^“You just stuff it in your mouth and swallow, sweetheart.”

Those were Aidan Channing’s words to me on the first day I met him.

It was the darkest day of the year, only two hours of daylight from sunrise till sunset. I’d driven my jeep down a narrow service road through the thick piles of snow. Every inch I traveled was more precarious than the last. I slowly weaved a path along the slippery surface, and tried to keep my vehicle rubber side down. My jeep swerved into a ditch, and as I spun the tires trying to gain traction, I dug myself in deeper. There was no way I could drive out of the valley I’d created, even with thick chains on my tires. I threw my transmission into park. I was about half a mile from the Silver Eclipse Café, the restaurant at the edge of town. I stuffed my cold fingers into thick gloves, pulled my hood over my eyes, and made my way in the direction of the Café’s amber glow. It was a good thing they’d kept their lights on, otherwise I would have been lost forever in the white wilderness.

Heat. I had to find it, or I’d be dead within the hour. A human icicle. No one could survive the freezing cold temperatures of Bond, Alaska.

The Silver Eclipse Café, more reminiscent of a 1950s-era diner than an upscale coffee shop, was located in a medium-sized rectangular stone structure set in the middle of the frozen tundra. There was one small circular window in the front of the place, and it sent out light like a beacon. I pulled my coat tightly over my reddened cheeks and hustled, making my way towards its promising warmth.

There was no cell reception this far out of Bond, and no one to save me if I slipped in the ice and went down during a white-out. The rogue shifters would smell me, and hunt me down if I wasn’t careful. Women got lost all the time in the woods out here, and never came back.

When I arrived at the diner, I tipped open the door and shuffled into the heated landing area. Thick, powdery snow fell from my puffy down jacket and I shook it out of my long, braided hair. The heavy snowflakes melted and pooled next to a drain in the middle of the heated floor. I was grateful for the warmth, and I was hungry, too. I could already smell the bacon and eggs sizzling on the griddle behind the counter. Delicious.

The diner was nearly empty, with only a few stray customers. An old man smoking a cigarette hung out in the corner. Two burly dudes with handlebar mustaches and thick beards played cards at the bar. A couple of teenage boys wearing thick flannel button-up shirts and fleece-lined overalls were mowing down chicken wings like it was their last meal on earth.

Although it was well below freezing outside, the temperature inside the cozy diner was almost hot. I noticed the pot-bellied oil stove in the corner, heating the whole place to a nice, balmy temperature. The customers, all men, were the gruff back-country types so stereotypical of rural Alaska. Seeing a woman enter the place, especially a young single woman, had the effect of a record scratch: everybody turned to gape at me.

I tucked my long, dark hair into my coat and pulled my hood up over my ears. The less I stood out, the better.

“You get lost in the storm or somethin’?”

The waitress, the only other woman in the diner, had deeply lined rough skin and hard, angular features. And there was something haunted about her eyes. They were almost yellow, with a ring of gray around the iris. Her brows, overly bushy, and her flared nostrils gave her a menacing appearance. She had to be one of them…one of the shifters I’d been warned about who both protected and terrorized this part of Alaska. The woman made me nervous, but I tried not to show it.

“No, I’m looking for someone in particular. Aidan Channing. Perhaps you’ve heard of him?” I tried to blend in amongst the local crowd, but I stuck out like a sore thumb. It was obvious I was a city-slicker with no business being in a place like this.

“Mmmm. Depends on who’s asking.”

“I’m asking,” I leveled with her, my gaze locking on her beady eyes.

Her nostrils flared like she smelled something putrid, and then her eyes lowered. She shuffled in place for a moment before she gestured towards the back of the diner.

“Aidan’s in the back. But he don’t like visitors.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.” I made my way down the dark hallway. Beads of condensation dripped from the ceiling and coated the smooth, stone walls. I took a few deep breaths to try to relax. Shifters could smell fear, and I didn’t want to be mistaken for prey.

I wiped the mist of perspiration from my forehead and tied my wool cardigan around my waist. I’d put on three layers of clothes this morning, hoping to stay warm. I grew up in the sunshine of California, and my blood was thin. Nothing could have prepared me for life at the top of the world.

Underneath my thick coat and cardigan, I’d layered a black thinsulate long-sleeved top, gray wool slacks, and leggings. Even with the added bulk, the outfit showed off my ample curves. I didn’t want to appear sexy, not to this shifter. And especially not out here by myself in the wilderness with no back-up.

