Chapter 1 - Reiner

One Year Later

Pack parties. There are days when I can’t stand them, and today is turning out to be one of those days.

It’s our turn to host Stardust Hollow and their wolves, but I’m really not in the partying mood. I’ve been working for twelve hours at the steel mill in town, and I’m just ready to get home and curl up on the couch with a beer or three and let the brainless drones of reality TV wash over me like white noise.

Yeah, I know. It’s no fun, it’s boring, blah, blah, blah. But even highly social animals like shifters need alone time, and after sweating over a welding torch all day, I’m definitely ready for some solitude.

Sadly, though, the next month or two is dedicated to Stardust Hollow’s visit, and we’re all under orders from Alpha Evan that all pack members are expected to be social and supportive. Ugh. Yes, our alliance is very important to keep things in check, but there’s a point when a wolf just needs a break.

They’ve set up a bonfire in the center of our commune, and from where I’m parked and gearing up to attend the shindig, I can see packs gathered from both areas. Green Lake wolves, Stardust Hollow wolves—all of us packed together in one area. For all that these visits are supposedly peaceful, we still naturally gravitate toward our own packs, keeping to ourselves and not really fraternizing with the other crowd.

I feel it when I get out of my vehicle, the apprehension and distrust. It’s an energy in the air and a general tension that no amount of pack politics can push under the rug. But both our alpha and our beta married she-wolves from Stardust Hollow, so maybe we should be warming to the idea of mixing it up.

Shaking my head, I start up the hill, slipping my hands into my front pockets as I go. The dirt under my boots is packed hard from the summer heat, and I feel a shift of pleasure when my eyes move to the dark nighttime sky. From there, the stars above me look impossibly bright, all the colors in the rainbow sprinkled across the inky black. You don’t get a view like this in Stardust Hollow, with all the city lights and pollution messing with your ability to see the splendor above. Yeah, the city can be a hoot and a good place to party, but sometimes the country speaks louder than boisterous crowds and neon-light club scenes.

Tonight, however, my little piece of heaven isn’t so quiet, and my eye begins to twitch again.

“Hey, there he is!” my younger cousin Jack calls, lifting his voice until he’s shouting over the general ruckus. “What’s going on, Reiner?”

“Fine, Jack. Just exhausted from spending all damn day welding flaming-hot pieces of metal.”

Jack laughs. “Oh, quit with your moping. Would it kill you to be friendly? All this time, and you still can’t make nice with the other team.”

My face hardens, and I sigh with irritation. Jack is a good guy, and we get along well enough. If pressed, I might even consider him a friend, but just because it’s pack-bonding day or whatever, he’s trying too hard to get along, and I hate the fake-ass bullshit of it all. We’re shifters, for Christ’s sake. We’re supposed to keep to our own people. There’s enough fucking drama without inviting outside elements into the mix.

“I’m nice when I want to be. I just don’t like this parade, and you know it. We have no business mixing with those city slickers.”

As if to prove my point, I hear a table go crashing to the ground on the far side of the encampment, followed by a chorus of whoops and clapping. Now, generally, I’m the first guy to go running to a fight and the last to back down from a rough-and-tumble tussle. I may not always be ready to talk about my feelings or whatever, but I do like excitement. Fighting is my jam. Excitement is my drug.

At least, it usually is. Lately, though, I’ve been feeling restless. I’m not sure what’s wrong, really. All I know is the thrumming and frenetic energy doesn’t entice me like it once did. Instead, the crashing, splintering wood and the thumping, brawling bodies feel like a headache, and the sound of breaking glass inspires more annoyance than rabid enthusiasm. The things I usually find enjoyable nowadays only leave me feeling drained and cranky.

I must be getting old. Damn.

“Come on,” Jack grumbles, leading me closer to the crowd. “Just because we’re different doesn’t mean we’re better. You’d do well to remember that, Reiner.”

“Sure, Jack. Whatever helps you sleep at night.”

Avoiding looking at the fighting and wreckage around the party, I shrug, shoving my way through the crowd and heading straight for the cooler. Surrounded by several of our shifter wolves, including Evan and Rafe, along with their respective wives, Mia and Piper, the conversation doesn’t stop when I pop open a beer and spin the top off. It’s very rare that Alpha Evan steps away from his duties these days. But tonight is definitely one of those nights when our whole pack gathers in a sea of tents and motorhomes for Stardust Hollow, and even our fearless leader is chilling.

“Lots of pretty new she-wolves out there, Reiner,” Rafe announces when I sit. Leaning back in my camping chair, I kick out my feet in front of me, raising the bottle of local brew to my lips for a long pull. “You should go and take a look, see what catches your eye.”

“Nah,” I give the same answer as I’ve done for the last year. “I have no interest in settling down with the sort of girl who can’t even catch a fish.”

