Chapter One

The large gray wolf's nostrils produced plumes of steam that stood out in the sunlight due to the Front Range's chilly, crisp morning air. As he gazed out over the undulating hills in front of him, the early morning sun glinted in the treetops. His prey, cows, were scattered across this frosted-tan countryside. Early in the morning, they were gathered together for warmth, but as the day's meal approached, they were beginning to spread apart. He planned on eating properly today. He thought he could make a quick kill and feast before the humans returned because they hadn't been around here in a few days.

Damien had observed their daily routine as they rode their horses along the edge of their property for several days. The cattle were left to graze the hills while the horses were loaded into a trailer and hauled away last night. He and his group of cousins had to be extremely cautious about how many cows they kidnapped.

If they frequented a certain ranch too frequently, the residents would hunt them down and kill them. When he had grown too smug about his dominance over these lesser cousins of his, it had already happened.

Typically, the smaller animals would only attempt to capture a few sheep if they were nearby rather than a whole cow. He had grown weary of the usual diet his cousins consumed—rabbits and field mice. Beef would be their meal of choice today.

Damien began to drool as he imagined how satisfying it would be to slurp up the blood that would oosh out of a fat cow's velvety belly. He let out an almost orgasmic wave of trembling before turning to face his pack. They were waiting for him to give the order to start the chase. Because of how their previous alpha male had fallen in a flurry of blood and gristle, none of them had ever considered twitching a muscle before he gave a command.

The small ones had never experienced anything like becoming the new alpha male. The giant and his brothers used to govern the mountains and valleys, but that was no longer the case, according to their racial memory. The fact that the new alpha male had not claimed any of the females after murdering the former alpha was the only thing that genuinely unnerved the pack. This is what often occurs when a new alpha assumes leadership, but not with this mammoth. He would only nip and growl at the females that tried to push past him in the pack in an effort to gain his attention.

When the others were ready to start the hunt, Alpha Damien took one more whiff of the morning breeze. The alpha started to trot down the hillside as they slowly separated. They had time to flank the cattle herd because of his slower pace than the others'. Without the cows' knowledge, they slid over the barbed wire fence and started to encircle the herd.

Knowing that his color and weight might prematurely reveal his position, he stayed low in the high grass at the fence line. The herd had to be startled by the other hunters before he would give pursue so that the slowest might be isolated. When the beta male initiated contact, the coyote pack had finally arrived at their locations. Before the beta male could take three steps, the head of the creature abruptly erupted in a shower of crimson and gray, sending the body flying in all directions. The noise then echoed throughout the valley. Gunfire! The unmistakable sounds of rifle gunfire resounded as three more coyotes were killed in a similar manner.

The rush of adrenaline hit him like a freight train, but his thinking overrode the instinct to run away. The well-hidden humans couldn't notice him if the bullets hadn't yet found him. The muscles under his fur tensed in preparation for flight, but he knew that even if he sprinted at this moment, a high-powered rifle bullet would rip through his own brain before he reached the tree line. He could see the dirt puffs bursting next to some of the coyotes as the humans started firing indiscriminately at the fleeing coyotes as the remainder of the pack had already begun to head back toward the tree line. A few of the pack did reach the tree line, but the most did not.

The humans took a few minutes to start revealing where they were hidden. Damien observed a number of grass clumps as they grew legs and rose up. They're such cunning fools, He gently sank even lower into the brush next to the fence, taking care not to bend even one blade of grass that would reveal his location. One of the walking grass piles that had passed within fifty yards of his cover was once again in his field of vision when he heard laughter.