Chapter One

One Hundred Years Later

“HAPPY birthday to me.” Avery sighed heavily at his reflection in the mirror.

Today, according to pack law, Avery officially became a man. His one hundredth birthday party was going strong downstairs, and here he hid in his bathroom. Unable to stand the unhappiness in his eyes, he turned away.

Avery was a monumental disappointment in every conceivable way. Although none of his family ever said so, he knew. He couldn’t help but know. His father, Alpha Theodore Montgomery, already had four pups who were daughters. What he desperately needed was a male pup—a male Alpha pup.

What he got was Avery, an Omega.

Things might not have been so bad if Avery’s special talent—a gift all Omegas were born with—had been something useful. But no, what Avery had ended up with was the ability to identify metals, stones, and minerals. A couple hundred years ago, that might have been extremely beneficial, but in this day and age? With the technology humans had? It was worse than useless.

A knock on his door dragged his attention away from his less-than-celebratory thoughts. Avery left the bathroom and entered his bedroom but stopped a few feet shy of the door and delicately sniffed. That was his oldest sister, Mandy. Her he could stand, so he opened the door. “Hey.” Quickly he moved out of the way as she swept in.

Mandy wore an off-the-shoulder, slim ruby-red dress with cascading sleeves and a dramatic side slit. Like the rest of their kind, she had the perfect figure, which the dress showcased. Her dark hair hung loose around her shoulders.

“Looking good, sis.”

“Thank you.” Mandy’s presence was so huge that any room she entered, she dominated. Avery envied her that. “People are noticing you aren’t at the party. Mother said you need to come down.”

Avery nodded. But instead of leaving, he sat on the side of the bed, fighting off a shiver. The last place he wanted to be was downstairs. So what if he officially became a man today? What did it matter? He wasn’t the Alpha his father so desperately needed. No, he was a burden and that was all.

Mandy sat next to him and rested her hand on his knee. “Are you okay?”

“Okay?” Avery’s strangled laugh had a slightly hysterical edge to it, which was so not what he was going for. “I’m not sure anything is going to be okay ever again.”

Mandy sighed. “Avery, hon—”

“No, don’t.” Avery glanced at Mandy’s hand, then up into her chocolate brown eyes. Her mere presence comforted him, something his other sisters were unable to do. “You should be the Alpha, you know,” he blurted.

Mandy’s lips tightened. “And you know our pack law says it has to be a male.”

“Then our laws need to be changed, because that’s ridiculous. You have what it takes to be an Alpha.”

“Everything but a penis.”

She was right, as unfortunate as it was. According to the laws in their pack, since she was born female, she couldn’t be pack leader. Supposedly women didn’t have the viciousness needed to lead. Ha! The males of their pack obviously needed to get their attention off their dicks once in a while.

He couldn’t lead any more than she could because he’d been born an Omega. Omegas weren’t aggressive. They didn’t like to fight, and more often than not were thought of as gentle. In paranormal society, gentleness equaled weakness. Omegas were treasured, but they were often handled with kid gloves since their poor, tender feelings could be so easily bruised. Such treatment made him want to bite something. Hard.

Avery would rather try to work things out than resort to his fists to end an argument. He wasn’t arrogant, cunning, or manipulative—all Alpha traits. His lack of such was a massive problem. Who would assume the Alpha position when his father stepped down, if he wasn’t challenged first, was a glaring question they couldn’t ignore for much longer, especially since his birthday was today.

“I’m sorry. I really am. I think you’d make a great Alpha,” Avery said.

“I appreciate that. Too bad many don’t agree with you.” Mandy patted Avery’s hand, then stood. “Come on. We better get downstairs before Mother sends one of our sisters up here.”

“She already did: you.”

“And aren’t you glad it was me?” Mandy smirked.

“Pitifully so.” Avery had four sisters: Mandy, Michelle, Megan, and Michaela. Michaela was the only one not mated and was still living at home.

“I don’t know whether to be insulted or amused.”

“Go with amused,” Avery suggested, then laughed at Mandy’s scowl and followed her downstairs.

Night had long since fallen. As they made their way to where the party was being held, he glanced out a bank of windows. Fluffy clouds drifted across the brightly shining moon. The air was clean, brisk, and cool. Duty called, but that didn’t stop him from wishing he could shift and run, just get away from all of this.

Their three-story pack house was huge, almost five thousand square feet, and had what his mother fondly called a parlor on the second floor. It was an enormous room with a grand piano, several sitting areas, and french doors that opened up onto a deck that had stairs going down to the in-ground pool.

The french doors were not open since it was winter, although Avery was sure they soon would be. Werewolves ran hot, and it was warm in there with so many bodies—and there were a lot of bodies. All the Betas and their mates had attended, along with most pack members and all the Elders.