I knocked twice on the thick metal door before I heard a gruff voice growl, “It’s open,” from the other side. I steadied my trembling legs against the doorjamb, and tried to tamp down my thinly masked fear.

When I opened the door, I was surprised at who I saw on the other side. After everything Chase Reynolds had told me, I was expecting a larger-than-life, snarling, menacing wolf shifter. I wasn’t prepared for the alluring man I was about to meet.

Aidan Channing was tall and muscular, with long, strong limbs and thick, broad shoulders. He was seated on the edge of a metal stepping stool, carving a small wooden figurine. He had a frosted bottle of beer next to him, half empty, and a football game on the television. And he wasn’t hidden under layers either. He was wearing a black T-shirt, tight enough for me to see the outline of his six-pack abs. His inky dark hair was cropped short, and contrasted with the brilliant icy blue of his smoldering eyes. I couldn’t help but notice his juicy, muscular ass as he leaned over and flipped off the television.

The room was eerily silent for a moment before either one of us spoke.

“You’re Olivia Ryan, the lawyer who called me earlier?” He looked me up and down, undressing my conservatively clad body with his penetrating gaze. My face flushed.

“Yes, in the flesh.”

He scooted a worn, cushioned chair towards me, and motioned for me to take a seat. My heart caught in my throat and I couldn’t move an inch to save my life.

“Sit. Stay. Good girl,” he laughed.

“Excuse me?”

“It was a joke. It’s okay. You don’t have to pretend like you aren’t a little freaked out by shifters. You don’t see many of us in the lower forty-eight.”

I narrowed my eyes at him.

“And I’m assuming you’re fresh to Alaska,” he continued.

“What tipped you off? I thought I blended in just fine.”

I sank down into the chair, and crossed my knees at the ankles. Even from this distance, I caught the scent of him. He smelled delicious, like warmth and fire, soap and musk. I inhaled his arousing scent, and pushed back the lump in my throat. I’d expected a hairy werewolf, and this man didn’t fit the description at all.

“Yeah, it’s kind of obvious,” he laughed. His mouth widened and his white teeth glistened in the light of the overhead sulphur lamp. “Don’t worry about it. Happens all the time. We get a few of your kind who come up here every few years. Curious types from the lower forty-eight. They think they can fix what’s broken up here.”

My eyes flashed. “I’m not like that.”

“No? Pretty lawyer chick buys some snow gear and heads up to the top of the world to fix the savages. Well, guess what, sweetheart? We don’t need fixing.”

My cheeks reddened. “I didn’t say that you did.”

It was true that I’d hoped to do some good with my law degree. After busting my ass waiting tables for years, I’d finally graduated this past summer. And when my school’s Career Services office posted a job opening for a new associate at a law firm up in Bond, Alaska, I jumped at the chance. I’d spent my childhood in the California desert, dreaming about snow. I got snow, and a lot more than I’d bargained for, when I arrived in Bond.

Bond, Alaska was the first city in the United States to recognize shifters as citizens. But it wasn’t always that way. Only a few years ago, shifters were the stuff of legends and ancient lore. People told campfire stories about them, but no one thought they were real. Shifters existed in the shadows, and they were beyond the reach of the law. All that changed when a few local hunters, vigilantes really, murdered a family of shifters in the village outside Bond. The shifter population banded together in an unprecedented show of unity, and came out from the shadows to demand justice. Even bear shifters emerged from their solitary existence and advocated for equal rights.

The human population knew there’d be a war on their hands if they didn’t compromise with the shifters. And compromise they did. Alaska became the first state in the nation to publicly recognize shifters as equal citizens. The problem was that the humans who’d lived here and homesteaded this part of Alaska for over a century didn’t all see it that way. To them, shifters were no more than animal savages who were put on earth to be hunted.

The biggest threat to shifters wasn’t the harsh Alaskan climate, or even starvation during the winter. It was finding themselves at the end of a twelve-gauge shotgun. None of the shifters knew who to trust, except that in general, humans were the enemy.

“You want a drink? You look like you could use one.” Aidan’s eyes crinkled at the edges, as he thrusted a beer into my hand.

“Yeah, I guess. That sounds nice. Thanks.”

“You look hungry, too. How long’s it been since you’ve eaten?”

“Breakfast. I got caught in the white-out and had to hike the rest of the way here. Barely made it.”

Aidan stood up to full height and scraped his ass-kicking, black combat boots along the floorboards before he left the room. He came back a few moments later with a warm plate piled high with raw moose steaks. The meat was barely dead, by the smell of it.

