Prologue
Branches whipped Dina’s face and shoulders as she ran.
She had never been this far south before. It felt wrong to be this far south. The air was too warm, and the sounds were nothing like what she had grown used to in the forests of the Arctic Circle. The animals were different here.
Everything about her life was going to be different here.
But there was no going back. The life she had once known was over, thanks to those treacherous wolves.
How can they call themselves feral? she thought, not for the first time since the alpha wolves had ordered her out of their territory. They’ve formed a pack, for fuck’s sake.
Packs were taking over everywhere, it seemed.
Packs were the reason Dina had gone north in the first place. There was no place below the sixty-sixth parallel for a beta bear like herself, not unless she wanted to be the property of an alpha. And she did not. The idea of belonging to a pack had never been anything but awful to Dina.
What am I going to do now?
Staying up north hadn’t been an option. The wolves had made that abundantly clear. Any bears who stayed up north would be viewed as enemies. Of course, that was nothing new—feral wolves and feral bears had been enemies for decades. But now the wolves weren’t feral any longer. They were a pack.
That pack had descended on Dina and the temporary allies with whom she had grouped up and had torn them apart as if they were nothing.
We did start it. We kidnapped their omega. Of course they were going to retaliate.
Dina pushed the thought away. They had only kidnapped the omega to try to break the bonds that existed between the men of that pack. If they hadn’t grouped up the way they did, none of it would have been necessary!
But what was done was done. She had been exiled from the north. She could never go home.
And what was there for her here besides pack life? She would never join a pack. She would rather die.
The outlines of a third idea began to take shape in her mind, but before the picture could resolve itself, the forest gave way to a clearing. She found herself staring across what could only be described as a lawn at a massive ranch-style house.
She froze.
She was in bear form. The people who lived here would know only that a bear had appeared on their property. They would be afraid. They would keep their distance.
Unless one of them owns a gun or something. She began to back away slowly.
Then she caught a whiff of the air.
Wolf!
Before she had time to react, the door of the house opened and a man came running out. As she had feared, he had a gun in his hands, and he aimed it in her direction. But the smell of wolf was also pouring off of him so strongly that she knew at once that she had stumbled into a pack of shifters.
She had only a few moments to make a decision.
I don’t stand a chance if I try to fight them. He can’t be the only one. The rest are probably watching from the windows of that big house. Dina was a good fighter, but she didn’t like to enter a fight without knowing the odds were in her favor. That was exactly what had gone wrong with the wolf pack up north, and it had almost resulted in her death.
She considered running. But she couldn’t outrun a bullet, and she had no idea how good a shot this man was. If he managed to hit her, there was no one around who would be able to help her treat the wound. A gunshot, even in the leg or shoulder, could be fatal.
There was only one option that gave her a decent chance at survival. She didn’t like it, but it was the only choice.
Dina shifted into her human form, dropped to her knees, and held up her hands in surrender.
The man stopped running toward her, but he didn’t lower his gun. “Who the hell are you?” he demanded.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know anybody lived here. I don’t mean you any harm. If you’ll let me go on my way, you’ll never see me again, I promise.”
The man frowned. Now that Dina got a good look at him, there was something stupid-looking about his expression. He had heavy eyebrows and a glare that made him look as if he thought he was a lot bigger than he actually was.
“I should take you to Josh,” he decided.
“Who’s Josh?”
“Our alpha.” Now there was a faint note of pride in the man’s voice. “This land belongs to the Vancouver Wolf Pack.”
“Honestly, I didn’t know that,” Dina said. “If you let me go, I promise to leave your land right away.”
The man shook his head. “Josh is going to want to talk to you,” he said. “You’d better come inside.”
“What if I refuse?” Dina asked.
“If you refuse, Josh will probably come outside,” the man said. “He’s watching us now. If he has to come out, there’s going to be a fight, and I doubt you want that.”
Dina didn’t like the way this man was talking to her, but what could she do? He was right. “I don’t,” she agreed. “Put the gun down and I’ll come meet with your alpha.”
The man shook his head. “You don’t call the shots,” he said. He gestured with the barrel of the gun. “This way.”
So Dina, out of options, allowed herself to be marched across the lawn and into the house at gunpoint, simmering with an unpleasant combination of terror and rage.
The house’s door opened onto the kitchen. Several people were standing back from the windows as if they had just been leaning up against them, taking in the action in the yard. As the door closed behind her, one man stepped forward. “Everybody, go into the den, please,” he said. “Eddie, you stay.”
The man with the gun took a seat at the kitchen table. “You got it, boss.”
“You must be Josh,” Dina reasoned.
“That’s right,” the man said. “Who are you?”
She hesitated. “If we’re going to talk, tell your man to take his gun off me,” she said. “I haven’t done anything to threaten you or your pack.”
“You’re on our land.”
“I didn’t know this was your land,” she said, exasperated. “I told him to let me leave, but he didn’t want to. I’d be just as happy to be nowhere near your land, believe me.”
Josh pondered for a moment. “Put the gun down, Eddie,” he said.
Eddie looked somewhat disappointed, but he set the gun down on the table. Dina couldn’t help noticing that he kept it within easy reach, in case he wanted to pick it up again.
“Satisfied?” Josh asked.
She wasn’t—she wanted to get out of their house—but she didn’t want a fight with these men, so she nodded.
“Now tell me who you are,” Josh said.
“My name is Dina,” she said.
He waved his hand at that information. “What pack are you with?”
She lifted her chin. “I’m not with any pack,” she said.
Eddie let out a quiet hiss. “She’s feral,” he said.
“Are you?” Josh asked her, his expression darkening.
“I’m on my own, if that’s what you mean,” Dina said. This was hardly the time for pure honesty about what she thought of those who chose to live in packs, but she was surprised by the negative reaction. “That’s good news for you. It means no one else is coming this way just because I did.”