Chapter 1

The ranch was crawling with Grey Wolves.

The Rebel lingered on the outskirts of the forest, watching the activity in the distance as he leaned against the trunk of a mountain pine. He surveyed the vast ranchlands before him as he tipped his Stetson lower, adding an extra layer of shadow to his face. The old cowboy hat was only a precaution. He knew none of the pack wolves would recognize him. Aside from his scars, it was one of the key advantages to having the identity of a ghost, and a good thing too…

…since he didn’t trust anyone else to deliver the target.

He shot a glance over his shoulder toward Bee. The brown mustang gave an angry flick of his tail, the hair smacking against the pine where he was tied. Bee wasn’t mighty pleased with this arrangement.

That made two of them.

“Behave,” Rebel warned the horse. “It won’t be long.”

He strode onto the ranch, ignoring Bee’s frustrated huffs. It was easy enough to blend in among the Grey Wolf cowboys. With the Seven Range Shifter clans all meeting at Wolf Pack Run today, there was a plethora of unfamiliar shifters on the ranch. None of the guards so much as raised their heads at him. Not that a rebel werewolf would be their top safety priority. Their focus would be protecting the Pact from vampires—a heightened level of security that would be forgotten once the Pact members left the ranch this evening.

That would be their mistake.

It only took him a handful of minutes to locate his target. An entrance to the kitchens connected to the private conference room where the Pact members were

meeting. Rebel was patient, slowly making his way inside, slipping among the shadows. Once near the room, he watched a server enter, allowing him a quick glance inside.

Immediately, he spotted her. He couldn’t have missed her if he’d tried. Not with the way his heart was pounding.

Standing in the conference room next to her beast of a brother, talking with animated movements as she pointed toward a massive chart behind her, she was breathtaking. Everything he remembered and more.

He shook his head. The pain in his chest was all the reminder he needed. She wasn’t his, and she never would be. She’d stopped being a possibility for him long ago.

He watched her, patiently lingering in the shadows of the kitchen as he formulated a plan. She wouldn’t recognize him, though his heart knew her better than the back of his own hand. He would have known those gorgeous green eyes anywhere. The ache in his chest grew.

It’s better this way, he told himself.

He’d repeat those words until he was convinced they were true.

He didn’t care what it took, or how it hurt him. Her life and the lives of so many others depended on his sacrifice. It didn’t matter that she didn’t recognize him or that he died a little more inside whenever he looked at her. He would keep his promise to her, to his family. No matter the personal consequences.

And come hell or high water, Rebel would survive losing Lily Grey again…