“Brought you some food.”

“What am I supposed to do with that?” My eyes widened as I looked at the mess of red meat on the plate, so fresh it looked like its heart was still pulsing.

“You just stuff it in your mouth and swallow, sweetheart.”

I wrinkled my nose. My stomach was painfully empty, but I’d rather starve than eat raw meat. Sushi was one thing, moose was an entirely different animal. Literally.

“Oh, come on. It’s not so bad. It’s fresh, and natural. The stove in the kitchen is on the fritz again, otherwise I’d burn it up for you. That’s how you humans like your meat, right? Burned until all the flavor’s scorched out.”

“Thanks, but I’m not hungry. I didn’t come here to eat anyway.”

Aidan’s eyes darted to the side and his shoulders hunched over slightly, showing off his lean, muscular torso.

“I told you on the phone. I hardly know Chase Reynolds. You said some girl turned up dead in his apartment in Bond?”

“Yeah, and she’s not just any girl. She’s Charlotte Smith, the daughter of the Mayor. She was young, barely nineteen. It’s a big deal, and the D.A.’s recommending the death penalty for Chase.”

Aidan frowned. “That sounds about right. Whenever there’s a death, blame it on the shifters. Couldn’t be a human. No. It’s not like you didn’t try to blow up the world with your nuclear warheads or destroy our habitat with your wasteful ways. And you call us savages?”

I licked my lips. “This isn’t about shifter discrimination, Mr. Channing. I heard you were sort of the leader of the pack or whatever, and Chase said I should come to you. That’s all. If you don’t want to help me, I can’t force you.”

“That dumb fuck. I told him not to live in the city with your type,” Aidan muttered under his breath.

“Excuse me?” I stood up to leave, pissed off that I’d wasted half my day trying to iron out the defense of this pro bono case, when it was obvious that this lead wasn’t going to cooperate. Besides, the case was a lost cause. Chase didn’t stand a chance in court; I was surprised they hadn’t hung him for murder already.

“I’m sorry. Don’t go running off like that. I’ll talk to you and see if I can help,” he softened.

“Fine.” I steamed as I settled back into my chair. If I stayed, maybe he’d give me some information I could use. And besides, walking back out into the cold was the last thing I wanted to do.

“Good.” His dazzling gaze lingered on me.

It was hard to take my eyes off his come-hither baby blues and his sexy-as-hell body. And damn, that smile. He spurred something inside me I hadn’t felt in a long time. A primal desire. A heat that burned within. Or maybe I was so hungry, I’d become delusional. Probably both.

“Look, I don’t know what exactly you expect me to do. But I’ll do whatever I can to help you.” His voice, smooth and masculine, was softer now than it’d been when I first sat down in his office chair.

Something subtle changed in the space between us. I pushed back my nerves, and tried to ignore the attraction rising inside my core. The thoughts racing through my brain were anything but professional, and I didn’t want him to know that. I rolled my shoulders back and straightened myself up to full height.

“Good, because I’m not about to lose my first real case. Even if Chase is guilty, I’m sworn to provide him with a proper defense. But the truth is, I feel deep down in my gut that he’s innocent. I just need to prove it to a jury, and they’ll already be stacked against him.”

“A human jury?” Aidan exhaled audibly.

I nodded.

“Well, that’s unfortunate.”

“It’s certainly not ideal,” I smiled.

“No, it’s not.”

Aidan’s voice was low and masculine. I wondered if he could sense how wet he made me, and if he could smell the arousal emanating from between my thighs. His air of confidence and raw masculine energy was off-putting, to say the least. I’d heard the men in Alaska were plentiful, and that being a woman here meant constantly being ogled and harassed. But this was different. There was something steady and strong in the way Aidan Channing looked at me. He looked human, but inside I saw his mind working things out in a primal way I couldn’t quite understand.

“You’ve never been this far outside Bond before, have you?” His eyes met mine and locked into place. I wanted to look away, but I couldn’t.

“How did you know?”

“Call it a hunch.”

I crossed my arms tightly in front of my chest.

“You think I’m some naïve human who’s clueless about shifters.”

“Aren’t you? Things are different out here, you know.”

“I assure you, Mr. Channing, I can handle myself just fine.”

He laughed. “I hear that a lot from women just like you. Women from the lower forty-eight. They come up her for a season, and then they vanish. Gone.”

“If you’re trying to scare me, it’s not working.”

“I’m trying to manage your expectations about this case before you get in over your head. Not all shifters are as nice to humans as I am, and I don’t want to see you waste your time or put yourself in danger.”

