Tully watched the whole night pass by without leaving the cabin, staring at the stranger sitting on the bed in the cell across from her.  He had balls, the way he had walked into the lodge and challenged their Alpha outright. She could understand why. Who wouldn’t want revenge for unwillingly being turned into a wolf shifter? He would be unable to control the shift come full moon, which was just a few days away. He’d need all the help he could get.

So why was she the one to help him? She wished she’d shot him on sight.

A stranger could uproot the entire pack if he won a challenge.  The hunt earlier in the evening wasn’t supposed to come close to the outskirts of the city of Wicked Grove. His coming was the beginning of so much change, it would shake their world. Tully knew it like she knew the lines on the back of her hands. There was no doubt their lifestyle was not ideal, but were they ready for the next step in evolution of their pack? She didn’t think so. He represented that, and she, along with her sister, knew it.

No one else could know. Not even Gregory, their Alpha.

Hayden hadn’t slept much during the night. She’d fed him his meals, sliding the trays through the gap beneath the bars and keeping watch as he ate and kept to himself. He didn’t ask any questions, which made her curiosity burn with a ferocious need to be quenched. Being on guard the whole time was her job. As sister of an Alpha queen, it was her lot in life. The politics were left to the leaders, not the second-born wolves. She was considered more of a guard dog, a messenger, and an executor of orders than anything else. A puppet to be controlled. You did as you were told in a pack or suffered grave consequences, even as the sister of the Alpha’s mate.

So here she was, doing the dirty work for everybody in the pack, as usual. Her ho-hum existence was tasting quite bitter as of late.

“Hey.” Hayden’s voice called out from inside the cell, and Tully turned to see the stranger peering back with two large, brown eyes reflecting the light of the embers glowing in the fireplace. They matched his hair, a dark, rich chocolate which looked like it would melt if he stood too close to the fire. A flutter rose up in her belly, and she frowned to drive it away, not wanting this stranger’s looks to affect her like a smitten schoolgirl. She had to keep her wits about her, especially with an unknown.

It reminded her how much she was itching to go for a run. She hadn’t been on a run for a while, and it was starting to wear on her. Running in the wild was the closest to relaxing that shifters got. Not prison duty. This had to be one of the worst jobs ever. If there was any way she could get out of it to run, she’d do it in an instant.

But it was her duty, and there was no getting out of it. She didn’t respond to the man, flicking her eyes toward the window, even though she wished he would continue. She was starving for some good adult conversation.

“Hey, Tully. That’s your name, right?”

She snapped her eyes back toward him. There something in the way he said her name that caught her attention. It was a good thing they were not like the Fey who could be controlled if someone knew their full names.

“Your leader… he did this to me. You know that, right?”

“It’s against the rules to fight the Alpha if you’ve just joined the pack. There’s no way you’ll get close enough to even give him a scratch. Why did you even come deeper into the forest? Why didn’t you turn around and go back to your people?”

She already knew why, so why was she asking?

“It was your Alpha who bit me and turned me into this creature.”

“I know, but it doesn’t matter now, does it? Besides, we are not ‘creatures.’ We’re humans with magical abilities.” She looked down her nose at him like he was muck. “You really are something, aren’t you? Anybody else would crumbled underneath the stare of our Alpha, but you—you have a death wish or something, don’t you, Holden?”

“It’s Hayden. Hayden Night.”

“Hayden Night.” She let his name roll over her tongue, looking as though the syllables were made of some new, sweet, and marvelous taste.

“That’s my name. Don’t wear it out.” He grinned at his childish joke, but Tully was unamused. “What’s your last name, Tully?”

She resumed glaring at him, her eyes flickering with distrust.

“Hey, don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone. All my friends think I’m dead. Besides, it’s not like we’re faeries or anything like that.”

Her eyes widened. “How do you know about faeries?”

“I know a lot of things about the supernaturals around Wicked Grove. It was part of my job.”

Scoffing, she rolled her eyes. “You’re an agent, aren’t you? You’re one of those killers who take life without regard to what you’re doing.” Her eyes narrowed as she spat out the next words. “Cold-blooded murderers.”