There had to be at least twenty-five to thirty pack members milling around in that room alone, and he and Mandy had passed at least another ten to fifteen more on the way there. Who knew how many were in other areas of the house or outside?

He glanced around the parlor. The hardwoods gleamed, the marble around the fireplace shone, and his packmates were dressed in their finery. Their pack was the richest in the area, and it showed.

What didn’t show were hints that things were not as they appeared, which Avery had noticed—like how tense his father had been for the past year, how his mother suddenly had lines around her lips and eyes, and the hushed late-night arguments that revolved around money.

His mother approached, beautiful as always in a sleek black dress that fit her figure perfectly. He caught himself subconsciously straightening. She had that effect on people. Her dark hair was arranged on top of her head, and her jewelry sparkled. She was poetry in motion.

He loved his mother, quirks and all. For some unfathomable reason, she decided her female pups’ names needed to begin with the letter M. No one understood why, but his father shrugged and said there was no understanding a female mind.

“I was beginning to wonder if I was going to have to send reinforcements.” Magdalena grinned as she reached out, pulled Avery closer, and air kissed both cheeks. She stepped back. “You look nice. It’s just… dear, really? That tie with that suit?”

Avery shrugged even as his stomach tightened. His light gray suit was Bespoken and cost a shocking amount. The rebellious side of his nature had insisted he wear an outrageously bright purple silk shirt with an equally outrageous purple polka-dot tie.

“I think it goes good with his blond hair.” Mandy jumped to his defense, as usual.

He didn’t have the coloring the rest of the pack had. Werewolves had either black or brown hair and dark eyes. The exception were Omegas, whose human forms had light brown or dirty-blond hair and a golden hazel eye color.

When an Omega shifted, their eyes were a deep, golden amber, their coat was a silvery white, and their wolf was small. Regular pack members had different shades of brown coats. An Alpha was pure black and much bigger than the rest of the pack. All other werewolves had bright yellow eyes.

“I never said it didn’t, Mandy,” Magdalena gently corrected, then turned to Avery. “Now, since you’re the guest of honor, let’s introduce you around.”

Avery would rather face being neutered, but he plastered a grin on his face and followed his mother.

TWO hours later he was even readier to shift and make a run for it. Gods, he was furious. It hadn’t taken long to figure out this so-called birthday party was also a chance to introduce him to all the suitors they’d invited. His stomach rolled uneasily, and it wasn’t from all the cake he’d eaten either.

Arranged marriages were not unheard of in the werewolf community, but there was a desperation driving his father that Avery hadn’t seen before. His laugh, while sounding jolly, had a creeping edge of anxiety tonight.

Even though Avery was furious with his parents for setting him up in such a way, he couldn’t discount the worry his father tried to hide and the tightness around his mother’s pinched lips as he rebuffed one suitor after another.

Why didn’t they understand he just came of age? The very last thing he wanted was to mate. There was a whole world out there he wanted to explore, and being mated wasn’t conducive to that.

No, his mate would probably want to lock him up in a gilded cage so the sweet, little, helpless Omega would be safe. No wonder he spent most of his time wanting to gnaw the hell out of something.

His mother had finally opened the french doors because of the heat in the parlor, and Avery couldn’t resist. He escaped outside to the deck. It was a large, sprawling thing with plenty of areas that the light did not touch, he took refuge. He needed a minute to catch his breath.

His parents always kept a close eye on him, especially since he was an Omega, even though his talent wasn’t anything to jump up and down about. But as an Omega, he did have worth, and apparently his parents were looking to cash in on that. They’d allowed him out on dates in the past, but they’d always been supervised. He’d even dated a few humans, although his mother hadn’t been too pleased about that. Now it was nothing more than a free-for-all, and he was beginning to feel like a prime-cut piece of meat.

Music and soft conversation followed him outside and the cool air washed across his heated skin. If he blushed any harder, he was going to resemble a boiled lobster. Out of his parents’ sight, he’d been patted, pinched, leered at, and felt up. Avery was going to punch the lights out of the next person who laid hands on him.

“How dare you? How dare you show up tonight, of all nights!”

“Alpha?”

Raised voices drifted out onto the deck, and Avery sighed. Now what?

“By all the gods, is that a—?”

Avery frowned. A what? Then someone screamed and he jumped. The increased heartbeats of his fellow pack members inside the parlor hammered relentlessly at him. Okay, that was a little disconcerting. Then the tinny stench of fear drifted out to him. Fear? Forget disconcerting. Now he was flat-out worried. There was very little werewolves feared. Broken pieces of conversations, anger, and waves of distress overwhelmed him. Maybe he should get back in there, although he wasn’t sure what he could do to help—not that he would be allowed to anyway.

