Fallon hadn’t said anything about wanting a sponsor so I wasn’t going to put the idea in her head. We had more money than I knew what to do with sometimes. She had no problem telling me how to spend it though.A scent flared my nostrils; the same one I’d chased through the woods this morning. The door opened behind us as the first of the Alphas came in with their boxes and packages. Trenton was there, smelling faintly like Aspen.My wolf flashed in my eyes and I yanked him back with a stern command. Not here.Why does he smell like her?They are pack. I had to keep reminding him.Chad watched me, turning to see what I was staring at. “Trenton, right? Who’d you get to sponsor your Luna candidates?”Trenton held tight to the package. “A grassroots startup. You haven’t heard of them.”Now I was curious too. Trenton was a fool if he thought the Tulia empire that built its fortune on buying and exploiting shifter businesses didn’t have its hands dipped into every grassroots movement there
Apparently, Molly wasn’t answering questions. “At the end of each event, we’ll hold an elimination ceremony where the unfortunate losers will be heading home immediately.”I slowly pulled my hand back down to my lap. That didn’t sound very nice. I’m sure there was a better word to use than “loser.” There were a few gasps of outrage around the room.Oh, that’s what you choose to get mad about?Molly gave a sympathetic look to the cameras. “Let’s not worry about that now. The fun is about to begin. The first trial is on Friday so you all have three days to prepare. At the back of the room, the attendants have random assignments. When I say so, form lines to draw your mission from the stack. Tonight in the cafeteria there will be tables set up for you to connect with your teammates for this trial.”Teammates.Okay. I could do this.“Good luck, ladies.” Molly’s smile gave me the creeps as she looked around the room. There was a collective intake of breath and we waited until she said, “Go
Edith stared at me, searching for something, and then sighed. “The children’s hospital is prime filming location. Contestants would kill for this gig.”I had to assume she was joking, though the mad rush earlier had me rethinking things. “Well, I guess I can thank Stef for getting me in.”“Yes. Let’s thank her.” Fallon winked.I smiled awkwardly, looking to the side as the smell of fresh spun cotton candy teased my nose. The woman from the basement storage room yesterday moved quietly and stood by the table. Goddess, her scent was sweet. It reminded me of that one time the fair broke down on their way past Nuva Pack and we got vendor food at a discount.“Hi. I never caught your name.” I extended my hand to shake hers. “Are you coming to the hospital too?”“Yes. I’m Opal.” She moved her silky black hair over her shoulder, fussing with the strands and staring at my hand a little too long before she took it. “And you’re Aspen.”“I sure am. This is Fallon and Edith.” I glanced over to see
I hit send and stared at the phone, wondering if I should…Aspen: Can you do me a favor?I waited a whole three minutes for him to respond after it showed as read. The reply dots kept blinking at me.Aspen: Are you still there?Papa: I was waiting for you to tell me the favor.Laughing, I typed out my request.Papa: If I get rabies from the inmate coyote shifter, I’m blaming you.Aspen: You can’t say things like that! And Clara won’t hurt you.Papa: I didn’t say it. I text it.Goddess help me.I wasn’t cut out for this.17Ranger“Did you have any issues with your credentials?” I looked Ivan over as he stood in my room. The wolf shifter shook his head. The scar running from his cheek to his eyebrow added to his menacing stance. He was a big beast with a gym obsession and never missed leg day, but was also one of the smartest mutts I’d ever met.When I took over the Alpha position of McCaw, one of the first things I did was get him off the xylazine so that brain of his didn’t rot. A fe
The cameras were a necessary part of this whole event, but that didn’t mean I had to like them.“Pity.” Edith Tulia sided up to me. Her rosewater scent was overpowering this evening as if she’d bathed in her own natural smell. She wore a silk blue dress that clung to her ass and let her hair hang loose down her back.“What’s a pity?” I took the bait.“You’re going to break a lot of hearts.” She winked, draping her hand into the crook of my elbow. “At least throw one of us a bone and pretend you are interested in being here.”“Who says that I’m not interested?” I removed her hand from my arm as my sister came over with two drinks. One for me. She was good at reading the room.“They didn’t have your scotch,” Fallon said, taking up her position at my side and turning to address Edith like this was some sort of dance. “What’d you get to drink?”“The apple martinis are alright.” Edith smiled at us both. “But nothing like the ones at the Carr’s Gardens event.”“Those were good.” Fallon sipp
AspenI was in the desert under a starlit sky that stretched across the earth to the horizon. My paws hit the dirt, running hard as the night air rippled my fur. The sand shifted beneath me and I was falling, sucked into a black hole that swallowed me as my claws dug frantically at the sinking grains of sand.I came up for air, gasping and butt naked in my human skin in the middle of a packed courtroom.Cameras were everywhere. People were laughing. A judge slammed an axe like a gavel against the podium and split it in half. The walls closed in as I was condemned for… something.I took off running. My bare feet slapped against rich soil in an unfamiliar forest. The howls of female wolves came from the trees, indicating the chase. Panicked, I ran deeper into the woods, searching for an escape. I needed to find a cave. Wire. Traps… But this wasn’t my territory and I was lost.Alone.I skidded to a stop in the clearing where the full moon shone through the branches of the trees. My chest