I bit my lip. I wasn’t telling Aidan Channing my story. He hadn’t earned the right to know the things I’d seen and endured. I was stronger than he could possibly imagine. I cleared my throat.

“Chase is in jail. He couldn’t make bail, and so he’s stuck there until trial. I can’t keep him safe in there. So, the faster we can move up his court date, the better.”

“You think he’ll die in jail?”

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in there. I’m not sure how friendly they’ll be to a shifter accused of murdering the mayor’s daughter.”

“That changes things,” he said quietly.

“That’s why I wanted your help.”

I swept my dark hair from my eyes, and rolled my head to the side. It was crazy for me to come so far outside the city limits of Bond alone. It was even crazier for me to come unarmed. That wasn’t the Alaskan way, as I’d been told so many times before.

As I thumbed through my notes on the case, I felt Aidan undressing me with his gaze. Not that I minded. With anybody else, I’d have told him to keep his eyes off my tits. With Aidan, things suddenly didn’t seem so simple.

He sniffed the air and smiled. He knew I wanted him, and there was nothing I could do about it. My body gave him all the clues he needed.

“What are you prepared to give me in return for helping you with the case?” he smirked.

“Excuse me?”

“In our culture, every act is paid for with a reciprocal act. It’s how we keep things even. When you do a favor for someone, it’s returned in some way. That’s all I meant.”

“Oh,” I blushed. “It’s not that way in the human world.”

He laughed again. “It’s exactly how it works in the human world. Humans are just less honest about it.”

A faint smile escaped from my lips, but only because I knew he was right.

“I find it ironic that you think you know more about the human world than I do.”

He cleared his throat and smiled broadly. “Look, we both want the same thing. You were right to come to me. There is a hierarchy to our pack, and to our society. You need to respect that.”

“Of course, I respect…”

“I know you think you do. But there’s a way we do things out here, and there’s no room for error. You don’t want to accidentally trample all over our customs. That’s a good way to get yourself killed.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying.”

“Like I said, girls go missing every year. It’s dangerous for you to take this case. Are you sure you’re willing to put yourself in harm’s way for a shifter?”

“I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t.”

“Well alrighty, then. One last question. What makes you think Chase is innocent, anyway?”

I chewed on my lip. “I guess I don’t know. Call it instinct. Call it a hunch. It doesn’t matter anyway; I’m sworn to protect him.”

“As am I,” Aidan murmured. “Whether I like it or not.”

That statement gave me pause. I wanted to ask him about shifter culture, and how it all worked. Why exactly was I in so much danger? But the mood had changed again. This was enough conversation for one day, especially since it was our first meeting. I peered out the small window of his office at the frozen, barren landscape surrounding us. The winter storm had passed. I’d have only a little time to get back to Bond city limits before another white out struck again.

Silence hung heavily in the air between us. I sensed Aidan wanted to say something, but he held himself back. I didn’t want to pressure him. These matters had to be handled delicately, and one misstep could mean the loss of a key piece of evidence down the line. Finally, he spoke.

“I’m glad you came to me. Chase was smart to send you my direction first. Did he say anything about Dominic Holmes? Does that name ring a bell?”

“No, can’t stay that it does.” I shuffled my feet, and willed myself to remember that name. Dominic Holmes. If I started taking notes, it might spook Aidan. I tried to act casual.

“That’s good. Forget I mentioned it, okay?”

“Should I be worried about this Dominic guy? Is there something I need to know?” I loosened my braid and ran my fingers through my silky locks, aware of the effect it had on most men. I wasn’t above a little harmless flirting if it helped Aidan open up to me.

He leaned back and stretched his long, muscular arms. “Perhaps. Dominic and I have very different ideas about how humans and shifters should co-exist. We also have different ideas about how we take care of our own.”

I glanced at him, wanting him to expand on his vague statement. He didn’t elaborate.

“Thanks for the tip. Anything else I need to know?”

“I guess if we’re being truthful here, I’ll tell you that the pack was just as appalled as you were when we heard about the woman’s murder. I knew Chase had been staying over in Bond and doing some odd jobs for people, just to make ends meet and get ready for winter. But I was surprised when the sheriff came all the way out to Black Oak to arrest him, and told me that Chase was their main suspect.”

“Black Oak. What’s that?”

“It’s the village where most of our pack lives. It’s about two miles from here. Anyway, it had to be a big deal for the Sheriff to do that, since they usually let us take care of our own.”

