JULIA*29 years ago*When I was first introduced to the future Alpha Lance, I knew he’d be mine. There was no end of the earth to which I wouldn’t go to make sure of it. But I also knew he would be a challenge. His brother Gabe had been child’s play, just a little mouse I’d bounced around in my claws before swallowing him whole. Lance, on the other hand, was a mongoose. And he would not go down so easily.“Pleased to meet you, Julia,” he’d said, before turning away to other business. He’d barely even acknowledged my presence before turning to his father to discuss some other pack they’d been dealing with. I was an afterthought, a passing breeze, something beneath his notice.“And this is my little sister, Miriam.” Gabe brought my attention to a mousy, lanky girl, with a shiny black French braid that fell to her lower back, and appeared more over-grown ten-year-old than the fifteen years old Gabe had told me she was.“Hello,” Miriam said as she shook my hand. She tilted her head slight
JULIA*29 years ago*I quickly scanned my surroundings when the faint lights at the back of the packhouse revealed a shadow moving stealthily along the perimeter. I stilled, lowering my body behind the rock, locking my eyes onto the figure.It scaled the wall, climbing up the siding with the ease of someone who had done it before. As it ascended, its outline sharpened, revealing a wolf. By its massive size, it had to be a male. My gaze shifted upward to an open window. A welcome intruder? There was no other explanation for a window being left ajar in the middle of an Alaskan winter.Just as I’d anticipated, the wolf slipped through the window. Not even a second passed before it closed behind him.I smiled as I counted the windows, mentally mapping out the layout of the bedrooms. I was nearly certain whose window the wolf had entered. After I gathered my clothing and watch, I noted the time. Something told me this wasn’t a one-time visit. That wolf had been far too confident and famili
THERESAAfter the whole heat situation, I was at a loss. Some might call it spiraling, maybe entering the beginning stages of insanity. Parts of me felt deep shame. I’d basically taken advantage of the man, twice now! A man who made it very clear he had no interest in me. A man that my mom was actively attempting to seduce on my behalf… and here I was being an extension of her. Ugh!Why hadn’t I been stronger?Why hadn’t I bolted from his room the moment I’d woken in it?Why, after the many times I’d sleepwalked only to be stopped by a locked door, that was the one time it wasn’t?What kind of person does this twice? What kind of woman forces herself on a man who had already said no?I didn’t force him. I didn’t. He wanted it too.But if he wanted it, why did he resist at first?Because he has a conscience, unlike you.And not knowing how he felt about what had happened was driving me deeper into crazy. Of course, he had to know that heat made one senseless and incorrigible. It had to
THERESAI couldn’t help but snicker at the thought. Damien was practically a third brother to me, so I didn’t see him that way at all. But a part of me did find the idea funny. Tyce would be pissed. “Don’t guess!” I finally responded. “I’m not going to tell you.”“Fine fine!” she replied, waving her hand. “But unless you say otherwise, I’m just going to assume that you and Damien are sneaking around behind Tyce’s back.”“Assume away!” I replied, laughing again at the thought. Tyce did always act extra protective of me around his friends, especially after I started wearing a bra. While I loved my big brother, it was also fun to get a rise out of him sometimes. Although Gigi had that department covered now.We laughed a bit more and then Sophia’s face settled. She glanced me up and down, and pulled me in for another hug. “Seriously, Terr, I think you should reconsider keeping this from at least Tyce. I get why you don’t want to tell your dad…”“About Damien?” I asked, taken aback, assum
GINGERI woke to a gentle shake of my upper arm. “Baby,” the most beautiful voice whispered. “Wake up.”I turned to find Tyce standing beside the bed, my snowsuit slung over his shoulder. His soft smile made dissipated my grogginess. “What’s going on?” I asked. It wasn’t like him to randomly wake me in the middle of the night.“Nothing’s wrong. I just have something to show you,” he replied, holding the snow suit out to me. “Put this on.”Curiosity replaced sleep as I slid out of bed. Tyce helped me into the snowsuit, steadying me when I stumbled. We crept downstairs, pulled on our boots, and stepped outside.Crisp, frosty air pricked my cheeks. But I was instantly distracted from the cold as soon as I glanced up and gasped at the sight. “Oh my Goddess, this is amazing!” I exclaimed, taking in the night sky. I had seen the northern lights a handful of times, especially now that I was living in Alaska, but it had never been quite as vibrant and intense as it was that night. Neon ribbon
GINGERI stripped down as quickly as I could, while the unrelenting cold bit at my exposed skin. That was the second reason I hated going into my wolf form.“So sexy.” Tyce whistled once I was completely bare. But I gave him the show for barely a second before I morphed into my wolf. My nails stretched into claws, fur sprouted from newly formed hair follicles, and my bones rearranged themselves into my canine form. My paws landed on the fluffy snow.“So fucking cool.” Tyce grinned with pride. “If we ever go into battle, it’s game over once they get a look at you.”I tilted my head in insecurity. Sure, I looked scary, but once they got over the initial shock, I’d be taken down in seconds. Even though I was training with Sara regularly, I was also getting my ass beat regularly. It was only thanks to my new werewolf superspeed healing that my skin color wasn’t black and blue. But I was determined. I would keep training, even if it killed me.“What’s wrong?” Tyce asked, furrowing his brow
