Chapter 1

Dean POV- present day

I feel my heartbeat race, the sweat dripping down the back of my neck in the sweltering August heat, and every bounce of the dirt bike I’m riding as I race towards the rogue werewolf who made the poor decision to get too close to my home. My family has lost enough to these vicious wild animals and I won’t let another one take anything else. Werewolves in a pack we can tolerate, but these rogues, the lone wolves without a pack that have basically turned feral, those are the ones who can’t control themselves and cause an even greater danger to the rest of us. When that social aspect of life is gone, they lose the human side of them that gives them a moral compass. They will kill anything and everything just for the fun of it. My family hunts all the dangers in our territory, but unfortunately we’re not the only ones here. There is a werewolf pack close by but at least they follow the rules and haven’t ever hurt a human. Our two sides have an agreement. They stay in their territory and we stay in ours. As long as no civilians get hurt, we’re all good.

Right now I need to take this rogue down before he hurts someone. My team caught wind of him towards the edge of our territory and I was hoping to take care of him before he got too far away. It seems luck may not be on my side today though. As soon as the alert went out I grabbed my go bag full of basic weapons and anything else I would need to take the wolf down and hopped on my bike. Since these jerks are so much faster than us, the dirt bikes even out the playing field a little. Very carefully I reach into my bag and grab the tranquilizer gun I keep in there. I speed across the game trails and over rocks trying to close the distance between us. If I could just get close enough to line up this shot he’ll go out like a light. I raise the gun and line up the shot but he’s still too far. I lay on the gas, make a couple jumps and I’m close enough.

I raise the gun back up and line up my sights when I see something beyond the rogue. It’s a territory marker. Shit. We’ve reached the pack lands. I can’t risk the shot now. My only hope is to keep chasing him in case he turns back and gives me another chance. Maybe I can turn him around if I get a good enough angle on him. I’d be screwed if one of my shots ended up hitting one of the pack wolves. Normal tranquilizers won’t do anything but these are special. Made specifically to knock out the wolf side and put the human side to sleep. No wolf means no extra strength, speed, or increased healing capabilities. Much easier to work with and interrogate if need be. Sometimes we can find out where the rogues come from or how long they’ve been rogues or if they know of anything else we need to worry about.

When my father, Adam Bryant, started in the hunting business he would just kill any wolf he saw, whether it was rogue, pack or a normal wolf. He would see red and take out all of his aggression. Something from his past triggered that side of him with a wolf in his sight. That got him into a lot of trouble. Eventually he was able to keep it to only rogues when he learned about packs and that they had their own rules to keep humans safe. The big change came one day when he was chasing down a rogue using a gun loaded with silver bullets. He didn’t care where he was shooting as long as the rogue went down. He was so focused on that one rogue he didn’t notice a second nearby who came up behind and smacked him into a tree. Luckily for my dad they were close to the pack border and the Alpha himself, the leader of the pack, Zeke Blackwood was there and able to take down both rogues. Unluckily though, dad managed to shoot one of the pack warriors in the arm with one of his errant bullets when they were trying to help.

This is how our little agreement started. Alpha Zeke took my dad aside and taught him about the pack and their laws, how they contributed to the community, and how they do not take kindly to having innocent members wounded by someone else’s careless mistakes. The Alpha agreed to let my dad keep hunting the rogues, as they were a nuisance to the pack as well, but he banned him from using silver bullets near pack territory. He couldn’t risk any friendly fire. Also, Alpha Zeke agreed to let my dad know of anything they found that would impact the humans in the area so my dad could take care of them and vice versa. He also taught my dad some more about rogues.

One thing my dad didn’t expect was that just because a wolf is a rogue, doesn’t mean that they are all evil. There are some times where someone may leave their pack to escape an abusive situation and are just looking for another pack to join. My dad didn’t believe him at first, how could rogues not be bad? He had seen first hand the evil those monsters were capable of unleashing. But then he saw one. It was a female. He started chasing her not knowing the situation, but she reached the pack territory first and shifted back into her human form in order to speak to the wolves and request sanctuary. He saw her human body. All the bruises at different stages of healing, malnourishment, and tired hollow eyes. That was when he decided to bring more people on and they came together to create the tranquilizers.

I had one of those tranquilizers ready and waiting to be used if only I could get this guy to go a different way. No such luck. He basically ran straight to the wolf hiding in wait for him to get close enough into the territory. Fuck, there goes my chance. I could see the wolf's eyes in the bushes and I’m shocked the rogue didn’t notice him, especially with their heightened senses. I stopped my bike to watch and that caused the rogue to get distracted just enough for the pack wolf to attack and take him down. It was over quickly. The rogue was no match. Once he came out completely I recognized him. It was Alec, the son of Alpha Zeke, making him the future Alpha. He was almost twice the size of the rogue and clearly much more skilled. He was also a prick. While the Granite Mountain pack has a high school where they can keep to themselves, if they want to go to college they have to mix with the humans. I had met him before when we were younger, but college is where I got to know him. We both play on the football team, but he’s a year younger than I am. He looks right at me after he takes the rogue down and nods his big stupid wolf head, acknowledging that I’m there. That or trying to throw it back at me that he got him down when I couldn’t, I’m not sure.

