Chapter 1

Aldryn

Restlessness boiled in my gut. It was not a feeling that I was used to, and it most certainly was not a feeling that I enjoyed. I wanted for nothing in life. I was young, having just turned twenty-five years old on this very day. I had a roof over my head, a good job, some friends, an awesome family.

Yet anxiety had plagued me for these past few weeks the cause of which I hadn't identified.

Downstairs, the clang of a pan settling on the glass-top stove and the opening and shutting of cupboards told me my mom was awake, likely preparing to make my favorite meal because that was what she did on birthdays. And even though I was adopted, and I knew that I was adopted—I most certainly wasn't like my wolf shifter brothers and sisters—my mother and father never made me feel less than. They treated me just as if I were their own. I was lucky. I knew all of that.

So why was there this feeling, this unsettledness that had been growing these past few months? Sometimes I found myself sitting on the back deck, just looking at the horizon for hours, wondering what else was out there. Feeling like I had to go and find it.

My brothers and sisters were all grown, and they had left our pack. It was just my mother and me left now. My father had passed due to a long-term illness the year I graduated high school. It had been hard to lose him, and to then have my brothers and sisters move away as well. My mother and I stayed where we'd always lived. It wasn't the greatest pack in the world, all shifter groups had their issues, but we were content.

My mother had noticed my unrest, but she hadn't said much, probably not wanting to pry. I had always come to her with any concerns I had in the past. But this one I could barely put into words inside my own head, let alone voice them out loud.

My best friend Eli had noticed. I could tell he had been trying to cheer me up for weeks. Sometimes it felt as if there were voices inside my head crying out for me to find them. And at night I dreamed of flying. Only I was never alone. There were always others with me. Two others. But what did that mean? And why was I flying? I did not have wings. I knew that I was not a type of bird shifter. If I were, I would have shifted by now.

It was all very confusing.

The circumstances of my birth and subsequent adoption had not been explained to me, and until now I had been perfectly fine with that. I loved my family and didn't feel the need to learn anything about my biological one. Maybe it was time that I started asking more questions. Who was I? Where did I come from?

"Aldryn, are you coming down for breakfast? Eli is going to be here soon to take you to work, right?" My mom's voice echoed up the stairs.

Of course I had things to do. I could not just sit here and stare at myself in the mirror.

"Coming!" I shouted back. I took a deep breath, trying to calm myself. I let it out slowly through my nose. When I opened my eyes, I swore I saw smoke swirling around me, but that was crazy. I searched around for a clean pair of clothes. Was it pathetic for a twenty-five-year-old to still live at home and have his mother do his laundry? Perhaps.

Generally, alphas and omegas didn't move out of their family home until they were mated. Every so often, a few friends would get a house together. But even then, you didn't live on your own until you were mated. Finding a mate had never really crossed my mind. I couldn't imagine feeling that close of a bond with someone who wasn't Eli.

When my brother found his mate, there was a moment of longing in me for what he had found. Love. Absolute, irrevocable love. But where would I ever find that? If my fated mate were within the pack, I would've known by now.

Besides, I couldn't imagine being closer to anyone than I was with Eli.

I pulled down a pair of jeans and my T-shirt with the wolf pack logo on it. Did many wolf packs have a logo? I wasn't sure about that. We did, simply because as a pack, we ran a travel-lodge business, and like many of the pack members, I worked there along with Eli. Today was our day to clean cabins, since it was Monday and anybody who had been staying the weekend was long gone. We had to prepare them for the next batch of guests.

I liked to spend days with Eli. He was my closest friend, even though we didn't exactly run in the same circles. The pack had a twisted sense of hierarchy. My father had been one of the Alpha's Betas and closest advisors before his death. That put us near the top of the hierarchy. Being there meant we were treated well. We had a nice home. We paid a lower tithe.

Eli, being an orphan raised by his aunt, who was a single mom herself to two other children and not the nicest individual on the planet, was on the lower end. Their home was small, cramped, and very outdated. It wasn't often that Eli allowed me to visit there.

Despite our differences, we had become fast friends in grade school. I looked out for him. I couldn't stay away from him even if I wanted to. I hated how he was treated by others, and I did my best to prevent any mistreatment from happening. My siblings had taken him under their wing as well, and my mom treated him as one of her own. More than once I'd considered just asking him to move in with us, but I knew that he never would. It wouldn't be proper.

I came down the stairs, stomping a little too loudly, and my mom shot me a look.

"One of these days you're going to put a hole through them stairs."

"Sorry, Mama," I said and kissed her cheek. I grabbed a plate of eggs, sausage, and bacon. All the good stuff.

"You spoil me," I said. "Thank you."

She laughed. "You say that every morning."

"I'm spoiled every morning." I grinned.

"Are you and Eli cleaning the cabins today?" Mom asked.

I nodded.

"You know, if you want, we can get you a different job. Maybe one that isn't quite so awful."

I knew that I was eligible for promotion within the pack business. That didn't mean I wanted to be. I wasn't opposed to more responsibility, but what about Eli? "I like cleaning."

"It's not fit for a permanent position. You can't raise a family on that income."

Oh boy, here we go. I'd only been twenty-five for a few hours and already the lectures had begun.

"It's a good thing I don't have a mate then." I winked.

I knew what she was getting at, though. It wasn't a position that held a lot of future prospects, and it wasn't usually a job done by anyone in our station. But it was fit for Eli. I didn't wish to leave Eli alone. It was one more problem I had to solve.

Did I really want to work for the pack business forever? I wasn't sure about that either.