NIKOLAIWhen I stepped into the gym Saturday morning, ready to take over training from Sasha, I immediately noticed something was off. Half the group was missing.I scanned the room, my brows knitting together. “Where are the women?”Sasha barely looked up from adjusting the wraps on his wrists. “Your girl took them.”I stilled. “My girl?” I repeated, leveling a pointed look at him.His lips twitched into a smirk. “Theresa.”I exhaled sharply, rolling my shoulders to keep from reacting. I wanted to smack that look right off his face, but I held back, reminding myself that I’d promised myself to be a better friend.“Ha. Funny.” My voice was flat. It wasn’t funny. Not even a little. “Where are they?”“Outside.”Without another word, I turned on my heel to figure out what was going on. I pushed open the heavy entryway door and was greeted by a chilling wind biting the exposed parts of my skin. It was certainly not warm today. I followed the tracks in the snow to what was likely a field d
NIKOLAI“Are you okay?” Terri’s touch on my arm jolted me back to reality. I hadn’t even realized how far my thoughts had drifted. “You seem…” She studied me, her brows drawing together. “Angry? Sad? I’m trying to figure it out. Maybe… jealous?”My head snapped up. “What?” I barked, taking a step back.Her eyes widened slightly, and she winced. “Sorry. Sometimes I speak without thinking.”I exhaled through my nose, forcing myself to steady my expression. “Why do you think I feel that?”She hesitated, glancing down at her hands. “I don’t know. I just… sense it.”Sense it? A muscle in my jaw ticked. “What does that mean?”“Never mind.” She let out a nervous laugh. “Forget I said anything. I’m obviously just being crazy.”Crazy? No.Because if I was honest with myself, she was right. The thought sat heavy in my chest, a truth I wasn’t ready to confront. I considered pressing her further, demanding how she knew, how she saw through me so easily. But that would mean admitting what had been
NIKOLAITyce’s hands trembled at his sides. His shoulders rose and fell unevenly, like he was barely keeping himself together. For a moment again, he looked young and lost, like a boy whose world was unraveling piece by piece. But he quickly shook his head and straightened his shoulders."I’ll do my best. I promise." Tyce’s voice was raw, quieter than before. His fingers flexed at his sides before he turned away, blinking hard. I recognized the move. The sheer, bone-deep exhaustion of trying to keep it together when everything inside you was falling apart. Finally, he turned back and said, “Give me something with her scent on it. Alpha Nikolai will help too.”Sophia’s father rushed back into the house, returning seconds later with a winter hat. He handed it to Tyce, who passed it straight to me.I took a deep breath, inhaling the Sophia’s scent, locking it into memory before handing it back.I was sure Tyce felt the same as I did. Someone had reached Sophia before we could. And now, s
NIKOLAIThe silence between us stretched thick and suffocating, broken only by the rhythmic tapping of Tyce’s fingers against the wooden desk and the occasional muffled sound of a voicemail message cutting in and out.Every few minutes, he tried again. Calling. Mindlinking. His expression flickered between frustration and outright fury every time the connection failed.Each passing minute felt like an hour.Tyce was relentless. Again and again, he dialed, pressing on the chosen contact of the moment, only to be met with the same voicemail box recording. Calling and mindlinking like a maniac.I couldn’t deny I wouldn’t have done the same. I just didn’t have the same means to attempt contact. So, I determined, my job, albeit impossible, was to attempt to keep him calm.Honestly, I wasn’t doing any better. My mind screamed for action, but all I could do was sit there, forcing myself to remain still. I kept blocking out the worst-case scenarios. If I let myself think about Terri in the ha
GINGERAs I woke, I fought against a dull, aching exhaustion pressing down on me like dead weight. My eyelids felt impossibly heavy. My mouth was dry, my head pounding. Every muscle in my body throbbed with soreness, as if I’d run a marathon the day before.This has to be the worst hangover of my life.Slowly, the fog in my mind began to clear. I inhaled the scent of crisp air and wet earth. Was I outdoors? I groaned, trying to roll over. A sharp clink echoed through the silence.My eyes snapped open.Coldness nipped at my skin—no, at my fur. My stomach dropped as my sluggish brain scrambled to make sense of it.The room—was it even a room?—was cloaked in darkness, the only illumination coming from the faint glow of my red night vision. The outlines of my surroundings took shape: cold, empty space, stone walls, and metal bars blocking the only exit. The scent of damp earth and frost hung heavy in the air.I tried to move, but the harsh clink of metal stopped me short. I looked down. M
