Prologue

Veronica

The first day that Ryker, my brother’s best friend, came into my awareness has been emblazoned in my mind over the years, no matter how hard I have attempted to scrub his existence from my memory. I was seven when he first whirled into my perfect little world, and I had instantly been drawn to his magnetic presence.

My older brother Jax had originally been leery of the young wolf that was wreaking havoc in the middle of town with his bedraggled appearance and aggressive actions aimed at the pair of elders that had tried,  and spectacularly failed, to corral him into one of the local businesses and out of the public’s view.

My eyes had locked with his reddish-brown colored orbs for a single second during all of the chaos, and suddenly the midnight black wolf was shifting into a wild looking kid with tousled chin-length hair and the same russet-colored irises as the lupine that had disappeared with his transformation.

I was riveted by the mere sight of him, but I also could not recall meeting him in the area recently.

Even so, not much could have torn me away from the tumultuous scene unfolding before me, but Jax had tried his damnedest to whisk me away from the ensuing fray anyway.

I could not explain the strange fascination I had with the newcomer at the time, but I knew it had only grown since the first day that he had blown into town like a tornado with a troubled past nipping at his heels at only twelve.

There are a lot of things about him that have remained a mystery throughout our association: what happened between the time that Jax interceded and our father arrived, what drove him to our territory in the first place in the half-crazed state that he had been in, and why he had left without a word the next morning after we had finally come together so wondrously, years after our initial introduction and our forbidden tango had begun.

I had gotten used to disappointment as far as Ryker was concerned but taking a trip down memory lane still hurt, nonetheless.

I am not certain what happened after Jax got involved and my father subsequently appeared out of nowhere. I had lost eye contact for a few minutes while retreating to a safer place to watch. It was Jax’s sole condition, but I berated myself for refusing to stand my ground regardless.

It seemed someone closer to the kid's age had helped settle his nerves because he was no longer lashing out, and the elders had thankfully backed off when it became obvious that their approach was not working.

Somehow, my brother was able to do what neither of the elders had succeeded in accomplishing before, but by the time I had turned to witness the incredible sight, I regrettably realized that I had missed the entire encounter, and my father had reached the deescalating situation by that point, further exacerbating my displeasure.

However, he had handled the uncommon incident with a calm and authoritative demeanor, ordering the bystanders to disperse, myself included unfortunately, while he took stock of the scenario.

Jax I could defy, but not my father. I loitered a moment longer, watching amazed as the last spectators scattered with my father’s deep command, but then again, even at my early age I could clearly see the respect that he elicited from others.

I expected Jax to join me, but I was dissatisfied instead when I saw my father usher him inside the small grocery store that stood nearby.

I had stayed as still as a statue up on my perch as the elders filed in behind them and my father rotated to follow, but I scurried home without delay after the stern look that he shot my way before ducking inside the building after the others.

No one had told me what happened before or after the spectacle in the center of town, but my father returned home later that evening with Jax and the child, who had struck a chord within me, in tow.

I was then formally introduced to Ryker but was given no additional information. He had persisted on the periphery, just out of reach ever since that day.

Jax and him had been inseparable since the day our fates had intertwined with each other’s, but I was rarely welcome within the same vicinity as the boys.

As I matured with the passing of time, my beginning captivation with Ryker morphed into an array of different emotions including adoration, all-consuming passion, annoyance, and resentment to name a few.

My brother had always looked after me before Ryker’s advent, but he frequently complained about me tailing them wherever they went afterward, earning me the maddening nickname Shadow.

Whatever pull that had snared me that first day only seemed to have grown with the more time that I spent in his proximity. There was nothing sexual about it early on, simply the intrigue of his remarkable entrance, but as the time passed my level of attachment fervently grew alongside it.

Ryker watched me grow up from the pudgy, snot faced little girl into the slim figure of a young woman. He had defended me as fiercely as Jax from the beginning, but as I neared adulthood and the age that I could find my mate, I had found myself questioning more than once during that time period whether he might have been my forever.

I observed as his glances lingered longer when my brother’s attention was diverted elsewhere, but he had never crossed that infuriating line, presumably due to my age and the complications my overprotective sibling provided.

Despite the outwardly insurmountable obstacles, everything changed when the bears invaded and slaughtered my parents in cold blood. Jax had ordered Ryker to deliver me to safety in the South while he stayed behind to regroup with the others and mount a counterattack.

Thank Luna, the seriousness of the situation had allowed Ryker to push past the boundaries preventing him from working through his own issues concerning his enigmatic past then.

He had never told anyone what had happened to my knowledge, what had incited him into his half-mad flight across the country to begin with.

No one pushed him, and he appeared to adapt fine without the added pressure to confront his demons, though I knew I was not the only one who had attempted over the years to coax him into addressing the trauma that he had no doubt experienced.

Yet, bits and pieces had slipped over time, and I had managed to put together clues from what I noticed around me.

I knew that Ryker’s home was previously in the South, but something had spurred his wolf to take the reins, driving him halfway across the country before he had transformed back into his human shape again here in the North.

He had avoided the Southern Territory like the plague in the past, but the war changed a lot of things. My universe was shattered with the death of my parents, and Jax was thrust into the role of alpha prematurely.

I was an emotional wreck the whole journey to the South. Most of that distressing trip has since been blacked out from my mind, but every second of its culmination has been carved in searing detail into the deepest recesses of my brain.

To this day, I do not know who made the first move that night, but it set my life on a course that I never expected it to go down.