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My throat was raw as I sucked in a desperate breath. The giant brown wolf was getting closer every second. It would be on top of me before I knew it. I couldn’t afford to stop, not if I didn’t want to be caught.
A snarl and the ominous sound of gnashing teeth, too close for comfort, had me glancing back. Glowing eyes blazed through the dense trees, fixed on me as I pushed my human form to its limits. Why couldn’t I shift?
I’d lost my way in these woods long ago, but I didn’t dare stop. From the corner of my eye, I caught a flash of white.Nico!My brother was here, in wolf form. Hope rose. Nico was one of the strongest shifters I knew. He would save me.
Suddenly, the wolf giving chase behind me changed course, charging after Nico. I skidded to a halt, screaming out his name. But it was too late.
The brown wolf leaped through the air, his massive paws knocking Nico to the side. The two wolves went down, tumbling through the underbrush. Growls ripped through the night, and panic set in. Nico’s wolf was big and strong, but he was no match for the giant beast.
I tried to call out to my brother, but my words were carried away by the wind, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get my legs to move fast enough. Out of thin air, my sister, Jenna, appeared next to me, also in human form. I tried to warn her and tell her to get the hell out of here, but it was as if everything were happening in slow motion. I couldn’t make my body work right.
Then the brown wolf was on the move again.
I looked around frantically. Where was Nico? Before I could grab Jenna and haul her to safety, the wolf barreled towards us, knocking my sister to the ground and pinning her with its paws as it opened a mouth full of sharp, gleaming teeth and bent toward her exposed neck.
A scream ripped from my throat, raw and full of terror. No, no, no. This couldn’t be happening. The wolf paused, swinging its head toward me. I held my palms out and backed up slowly.
The wolf’s eyes narrowed, the glowing orbs fixed on me. Yes, maybe I could distract it, and Jenna could get away. Just when it looked like my plan was going to work, the wolf growled again, bent his head, and ripped Jenna’s throat out.
My vision blurred as pain ripped through my chest. No. Not my baby sister. My knees buckled, and all I could do was cry out and squeeze my eyes shut as the hulking beast turned and dove toward me…
“Kayden!” The sound of Jenna’s panicked voice had my eyes flying open. “Kayden, wake up. Please wake up.”
I gasped for breath, disoriented and confused by the hands on my shoulders. Hands. Not paws.
“Jenna?” I rasped.
“Oh, thank the fates,” she breathed, wrapping her arms around me and falling to the bed beside me. A sob racked her body. “I couldn’t wake you up. Your screaming…” Jenna shuddered, and I instinctively wrapped my arms around my little sister. While she was twenty-three, only a couple of years younger than me, I was responsible for her, now more than ever.
I reached up to rub the tears from my cheeks and tried to steady my breathing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”
This wasn’t the first time I’d woken up from a similar dream. I hadn’t had a decent night’s sleep since Nico was killed last month.
“Was it… the same dream again?” Jenna whispered, lifting her tear-stained face to look at my own. With our honey eyes and silvery-blonde hair, people often mistook us for twins, though Jenna’s hair grazed her shoulders while mine nearly reached my waist.
I swallowed and nodded. “Only this time you were there, too.” Taking another deep breath and blowing it out, I pushed to sit up, staring across the dark room. The sun wasn’t even up yet, but I knew I wouldn’t be going back to sleep.
“Oh, Kayden.” Jenna wrapped her arms around me once more. “It’s just a dream. I’m here. I’m safe. You’re safe.”
But Nico wasn’t safe. Nico was dead. Murdered by the soon-to-be alpha of the North American wolf packs. Anger sparked in my chest, and I quickly hugged Jenna back before climbing out of bed.
I didn’t look at her as I said, “Sometimes I think the worst part is not knowing exactly how or why he died.”
Did he try to submit? Did that murderer even give him the chance? There’d been at least ten challenges—that I knew of—where the future alpha had brutally killed some of the strongest wolves throughout the territories. And for what? To prove his strength? He probably got some sick pleasure out of it, killing them rather than offering them a chance to submit.
“I worry about you, Jenna.” Even more, now that it was just the two of us remaining. I’d always been her caretaker, ever since our parents died. Nico, ten years older than me, had provided for us while I’d tried to hold the family together.
“Kayden…”
“What?” My voice was dull and flat, devoid of emotion as I tried to compartmentalize the whirlwind of emotions thinking about Nico’s death always stirred up. “You can’t blame me for worrying about you.” Not when Branson had such a chokehold on our pack. He’d sucked Nico, and countless others, into his corruption with promises of power and high-ranking positions. Anyone who spoke out against him was quickly silenced. It hadn’t stopped me, though, even if it had put a giant target on my back.
Jenna sighed. “Nico was involved with Branson. He was in way too deep. I’m not playing those games, going around challenging alphas and being stupid,” she said tersely. Her grief manifested in anger towards our brother for putting himself in that position in the first place. “I’m not an idiot. As long as we fly under Branson’s radar, we’ll be fine.” She gave me a pointed look—one I’d seen many times. Jenna disapproved of how vocal I’d been about Branson.
It was probably for the best, though. I didn’t trust our alpha any more than I trusted the one who’d murdered my brother. The less involved Jenna was, the better.
“Why don’t you try to go back to bed and get some more rest?” I glanced out the window at the still-dark sky, dawn still an hour away, and gave my sister a tight smile. “I’m up for the day now, but that doesn’t mean you have to be.”
Jenna lifted her eyebrows. “Are you sure? I can hang out with you, distract you.”
