Days bled together. I lost time again. I welcomed it. For the first time in two years...how many days? Oh, God. I couldn’t remember.

A trick. It had to be a trick. And I’d been so stupid to fall for it. I’d been so worried about closing my mind to the Pull of the Pack, I hadn’t thought Able would try anything else. Nowhere was safe. Not Mammoth Forest. Not Rowan’s cave. Nowhere. I knew I should go back. Leave this place forever. But, I couldn’t. She tethered me to it. Rowan. Keara. God help me, I couldn’t sort any of it out anymore. As I woke from my stupor, I did the only thing that felt natural. I ran.

In my wolf, I covered the ground at lightning speed. Hunt. Kill. Live. God, it would be so easy to stay this way. Forget the man. There was too much pain in the man. Let the beast free and put it all behind.

I skidded to a halt, my chest heaving. Fangs dripping with the need to hunt, I dropped low to the ground. I’d run downstream, far enough and fast enough so I couldn’t hear the second pulse thrumming through me. Keara’s pulse. It was the thing I’d longed for all this time.

But, it wasn’t Keara. It was Rowan. Her scent covered me, drawing me in. I charged into the stream, covering my fur with rich, red mud. It would mask my own scent against anything but the keenest of Alpha wolves. There were none of them here. There was only me.

Me and him.

I’d been concerned only with putting distance between Rowan and me, I hadn’t paid attention to the direction I was going. Nearby voices made my fur stand on end along my spine.

“You do the east quadrant,” a deep, male voice said. I didn’t recognize it. It wasn’t Geordie or any of the others I’d encountered. “I’ll stay west.”

“Sure thing,” his companion answered. Peeking through the underbrush, I could see it was just the two of them. Beta wolves, to be sure. One was tall and lanky, barely more than a boy. He’d probably just been recruited. They would train him, use him up, wipe away any trace he had of the man he would have become. The other was shorter, but thicker, sturdier. He looked closer to my age with lines of wisdom creasing his eyes.

“You know I feel it,” the older shifter said.

“I don’t feel anything, Bruce,” the younger one said. “I think maybe Geordie and the boys chased him off. I’ll tell you though, I’d like to get my hands on him, whoever he was. I’d rip his damn throat out.”

Tough talk. I’d like to see you try. Bloodlust coursed through me. It felt so much better than what I’d been feeling. I’d kill him quick. One swipe of the paw would bring him down. I’d go for his jugular in a split second. He’d be dead before he hit the ground. If I got him alone, he wouldn’t even see me coming.

Bruce and the young kid split up. When they got a good twenty yards from each other, they shifted into their wolves. God. The kid was skinny, gangly. His ribs poked out beneath dull, brown fur. A shudder ran through me. I’d seen his kind so many times before. The Alpha’s tampering with the Pack’s mating had produced weaker wolves each generation.

I grew bolder, sliding out from the underbrush. I crept closer to the fence. My predatory instincts tingled through me. If it was just the two guards tonight, God help them if either of them challenged me.

Then, my heart seized in my chest.

A pair of golden eyes flashed on the other side of the fence. He was turned slightly away from me. He stood on the edge of the porch, looking out at the yard. He raised a white mug to his lips, his fingers gnarled and withered.

Able. My God. It was Able Valent, and he appeared to be alone.

A red haze clouded my vision. In my wolf, I could tear through the fence. It was electrified, but that wouldn’t stop me. It might slow me down for a second, but that was all.

They’d come after me. I knew I wouldn’t make it within five feet of Valent before he called the Pack down. But, I could do it. He was old. Weak. Even from here, I could feel his strength waning. His strength was in his control of the Pack, not his physical body.

Hunt. Kill. Live.

I knew I might never get another chance. Luck drew me here along with a mix of stupidity and blind rage.

Come closer!

The voice in my head knocked me sideways. Able took another casual sip of his drink. He didn’t turn to face me. No outward change in his posture indicated he even saw me. But, he knew I was there.

I snarled. So close. So easy. I could let go. I could give in to the power and end all of my pain forever. It would be worth it. Keara was worth dying for. The Mammoth Forest wolves were worth dying for. Payne would be free. So would Mac, Gunnar and Liam. Baby Daniel would be safe. No more being hunted. No more hiding underground.

Pressure built between my eyes. He called me to him. At the edges of my consciousness, I felt the rest of them. Able had them on alert. He hadn’t called them in. But, they were there. Hundreds of them. With creeping dread, I sensed the rest of the Pack. He kept only a dozen or so on the prison property. I felt the two I’d just seen. There were two others patrolling about a mile further out. Geordie and the one he called Dugger. Beyond that, deeper into Heartland and the surrounding towns, I felt them all.

Able let me in far enough to see it all.

I’m faster than all of them, old man. They’ll never get to you in time to make a difference.

Able still didn’t turn toward me. He laughed though, setting his mug on the windowsill.

