Chapter 1

1

DIMITRI

U nease clawed at my insides as I walked down the steps. Everything in my gut had been telling me something was wrong all goddamn week, and it had only gotten worse this morning. Especially after I heard the old man mutter something on the phone before tearing out of the cabin we shared like his ass was on fire. He was planning something, him and his fucking nephew, Damien Valois.

Elias Samuels was a devious old relic, and I was going to be glad when I removed his presence—and threat—from my pack. He’d given me weird vibes since showing up a few years ago, intent on learning why our pack was thriving while so many others were dying.

But shit didn’t add up, and the more questions he asked, the more I became curious about his real motivations. It had taken some digging, but I’d finally figured out that he wasn’t as objective as he’d made himself out to be; the man was from the Norwood pack out of New York, and the rumors about that pack had gotten so dark and fucked up that they’d even made it over to our corner of the world.

I glanced around the room as I made it to the landing, more than ready to shed the skin I was being forced to wear as Daniel Christopher . I wanted to be me again, and it was laughable the way the North American packs operated. The longer I sat in on their bullshit Council meetings, the more I got why Elias was so desperate—their packs were as fucked as could be. They didn’t have a goddamn clue.

Well, most of them.

There seemed to be some that were on the right track. Blackwater, Brooks Ridge, and a few others seemed to realize the changes that needed to be made before the whole North American wolf shifter population was extinct.

But this was the first time Elias had left me alone in the cabin we shared, and I needed to take advantage of it before he came back. As annoying as the old bastard was, he wasn’t totally stupid. I had a feeling he was starting to realize the only reason I was here was to spy on him , not the other packs - the way my father and I had sold my trip to him.

“If I were a conniving fool, where would I stash my shit?” I mused, rubbing my jaw as I looked around the living room space.

Everything looked neat and clean and…

I tilted my head as I studied the bookshelf across the room. It came with the cabin, prefilled with a bunch of classics and bestsellers for people who rented the space, but it was obvious some of them had been moved. And unless Elias was suddenly finding time to read some John Grisham, he’d moved some of the books around.

I crossed the room, my long legs eating up the distance in a few strides as I started pulling books off the shelf and… jackpot.

A manila folder had been shoved to the back, likely stuffed there by Elias when he ran out the door minutes ago.

Fucking idiot .

I snorted under my breath and pulled the file out, flipping it open and pausing at the familiar face that stared up at me. I’d know those green eyes anywhere, but this picture was a few years old. My gaze jerked to the name attached to the picture, not that it was a surprise.

SKYE MARKHAM

Eyes narrowed, I walked to the couch and sat down. Elias had been particularly interested in Skye and her mate, Remy, from the Blackwater pack. In fact, it was all he talked about most nights. I mean, yeah, they were teenagers who’d bonded, which was unheard of in this country, but what was the big deal?

He acted like he was waiting for her to shoot rainbows out of her ass or some shit.

Remy seemed like a solid guy, and Skye seemed cool. Hell, maybe in a different life we would’ve even been friends, but I had a mission and I couldn’t get distracted by their drama.

Still, if Elias had a freaking file on them, it had to mean something.

I flipped through to the next page, and it read like a damn dossier. It had all sorts of shit about her and her old pack. My stomach clenched remembering the story Skye had told the other day about the shit that had gone down in her pack. The abuse and torture she and her mom had endured for years .

My fist clenched, knuckles popping as I imagined kicking Linden Markham’s ass. Skye’s uncle was a fucking monster and needed to be scrubbed from this world. If I’d had more time, I would’ve happily undertaken the task.

But, judging by the way Remy and his father, Gabe, had barely held their shit together as Skye recounted the worst years of her life, there was a long line to stand in for a piece of Linden’s ass.

I kept skimming the file he had on Skye, wondering what the hell made her so special until I hit the last page. It took a second for me to realize what I was reading, but when it registered, it was like a fucking bomb went off in my head.

A paternity test that definitively showed Skye Markham’s biological father was… Nikolai Dashkov.

AKA the Alpha of my pack in Russia, the Narodnaya pack. The first recorded pack of wolf shifters in the world.

AKA my fucking father.

Which meant… Skye was my sister?

Holy shit.

I stared at the page, my brain struggling to reconcile the truth that was all but slapping me in the damn face.

“No. Fucking. Way,” I breathed, the papers beginning to shake as my hands trembled.

No wonder Elias was so obsessed with her—Skye was a direct descendent of the Dashkov line. Hell, the first female born in it in over a couple hundred years. Even I wasn’t a Dashkov by blood; my biological father had been killed before I was born, and Nikolai married my mother as a way to keep us both safe and protected.

But if Skye was truly my father’s daughter, then that meant I wasn’t the heir to the Narodnaya pack; Skye was.

North American packs might not give women the respect they deserved, but Narodnaya did, as did most packs in Europe that we were aligned with. Our pack’s first Alpha had been a woman, and it was a tradition that carried until only males were being born.

This changed everything .

I was reaching for my phone, digging it out of my pocket, and calling my dad before I even fully realized what I’d done.

He answered almost immediately. “Everything okay, son?” The concern in his voice was easily recognizable. He knew I wouldn’t be calling unless something had happened.

“Not really,” I admitted, still trying to figure shit out. “Dad… Remember the girl I told you about? The one who was being abused by her old pack and escaped?”

He growled, the low sound displaying his displeasure. He’d been pissed as fuck when I’d told him about Skye’s past, but after hearing her testimony, I’d needed to talk to someone before I did something like snap Linden’s neck. Dad had been more appalled than me, but now…

He was gonna lose his fucking mind.

“I told you Elias has seemed really interested in her.”

He scoffed. “Probably thinking she’s another mark for Norwood to kidnap.”

“Dad, I just found a file he has on her,” I uttered, not entirely sure how to say what came next. “He… Fuck, Dad, there’s a paternity test.”

“Oh?”

“It says…” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “It says you're her father.”

He was silent for a long moment, so much so that I wondered if the call had dropped.

“What did you say?” he whispered, death lacing his words.

“He did a paternity test on her. She’s your—”

“What pack is she from?” he demanded.

“Blackwater now,” I replied. “But originally from Long Mesa. It’s in New Mexico.”

He made a sound like he was choking, either on air or the truth. “Addie.” He said the word so quietly, I thought I’d missed it.

“Who?”

“It has to be… What’s her name?”

I swallowed hard. “Skye. Skye Markham.”

He let out a snarl of fury. “I’ll leave in a few hours.”

“Wait— what ?” My heart thumped heavily in my chest.

Dad hissed a breath. “She’s my daughter , and she’s in danger if that asshole knows she’s my blood. I’ll arrange for the next flight out. Until then, you stay as close to her as possible. I can’t risk… Fuck ! I need her safe.”

“Dad…” I was kind of at a loss.

“And if you see that fucker Linden, you have my permission to kill him.” He paused. “Actually, save him for me. I’ll enjoy ripping the flesh from his bones as he screams.”

I cleared my throat. “Okay, but Dad, I think Norwood is planning something. Elias has been really cagey and he took off this morning.”

“Find Skye,” he ordered, but it sounded like he was begging. “Dimitri, please. I know you must have a lot of questions, but I need you to do whatever it takes to keep her safe until I can get to her.”

“Okay,” I agreed, standing up and heading for the door.

If he needed me to keep my sister safe, then I would. By any means necessary.