I chewed my bottom lip. Jesse was awesome and I didn’t want to let him down. I wasn’t sure what the rules were exactly for this sort of thing, but I didn’t want to lie to him when he’d been so nice to me.I might as well come clean now. “Listen, I’m not sure if I’ll even pass the Luna Trials, but I’m only here because my Alpha is forcing me. I’m supposed to help his son through the games. The whole mate thing isn’t even on my radar. I didn’t come here to find a match.”“Is that all?” Jesse blinked. Not the response I was expecting. “Half the girls here are in it for the money or to keep daddy from setting up an arranged match.”“Who?” I sat up straighter, thirsty for some tea to be spilled.“Stylist/client confidentiality.” He bopped me on the nose. “But as for the mate part, I’ve seen crazier things happen on the show. Let’s see what your wolf decides. You can trust your beast to protect your heart. And I’ll take care of your face.”Jesse left the room with a swagger no normal being
It also didn’t hurt that he pulled out my chair.Edith and Lilith and Chad were close, raised by Chad’s father and his mother who worked on shifter reform for the state of California. They were rich, rich. Like godly rich. His uncle dealt with buying and liquidating certain businesses, but seemed like the only sully to the Tulia name. And even then, nothing could be proven.I scooted the chair over a bit, keeping all of them in my line of sight like I’d be able to do anything if they pounced. “We talked about gift bags for the children’s hospital yesterday.”Ranger leaned back in his chair, still staring at me as he folded his arms across his chest. I felt exposed, naked under his intense gaze. I twisted the fork in my hand.“I was thinking we could make some games for them.” My voice came out too breathy. I shoved a piece of sausage into my mouth.The corner of Ranger’s lips quirked up as his wolf flashed in his eyes. Why couldn’t he stare at something else? My skin flushed with heat
I reached up and turned the TV off manually, scratching the back of my head as the room quieted and eight pairs of eyes looked my way. “Can someone tell me what’s going on?”“Wasn’t he on the show?” The coyote shifter looked at Aspen. “I swear I saw him there.”“You can be on the show and not have a clue what’s going on. Ask me how I know.” Aspen giggled, leaning back so her head rested against Ranger.He affectionately squeezed her shoulder as he pulled out his phone and scrolled. “It’s true. They finally got enough dirt to bring her in. Took them long enough. It’s been almost three months since our settlement against the network.”“Thank the Goddess.” Aspen sighed. “Wait, this doesn’t mean we have to go back to court, does it?”Ranger pocketed his phone. “No. They have her on a technicality and the feds are involved with the interstate gambling. Jesse’s testimony should be all they need. It’s bigger than us now.”We all glanced at the cheetah shifter. Jesse laid back on the leather
My beast thumped his tail as she smiled at me.“Are you ready to go?”I finished off my beer and tossed it into the trashcan, moving around Andrea as she tended the bar. Crossing the hardwood floors, I met the owner of the bar halfway, then scooped her up into my arms. “You missed my show.”I didn’t care if I sounded pathetic; Fallon was the one who insisted I put on a festive performance each Thursday night for the month of December. “We need more fun in this territory,” she’d said. “Make them want to stick around.”Fallon was a tough Luna, but she had a vision. It was something beautiful to watch it come alive. Because that’s what she’d done. Slowly but surely, she’d brought more life into this pack.A public playground sat by the new elementary school. She’d recruited some small businesses and created a boutique shopping center right outside the resort. Shifters were coming back and bringing their families with them. Especially now that Chase and Kimberly Williams were running the
“Well. I didn’t think…” Tim looked around the room as he stuttered. “She just…”“Come on, man.” Bryant laughed as he clapped the old man on the back. “Did you lose a nut or two back there?”“I need you to leave. Now.” John growled.Tim scrambled out the door.Bryant sighed as he followed him. “We’re going to have to burn this table.”“Out.” John’s Alpha strength washed over me, giving my wolf a heady rush as it mixed with my own power.I gave him a seductive smile, practically tasting his pheromones and desire pulsing in the air. “What seems to be the problem, Alpha?”“That was so fucking sexy.” He moved me over so I was standing in front of him, spreading my thighs apart with his knee. I was bare under the makeshift dress I’d made from his flannel shirt.Bare and already aching with need.His hand slid up between my legs and he groaned at what he found waiting there. “How did I get so lucky?”“Ask the Goddess,” I teased, gasping as he pushed me back so I lay flat on the table.He mad