One shot. I could kill him. My fangs would sink through his old flesh like butter and I could end it for him and for me.

I crept closer, keeping my belly flat to the ground. A primal growl emanated from me. I reared back, ready to strike and tear my way through the fence separating us.

Able Valent opened his mind to me. I meant to give him a quick death. End it. He didn’t want the same for me. He wanted me alive. I felt his plan to try and turn me. Pain. Torture. The man inside me laughed. Valent didn’t understand. I’d already been through more pain and torture than he could ever imagine.

Sparks flew. Ribbons of agony slashed through me as the electricity arced straight into my chest. But, the fence crumpled like paper.

Able finally turned to face me. A flicker of fear came into his eyes. They went from gold to deep red as he prepared to call the Pack.

Twenty yards. Maybe thirty. That’s all that separated us. One more step and I’d be inside the prison grounds. I could feel the Pack rising. But, they’d never be fast enough. Able Valent had made one critical error. He thought I cared if I lived.

As I took one step closer, he saw his mistake. He put his hand up and took a step back. “Now!” he yelled, his voice dusty and ancient.

I reared back on my haunches, ready to pounce. Then, pain shot through me with a fiery intensity that put the electrical fence to shame.

When I blinked, I saw her eyes. They were wide with terror and glowing silver. Blood flowed from a wound in her shoulder, but it was only the first.

Rowan.

I saw through her eyes as two wolves, Geordie and Dugger, descended on her. She scrambled backward, losing her footing on the wet earth beside the stream.

The Pack mind closed in, split between two goals. Protect the Alpha. Kill the girl.

In the span of one heartbeat, I covered fifty yards. Then another and another. Just seconds. Fully in my wolf, that’s all it would take to reach my target. I could taste the blood of my quarry with every step.

I flew. My heart burst from me. So close. I would end it.

Red, wide eyes loomed in front of me. I took one last leap, arcing through the air then sank my fangs into his neck. Blood filled my mouth and I felt the wolf’s life leach out.

I let go of Dugger and turned to Geordie. His gray wolf snarled and burst through the trees.

Run! I called out with my mind. I knew she could hear me. I felt her claw her way up the embankment and get to the other side.

Geordie charged me, but he was no match for me. I reared up on my hind legs and caught him. He’d made the fatal mistake of exposing his soft underbelly. With one swipe, I laid him open and cast him aside.

The Pack was in disarray. Most of them ran to Able. Flanking him, protecting their leader. Only he knew the threat had passed. I felt him shift. Filled with rage. He swatted down the first wolf who reached him, breaking his neck in an instant.

I ran, picking up Rowan’s scent. It would take a minute, but Able would get the Pack to regroup. Geordie and Dugger couldn’t transmit Rowan’s location anymore, but the woods around Heartland were only so big and they all knew where she lived.

I reached a clearing, bursting out near a rocky ledge overlooking the churning Tennessee River below. It was at least a fifty-foot drop.

“Rowan!” I shifted in a heartbeat, rising on two legs. Blood poured from a gash above my ear. Geordie got one good swipe before I ripped him apart.

Rowan was on all fours, her hair flying behind her. When she turned to face me, my heart split in two.

She was still Rowan, still human mostly, but she’d changed. Her cheekbones had bulged to sharp angles. She had a wolf’s nose with a dusting of silver fur around it. Her teeth had dropped to fangs that glistened beneath the moonlight. Her fingernails became black claws as she reached for me. And her eyes...they’d gone glimmering silver. Wolf’s eyes.

She seemed trapped between wolf and woman, her shift not complete. But as she straightened her back and came to me, I knew I was wrong. She wasn’t trapped. This was who she was. Not a shifter, not fully human, but something in between.

I felt her power emanating from her in waves. She had the toned arms and legs of an athlete, her abs cut in a six-pack. Her clothes had fallen away and she stood before me in a black bra and panties.

I reached for her, cupping her elbow as I drew her to me. My eyes searched her face. I wanted to ask her again what she was, but I already knew. It tore through me. Pulled my heart apart. Her pulse thundered in my ears, punctuating the truth I’d wanted to deny.

Not wolf. Not fully human. But, altogether mine.

She shifted, her shining eyes dulling into their pale, human blue. Her fangs receded and her face became human. Sweat poured from her and she had a jagged line of blood above her right eye. A wolf’s scratch. Anger slammed into me as I jerked her even closer.

“You’re hurt,” I said, tilting her head until I could see better under the moonlight.

“He would have killed you,” she said, through choked tears. “You idiot. You wanted him to!”

She raised her hand and slapped me. The sting of her blow knocked me sideways. She had the strength of a shifter, if not the form.

My wolf churned inside of me, but I pushed him back. “You asshole,” she said. “One of these days I’m going to quit saving your life.”

“Save my...you...I haven’t…”

Then, I realized with hard clarity that’s exactly what she’d just done. Again.