Chance Nickoli stood in front of the mirror, naked from the waist up. He ran his finger across the scar traversing his cheek. It had faded from the angry red, raised ridge it had been when it first healed, and was now a smooth white line, but that didn’t change how he felt. Shifters healed faster than humans—if he was human, with how deep the slash had been, he’d definitely still be healing—but that didn’t alter the fury he felt upon seeing it. His gaze cast downward where further scars ran in parallel lines down his chest, and across his biceps and back. He wore jeans, but he knew similar scars covered his legs. The scar on his face had been caused by a wolf’s canine, those across his body by the sharp claws of the animals.

Several weeks had passed since he’d been attacked by members of his own pack. The anger simmered deep inside him. Not one of the shifters responsible had apologized for what had happened—why would they? The attack had been ordered by their old alpha, and, as wolf shifters, they were bound to obey their alpha’s orders.

Holton Golding was the new alpha of the Dark Ridge wolves now, so at least Chance didn’t need to come into contact with their old alpha Gregory again. He didn’t want to contemplate how that would have worked out for him, having to bow down to the man who’d ordered him to be attacked. However, the other shifters involved hadn’t suffered any reprimands for attacking him. They’d done as Gregory had ordered, so they couldn’t be punished for it. Gregory’s plan had been to get rid of Holton, claiming he was a threat to the security of their pack, but in the end it was Gregory who’d been the one causing all the problems. The pack had settled back into life with a new alpha, but Chance was still struggling. He was waging an internal war that no one else seemed to be aware of. He thought he’d been content with his role in the pack—a subordinate wolf, just as his father had been, and his father’s father—but, since the attack, he’d been wrestling with his desire to fight against the bonds of the wolf pack hierarchy.

A knock came at the front door. He left the bathroom and stalked through his small house and swung the door open to reveal one of the other subordinate wolves, Ash, standing there.

“You’re needed over at the meeting house. They want some chairs set out before the meeting tonight.”

Chance growled. “I guess expecting them to do it themselves would be a stupid idea.”

The other guy shrugged as though to say ‘what can you do?’

They had a hierarchy for a reason. Everyone knew their place, and that way the pack ran as one entity. That was the idea, anyway, except it never ran quite that smoothly. Personal egos sometimes got in the way. Before the attack, Chance had accepted his place in the pack, but now having to run alongside those who’d hurt him, he was struggling.

He left the house and walked through the compound. The shifter compound of the Dark Ridge wolves had everything expected from a rural village—they had a small school for the children, a medical room which he’d seen far too much of, even one of the women had set up a salon and cut hair and trimmed beards when needed. They still had to go to the nearby town for some supplies, but otherwise the little community was self-sufficient.

Up ahead, Gavin Toller, one of the men who’d been involved in the attack, lolled against a tree. Chance stuffed his hands in his pockets and scowled at the ground, trying to ignore the other shifter’s presence. It seemed Gavin wasn’t going to leave Chance alone, however.

“Off to do some chores, Chance.”

He heard the mocking in the other man’s tone. Chance wasn’t a small man. He’d only been overpowered because there had been several other wolves involved in the attack, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t capable of fighting. Every muscle in his body tensed, his hands balling into fists. He remembered exactly which scars this particular man had given him—the five stripes across his chest, and the tooth mark down his cheek.

“Move out of my way, Gavin.”

“Sorry, I wouldn’t want to keep the chore-boy away from his jobs.”

Chance squared his shoulder, stepping up to get in the other shifter’s face. “Who the hell do you think you are? It’s not like you’re alpha or beta either. You have your place in this pack, just like I do.”

He scoffed. “Not right at the bottom, though.”

Chance growled.

“Hey!” The shout of their alpha made the two men step away from each other. “You two, quit it.”

Chance turned to see Holton heading their way. His long hair fell over his shoulders as he walked, his dark brows drawn together in displeasure. His mate, Ruby, who was the niece of their old alpha Gregory, was now the alpha-female and stalked along beside him, needing to make two of her paces to match with her mate’s one.

He couldn’t help but blame Holton for not doing more after the truth had been revealed. He should have sent those other wolves away instead of letting them stay in the compound. After all, the same shifters who had hurt him had also threatened to kill Holton and Ruby. Holton had said it was a fresh start under a new alpha, but Chance was less sure.

Holton stopped to stand between them. “Is this something I need to be concerned about?”

Both men looked to the ground.

“Nothing’s going on,” said Chance

“Glad to hear it. You’re needed over at the meeting house.”

“Yeah, that’s where I was going before someone stopped me.” He shot Gavin a glare.

“Well, hurry up about it.” The alpha turned his attention to the other man. “Don’t you have somewhere you need to be, too, Gavin?”

Gavin mumbled something, but Chance wasn’t going to stick around to find out. He put his head down and stalked to the meeting house, leaving both Gavin and his alpha behind him.

He entered the wooden building to find the alpha’s brother, Joel, unstacking chairs. Joel must have caught the dark expression on Chance’s face.

“Everything all right?” Joel asked, sweeping his blond hair from his eyes.

Chance’s black mood radiated from him. “I don’t know how you stand to be here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Didn’t your brother sweep away your girl from right under your nose?”

Joel’s blue eyes darkened a shade. “She was never my girl. We were just friends. We still are.”

“Really? That’s not what I heard.”

“I don’t give a shit what you heard. You’ve got one hell of a chip on your shoulder lately, Chance.”

His mouth dropped open, his eyebrows shooting up his forehead. “Yeah? I wonder why that could be? You were there, Joel.”

“I’m not trying to say what happened was right—believe me, like you said, I didn’t come out of the whole thing unscathed either—but you’re going to have to find a way to get over it. Gregory is gone, but you can’t have expected the others to go against his wishes when he was alpha.”

“You did,” Chance snapped back. “You refused to attack your brother. You stood up to Gregory against him.”

“That’s because he’s my brother, but also, I already had some insight into what Gregory was like. Remember my sister, Alyssa? Gregory had his eye on her, even though she was half his age.”

“Age doesn’t mean anything to mated pairs.”

“Maybe not, but Gregory was never going to be Alyssa’s mated pair. He was already mated. He just wanted her as a little extra.”

He could understand Joel’s reasons for going against Gregory, and he was glad someone had, but that didn’t make him feel any better that he had to live side by side with the people who’d scarred him. Even though he knew with his shifter genetics, the scars themselves would be gone within another month or two, he didn’t think he’d be able to forget so easily. Perhaps if the other men had been apologetic in some way, things would be easier, but they seemed to lord the attack over him.

“Well, I’m glad someone had the balls to stand up to Gregory. I just wish your brother had had the guts to throw the others involved out of the pack as well.”

“It’s not that easy. They can’t be punished for following the orders of their alpha, even if those orders were wrong.” Joel sighed and continued to line up the chairs. The pack would gather for a meeting that evening, and then they’d each be free to shift and run into the surrounding forest in animal form. It was the best time of the month, but it meant their wolves were closer to the surface than at any other time. It caused tensions to run high.

“You’re going to have to figure out a way to live with this, Chance,” said Joel. “Otherwise you might find you’re the one who doesn’t have a place in this pack.”

Chance lifted one of the chairs. He was starting to wonder if he even wanted to still be part of the Dark Ridge wolves.