CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE

Harley Vincent! Harley Vincent!”

For God’s sake. The majority of the population seemed to live and learn, but apparently this woman just lived. Either that or her ski lift didn’t go to the top of the hill. Not that Harley had much room to judge others, considering her family tree was more like a tumbleweed.

Clutching her bag of groceries tighter, Harley picked up her pace as she headed to the cute little hotel where she was currently staying. She’d been in California for the past four months, where she’d been working in a club. Harley was somewhat of a drifter, but she liked the place and she didn’t feel the urge to go roaming again. Yet.

Hearing the click-clack of heels, Harley ground her teeth. The bitch had caught up with her. Shit, she should have taken the car. Her inner cat snarled, not at all fond of the fox shifter.

Digital recorder in hand, Gabrielle Rowan said sweetly, “Harley, how are you this morning?” Like they were lifelong friends.

Without slowing her pace, Harley sighed at the reporter. “You know, I’ve flushed and flushed and flushed, but I don’t seem able to get rid of you. Why is that?”

“If you want me gone, all you have to do is give me some information on your father.”

“Clive Vincent is old news, Gabby.”

“He was until people began to speculate that he’s the shifter who founded The Movement.”

People were always “speculating,” always naming certain shifters as the possible leader. Why anyone would think it was Clive, she wasn’t sure. Harley snorted. “Founded The Movement? He was sent to prison before the group even started. How do you expect him to do anything from there?”

“Come on, Harley, you have to know the truth. He formed the group to fight the extremists, didn’t he?”

Harley’s cat snarled at the mention of the extremists. Anti-shifter humans had always existed, but nowadays many of them were part of radical, destructive, and violent organized groups that were the bane of every shifter’s existence. They believed that shifters should be electronically chipped, confined to their territory, forbidden from mating with humans, restricted to having one child per couple, and placed on a register like sex offenders. They’d also attacked and bombed several packs worldwide, “culling” the population.

If the humans had thought there would be no repercussions to the violence, they couldn’t have been more wrong. A group of shifters known as The Movement hunted extremists and retaliated against their attacks, fighting violence with violence. What else would predators do in such a situation?

“I did a lot of research on you, Harley.”

Oh, did she now?

“For the first sixteen years of your life, you were part of a traveling pride of margay wild cats that—let’s face it—was more like a band of reckless free-spirited criminals that had no use for the word ‘sober.’”

Correct.

“Few other prides liked or respected yours. They had no useful alliances or resources.”

Also correct.

“It made your pride mates easy targets for prejudiced humans.”

Damn right it did.

“And that was exactly what your brother became, wasn’t it?”

At the mention of Michael, a wave of sadness washed over Harley. But she schooled her expression, refusing to give the bitch anything to work with. Rounding a corner, Harley saw the hotel up ahead. Almost there.

“His death was horrific. Most fathers would want to hunt down each of the humans responsible and then kill them, one by one. The difference is that your father actually did it. Coldly and without mercy. He didn’t even deny it when he was caught and convicted. He was proud of what he’d done. Saw no wrong in it. One psychologist called him a psychopath.”

Said psychologist probably wasn’t far from the truth.

“If I were you, I’d be infuriated with your father. By going to prison, he left you. Left you with your human mother, who was so devastated by having limited contact with her mate that she fell apart and couldn’t take care of you. He left you with a pride that was never sober enough to protect you—they just wanted to party hard and live large. That was when your aunt came for you, wasn’t it?”

It was. Her mother’s family, who was wealthy and had a high standing in society, hadn’t approved of Lily mating with Clive and joining his pride. As such, they had disowned her when she’d refused to reject him. But Lily’s sister, Tess, had occasionally visited. That was how she’d discovered that Harley was having trouble.

Hell, “trouble” was a mild word. Harley had befriended a wolf from the pack that neighbored the land her pride was squatting on back then. Mia was just fifteen years old and already on her way to being a junkie. Mia’s parents hadn’t wanted to face it, so they’d claimed it was Harley’s “influence” that had sent Mia down that path.