“Silence!”

The roar hit him like a sonic boom. His knees went weak, and he grasped the deck railing to keep himself up. Power, unlike any he’d ever felt, rolled over him. Oh gods. He closed his eyes, trying to rein himself in.

As he adjusted, he noticed something else. That roar—so masculine, low, and growly. It sank into his very bones. His cock perked up and his claws came out, digging into the wood of the railing he so desperately held.

He pried his eyes open. Confusion hit him. His breathing spiked. This wasn’t a weaker wolf reacting to one more powerful. No, it was something else. Something he’d never experienced before. Didn’t matter, though. He wrestled his body under control. He refused to be the weak-willed Omega everybody assumed he was.

Once his breathing leveled out, he noticed the silence. The nighttime sounds he was so familiar with were glaringly absent. There was no prey scuttling across the dead grass and decaying leaves. No predator stalked on stealthy feet. There was nothing.

A chill crept up his spine. It seemed as if everything around him had frozen. He glanced back into the parlor. Both the music and conversations had stopped. Tension creeped out through the open doors.

Avery had the perfect view of his father. Several of his Betas stood behind him. Even from where he stood, Avery could see the unease on his father’s face, and he gawked. His father was renowned for being cool under pressure. But not this time.

His mother stood off to the side and behind his father, with several female werewolves clustered around her. Mandy stood next to their mother, but he couldn’t see the rest of his sisters.

What the hell was going on?

“Your time is up.”

Avery shivered again. That voice. What was it about that voice?

“Not until the stroke of midnight, it isn’t,” Alpha Montgomery growled.

For once his father didn’t sound like the authoritative werewolf Avery knew he was. Avery shifted to the side, trying to see through the french doors into the parlor. Who was his father speaking with? He bit his lip. Slowly he inched farther to the right. Just a little more and he could finally see.

“Which is less than three hours away. You’ve made no effort to contact me, nor have you made any type of payment. I have to tell you, Alpha Montgomery, this disturbs me greatly.”

Avery blinked. Who dared to speak to his father with such a disrespectful tone? More importantly, why wasn’t his father wiping the floor with them?

Avery eased a few more inches over. As he moved, he got a better look into the room. His glance roamed over a male of average height with brown hair. His looks weren’t anything spectacular, and the black-rimmed glasses he wore didn’t help. He wasn’t a paranormal, although he wasn’t quite human either.

Then he saw the other one.

Good gods. Avery’s stomach dropped. A man stood several feet from his father. The stranger was sexy beyond belief. Long black hair fell to his slender hips. Avery swallowed. Whoever this man was, he wasn’t as tall as his father, nor was he bulky with muscles. He had what the humans termed a swimmer’s build.

Even though Avery could only see his profile, there was no denying the stranger had a strong jaw, insanely chiseled cheekbones, and a perfectly formed nose. His light gray pinstriped suit fit him like a glove and suggested it was custom-made… and expensive, very expensive.

Who was this male? He wasn’t human, Avery knew that. He sniffed, trying to pick up the stranger’s scent. When he finally did, it hit him like a ton of bricks. It was dark, delicious… and completely unfamiliar. But he liked it, and he wanted more.

His cock, which had softened slightly, sprang up. Tingles raced through his body. Oh gods, so good. He yearned. His wolf wanted nothing more than to roll around in that scent. He sniffed again, more deeply this time.

What was that other male?

Alpha Montgomery tensed. “I’ll talk with you tomorrow. Tonight we’re celebrating my youngest’s coming-of-age.”

“No, I don’t believe so. Why don’t we adjourn to your office?”

Avery hiked an eyebrow. Whoever this guy was, he had balls the size of coconuts. The fact that he was still standing on his feet, in one piece, amazed Avery. Why was his father allowing such disrespect?

“I—”

“Now!” the stranger snapped.

“Holy shit,” Avery whispered, expecting to see blood flow at any moment. No one spoke to his father that way.

The stranger whipped his head around and stared straight at Avery. Shock hit him square between the eyes. His feet glued to the floor, all Avery could do was stand there, frozen, with his mouth hanging open. Beautifully colored indigo eyes zeroed in on him. Avery had never seen such an unusual swirling mixture of blues and purples for an eye color. They were striking and quite intimidating.

For the first time ever, Avery understood how prey felt. His heart pounded and his head spun. His mouth was so dry, he couldn’t swallow. An instinct he didn’t know he possessed shouted at him to turn, run… to escape. But another yelled at him to get closer, to go belly-up for his….

Mate.

Shit, it can’t be. Just can’t!

What was staring at him was the top predator in the paranormal community—a dragon. Nobody fucked with dragons. No one. And somehow his father had gotten on the wrong side of one.