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PROLOGUE
“BUT LOVE IS a wildly unpredictable hurricane wind, not a swirling blue ocean with peaceful shores…”
– Margarita Engle
It’s spring and I wish I was in love.
It just so happens that, this year, Valentine’s Day and the full moon happened to fall on the same night. It should have been the perfect combination of lust and romance, and I’m sure it was forsome people…
…but I spent it alone.
Because I’m a lovelorn, hopeless fool without a mate.
Wildflowers are starting to bloom all over around the den, the first brave flowers poking their heads out from the grey of winter. I step through the grass barefoot, jeans rolled up above my ankles, a fuzzy pink sweater enveloping the rest of me and keeping me sheltered from the wind. The earth is warm, my toes digging into the soil every so often as I explore the area around our den.
I peer through the fence at the prairie beyond, curling my fingers around the wire. Ever since the Gulf Pack attacked, omegas and betas haven’t been allowed outside the fence, our leadership afraid that someone is lurking out there. All’s been quiet though, and I haven’t smelled any of the people I fear. I wish they would let us out again, the feeling of being trapped reminding me of the place I had to escape in the first place.
The Rig.
An old oil rig out on the Gulf, dressed up like a castle and outfitted with high-tech defenses. It’s where I was born, the first and only daughter of the Gulf Pack’s Alpha Prime, Gideon. I escaped years ago, but the smell of that place…the fear…it stays with you.
Even though I’m stuck here, I have to remind myself that this isnotthe Rig. I’m safe. I’m totally, completely safe.
A sweet scent hits me and my eyes dart to my left, finding a bright purple mountain laurel. I smile and move toward it, standing on tiptoe to pick the flower from its tree. I’ve already got a bundle of aromatic shrubs in my hand—what Suyin would probably describe as weeds—and I add the mountain laurel to the bunch.
When I stand up straight again, something else catches my attention: a noise.
The wind is blowing softly, and I turn to look at the fence. It rattles slightly, a scraping sound that feelsoff.Just past where I was standing, the wires grate against each other, a hole torn in it.
There…there shouldn’t be a hole in the fence.
We’ve been checking religiously.
I take a step backward, my hackles rising. I’ve been through enough to know when something’s wrong, even if there’s no telltale scent of dangerous alphas, nohintof the Gulf Pack. I’m about to turn and run, my eyes darting from left to right, when a twig snaps behind me and a scent washes over me.
Coconut and coffee.
Before I see what’s back there, a black bag slides over my head and a hand covers my mouth. My senses go haywire, my flesh heating wherever he touches me.
I curse my stupid body for reacting the way it does to the touch of an alpha, my mind reeling as I fight through a haze of sudden arousal. The full moon was just last night—my heat is still in full swing, and the scent and touch alone is enough to drive me wild. I let out a strangled growl, but the alpha behind me is wrenched away and someone else grabs me.
“We have to go,” a gruff voice says. “Keep it together, Javi.”
A hand grips my arm hard and I struggle to escape, but then a needle pierces my skin. I try to scream, but the sound gets stuck in my throat. They’ve definitely drugged me.
It’s hopeless.
It wasn’t even safe inside the walls.
Within seconds, I’m hauled over a strong shoulder and we’re on our way. I don’t think I’ll be able to hold onto consciousness for long, but I know exactly where we’re going.
Through the fence.
Across the plains.
And home…to the Rig.
CHAPTER ONE