In truth, Harley had tried to steer Mia away from drugs, not wanting her to end up like Kara, Harley’s aunt from her pride. Hell, she’d even dragged Mia into her aunt’s messy motor home—where Kara had predictably been lying in a pool of her own vomit—and made her see what future awaited her if she didn’t get her shit together. It had actually made a difference. For all of three days.

Harley knew well that you could only help an addict if they wanted help. Mia simply hadn’t wanted it. But Mia’s pack had blamed Harley, using her as a scapegoat for Mia’s addiction. They’d cornered and ridiculed her, they’d smashed the windows of her motor home, and they’d even tried to physically assault her on a few occasions. Only one wolf hadn’t blamed her: Mia’s brother, Jesse . . . a wolf Harley had had the world’s worst crush on. Although he’d believed her and looked out for her as best he could, he’d been unable to stop the harassment since, as a juvenile, he’d had no power or real say in the matter.

An emotional wreck, Lily had been in no position to defend or protect Harley, so Tess had taken her away. Harley’s grandparents had eventually accepted her, though they treated her as human and expected her to behave like one. But that had been okay, because she had the fabulous Tess. Her aunt didn’t look at Harley and see someone who was half shifter or half human; she just looked at her and saw her niece.

“You’ve lived in the human world ever since,” continued Gabrielle. “You are half human, half shifter. You’ve spent large portions of your life in both the human world and the shifter world. That puts you in a very unique position. It gives you two different perspectives. What’s your take on things, Harley? Are the extremists justified in their prejudice? Does The Movement take things too far? What species is in the right in this war—humans or shifters?”

“I’d answer you, I really would . . . but talking to you is about as appealing as sandpapering a wild cat’s ass while having my nipples chewed off by rabid dogs. You are well known for twisting the facts. I’ll bet that if I had a dollar for every truth you printed, I’d be in debt.”

“You have a way with sarcasm.”

Harley smiled brightly. “Just a little service I provide. It’s even free. Now as much as I enjoy our conversations, I have somewhere to be.”

“I’m going to write that article with or without your help, Harley. Give me something.”

Damn, she was persistent. It was a quality that Harley might have admired under other circumstances. Without breaking stride, Harley glanced at her over her shoulder. “I suppose I could give you one final thought . . . but I’m not sure you have anywhere to put it.” Smiling at the fox’s growl, Harley walked straight to the hotel.

The moment she was in the privacy of her room, she dropped the halfhearted smile, took a deep breath, and tried to shake off the memories of her past. She wasn’t ashamed to be a shifter and she didn’t resent her inner cat. As a species, shifters were mostly good and they took care of their own. Harley’s pride mates, however, had somewhat different priorities. Even to this day they squatted on land they didn’t own, caused brawls and bar fights for fun, and spent most of their time either drunk or blitzed on drugs.

Given her pride’s reputation, she understood why Mia’s parents and pack blamed Harley for their daughter’s addiction—especially since Harley had looked the part of a “bad influence.” Back then, she’d hidden behind a goth “I don’t give a shit” look so that no one would see just how unhappy and angry she was with . . . well, everything.

What Mia’s parents should have noticed was that their daughter had wandered down a path of self-destruction. Once, when Mia was totally shit-faced, she’d told Harley all about how her best friend, Torrie, had drowned while they were at a lake; both girls had been eleven at the time. Mia not only lived with survivor’s guilt and an unrelenting grief at the loss of Torrie but with the knowledge that Jesse would be without his true mate.

Mia was convinced that Jesse secretly hated her, despite the fact that he claimed he didn’t blame her for not saving Torrie. As a child, Jesse had been playful and roguish. After his true mate’s death, he became hard, militant, and distrustful; he always wore a blank expression that Mia believed masked a deep loathing of her. And nothing Harley said could convince her otherwise—Mia would just claim that Harley was biased because she loved him.

In honesty, Harley had loved Jesse. As an adult, Harley could see that it had been an immature, juvenile love as opposed to the fierce, ferocious, all-consuming feeling that every shifter felt for their partner. It hadn’t been any less real, though. And that hadn’t stopped her from melting inside when she saw him at Mia’s memorial . . . or from having him in her bed that night.