I started my bike back up and spun the back wheel around to head back home. At least that means we don’t have to deal with the clean up. For some reason there have been more rogues appearing over the course of the last 6 months and we can’t figure out why. As far as we know there haven’t been any major conflicts in the mythical world that would have displaced a bunch of wolves or other beings. Granite Mountain was a pretty big pack so there weren’t any others that were close enough to cause much trouble with either deserters or banishments. Maybe Alec and his guys will find out more than we’ve been able to. In the past they have been aware of major uprisings but never really had any part. It was mostly hearsay or things they’ve picked up for the pack or some of the rogues they’ve captured, but nothing they’ve actually seen with their own eyes. Hopefully the increase in activity in the area doesn’t really mean anything and it’s all just a coincidence. Those happen right?

With these happy thoughts running through my head I pull up back to base and park my bike with the rest. Our whole operation started with my dad, but in the last 25 years it has turned into its own little community. Kind of like our own pack. Oh the irony. My dad met my mom when he was looking for a place of his own that he might be able to do his “work” out of, and she was the real estate agent that helped him out. There was a new neighborhood being built near the forest that was perfect for what he needed and she was happy to show it to him. My dad didn’t want to bring her into that part of his life, he thought it was too dangerous, but she was too smart for that. She knew he was hiding something and called him out on it. He was still hesitant to tell her everything, but as fate would have it they came across a rogue on one of their walks and when dad stopped at his garage to grab a weapon and go after it, she was right there grabbing one with him. What my dad hadn’t learned yet was that my mom was a badass. She was raised around weapons and was a skilled hunter in her own right, just not this kind of hunting. My mom never wanted to feel weak so she always pushed herself to train in any way that might help her in the future. As soon as she found out about all the mythical dangers in the world she begged my dad to train her and teach her everything he knew. And I guess the saying is true, the couple that slays together, stays together. They made friends with some other people in the area that knew the truth who also joined them and it slowly grew into a fairly large enterprise.

The good thing about my parents getting a large group of their friends living together, is that they all had kids around the same time so now we have our own group and we’ve lived together in this community all our lives. Walking into the main house I’m jumped by my best friend Damien. I’m 6 foot 2 and pretty muscular with all the training I do and playing cornerback on my college team, so I’m not small, but Damien is even bigger. As a 6 foot 4 linebacker he knows how to tackle.

“What the hell man can’t a guy walk into a place first?!” I said from the floor.

“It’s not my fault your reflexes suck. No wonder you let the target get past you,” Damien joked back.

“I had him, I just didn’t want to deal with all that pack bullshit so I let them have this one.”

“Yeah sure whatever you say bro!”

“That is what I say. Besides, Alec was there and I didn’t want to have to hear the lecture I would get if I ‘accidentally’ tranqed him. Especially with team events starting soon. Now help me up man.” Damien just rolled his eyes at me and put his hand out to pull me off the ground. So of course I took that opportunity to kick my legs behind his and pull him down on the ground right next to me with a resounding thud.

“Seriously Dean?!”

“Whose reflexes suck again?”

“Why don’t you boys just calm down and get in the house?” Aria, Damien’s sister, yells from the kitchen area. The house isn’t really a house, but instead a converted apartment complex. It was a small complex so it wasn’t hard to get a hold of, and we did all the renovations ourselves. We use the main office area as our community area. It has the kitchen and dining areas, meeting rooms, offices, a gym, and a recreation area we use for games and to watch movies and TV. It’s perfect for what we need. The families have the choice to get a house in the neighborhood or live in one of the larger apartments. And after we graduated high school we had the choice to stay with our families or move into one of the studio or one-bedroom units. This way we can get some kind of independence while still helping with the business, and our parents are close by to keep their minds at ease. Oh, and very low rent. I absolutely wanted that for myself, especially with my dad basically running the place. I needed some time to get away from him. I’m 21 now so I’ve been in my own place for just over 3 years and I’m starting my senior year at college soon.

There were small kitchens in each of the units but everyone had a chance to eat together in the main house as well. Most of us that moved on our own all like to eat together. Tonight it was Aria’s turn to cook, which meant that of course she would be getting help from Cataleya, my sister. Just like Damien was my best friend, Aria and Cataleya were best friends too. That happens when your families basically do everything together. Now we all even go to school together. Damien is a senior like me, but Cataleya and Aria are going to be freshmen this year. They shouldn’t be, but they both took one of those gap years after high school to get more experience before starting college. In my opinion what we do gives plenty of experience but I guess there are other things. I’m just glad they stayed close and still managed to help out a bit during that time. Right about this time is when Cataleya poked her head out of the kitchen to yell at us some more.

