Prologue

***Please note this book begins with events that occurred in South before progressing past the end of West***

Marigold

The bear shifters waging war against the wolves was a horrendous part of the lupine species’ recent past, one that no one wanted to see a repeat of.

My heart ached from the mere thought of all the lives lost on both sides of the battle, but I was a firm believer in everything happening for a reason. Take the war for instance.

Most would be hard-pressed to find a sliver of positivity within the sea of turmoil that had reigned for the last two years, but the fighting between the different groups of shifters was the best thing to happen to me in my twenty years of life, though it was tinged with a healthy dose of guilt on a daily basis.

To say my home life had been less than stellar would be an understatement, but I knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that every hardship I’d endured throughout the years was preparing me for something greater down the line, even if I wasn’t aware of exactly what that was at the moment.

It wasn’t always easy to keep my faith, especially when I considered how my father had tricked me into leaving my baby sister behind when he’d popped up out of nowhere again to escort me to the Southern Province over two years ago.

Iris was thirteen now, and I had to believe she was still okay back at home with our mother, although my sister was more of the parental figure out of the two of them.

My father had been in and out of my life over the years with there being no rhyme or reason to when he was present, and then he’d taken me from my home with his devious lies, forcing me to leave behind everything I knew and the one person who was familiar with every broken piece of me.

Of course, he claimed the sudden move was for my benefit, but I’d picked up on his manipulative tendencies early on. I was aware he always had an ulterior motive, but he never divulged what it was to me before he absconded once more. Hell, for all I knew he could be dead.

There were more than a few wolves who had lost their lives over the last two years, after all, and I hadn’t seen him again since that day.

Sadness suffused my being with the thought despite our rocky relationship, but I shoved it aside as I overheard Ronnie saying goodbye to her daughter down the hall, knowing I only had a finite amount of time before Scarlett returned with Roxi in tow.

I’d learned to take my father’s actions with a grain of salt and never to trust his word at face value. It wasn’t the best relationship, but I could tell he loved me to an extent in his own twisted way.

The hot and cold with him was hard to handle, but he had always been there when I truly needed him, like the first time I shifted into my white wolf. That whole experience would have been pure hell if he hadn’t been there to talk me through it.

I loved my father, but that didn’t mean I had to like the way I knew he treated others or his constant Houdini routine.

His lukewarm affection wasn’t enough to negate how he’d treated my mother and sister like second-class citizens, or how he had ripped me away from my family without a second thought. My only light in the darkness was the fact that my old neighbor, Maya, had promised to watch out for Iris if something happened to me.

She was my half-sister, but that didn’t make a difference to me. I mean damn, I had practically raised her with both of our absent fathers and our mutual alcoholic mother doing their best to drag us down.

It was a wonder we weren’t both fucked up more than we were after the struggles we’d faced, but Iris had managed to retain her effervescent personality, irrespective.

Me? Well, I was more world-weary, and I’d discovered it was far better to keep my cards close to my chest, especially knowing the way most shifters viewed the humans. There was a reason no one spoke of them, and the humans were smart enough to circumvent us at all costs.

I was content with my life in the Southern Province, aside from the niggling worry about my sister’s wellbeing, but my friends finding their true mates had me thinking about my own future.

I desperately wanted my own family someday, but I also knew I wasn’t brave enough to put myself out there the way Scarlett and Ronnie kept encouraging me to do.

There were plenty of eligible males meandering around town this very second, looking for their other half, but I was cooped up here in our living room, wiling away the afternoon by babysitting a toddler with my friend, not that I was complaining.

I had spent most of my life avoiding others while I protected my sister and cleaned up my mother’s messes, not wanting the entire world to know how broken my family was, or the rest of the community to find out about my ability to shift shapes before my father had brought me into the wolves’ territories.

The idea of having someone love me unconditionally, even knowing every flaw and quirk I possessed, was one of the things that kept me going through my darkest times.

My friendship with the she-wolves was amazing and something I could never take for granted, but I needed more to feel fulfilled, to fill the void caused by my past.

