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Prologue
When our parents were young, our world looked a lot different than it does now. Their shifter packs kept to their own territories, but at least they were able to live freely amongst the human world.
Not anymore.
Somehow, the secret of our kind's existence got out, and now we're being hunted.
My friends and I are the sons and daughters of the six-pack alphas. We head up the security squad, and it's our job to keep our alliance's territory safe. In order to do that, we have to take precautions: stay hidden, or risk being discovered and wiped out.
We're heirs to an empire, living in the shadows.
1
-Two Years Ago-
Carrying dead weight is a common expression, but I’d speculate that few who use the turn of phrase have actually done it. I wish I could say I hadn’t.
I’ve come face to face with death too many times to count at this point, and while I’ve become somewhat numb to it, I know it’s not right to leave the bodies where they lay. Especially when they’re the bodies of our own. So even though my muscles are aching and my lungs are burning, I drag Stefan’s lifeless corpse through the forest, intent on bringing him back home to our shifter pack.
He’s one of four that we lost tonight. Alpha Paul will say we’re lucky; that it could’ve been a lot more.
I say that’s bullshit.
We were supposed to move on from here a month ago, like we planned, but he’s become lazy. Complacent. He’s been insistent that we’ve finally outrun the hunters and there’s no way they can catch up to us this time. But he’s a damn fool, and this only proves it. They always catch up. And though we ran them off tonight, they’ll be back, so we’ll move again. We don’t have the numbers to take them on or take them out, so our wolf pack is stuck in a perpetual nomadic state.
The kicker is that Alpha Paul’s the one who encouraged us to let our wolves out to run tonight- but where was he when the hunters arrived? He sure as shit wasn’t out there with us to fight them off. He wasn’t protecting his pack, as is his duty as Alpha. When things went bad, he was nowhere to be seen.Fucking typical.
I hiss out a curse as Stefan’s leg tangles on a fallen tree limb, adjusting my grip underneath his arms and yanking on his body to try to wrench it free. I hear the sickening crack of bone as it dislodges and my gut twists. He’s already dead, so it can’t hurt him, but it still bothers me to desecrate his body further. Stefan was a good man. He didn’t deserve this end.
I huff and puff as I haul him along, careful to skirt around another fallen log to avoid it. Bodies have a way of feeling heavier when they’re lifeless, and Stefan was already pushing two-fifty. It’s no easy task to drag him back home, but I grit my teeth and continue pulling him along nonetheless. I couldn’t save him from his fate with the hunters, so this is the least I can do. He deserves a proper send-off.
By the time I reach the old abandoned motor lodge that our pack has been calling home for the last three months, a crowd has gathered out front, the rest of my pack waiting with bated breathto take stock of who we’ve lost this time. They somberly step aside as I drag his body through and lay him to rest beside three others.
Reina, a fourteen-year-old girl whose wolf just came in.
Alvin, Reina’s father, who died defending her.
Rebecca, a mild-mannered older lady who always cracked corny jokes and kept us well fed.
My heart squeezes painfully as I gaze upon their bloodied faces, hating that our pack is faced with another tragedy like this when it could have been avoided if we’d just moved on as planned. Losing each of them is tough, but Stefan’s loss hurts the most- he was a friend of mine; we grew up together.
That ache in my chest only intensifies when his mate rushes forward, flinging herself onto his lifeless corpse with an agonized wail.
They were fated.
Only three couples within our pack have the honor of being fated mates, the rest are chosen mates or unattached. Stefan and Eliza’s bond snapped in three years ago, when she ran under the full moon for the first time since turning eighteen. They were so in tune with one another, so in love.
The sad truth is that Eliza likely won’t make it long without him. From what I hear, the fated bond is soul-deep, and when one dies, the other is never the same. Eliza was already fragile, having endured years of abuse from her prick of a father before bonding with Stefan. Losing him is bound to break her in ways she won’t be able to come back from.
I take a few steps backwards to give her space to grieve, glancing around at the gathered crowd. Their faces are drawn in somber expressions, and I immediately notice that one is conspicuously absent.
“Where’s Alpha?” I ask, anger churning within me like a growing tempest.
A few of them shake their heads to convey that they don’t know his whereabouts, but then I see Carter, our pack’s beta, cast a wary glance toward the door to the motel room where Alpha Paul resides.
Understanding dawns on me, a growl rumbling in my chest as I turn and stalk in that direction while my rage builds with every step. Not only was Alpha Paul absent in the fight against the hunters tonight, but now he can’t even be bothered to come out here to support his pack in their grief. It’s fucking despicable, and I’ve had enough. Each of these deaths were unnecessary, and I blame Alpha Paul for every one of them.
Upon reaching the door to room thirteen, I raise my fist, pounding it against the dense wooden surface in demand. After a few tense moments, footsteps sound from inside, the lock disengaging and the knob twisting.