Hayden regarded her, intrigued by the sudden anger he’d stirred up. Had his Agency hurt her pack before? He’d always been on the other side of the fight. He’d been judge, jury, and executioner, but never the defendant. His entire world had been flipped. Fear washed over him, churning and morphing into a steaming anger.

“What you’re doing—this prejudging me—is quite like how my Agency judges you. So, you see, we are both wrong, and both of our groups are blinded by prejudices. You and I are not that different, and we both need to adjust our views of the world. I’m no longer on the other side, but I’ve seen it. I can offer a lot of insight into the Agency… why it does what it does and how your pack could avoid getting into situations with them. You help me, I’ll help you.”

“You may be right, but I don’t trust you. It will be a cold day in hell before that happens. My pack is strict and will not tolerate your insubordination. You have tons to learn if you hope to be allowed to stay. You’re lucky you’re still alive. In the old days, you’d have been butchered on the spot. Humans have no business transforming into wolves. You’re impure. An abomination. To allow half-wolves to live—I don’t agree with it.”

Hayden clenched his fingers around the bars, wishing he could smash them. “So it’s supposed to be illegal to turn a human, yet your Alpha walks away squeaky clean without consequences for his actions? You think I asked for this? And why was I allowed to live? It’s obvious your pack doesn’t want me here.”

“It is our responsibility. No one else’s. Our Alpha is… defiant, yes. Moody. Rebellious. But we can’t just unseat him for being careless. There are rules. Rules you need to learn and abide by.”

“So who’s going to teach me your ways? You?”

It was obvious to Hayden she had been tasked with the unfortunate job of teaching him their ways. Poor girl. It apparently rolled downhill in her direction a lot. Even an outsider could tell who cleaned up the messes around here.

Tully pressed her lips together, failing to disguise her disgust at the situation. She said nothing further and instead stood and headed off to the small adjoining kitchen to make lunch. He watched her walk away, smiling as he enjoyed the view. She wasn’t harsh on the eyes; in fact he admired her tenacity. Paired with her beauty, she was damn near irresistible. If only she would let him in, then he could get to know her better. But the way things stood, it was going to be difficult to insert himself into the pack and gain the trust he needed to achieve his goal of challenging the Alpha.

If only they had met under different circumstances….

He could hear Tully banging around in the kitchen. The sweet smell of bacon and eggs wafted into the room, through the bars, and into his nostrils, smelling divine. His senses had amplified. Everything was sharpened, clarified. If he’d had these super senses when he was but a regular agent, he would have been unstoppable. It made him question whether or not he would be able to defeat an Alpha who’d had a lifetime of experience using those senses. It didn’t matter; he would adjust and be ready to take down the Alpha in a short period. He’d make sure of it. There was no turning back now.

“Tully?” he called out.

She came around the corner, looking slightly annoyed, with a plate of food in her hands. “What is it?”

“Thanks for helping me. I know it’s not your favorite job in the world, and it probably is a bit frustrating taking care of someone like me, but I want you to know that I appreciate it.”

Her mouth dropped open as she stared, gawking. She’d almost forgotten she was holding a plate until she flicked her eyes down to it and remembered.

“Here’s your breakfast. I don’t know if you know the pack is nocturnal. We usually head to bed about this time after being up all night.”

Ah, he knew that. It was obvious she was exhausted, and daylight was rapidly approaching. She probably usually spent the entire night patrolling the surrounding areas. He had barely realized how exhausted he was too. He was a moron to forget that wolves operated during the night.

“Of course, I’m sure you’re exhausted. Thanks for the breakfast. We should probably get some rest after we eat.”

She returned with her own plate, sat cross-legged in a chair by the small table sitting next to the cell, and without another word began to eat, thoughtfully chewing and pretending to ignore his presence. Her small mouth was pink and plump, easily kissable, as was the rest of her. He wondered if he’d ever get close to her. It would take some work, but as he ate, the obvious crossed his mind. He’d get on Tully’s good side however long it took. He could tell it’d be worth it.