Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 77952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77952 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 390(@200wpm)___ 312(@250wpm)___ 260(@300wpm)
I’m lost in them. And found.
We are one.
I am claimed.
But what am I going to tell my mom?
33
FINN
The morning air is sharp in my lungs as I run, paws tearing into the soft earth, tongue lolling as I gasp. My body is trembling, my mind a whirl of new connections and sensations. Scarlet is ours.
She’s back at the cabin, curled up with Reed, still wearing our scent, still filled with our seed. Claimed. I’ve never felt so content.
But peace never lasts long in these woods.
The scent of pine and wet moss rolls around me, but underneath it is something sour and wrong. Nixon’s ahead of me, his massive dark gray form cutting through the brush like a shadow with purpose. We’ve run this trail a thousand times, but today, I sense something wrong.
The second I smell the other two wolves, upwind and circling like they think we won’t notice, I veer left, snarling. Nixon slows ahead, ears flicking. He smells it, too.
Gregory’s pack.
Shift, Nixon orders.
I shift mid-step, landing hard in my human skin, already pissed.
“Come out, or we’ll drag you out,” Nixon barks into the trees.
They appear seconds later. Jared and Malen, two of Gregory’s lapdogs, both naked and smug in that way only wolves from problematic packs tend to be.
Nixon cracks his neck as he stands to his full, imposing height. Calm, but ready. Always ready. I move closer, rolling my shoulders and tipping my chin high.
Jared raises a hand like we’re old friends. “Easy, boys. No need for teeth this early.”
“Speak,” Nixon says, voice low and hard.
“We’re delivering a message.” Malen’s eyes flick to me, then back to Nixon. “Gregory wants to see the baby.”
I step forward. “Too bad. He’s not getting near it.”
He doesn’t say ‘her’, and this way, he confirms nothing of their assumptions.
Jared shrugs like it’s no big deal. “He has a right. Unfinished business with Aura. That baby girl is technically part of his pack. Conceived by his mate.”
He emphasizes the word girl and my heart sinks.
I laugh, but it’s humorless. “He made his choice. He broke the bond with Aura. She left his pack and deserted the baby. Gregory has no claim.”
Nixon crosses his arms, his biceps going taut. “Tell Gregory this: the baby is part of our family now. Claimed by this pack when it was left to die in the woods, and this pack protects its own.”
Malen’s nostrils flare. “You sure you want to mark this line in the sand, Nixon? You know what’ll happen.”
Nixon’s jaw pulses with tension, jerking his head toward them as he spits through gritted teeth, “Let him try to challenge me.”
The air goes still.
The kind of stillness, laced with menace and dark intentions, that comes right before blood is spilled.
Then Jared shifts, fast and aggressive, his wolf form bristling and snarling. Malen follows suit, hackles up, posture threatening, but they don’t attack.
I don’t shift. I don’t need to.
I step forward, bare-chested and unbothered. “Run back to your master,” I yell, voice like steel. “Tell him if he sets foot in our territory, we’ll tear out his fucking throat.”
They don’t respond.
They hold the stare a moment longer, then turn and bolt into the trees.
Nixon exhales slowly beside me, but his eyes are still locked on the trail they vanished down.
“It isn’t over,” I say.
“No,” he agrees, voice cold. “He’ll have to kill me before he gets his hands on that child.”
We shift again, muscle and fur exploding through skin, and take off into the woods.
Faster this time.
Because war never waits for anyone.
And now we have everything to lose.
34
NIXON
I stand in the lumberyard, looking over the business my brothers and I bought as a fresh start. When we made the decision to leave our pack behind, it felt like chopping off a limb and limping on the bloody stump. Still, after Matt’s death and the blame that continued to hang over us, it was our only option.
I understand our parents’ grief, but their blame was unfair, and it ruined our pack, rotting it from the inside. A son should never have to become alpha until his father is weak or dead, but I was forced to walk away and step up to that role, and there’s no going back.
Now we need support. Gregory’s pack is large, filled with all the stray wolves he can find to bolster numbers. It never bothered me in the past. We have clear boundaries that haven’t been challenged, but now his goons are running through our territory, making threats to come for a baby that our mate has adopted as hers. There’s no negotiation here, no middle ground to reach. Ahya is ours now, unless Aura changes her mind. Scarlet would never break another woman’s heart, but she’ll defend that child like she’s her own, in place of a mother too broken to do the same.