Chapter 1

Three years after my best friend Caleb and I mated to the female Alpha twins of the Creek Pack, their stepbrother Victor — the one the powerful twins truly loved — came back.

Caleb and I planned to run away, but the night before our escape, he was poisoned with wolfsbane. I called his mate Selene, but she didn't believe Caleb was really dead.

I gripped the phone tighter, forcing my voice steady.

"Selene, I'm not joking. Caleb... he's really dead."

A contemptuous snort came through the phone. "Is that so? He's really dead? Should I arrange his funeral then, and cry my eyes out?"

Her sarcasm cut deep, but I pushed through it. "Selene. This isn't a game. He's gone."

"Ryan, I call you brother-in-law, but you don't actually think you're family, do you? Tell Caleb to stop playing these little tricks."

Despite it being summer, I felt cold all over.

Selene didn't believe Caleb was dead. I should have known. In her eyes, Caleb was just a tool to keep the pack quiet about an Alpha falling in love with stepbrother. But in the end, I had hoped she might have a change of heart.

Just one last hope. Wasted, like everything else Caleb had ever given her.

Suddenly, a man's voice came from the other end of the line. It was Victor — Elena and Selene's stepbrother. His voice was low and demanding in a way that made my skin crawl.

"Selene, why are you on the phone so long? Hang up. I'm cold. Come warm me up."

Then came Selene's gentle, doting voice: "Alright, alright, I'm coming."

The sky was pitch black, pressing down on me until I could barely breathe.

I held Caleb's body, my eyes vacant. I couldn't make sense of it.

Just yesterday, Caleb had been determined to escape the Creek Pack with me. How could he have ended up dead from wolfsbane tonight?

He'd been ready. He'd packed. He'd been counting the hours.

I numbly followed the pack guards to the sacred grounds where we perform our rituals for the deceased.

In less than a day, the once-fierce Caleb had been reduced to ashes in a small, square box in my hands.

As the sky turned a pale, fish-belly white, I walked out of the sacred grounds, clutching Caleb's remains.

It wasn't until a passerby called out to me that I snapped back to reality.

"Sir, your phone is ringing."

I stiffly pulled out my phone.

When I answered, a low female voice came through: "You didn't come home last night."

I gave a faint "Mm" in response, my throat tight.

Elena's voice grew colder. "What's wrong with your voice? Were you out causing trouble with Caleb again? Ryan, I remember warning you to stay away from him."

The phone wasn't heavy, but at that moment, it felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.

"Caleb is dead, Elena. You don't have to look down on him anymore."

There was a pause on the other end, then her cold voice came through: "So you've started playing along with his act too? Ryan, if he's dead today, are you going to die tomorrow? Or do you think this fake death game is fun? Too bad we don't have time to play along with you two."

The call ended abruptly.

I let out a sigh of relief. If she didn't believe it, so be it.

But the more I thought about it, the wronger it felt. Caleb hadn't taken the wolfsbane himself. The signs of struggle in that room — the torn fabric, the gouged floorboards — those weren't the marks of a man giving up. Those were the marks of a man fighting for his life.

Someone had killed him. And the only scent in that room besides Caleb's was Victor's.

I wiped my face and carried Caleb's remains to the seaside. The salty air whipped around me, carrying memories of a man who deserved a lot more than what he got.

He had no family, no pack to return to. When we were planning our escape, he'd once told me that beyond the mountains, the place he wanted to see most was the sea.

So with steady hands, I scattered part of his ashes into the ocean. A gust of wind swept by, carrying them deeper into the waves.

"Caleb." My voice came out rough. "I'll handle it. Every last one of them."

The wind died down. I stood there for a long moment, watching the waves crash against the shore.

When I returned to the Creek Pack house, it was already noon. The sun was high in the sky, mocking the dark thing settling in my chest.

Surprisingly, both twins were home. As soon as I entered, two pairs of eyes fixed on me. Elena's gaze was cold and questioning. Selene's held a hint of amusement.

The next second, Selene let out a mocking laugh: "Brother-in-law, you're back. Where's Caleb? Still in some she-wolf's bed, unable to get up?"

I looked at her for a long moment.

Then I smiled.

"Funny you should ask, Selene. Funny you should ask."