TYSONI finally understood what it meant to straddle the edge of sanity and madness.I hadn’t slept in days. The world around me felt surreal, like I was walking through a dream—or nightmare. Every time I bumped into a wall or grazed a piece of furniture, I’d catch myself wondering why I hadn’t just passed through it. I felt like a ghost, a shadow of myself. Losing Gigi was like losing my purpose. Without her, what was the point of any of this? I scrolled through our old messages, rereading the last text she sent me:Gigi: Love you, send you some snaps laterAs if the words might change. As if they could tell me where she was now.But the screen remained the same. No new messages. Just a string of my frantic ones.They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Well, here I was, proving it. I must have called and texted both Gigi and Terri a thousand times. At this point, my fingers were moving on autopilot. The result
NIKOLAIAs feared, by the next morning, Tyce still hadn’t heard from Gigi or Terri. The thick and suffocating dread was settling in. It was looking to be less and less a case of a couple of lost cell phones.While everyone else was at the morning temple service, Sasha and I met Tyce in his office, where he was seated in the same spot I’d left him the night prior.Tyce looked exactly how I felt, like hell. His eyes were bloodshot, shadowed by dark circles. His hair was even more disheveled than it had been the prior day. Overgrown stubble dusted his jawline. He appeared a ghost of his former self—an alpha taken down by his biggest weakness.He arrived in the same clothes he’d worn the prior day, now wrinkled from his clearly sleepless night. The muffled sound of a generic voicemail box rang through the air.He let out a heavy breath and rubbed his temples before running a hand through his hair. “Flight conditions are still a no-go,” Tyce muttered in a voice that was rough with exhausti
NIKOLAITyce leaned back in his chair, dragging his hands back and forth through his dark hair. The movement left pieces of it sticking up in all different directions.“I just wish…” He trailed off, exhaling sharply. “I just wish I’d marked her.” His voice cracked. “I wanted to. But she was adamant about waiting until marriage. She didn’t want to look bad in front of our parents.” He let out a bitter laugh, shaking his head. “That shit’s so outdated. It’s not like they don’t already know what we’re up to.”His shoulders sagged as he let out a heavy sigh. The weight of his regret was palpable. “If she were marked,” he rasped in a raw voice, “I’d at least know where she is. I could feel her. I’d know she was safe. But…” His voice faltered, splintering into something dark and helpless.Crack! With a strangled roar, he slammed his fists against the desk. The violent sound shot through the room.I flinched. Not at the outburst, but at the raw emotions and vulnerability it exposed. I knew e
NIKOLAI“I don’t understand! Where the fuck is she?” Tyce’s booming voice echoed down the hallway as I stepped through the front door on Sunday evening, sweat still cooling on my skin after hours spent pushing my body to exhaustion. I walked further into the packhouse and his voice became louder as I proceeded. “We need to get that plane out tonight. I need to go to Anchorage immediately.”I followed the sound of his shouting, rounding the corner, to find a red-faced Tyce with bulging eyes in the common area, fists clenching and unclenching at his sides.Across from him, Beta Liam stood firm, arms crossed, with a calm but unreadable face.“Tyce, it’s not possible,” Liam said with a measured tone, a stark contrast to the storm raging inside the alpha.Tyce’s chest heaved. His nostrils flared. “I don’t care if we crash the fucking plane,” he snarled. “I have to get to her. Do you understand? She’s out there, and we’re just standing here, doing nothing!”Liam’s jaw tightened, but his voi
GINGERShe walked off, joining the line for the bathroom down the hall. I was about to take a seat when Grace appeared beside me.“Hey, can I get you something else to drink?” she asked.“Oh no, I’m good. This is probably my last one,” I replied.“How’s your friend?”“She’s fine. She just went to the bathroom.”“You’re not leaving, are you? We just got here!”“No, no, she wants to stay,” I assured her. “I can introduce you when she gets back.”A man approached us and stood next to Grace. I struggled to remember his name. Bill? Brian? Ben? Something with a B.“Hey, do you wanna?” he asked, tapping his right nostril meaningfully.“Gigi, have you tried it before?” Grace placed her hand on my arm in a friendly gesture.I shook my head.“Oh, you have to. It’s amazing—it makes you feel so good, like you don’t have a care in the world. You’ve gotta try it!”The idea was tempting. I’d missed out on trying coke at my bachelorette party, which I’d always hoped would have been much wilder than i
GINGERBy the time we made it to the party, Terri seemed to be in a much better mood. I felt pleased with the progress I’d made. She was opening up more and actually laughing, a huge contrast to earlier that afternoon.“Let’s go get some drinks!” I exclaimed and led her into the kitchen of the small house we’d come to. They had a huge bowl of jungle juice set out, so I filled our Solo cups with generous pours. We clinked our cups together and made it out to the living room where music was blasting and different students were gathered. I sniffed around, but only humans seemed to be in attendance so far.“How’d you hear about this party?” Terri asked.“It’s kind of funny,” I said. “I met another one of our kind earlier today at school. She gave me her number and said there’d be more of us here tonight.”“Oh,” Terri replied, but didn’t seem as enthusiastic about it as I thought she’d be. “Do you know what pack she was from?”“I couldn’t tell,” I replied. “And she didn’t say.”“It’s usual