Yeah, well, their emotions had been all over the place, and they’d just wanted comfort. Or, at least, that was what she told herself on those few occasions when she wondered if she’d made the right choice by sneaking out the next morning. Those occasions were few and far between, because Harley was a realist.

He might have spent a night in her bed, but it hadn’t meant anything to him. Not once in her life had she ever kidded herself into believing he was attainable or could ever care for her. He would always long for the mate he’d lost, which was perfectly understandable.

Even if that night had meant something to Jesse, there could never have been anything between her, a half-human female who had no wish to be in a pride or pack or anything else, and Jesse, a male shifter who was an enforcer and whose family despised her.

It was a harsh reality, but it was a reality she’d just have to live with.

Back aching, Jesse Dalton sank into the sofa after a long day of building the outdoor play area. Every single one of the thirteen adult wolves of his pack had helped build it using only natural materials. There was a fort, a tree house, swings, tree stumps, a slide, a sandpit, and log tunnels. And now everyone was relaxing in the main lodge, where the Alphas lived.

Well, “lodge” wasn’t quite the word, in Jesse’s opinion. The three-story building was more like a rustic mansion—all timber and stone and large glass dove windows. The rest of the Mercury wolves lived in smaller yet similar hunting lodges that were scattered around the vast, wooded land. The place was both wild and peaceful, and it would sing to any wolf’s soul.

“The kids loved it, didn’t they?” said Shaya, the Alpha female. She had designed the outdoor play area and was rightfully proud of it.

“They did,” agreed Eli, their Head Enforcer. A dopey-looking Labrador, Bruce, lay at his feet. “Considering we only have two pups in our pack, do you think you might have gone a little overboard?”

“Hey, if my old pack had a play area like that when I was a pup, I’d have loved it,” said Bracken. The enforcer had grown up in the same pack as Jesse and another enforcer, Zander. Their old pack was nothing like this one. The Mercury Pack was a close-knit bunch that protected their own fiercely.

Jesse, Bracken, and Zander had been Mercury wolves for over three years now. It was a small pack, but it was by no means weak—particularly since their Alpha, Nick, was powerful and dangerous.

“Cassidy’s settling in so well,” said Shaya. “Everyone at the shelter warned me that it’s often hard for kids to adjust, but Cassidy already considers this her home.”

Cassidy was a four-year-old pup the Alphas were fostering, who had been staying in a shelter for lone shifters up until eight weeks ago. A friend, Makenna, worked at the place, having once been a loner herself until she mated with a Phoenix Pack wolf—a pack that was very closely allied to Jesse’s.

Ally, the Beta female, gave a soft snort. “It’s not like she was reluctant to come with us.”

That was true. Jesse had accompanied Shaya and Ally when they went to the shelter to donate clothes. Cassidy—who they had never seen before that day—had been waiting for them with her backpack full and announced, “I’m ready to go with you now. Did you bring Willow with you?”

It turned out that Cassidy, like Ally, was a Seer. She had foreseen being fostered by the pack and was more than ready to come, eager to meet the Alpha pair’s three-year-old pup.

“Makenna was surprised that Nick was open to fostering,” said Roni, a female enforcer who was also the sister of both Nick and Eli. Roni was mated to a Phoenix Pack enforcer, Marcus. The pair acted as enforcers for both packs. “In fact, I was too.”

Jesse had been just as surprised. “He doesn’t exactly welcome outsiders.”

Shaya snickered. “He doesn’t exactly welcome insiders.” Nick was highly antisocial, which was tempered by his mate’s warm nature. As Shaya was a very compassionate and positive person, it often came as a surprise to people that she was also handy with knives and a shotgun—that was thanks to the teachings of her human, ex–Navy SEAL father.

Knowing there was a small chance that Nick would accept an outsider, Shaya had simply taken the child home. Cassidy had happily skipped into the main lodge and chatted to a confused Nick like she’d known him for years. The Alpha male had just sort of stared at her, totally bemused.

