Page 1 of Knot What I Expected

Prologue: Havoc

Tonight, the fire burns hot and bright.

Too fucking bright.

I stand at the edge of what’s left of some half-assed campsite, jaw clenched as smoke curls through the trees and the last stubborn embers glow beneath my boots.

Fucking teenagers.

Blowing off steam before school starts up again in a couple of weeks.

And yeah, I get it.

I do.

Doesn’t mean I don’t want to hunt down every last one of the little assholes and shake some sense into them.

I glare at the evidence they left behind.

Beer cans.

Unused condoms—figures.

Cigarette butts.

A plastic baggie with enough weed left in it to tell me exactly what kind of party went down out here.

Christ.

“Idiots,” I growl.

My Wolf agrees.

Hunt.

“No.”

Bite.

“Definitely no.”

He snarls inside my head, and I rub a hand over the back of my neck.

These kids could’ve killed someone.

Could’ve burned down half the fucking mountain.

All because they were careless.

Reckless.

Stupid.

Young.

And that last word stops me cold.

Because I was young once.