~ CARA ~The drive home was tense. I struggled to sit still because I kept having that urge to get out of the closed space and run and hunt and… and it was just the tension getting to me. Getting to my cat… or whatever this thing was inside me.Everything was incredibly strained. Natalie was worried about Mack and mad as hell at Rig for it. While Rig was half-mad at his brother, and half-terrified to take these steps without him. And worried about me.He kept his mind open so I kept getting the flashes, seeing how his mind looped on the whole situation—his father’s subterfuge and the confusion there, about his motives and how much he knew. What it was going to be like to go back, and what danger that placed all of us in.His pride about his broth

Dedicated to reader, Jasmyn_Grier, who’s loved Natalie and Mack for a long time. ***** ~ MACK ~ I tipped my chin at Rig back in the car, then closed the door behind Natalie who’d stalked inside without even looking at him. I turned slowly to watch her stiff back stomping across the floor and into the kitchen where she started slamming around. Making coffee or killing something, I wasn’t sure. “Nat?” The only response was the sharp clang of the coffee pot on the countertop. I took a deep breath and followed her into the kitchen, stopping to lean on the breakfast bar, out of her way as she stalked back and forth from the pantry to the coffeemaker, th

~ CARA ~It all happened so fast, if I hadn’t had heightened senses I’m not even sure I would have seen it all.Natalie, twitching and nervous, went to give Charlie a hug.It seemed like Charlie’s eyes lit up and his nostrils flared in the same split second that Mack exploded, a vicious snarl tearing out of him that raised the hair on the back of my neck. Instinctively, I stopped, crouched, my claws suddenly there, but Rig just moved.He was a blur, a growl, a weighted shadow that moved faster than I could see—putting himself between Charlie and Mack, his back to Charlie and facing down Mack, who’d drawn up short when he met his Alpha—teeth bared and

~ CARA ~I don’t know what time Rig came to bed because I fell asleep, and he obviously used that wolf stealth to sneak in with me without waking me up.But when his alarm went off so early the next morning that the sun hadn’t even finished coming up, I woke from a warm nest, curled up with Rig, and with Beans on the pillow above my head, to a jolt and a rush of adrenaline that raised all the hair on my arms and made my heart thunder in my ears.Rig groaned and rolled half-away, reaching for his phone, scrambling on the screen for a second until he got the alarm turned off, then let it drop the bed.The adrenaline didn’t stop pulsing through me, though. Even though I knew there was no immediate danger, I could feel the tension in Rig and… I just k

~ CARA ~I had never wished I could link with the other wolves more than in the moment when I walked out of that dorm with my head spinning, and my sweet friend back in her room still wiping tears off her face.I wanted to pick Charlie up by his scruff and shake him.And Rig too.What the hell were they doing? What had they agreed to without telling me?Why was Charlie treating Meg like she was repulsive?And why hadn’t Rig told me the night before?Charlie couldn’t come into the girl’s dorm, so he and I had arranged that when I was done with Meg I’d walk out the lower side door and into the trees whe