“I’m glad Nick was okay with it,” began Ally, “because I wouldn’t have had the heart to take her back to the shelter.”

Derren, the Beta male, leaned into Ally and nuzzled her neck. “And you like the idea of being around and tutoring another Seer.”

Ally smiled at him. “Of course. She’s a good student. Bright. Tries hard. She just needs help vocalizing what she’s foreseen. It’s hard for a child’s mind to translate an adult situation. I only had someone to guide me for a little while.”

“But she’ll have you,” said Derren. “And you can also help her learn how to cope with the sensory overload.”

Being a Seer didn’t just entail visions. They were also highly empathetic, which could no doubt be overwhelming. Picking up emotions caused physical sensations for them; if an emotion was positive, the sensations would be pleasant. But if the emotion was negative, the sensations could be anything from uncomfortable to painful.

“Where are your mom and sister?” Ally asked Bracken.

“Sightseeing,” he replied. Bracken’s mother and younger sister had come to visit for three weeks. In Jesse’s opinion, it wasn’t so much a visit as an attempt to lure Bracken back to their old pack in Arizona. The guy’s mother, a person who disliked the majority of the population, adored her son and preferred to have him close. Bracken turned to Ally and Jesse. “Can I just say I’m sorry about my sister?”

The Seer lightly patted his back. “No need to apologize.”

“Yes, there is,” insisted Bracken. “I asked you guys to train Kim because she said she was interested in being an enforcer. I thought she meant it.”

Ally sighed. “You don’t have to be embarrassed. It’s not wrong that she doesn’t take life too seriously and wants to have fun. But there’s a flip side to all that—she’s operating on her own timeline, so she’s often late. She doesn’t like rules, so she bristles at our orders. In not taking life too seriously, she’s not taking the sessions seriously. That’s the problem.”

“And she pays a little too much attention to Jesse,” added Bracken.

Ally inclined her head. “Well, yeah.”

The whole thing grated on Jesse’s nerves. There was only one female he and his wolf wanted—a pretty little margay shifter with a will of iron and a spine of steel. Jesse knew she was in California, working at a club not far from his territory. He also knew he wasn’t going to let her leave the state. He’d hoped Harley would come to him, had waited patiently, but she hadn’t. One more week. He’d give her one more week. If she didn’t come to him, he’d go to her.

“She gets a little distracted by him,” added Ally.

“A little distracted?” repeated Bracken with a snort. “That’s an understatement.”

“All right, so she melts into a puddle of lust every time Jesse gets authoritative with her,” Ally conceded.

Jesse winced. He’d never thought of Kim that way. She was Bracken’s baby sister and had once been a friend of Jesse’s deceased true mate, so he was . . . well, not nice to her—Jesse wasn’t anyone’s definition of “nice”—but he was tolerant of her. Or, at least, he had been until she started doing irritating shit like sitting too close to him at every meal and, worse, constantly asking him for extra help with combat moves that required him to touch her. She also acted upset whenever Ally passed on any constructive criticism during training, looking to him for comfort.

Until now, Kim had never shown any interest in him. “It’s possible that she’s just trying to seduce her way into the pack by attaching herself to one of the males.” It wouldn’t be the first time a female had tried it. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, Bracken. I just have to wonder about it.”

Bracken shrugged, unoffended. “I’d like to say she wouldn’t do something like that, but Kim lives by her own rules and I don’t know what they are. She also has it in her head that you and Ashley were once together.” Ashley was Bracken’s other sister.

Jesse jerked back. “That did not happen.” He would never fool around with his friend’s sister.

“I know that,” Bracken assured him. “Even Ashley told her that it wasn’t true. But Kim thinks it is, and she’s always been in some imaginary competition with Ashley. Even when they were kids, if Ashley had something, Kim wanted to have it too.”

“Whatever Kim’s reason is for behaving this way, I think it would be best if Eli took over for you, Jesse,” said Shaya. “Unless you think it might be best to cut Kim’s training short, Ally. It doesn’t seem important to her anyway.”

