Chapter One

Tree branches nearly whipped Cara in the face as she dashed through the Hunter Oak Forest. The sound of her paws scurrying across the forest floor was drowned out by the rapid pounding of her heart against her chest. She huffed out three short breaths as she continued to duck and dodge her way around the shrubbery. She knew she couldn’t keep this up for much longer as she banked a hard right around a thick tree stump forcing her hind legs to skid across the dirt. A quick shift to the left, she rounded around a huge boulder but came face to face with a solid wall of dirt.

Her big brown eyes scanned the height of the cliffside wondering if there was any way for her wolf to scale it, but it was too steep and she was no feline; suddenly admiring the creatures she would normally detest. Turning around to run, she was cornered. The bear had to weigh nearly 600 pounds, rising onto its legs and roaring fiercely into the air.

Cara needed to make a choice, either play dead or try to run again. Uncertainty rang through her body as she wondered whether to stay in her wolf or shift into her human. It’s what she should have done to begin with. But there she was, backed up against the wall, facing an animal whose only purpose was to be an animal. There would be no shifting, no talking any sense into it because it couldn’t understand. Cara understood she got too close to the Mama bear’s cubs and now she’d pay dearly for it.

Refusing to let her human take the brunt of the exchange, Cara dug her paws down into the ground, bared her teeth, growling and snarling to let the bear know she was ready to fight. She only wanted to distract it long enough for her to get away.

When the bear came back down onto all four of her paws, roaring and growling to Cara ready to accept her challenge, the simple thud of its body hitting the ground shook the earth underneath her paws. Adrenaline pumped through her body readying Cara for a brawl and a brawl is what she got.

She charged the bear with all of her might, snapping her powerful jaws at its nape. The bear howled in pain, growing angrier with every passing strike. It only took one swipe of the bear’s paw to send Cara flying back toward the wall. It knocked the wind out of her. Even with her wolf weighing a solid 200 pounds, she was outmatched. The only thing she had left was her wits because her body was tired.

Cara made one last attempt to outmaneuver the bear but it was a step in the wrong direction. The massive blow from the bear’s body plowing into her was enough to make her dizzy. She couldn’t focus on shifting out of her wolf even if she wanted to. But the bear wasn’t finished with her yet. The strength of the paws beating down her was immense as Cara listened to the sound of her own bones breaking.

Her shortness of breath seemed to only anger the creature further. Searing, agonizing, blinding pain ripped through her body as Cara felt the sting of the bear’s jaws clamp around her torso and then proceed to shake her like a rag doll. The worst part about it, in her moments just before passing out, Cara shifted out of her wolf into her human while still in the bear’s grasp.

Luckily for her, the bear seemed to appall the trick and flung Cara one last time against the wall. The metallic flavor of blood trickling down her throat was the last thing Cara remembered tasting before her eyes closed and everything faded to black.

 The sound of voices and leaves rustling around her forced Cara to open her eyes. Her body was stiff, rigid and unable to move. Staring out into the world around her, all she saw were the tops of tree branches as she was being moved underneath them. Glittering flecks of open sky broke through the leaves every once in a while but Cara couldn’t find the strength to speak. She could only close her eyes and reminisce about the time she’d experienced another type of pain; her first heartbreak…

Flashes of a flowing light brown coat, memories of brooding grey eyes that made her body tingle, the sensation of his fingertips as he grazed her skin… every minute Cara laid unconscious was a minute spent thinking about a love lost. His name was Midas and even though he wasn’t an alpha, she didn’t care. She was young and in love, or so she thought...

The scent of pine trees filled Cara’s nostrils. She stirred in pain trying to figure out just how extensive her injuries were, but she couldn’t move. She wouldn’t dare try to shift. It was a painful process to begin with, doing so with broken bones was asking for deformities as she healed.

“Stop trying to move,” a powerful voice commanded her.

“But,” Cara attempted to talk.

The voice moved closer to her, “I understand you’re confused and have questions, but if you move, Kristin won’t be able to set those bones right. You need to be still and save your strength, so don’t talk either.”

Cara wanted to argue, but her body operated outside of her mind and forced her eyes to close again. Falling back to sleep, Cara only seemed to remember the look of fear in that bear’s eyes. It drudged up memories Cara thought she’d long forgotten. Emotions from long ago that didn’t belong in the potential mate of an alpha. Her mother had that same look before she was killed.…

Screams permeated the air as Cara scurried into her mother’s den. Cairo was right behind her as the villagers from the nearby town stormed the trees in search of them, of her pack. Her and Cairo befriended a girl in town, but when her parents found out, it sent everyone into a panic. They chased them out of town, unknowingly leading them back toward the lair. Fire and gunshots exploded through Cara’s memories....

The scent of pine returned once again willing Cara to wake from her pain-induced slumber. She couldn’t focus. Without a clue as to where she was or who’d brought her there, she began to panic.

She moved around, slowly assessing to see if she was restrained or free to go. There was nothing binding her to the bed she was lying in, but as soon as she sat up the walls and floor started spinning. Pain radiated from every part of her body and she collapsed back onto the bed.

“You don’t listen,” the familiar voice said to her, “You’re going to be sorry if Kristin has to come back in here. Just calm down. When you can sit up without that look of excruciating pain on your face, we’ll talk. But for now, get some rest.”

Cara wanted to fuss with the voice but she was delirious. Nothing around her would come into focus and simply breathing caused her pain. So she did as she was told and went back to sleep.

Midas’ voice found her in her dreams, “You’re so naive! Why would you ever think I could love someone like you. I need a woman by my side, not some lovesick puppy.” She watched him mark another in front of her very eyes. The entire ordeal was devastating and sent Cara running off into the woods. Cairo wasn’t far behind. Leaving the pack that took her in after the slaying of her parents was a decision Cara didn't want to make lightly, but there was no other choice. The looks, she suddenly realized, were being directed at her immaturity and inexperience and it was too much to bear….

By the time Cara was able to open her eyes without the extreme pounding of pain behind them, she hadn’t any idea how many days she’d been out of it. She simply wanted to keep quiet and observe what was going on around her.

“Well look who’s finally awake,” the voice chuckled. It was only then that Cara got to take in the face, and body, that went with that constantly chastising voice.

With light brown hair flowing down to his shoulders, a pair of piercing green eyes stared at her. She caught a glimpse of his chiseled torso just before he slipped a T-shirt on. The muscles bulged under the soft fabric as Cara watched the man who looked like a God carved out of her fantasies.

“Where am I?” she finally mustered up enough strength to ask.

“Hunter Oak, Finnigan territory. My father and mother, Kristin, will come to see you later. Just rest for now,” he told her.

“Who are you? What?” Cara struggled to clear her mind so she could get the answers she wanted and desperately needed, “Do I have to stay here?”

“Of course not,” the hulking man told her. “You’re free to leave whenever you wish but with the extent of your injuries, I think you should stay put for now.”

Cara was growing tired again and as much as she wanted to hammer the man with every quandary her mind could drum up, she decided to listen. Relaxing into the moment, she just laid there staring up at the ceiling.