Every time we fought, Winifred did the same thing, then waited for me to grovel my way through every trick in the book to win her back.

But this time.

I suddenly didn't want to. I couldn't shake the feeling that in Winifred's family's eyes, I ranked far below Christian.

*Guess who I saw today?*

The alpha wolf's voice cut into my thoughts.

*Don't tell me it was that Christian guy?*

*Bingo. Only he came alone today. Didn't bring his little sweetheart.*

*That woman's called Winnie-something. The two of them are always kissing and pawing at each other under the tree, snapping selfies too. No shame at all.*

*Got a little too wild once and dropped some card thing they kept talking about! Right near the gold.*

The pack went back and forth, howling nonstop, exactly like the old women gossiping down by the village gate.

My eyelids twitched like mad, and I locked onto that one word: "Winnie."

Could it be Winifred?

The next second, I threw the idea out.

If it were Winifred, she could have cut me off completely a long time ago. No reason to drag it out until now.

That night.

I took a flashlight up the hills behind the zoo, finally found the marked spot, and started digging.

Two hours later, nothing.

All I'd done was wear myself out.

Had the alpha remembered the spot wrong?

Had I just been played by a pack of wolves?

While I was still puzzling over it, my phone buzzed. My father.

"You're a grown man. What's it going to cost you to swallow your pride? Go make things right with Winifred, now."

"If your bride walks out on you, it'll be too late to be sorry."

He laid into me.

"Dad, it wasn't my fault."

I'd barely started to explain before he cut me off.

"Enough. Who's right and who's wrong doesn't matter. You two agreed to marry by year's end. Don't you go pulling any stunts."

"You're thirty. If this really falls apart, where are you going to find another wife?"

"Buy a gift tomorrow and go apologize."

His voice was cold.

"Dad, I'm not a kid. I know what I'm doing——"

"You don't know a damn thing. Do as I say!"

The line went dead.

I rubbed my temples, shouldered the shovel, and headed home to sleep. I'd come back tomorrow night.

The next day.

I took the alpha up the hills behind the zoo again.

When our walk brought us to the marked spot.

The alpha stared at the big pit, froze, then turned its head to look at me.

*New guy. Don't tell me you dug this?*

I kept my face calm.

Pretended I knew nothing.

The alpha marked its spot as it kept muttering away in its head: *Whoever dug this had no patience at all. Just a little deeper and they'd have hit the gold.*

*Back when I was still a pup, I saw the old geezer bury it with my own eyes.*

My heart was pounding. I pulled out two big drumsticks and tossed them to the alpha.

It howled and pounced, gnawing like crazy, then stopped short and glanced at the dirt turned up to one side.

*Huh? Isn't that the card thing? Never mind, forget it. Chowing down comes first!*

I followed its gaze and saw it: a camera memory card!

Yesterday the pack had said there were selfie videos of Christian and his sweetheart on it.

Maybe it could be the leverage I needed on Christian. See how he kept playing the good guy after that, kept bragging.

So I snatched it up, took it back to the zoo, wiped it clean, and slotted it into the computer.

It actually opened!

More than three hundred videos!

I clicked one at random, and the moment I saw what was on it, my eyes went wide.

Then I opened the second one, the third, until I'd watched every last video.

By the end I was drained, slumped in the chair, sunk into a silence that stretched on and on.

Bzzz. Bzzz.

My phone buzzed and broke it.

A message from my father: 【You don't want to go apologize, so I'll go for you.】

Below it, a pinned location. Winifred's neighborhood.

I rushed to ask the zoo director for time off and drove over.

The Hensons' door stood open.

A cluster of neighbors had gathered outside.

My father was bent at the waist like a child who'd done something wrong, standing there taking a lecture from the Hensons.

"My daughter's got the looks and the brains. Marrying into your family is beneath her! Never mind your son, even you, when my daughter says east, none of you had better say west."

"Never mind that they're not even married yet, even after the wedding, one word from her and it's a divorce."

"You lug over a few boxes of liquor and a few cartons of cigarettes and call that an apology? Who do you think you're insulting? Like father, like son. Poor enough to make you sick."

Reuben and Summer Henson sat there with their legs crossed, smug and lofty.

My father kept nodding. "I'm sorry, it's our fault. What will it take for you to forgive us?"

The neighbors watched him with open scorn. Someone muttered, "Look at the Hensons, training their in-law like a dog. It's a riot."

Through all of it, Winifred sat off to the side cracking sunflower seeds, sipping bubble tea.

Not saying a single word.

Enjoying every minute of it.

I clenched my fists. I should have understood long ago what the Hensons really were.

They never wanted a son-in-law.

They wanted an obedient dog!

"Then on top of the three hundred thousand bride price, we'll add one more condition. Your pension and retirement accounts, all transferred into my daughter's name."

Summer narrowed her eyes and smiled as she said it.

I was shaking with rage.

Three hundred thousand bride price, the five golds. Handing over my wages. I'd agreed to all of it.

Buying a place here near Winifred, putting her name on it, I'd agreed to that too.

And now they were coming after my dad's pension and retirement money?

This had gone too far!

They didn't see me or my father as people. We were an ATM to them.

Draining us dry.

Grabbing everything they could for themselves.

My father froze too, hesitated a few seconds, then nodded anyway. "All right, I..."

"Dad."

I rushed into the Henson home. "You can't agree to this!"

Reuben and Summer sneered in unison.

"Oh? The big rat says yes, but the little rat says no?"

"You won't even agree to a small condition like this. How are we supposed to trust my daughter will be happy after the wedding?"

My eyes swept over them, then settled on Winifred's face. "Ask yourself honestly. After all these years, how have I treated you? How could you covet my dad's pension and retirement money?"

"And you told me yourself, with your own mouth, that you'd never make an unreasonable demand like this!"

Guilt flickered in Winifred's eyes, but seeing so many people standing at the door, she hardened at once.

"So what? That money's mine sooner or later. I'm just taking it a little early."

Her chin lifted high.

"Winifred, you..."

I'd barely started when my father cut me off with a shout.

"Enough!"

"You shut your mouth! I'm handling this!"

My father raised his hand to strike me across the face.

"Dad..."

I dropped straight to my knees and kowtowed to him. "I'm not going through with this marriage."

"I know you mean well. You're scared I'll end up alone, scared Mom's spirit will blame you."

"But this relationship, even if I married her, would never make me happy!"

My father's hand hung in the air, his eyes going faintly red.

Hearing that, the Hensons flew into a rage and threw us out.

"Fine, don't marry her! The two of you get as far away as you can!"

"Not a shred of sincerity and you still want my daughter? Keep dreaming."

Winifred had her say too. "Herbert, from today, we're done. Clean cut."

"Someday you'll be the one crying, and I'll see who's willing to marry you then."

I said nothing, took my father by the arm, and turned to leave.

Down at the bottom of the building.

My father wasn't blaming me, but he sighed and sighed, unable to let it go.

"Dad, no matter what, that woman is not someone you marry."

I leaned close to his ear and said a few quiet words.

My father froze first, then sucked in a sharp breath and nodded again and again. "No, she can't be married. She can't be married."

That night.

I shouldered my hoe and went back to the hills behind the zoo. This time it took less than half an hour to hit a crate.

I held my breath and opened it.

Gold bars, one after another!