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Chapter 1
Freya
“Let’s do one more circle this way,” Shante suggested, leading me around a briar thicket before we doubled back yet again at a brisk pace.
After my confession about not being able to shift, Shante had stayed in her two-legged form. Fortunately, I still had the better-than-human strength, speed, and endurance of shifters… though that alone wouldn’t be enough to escape the wolves who were hunting for me.
Between the Ironwood pack and the rogue alphas who would be drawn by the scent of my impending heat… Well, we were lucky we hadn’t run into trouble so far, but it was only a matter of time. To lead my enemies astray and keep Ironwood from attacking Shante’s pack, we wove a complicated scent trail through the wildlands.
Luka, my fated mate, had rejected me, but his Ironwood pack warriors had traveled all the way to Moonblessed pack territory to reclaim me, promising pack war. According to my friends Wilder and Willow, Luka’s father, Pack Alpha Jameson, was planning to have me publicly executed. That was the only way to satisfy Nira, who wouldn’t marry Luka until his fated mate — me — wasn’t a threat.
Once I was dead, Luka and Nira could mate and marry, solidifying the alliance between two powerful packs — theIronwood pack I’d once belonged to, and the Frost Fang pack that the Howling Echo wolves had once belonged to.
I glanced over my shoulder to see the three wolves loping silently behind me, their sling bags across their chests. I’d tried to break our deal and leave them in Moonblessed territory to protect them, along with the whole Moonblessed pack. When Flint had followed me anyway, I’d tried to break his heart by rejecting him, thinking that way he’d be safe. The Howling Echo was too small to take on the Ironwood pack, especially if Frost Fang joined the fight.
Instead, all three of them had followed me out of Moonblessed. Now that they knew I couldn’t shift, all three had stayed in a form I couldn’t argue with. As wolves, they could understand me, not that they listened. I’d told them to go back several times, to no avail.
A crescent moonmark decorated the forehead of the dark brown wolf whose coat ended in light gray forelegs. That was Flint. The largest and most dominant wolf of the three, Gage, had the typical dark gray coat along his head and upper back that faded into white along his sides and down his legs, along with having a white muzzle. Farthest back trailed Heath, a silver-white wolf with gray dusting throughout his coat.
As wolves, the three of them could outpace and outlast our stamina. After several hours on the run, my feet and legs grew tired, and even high-energy Shante was starting to wane. To think I’d imagined I could survive several days alone in the wildlands while leading the Ironwood pack on false trails.
“Are we getting close?” I asked Shante when we slowed to a walk through some of the tougher terrain we’d crossed. Shante had promised to lead me to a witch who was half witch, half wolf — a hybrid, just like Shante suspected I was.
“After this circle, I’ll lead us straight there,” she promised.
“Can the witch of the woods shift? Or is she like me?”
She was a hybrid, just like Shante suspected I was — half witch, half wolf. But was she also stuck in human form and disgraced in the eyes of wolf society?
“She can shift, and I hope she’ll help you figure out how to bring out your wolf, too. And I should warn you not to call her a witch to her face.”
“Why not?” I stepped over a fallen log, wishing I could switch into wolf form like everyone else. Most wolves shifted for the first time in their teens, but not me.
“Because she’s technically a mage. Just as wolves form packs, witches join covens. Mages operate alone and refuse to participate in witch society.”
“So their lone wolves are called mages.”
“Exactly. They would never admit it, but witches are a lot like wolves. Just as we consider rogue alphas to be dangerous for lack of a pack hierarchy, witches consider mages dangerous since they’re not in a coven.”
I nodded my understanding, absorbing the information. In the Ironwood pack, I’d heard very little about what other peoples were like, aside from wolf shifters.
Shante went on. “Most witches would never lower themselves to doing business with wolves, but since Brielle is a hybrid…”
Flint’s ears perked up as he kept pace at my side.
“Is she a mage by choice, or did they cast her out because she’s a half-breed?” I wondered if she had suffered the way I had.
Shante shrugged a shoulder. “Never told me. But it’s clear she doesn’t feel she belongs in either wolf or witch society.”
Her words struck me hard. Was that the life I’d be doomed to as well? Living alone in the wildlands, never finding a place among wolves nor witches? It might be better than being rankless in the Ironwood pack, but it still wasn’t the kind of life I wanted.
I slowed down so much that Shante turned around and came back. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound so bleak.”
She tugged me against her in a hug, and when I looked over her shoulder, three wolves stared back at me, their gazes intense.
“You won’t end up alone like Brielle. You already found your place — with the Howling Echo pack.”
That’s when I realized that I still had a few secrets I hadn’t shared with Shante. Sure, she now knew I couldn’t shift. And maybe she’d even noticed my lack of a pack mark, but I’d never outright told her the Howling Echo hadn’t actually claimed me as their packmate.
