Prologue

James

My heart and soul were ripped from me the day my mate was killed. I always said she was everything to me and that dark day proved it. My howl of despair was heard far and wide, sending animals running for shelter and my pack members into a panic.

I was deranged in my grief and my pursuit of vengeance. My wolf was never far from the forefront, always ready to kill and maim. Blood and violence were the only thing that calmed our grief for mere seconds.

Peyton, my daughter, was lost to me—the only part of my beautiful mate that remained. She was the last piece of my broken heart and the reason I didn't just lie down and die. But I couldn't stand to look at her. She is the spitting image of her mother.

I knew the pack would care for her until I was able to return. Your pack is as much your family as your own blood is, and I was their Alpha. They wouldn't let any harm come to Peyton.

Each day, I spent more time in my wolf form, the pain easier to bear when I let my baser, animal instincts take control. Each day, it became harder to return to my broken human form, to deal with the grief that threatened to drown me at any moment.

Until the day I found myself in a trap, my left hind leg mangled deep in the forest. I fully believed that death would finally find me but all that came was more pain. Physical and mental pain at the hands of men that existed to hunt and kill us shifters. The anguish at knowing my daughter was alone in the world, believing I had abandoned her, was the worst part of all.

After more than ten long years of living in a cage I know I will die in, the most unexpected thing happens.

I am saved.