“Give her a formal warning,” Derren told Ally. “Make it clear what behaviors you find inappropriate and insist that she take the training seriously. If she wants the chance to prove herself by continuing the training, let her have it. But make her understand that she will not get another warning.”

Ally gave a slow nod. “That’s fair. And I’ll have Eli take over from Jesse.”

Sounded good to Jesse.

The sound of footsteps descending the stairs was quickly followed by Nick entering the den.

Marcus cocked his head as he studied the Alpha. “You look grumpier than usual. What’s wrong?”

Nick sat next to Shaya. “I just had a call from Hector Flynt.”

Shaya joined her hands in prayer. “Please tell me his plans for the hotel fell through.”

Nick twined one of her red curls around his finger. “I wish I could, baby. He called to repeat his offer, the stubborn bastard. If I’d known someone would swoop in and take that land, I’d have claimed it myself and we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

The neighboring pack had fallen apart after Nick killed their corrupt Alpha female for trying to wipe out the Mercury Pack. Hector Flynt—a half shifter who owned a chain of hotels and restaurants—stepped in and acquired the empty territory, where he planned to build a hotel resort. Naturally, none of the Mercury wolves were happy about it. They treasured their quiet and privacy. They didn’t want to listen to cheesy hotel cabaret every night or deal with tourists stumbling onto their territory, nosing around and taking pictures.

As it turned out, Hector didn’t want a pack next door to his hotel any more than they wanted the hotel there. He had come to Nick with a “solution” to their mutual problem: he’d offered to buy their territory . . . as if it were a mere stretch of land, not their home and sanctuary. He’d then reeled off a figure that made Jesse’s brows hit his hairline.

“Does anyone else have the feeling he doesn’t like shifters?” asked Jesse.

Eli frowned. “What makes you think that?”

“He could have bought land anywhere, but he went for shifter territory,” said Jesse. “He has a history of buying shifter territories.”

Nick’s mouth twisted. “It might be worth finding out so we know if this is something personal against shifters.”

Eli’s frown deepened. “But he’s half shifter.”

“That doesn’t mean he likes that half of him,” Nick pointed out.

Shaya squeezed her mate’s hand. “I think Hector’s scared of you, but I’m not sure he’ll drop this anytime soon. A person doesn’t become as successful as he is without having a serious amount of determination.”

Nick’s brow creased. “Nothing would make us sell.”

“We know that, but he doesn’t,” she said.

They all fell quiet as Nick’s mom came into the room with a freshly bathed Cassidy and Willow. “They’ve come to say good night,” Kathy announced.

Both kids were cute in their own way. Cassidy was angelic looking with her white-blonde hair, bright-blue eyes, and baby face. Willow’s corkscrew curls were also blonde, though a little darker. She had green eyes like her father and elfin features like her mother, complete with an impish smile.

Cassidy skipped over to Jesse and tilted her head. “Have you brought her here yet?”

“Who?” Jesse asked.

“The pretty lady.”

Jesse inwardly frowned. She’d said something similar a few times that day. “I’m not sure who you’re talking about, angel.”

She sighed, as if exasperated with him. “You should bring her here before her car goes boom.”

Everything in Jesse froze. As she turned to leave, he gently placed a hand on her arm. “Wait, what did you say?”

“Her car,” she repeated impatiently. “It’s gonna go boom.”

Ally took her hand, her voice patient as she spoke. “This pretty lady . . . do you know her name?”

Cassidy shook her head.

“What does she look like?” Jesse asked, striving to sound gentle when panic was eating his insides. Could it be his mother? His grandmother? A cousin? A—

“Her hair is long like mine, but it’s dark. She has gold eyes. Oh, and she can make music.” Then the pup skipped away, leaving him stunned.

His gut twisted painfully and his heart literally missed a beat. He knew a female with mesmerizing gold eyes . . . a female he’d been watching over for many years . . . a female who could play a musical instrument . . . a female who also happened to be his.

For a moment he couldn’t move, couldn’t speak. Then, looking at Bracken and Zander, he saw the same dawning realization in their eyes.

“Fuck,” Jesse bit out.