“Hey if you guys are done screwing around can you get the table ready? We’ve got tacos all done and we’re starving,” she says.

“Sweet! I love tacos,” Damien says.

“You love all food, man. Good thing you play football and like to work out otherwise you’d be like 400 pounds. What good would you be then?” I joke back at him.

“Still a lot smarter than you, that’s what good I would be.”

“You both still can’t hold a candle to me and Aria so shut it and get everything ready,” Cataleya says.

“Jeez someones hangry,” I whisper. Apparently it was just loud enough for her to still hear me since she smacks the back of my head as I walk by.

“Yes I am so don’t say stupid shit around me until I’ve had at least 2 tacos. Until then my tolerance level is about as low as your maturity level. ”

“Hey I’m mature.”

“Only when you’re working.”

“So? I like to keep hold of some of my innocence while I can.”

“You? Innocence? I thought I said not to say anything stupid,” Cataleya retorts as she slides back into the kitchen. Too bad she missed my massive eye roll as I turned to the table. There’s not much to do, just cleaning off some papers we were working on earlier and getting some napkins out there. Tacos can be messy, especially with Damien around, but damn are they good. I don’t know how the girls do it but the tacos just taste better when they make them. We all grab plates and start down the line to put our tacos together then sit down and eat as a group. By the time we sit down a few more of us young guns come in and grab some food too. There are about a dozen of us and we work together well in our own little unit within the group. Some of the younger kids try to join us sometimes but it just works better with us. I think these dinners really help us to understand how we all think and act together. We know what all our strengths and weaknesses are.

“You guys ready to go back to school soon?” Damien asks as we’re cleaning up after we’re all done. Since the girls cooked, we got cleaning duty. It’s only fair.

“I am, just so I can be done with it already,” I say.

“It can’t be all that bad, right?” Cataleya asks.

“No it’s not that bad Leya. It’s just that I do everything I need to right now anyway so all that’s left is that little piece of paper so I can get the respect of the older guys who care more about that than the actual quality of the work that gets done.”

“Plus we get one last season of football and this team should be even better than last year,” Damien points out.

“That is true,” I say.

“So how are we going to ride out there all together if you guys will be going to practice most of the time?” she asks.

“On practice days you and Aria will have to work out your schedules and ride together, or each drive yourselves, or you can find something else to do on campus until practice is over,” I tell her. “Probably best you don’t stick around though. Then you won’t have to worry about being around Alec and his group of kiss ass wolves.” I roll my eyes thinking back to seeing him earlier today.

“I forgot there are werewolves on the team. It’s not like you mention it all the time,” she says sarcastically. My freshman year there weren’t any and I was able to stand out and make a name for myself. I was used to leading my group here and that skill translated to the team as well, even as a freshman, so I was given one of the captain titles. I thought my sophomore year would be more of the same, but that’s when Alec showed up. He was such a cocky bastard, and I couldn’t call him out on using his wolf abilities because no one other than Damien and I knew about the real things that go bump in the night. He showed off, pushed his way through anything he wanted, and liked to throw it in my face since he could see how much it got to me. I was still the better leader so he couldn’t take the captain spot from me. Last year something must have happened because he calmed down a lot and more wolves joined the team. I heard there is going to be one more added this year and honestly I’m dreading it. If he’s anything like Alec was his first year I’m going to have to bring him down a few notches. I wasn’t going to let anything screw up my last year. I was good, but there was no way I was going beyond college ball. Plus I knew that it would be up to me to keep this business going whenever my dad decides he’s done with it. I must have been zoning out thinking about the season because the next thing I know Damien splashes me from the sink.

“Dude!”

“I asked if we were still good to go together early the first day so you could show me around a bit,” Cataleya said.

“Yeah we don’t have any team activities until the second day so I’ll be all yours on the first.” I know most siblings fight, but honestly we have a great relationship. Hangry episodes aside that is. We would tell eachother everything and help each other out when we could. Of course we would have our own little petty arguments and get on each other's nerves every once in a while, but never any of those knock down drag out fights that can cause a family rift. I think some of that came from training together too. If there was something we were upset about, our parents actually encouraged us to spar against each other. At first I didn’t think it was fair because I was older, bigger, and stronger than her, but I didn’t tell my parents that because the first time was when I was the one that was mad. What I didn’t take into account though was that the fighting styles we trained in were meant to use the opponents size and strength against them since we wouldn’t have the enhanced abilities that the mythical beings did. Even though at the time she was tiny, Cataleya was quick and took me down before I was able to throw a punch. That was when I stopped underestimating her. Good luck to the sad sap that would try to think he could control her in a relationship. Not that there would be any boyfriends allowed around here, I would make sure of that. I don’t think anyone will ever be good enough for her. At least no one I’ve ever met. Yes I am the cliche overprotective older brother. I know that she can take care of herself physically, but no one can ever fully prevent a broken heart. I will do whatever is in my power to prevent or postpone that for as long as possible.