The joke earns me some laughter and rolling eyes.

“Stardust Hollow women aren’t as helpless as you think,” Mia says, an unimpressed eyebrow cocked. “They’ve just got more culture.”

I shrug off her words and toss out a lazy smile in her direction. “Call it what you like, honey, but it’s the truth. There ain’t much substance in there.”

Piper sits up straighter. “You know what your problem is?”

Oh, here goes.

“What’s my problem?” I ask, and as soon as the last word leaves my mouth, I feel the chill in the air coming off of her.

“You, my friend, are an arrogant asshole,” Mia supplies for her. “And you think you’re better than everyone.”

I try and hold in my laughter, I really do, but fuck, it’s impossible. Hearing the insult come from sweet, innocent Mia’s lips, of all people, is too damn funny. She never speaks like that, and seeing her face with her cheeks blazing has me almost spitting out the mouthful of beer in my mouth.

Coughing, I grimace. “Jeez, Mia. Tell me how you really feel about me.”

Her slender shoulders rise and fall while she rolls her eyes. “Trust me, Reiner, I am holding back. No one here is brave enough to tell you, and I’m sick of it.”

“And why isn’t anyone brave enough to tell me?”

“Because,” Jack, the cousin I love and loathe in equal measure, interrupts with a laugh, “you’d kick our asses, Reiner. That’s why.”

Rafe shakes his head, finally breaking away from his own private conversation to put his two cents in. I’m seriously just waiting to see where this goes and who says what next, so I keep my cool. My cocky smirk remains on my lips like I’m not even noticing the talk of my single status.

Rafe sits, and as he gets comfortable, he angles his head, a calculating glint in his eyes. “Reiner, this whole self-assured ‘womanizer’ thing was cute and all when we were younger, but you’re not a kid anymore. What are you now, thirty-four? It’s time you think about settling down and hanging up your belt.”

I laugh, and the sound of it is too bright and fake not to tip off my pack that I don’t like the turn this conversation has taken. I push up from the chair and slug back the beer I’ve been nursing. When I look back over my shoulder, I grin wide.

“None of you need to worry about my personal life, thank you very much. As a matter of fact, I met a girl.”

A moment of total silence follows.

“No way,” Jack hoots, and then all my pack are climbing up from their chairs, pouncing on the sudden information like vultures, diving into the gory details without any respect or censure.

“What’s her name?” Jack wants to know, and all the others yell out more questions in a flurry of voices.

“Where did you meet?”

“Why didn’t you tell us?”

I hold my hands up and back away, one slow step at a time. “Look, it’s all still pretty new, if you know what I mean. I’d rather not get into it just yet. Leave us a little mystery.”

The only one I’m not sure is buying it is Piper. Those blue eyes of hers see far too much, and right now, they zero in on me with a fiery force I can feel digging under my skin. “Reiner?”

Ignoring her, I shake my head and keep walking, only pausing to stop and grab another beer from the cooler. As soon as I have one in my hand, I skip on by like I’m not a nearly middle-aged man claiming I have a secret love.

I stand to the side and watch from a distance while Rafe, our beta, drapes his arm over Piper’s shoulders. Those two are together constantly. I don’t think he’s let her out of his sight for more than two seconds since she had their pup, Margie. Kind of interesting, considering the kind of wolf he was before they got married and she became pregnant. Back in the day, Rafe Woods was considered a wild card, so seeing him all domesticated is a little weird. But he’s not the only one. Our pack is growing pups left and right, and a lot of our unattached wolves are finding the magic with their mates.

That’s why the recent and steady encouragement to move my ass and find myself a suitable female to settle down with is grating on my nerves. Of course, I want all that mushy stuff, too, but these days, it feels like there’s this timer hanging over my head, dangling over my entire future. The timer is ordering me to take my mark and settle down, or else.

The one and only time I’ve ever felt anything close to what they’ve described to me happened when I was with Jane, but I completely fucked that up. Now, a year later, I can barely recall her scent, and the impression of her face is a bit blurry. Still, every now and then, I catch myself scanning the crowds, hoping to catch a glimpse of her.

Back then, I panicked. When I kissed her, sparks erupted, and it was more intense than anything I’ve experienced since with anyone. But instead of embracing it, I acted like a douche. The look on her face when I gaslit the shit out of her and pretended I felt nothing still haunts me to this day.

Yeah. I’m an asshole, like she said, and now I’m a fucking liar, too.

It’s only a matter of time before they all find out there is no girl and that I said what I did to save face and pull the focus off myself. Green Lake is a small community. There aren’t any real secrets here, and when they discover the truth, I’m going to be the butt of all the jokes for at least the next year, I’m sure.

Just fucking great. I need to get the hell out of here.