I flinched at the last part of his statement. What did he mean: they usually let us take care of our own? Was he talking about vigilante justice?

“So, you understand then? For us, it’s about family and bringing Chase back in line with the pack,” Aidan said evenly.

No, I couldn’t pretend to understand it. It wasn’t what my three years of law school prepared me to handle. There was the legal, written law, and then there was the primal unspoken law. I realized that while I knew a lot about one, I knew almost nothing about the other.

“A woman is dead. Don’t you care if Chase is innocent or guilty?” I chewed on my lip.

“Of course, I care. It’s just that your human laws don’t apply to us shifters, the way that our pack laws don’t apply to you.” He paused, his eyes now looking weary as he tried to maintain his fleeting level of patience. “I don’t want to get in the middle of it with you. I’m sworn to protect Chase like a brother. If you’re on his side, then I’m on your side, too.”

He leaned back in his well-worn chair and waited for me to say something. Anything. Words were on the tip of my tongue when an ice-encrusted man stomped through the threshold of the door.

He was tall and leanly built, with soft gray eyes that glinted in the light. His prematurely salt and pepper gray hair mismatched his youthful, unlined face. He was young, on the edge of thirty, perhaps. He smelled faintly like pine trees and the embers of a fire. He shook the last of the snow off himself and stuffed his black wool cap into his pocket; then he leaned against the doorway as if he owned the place.

“Jameson!” Aidan smiled broadly. Immediately, Aidan was out of his seat. He wrapped the man in a tight embrace, and playfully butted his head over the man’s thick neck. They continued their display of macho power until I cleared my throat. Aidan took my hint and pushed off the man, although their shoulders still touched.

“Olivia, this is Jameson. Jameson, meet Olivia.” He motioned for us to shake hands, and we did, awkwardly. Jameson’s hands felt like ice blocks against my warm skin.

“Aidan? Everything okay?” Jameson shot Aidan a concerned look.

“Yes, brother. She’s on the up and up.” Aidan smiled at me warmly. I appreciated his confidence in me, even though we’d only just met.

“You two are brothers?” I glanced back and forth, trying to make out the resemblance. They didn’t look like brothers at all.

“We’re twins, actually.” Aidan paused. “Fraternal, obviously.”

“Fraternal twins,” I smiled. “My best friend from back home is a fraternal twin, too.”

“I got the brains, he got the good looks,” Jameson winked at me. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not. They were both attractive in their own way, but Aidan was definitely the sexier of the two.

“It was nice to meet you Aidan, and Jameson…but I should be going now. The light outside is fading fast, and I’ll have to hustle to make it back to my jeep before dark.” I paused. “Thanks for agreeing to help me with the case. It means a lot.”

“Case? What’s she talking about?” Jameson stuffed his thumbs in his pockets and rocked back onto his heels.

Aidan cleared his throat. It was obvious I’d said too much, but I didn’t see why this meeting to talk about Chase needed to be secret. I could use all the help I could get.

“It’s Chase Reynolds. He’s in some trouble over that dead woman they found in Bond. I’ve agreed to help Olivia get Chase out of jail, that’s all.”

“Like a prison break? I can work on that.” Jameson licked his lips excitedly.

“No, not like that.” Aidan growled back. “The humans have him, so we’ve got to do things their way. Whether we like it or not.”

He’d said it again: Whether we like it or not. What exactly did he mean by that?

An awkward silence pulsed between the three of us. I sensed they had things to talk about that they couldn’t say in my presence. I took that as my cue to leave, but not before digging one last time for information.

“I’m so glad you’re helping me, Aidan. Hopefully you can steer me in the direction of some friends who can provide a good alibi for Chase. He says he wasn’t even in Bond on the day of the murder. Is there anyone here who could confirm that?”

Jameson’s eyes lit up. “Yeah, I know of a couple people you could talk to about that.” He paused. “Was that your jeep a mile or so back?”

“Yep, that’s me. Guilty. I got stuck in the white-out. It was…intense.”

“Good thing you made it here okay.” He shot Aidan a knowing look. “Now that the storm’s passed, let’s take her to meet up with the pack tonight. There’s going to be a council meeting, and I think they’d like to hear what this human has to say.”

My eyes widened. The way he said human sent a chill up my spine. Even though he seemed nice enough, there was something about Jameson I couldn’t quite trust. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was exactly.

But then there was Aidan. Even though he was a little rough around the edges, I trusted him for some reason. If it meant getting Chase an alibi, I had to put my faith in the rest of the shifters, Jameson included.