Part of me knew my friends wouldn’t see me any differently if they knew the truth, but my caution was so ingrained in my system by this point that it was a way of life. I’d let the girls in some over the span of our camaraderie, but even they didn’t know the whole truth about my genetics.

My head had been spinning ever since Scarlett suggested we watch Roxi for Ronnie while she went to training earlier. While I knew that the other she-wolf had missed Roxi, I was also aware she would use the time to pry, as she was prone to do.

I knew she meant well, and I appreciated her concern. Yet, her gentle probing previously left no doubt in my mind about what she would want to discuss.

I’d been too afraid to bare my soul in the past, having bottled up my feelings and desires to prevent myself from getting hurt in response to the neglect and mental torment I’d endured as a child. These girls were amazing, and I didn’t know where I would be without them today.

Ronnie had found me looking lost in the center of town after my father had dumped me here without any sort of explanation.

While stumbling around, begging for information from the people around me, she’d appeared, leading me towards her home where I’d then met Scarlett and found my first true sanctuary from the shitstorm that was my life.

I’d spent all of my free time helping Ronnie take care of Roxi since, but I couldn’t ask for anything better. I loathed the idea of interacting with the general public, particularly after my initial reception into the province, but I enjoyed spending time with the little girl.

Not to mention, it didn’t help that my upbringing had left me reserved and unable to interact with more than a few people at a time without my social anxiety kicking into high gear.

“Hey Mari,” Scarlett greeted as she returned from walking Ronnie to the door, interrupting my musings, as she suggested, “Should we take Roxi out back for a while? She seems to have an abundance of energy.”

The child in question drew my notice as she came running down the hall, giggling up a gale when she crashed into my legs.

I scooped her up, planting a kiss on her forehead as I responded to Scarlett, “Yeah, that sounds like a plan. Let me grab my jacket, and I’ll meet you guys outside.”

Roxi took off for the back door in a flash the instant I’d set her on the ground, clearly indicating that she was on board with our next activity.

Scarlett and her already had their coats on from speaking with Ronnie at the door earlier, but it only took me a minute to locate mine in my bedroom.

I glanced longingly at my bed before shutting the door behind me, trying to resist the yawn building from my sleepless nights as of late, but I was striding up to Scarlett in the back yard before long.

The brisk air wafting over me aided in holding the exhaustion at bay, and my friend and I conversed about trivial topics for a few minutes while Roxi played in the fallen leaves.

However, I wasn’t naïve enough to believe she had forgotten about what she really wanted to discuss, and she confirmed my thoughts as she casually said, “I can watch her if you want to join Ronnie for training, or maybe walk around town for a while.”

I shot the other she-wolf an exasperated look before replying, “I know what you have in mind, Scar, but I’m happy right here. I’m not interested in finding my mate right now.”

I knew my avowal was a lie as it slipped from my lips, and Scarlett’s expressive face did not belie her disbelief, but she didn’t add anything further.

Pleased she didn’t push me on the issue, I opted to extend an olive branch, not wanting her brief visit to end on bad terms. I ranged my senses out, ensuring her mate wasn’t within hearing distance before I picked the lesser of two evils.

Taking a deep breath, I went on, asking, “You do remember that I lack a sense of coordination, right? It would be a disaster if I attempted to join Ronnie, but there’s a good reason for that. You know that my father’s a werewolf, but I never mentioned that my mother is a human.”

Accordingly, I was the one left shocked after my revelation when Scarlett informed me that she had already suspected as much.

Further, I felt slightly dimwitted when she pointed out how difficult it was to get a shifter drunk, realizing I had already shared my mother’s substance abuse issues with the girls.

Even so, I was relieved she hadn’t freaked out as I’d feared, and it gave me hope that other shifters might be more open to the idea of intermingling with humans in the future.

I couldn’t stop that optimism from taking root, and my mind exploded with possibilities all at once. Just the same, I also couldn’t keep my brain from straying towards whether I would find my own soulmate or not.

The idea terrified and thrilled me all at once. I knew I never would have believed Scarlett or anyone else if they had told me that my other half was going to walk into my life that very night, bringing more than one unforeseen change in the process with him, but that was precisely what happened.