that he was jealous of Jessie, that he hated her, that he smelled other men on Ox and wanted to tell him to wait for him, but couldn’t, because it wouldn’t be fair. He tells Ox that he wants him so badly it’s sometimes violent. He tells Ox about Richard Collins, and that Richard had told him his family didn’t want him anymore, that they didn’t want him to be Alpha. Richard tried to take the Alpha from Joe, but he just “made me want to be a monster” (158). He explains that the time he spends with his father in the woods is to help him learn to control his rage. Joe reiterates that he would always choose Ox in any circumstances. They cry together a little and embrace.