I placed her scent as soon as I’d shifted and entered the lodge through the back door. The widowed Luna of Williams Pack. It was only a matter of time before she showed up. I pulled on one of John’s flannel shirts from the hooks in the mudroom and cinched it at the waist with one of his belts, grabbing my spare thigh-high black boots from the mat in the hall.Reminder to self:Leave more clothes easily accessible here.Especially if we’d be hosting representatives from the neighboring packs at random times.“Fallon.” John smiled at me as he came out of the bathroom. His eyes traveled hungrily up my thighs as I zipped my boots.“Later.” I put my hand in his. “Do we know what Janice Williams wants?”“Probably something about the debt from the show and my bargain with Chase.” A menacing aura pulsed around John that made my beast purr in delight. We hadn’t seen him in his dominant stance yet. He’d been mostly cinnamon roll around me and the pack. But this version of him was definitely get
“Are you going to let your Alpha in on these plans?” I asked as I tossed the towel into the laundry basket.“There will be signs,” she said mysteriously.And like a love-sick pup, my beast wagged his tail, ready to do whatever she asked.“Come on.” Fallon grabbed my hand and dragged me off the bed.“Where are we going?” I hobbled after her, realizing I’d probably be doing this for the rest of my life. Which didn’t sound all that bad.Fallon pulled open the front door as the cool spring breeze entered the warmth of the cottage, blowing a gust of her intoxicating scent around me. The morning sun shone down on her raven-black hair, giving her an ethereal glow. Her fangs descended through her smile.“My wolf needs her apology now.”11FallonBits of green sprouted through patches of muddy snow that crunched under my wolf’s paws as she raced through the quiet forest. The morning sun peeked down past the branches overhead. My beast’s lungs burned deliciously with the exertion. She was fast–
With my hands full of plastic bags, I jumped out of the truck onto the dirt road to the lakeside resort. I had a feeling she’d like it here. Her own little safe haven, especially when it was off-season and the pack stayed inland where the hunting was better and the air was less cold. Come summer, they’d all be out fishing and swimming and soaking up the sun. Fallon could have full range of the lodge then.I tapped into our mental connection, not wanting to disturb her if she was sleeping. Her emotions washed over me. The anger. The loneliness. It squeezed at my heart.My beast whined as I sat down on the front porch, putting the bags beside me.“What’s your favorite type of candy?” I rested my arms on my knees and waited. Back at the show, I’d gone through so many questions and she never answered. But maybe, just maybe…“Dark chocolate with salted caramel.”My beast howled his triumph as I looked into the plastic bag. Hopefully milk chocolate with caramel filling was a close second. O
“But you won’t because, despite your tough exterior, you aren’t a complete asshole.”“I…” I didn’t know what to say to that.“Listen, I know you and Ranger had a shit life. And we’re wolves. We’re used to fighting for what we get. But it’s different when it comes to you and your mate–especially one who is the Alpha. He’s going to protect you. It’s in his nature. You don’t have to fight every battle alone anymore.”“But–”“No buts. It’s biology, girl. Your wolf could only be tamed by the male strong enough to be an equal, but being equal doesn’t mean you do the same type of work all the time. He’s supposed to protect you in his way. You’re supposed to protect him in yours. He’ll take care of you when you’re sick and when you can’t do something. Just like you’ll do the same when he falls short. You don’t have to prove your worth anymore. If you did, then he wouldn’t be your perfect mate.”“What if fate got it wrong and he’s not perfect?” I swallowed down the lump of emotion in my throat
I shook my head. “How did you do it?”“Do what?”“One second everyone was talking shit. The next, they were eating out of the palm of your hand.”“Not everyone,” she huffed.“More than half the pack.” I started to unbutton my shirt, loving the hungry look in her eyes. “It was magic. Princess magic.”“I’m serious.” She licked her bottom lip as I dropped my shirt to the ground. “Don’t call me that.”“If you want me to stop, I’m going to need your passcode.”Her fingers traced the neckline of her shirt. “Passcode? I prefer the light system for safe words. Green to keep going. Yellow means slow down. Red is–”“Damn it, woman.” I groaned as I held my cock through my jeans with one hand and waved her phone with the other. “Your passcode.”Her eyes narrowed. “Give that to me.”“Are you hiding something?” I teased.She better not be.“It’s none of your business if I am.” A dismissive tilt of her chin had my beast growling.“I think everything about you is my business.” I caught her by the ank
“But the dams sure think so.” Aiden nodded.“It’s not your fault though.” Alice patted my hand. “You can’t help being a pampered city girl.”Did she just call us…I guess she did.I burst into laughter, laughing even harder at the horrified expressions on their faces. This was great. More than great.The O’Neil Pack thought I’d left my comfortable position in McCaw, with my own house where I made all my own rules and had more money than I knew what to do with, for a life like this?They were all high as a kite.8JohnIt took a massive amount of liquor for shifters to get and stay drunk, but that didn’t stop the O’Neil Clan from testing the limits. Pitchers of beer and jugs of homemade apple pie moonshine were passed around the picnic tables out front of the lodge. The far tables were laden with potluck casseroles and Shirley’s kitchen creations.Young pups came running through the maze of adults, causing chaos as I searched the crowd, looking for Fallon. My mate. It still had a ribbo