Gavin (Northern Ohio Shifters #3)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

The soft hum of the fluorescent lights buzzed overhead as Sadie Parker shelved the last of the returned books. The Willowridge Public Library was quiet, the sort of peace that settled deep into her bones and offered a welcome escape from the turmoil she felt at home.

She pushed the empty cart over to the circulation desk where Maggie sat with her head resting on her hand as she absently clicked a pen.

“Hey, are you okay?” Sadie asked, her voice low because she always felt like she should whisper in the library.

Maggie blinked like she hadn’t realized she’d been staring into space. Straightening, she put the pen on the desk and said, “Yeah, it’s just been one of those days.”

“Wanna talk about it?” Sadie leaned on the desk and smiled. Maggie, a forty-something female who joked about early-onset menopause and wore a scarf no matter the weather, had been a good friend to her since she began work at the library two years earlier. Maggie was the senior librarian and had shown Sadie the ropes and given her a lot of responsibility.

“You ever have one of those days where you just don’t want to go home?”

Sadie pressed her lips into a thin line. She absolutely knew what that feeling was, but because Maggie was human and Sadie was a wolf shifter, she never talked much about her home life. Humans could be understanding to a point, but they didn’t really get the sometimes harsh life that being a shifter entailed.

Hell, as far as Maggie knew, Sadie was twenty-three. But in reality, because of the long-life that shifters had, aging one body year for every twelve, Sadie was actually fifty-five, even though she was technically twenty according to her slow aging.

Instead of delving into the fact that Sadie was also pretty damn miserable at home, she asked, “What’s going on?”

“You remember my sister moved in after she and her husband split?”

Sadie nodded.

“Well, she’s more of a party girl than she led me to believe. I think she’s trying to relive her teen years. There are people over at all hours, music blaring. I can’t hear myself think.”

“That’s terrible. Have you talked to her about it?”

“Yeah, but she says I’m being dramatic, that she’s just having fun and I should too. My idea of fun is a good book, a hot cup of tea, and my favorite blanket.”

“I like that kind of evening myself.” Sadie offered a small smile. “I’m sorry for what you’re dealing with. Our homes should be a sanctuary like the library.”

The two of them were silent for a moment, the shared understanding of what it meant to not feel at home weighing in the air. Sadie would have offered to let Maggie stay with her except Sadie not only lived with her mom Evelyn, but humans weren’t allowed within the pack’s territory.

Maggie stood up and stretched. “It’s about quitting time. I can’t stay here so I better go home and deal with my sister. I’ll just tell her that I need my sanctuary back, and she can get with the program or find her own place.”

“Good luck.”

Sadie tucked the cart away behind the desk and grabbed her things from the small breakroom at the back of the library. After saying goodbye to Maggie, she stepped out into the coolness of the early evening.

Mid-June in Michigan tended to be mild, with sunny days and not too hot temperatures. She’d never lived anywhere else, but she did think it was a pretty dang beautiful place to live.

She got into her old two-door and put the windows down so she could enjoy the fresh pine-scented air on the way home. Willowridge was a whistle stop sort of town, with only one traffic light and plenty of quaint Main Street businesses like the Five and Dime that had an amazing candy counter and the gas station with the single pump manned by a human male who had to be in his nineties.

It was less than ten minutes from Ironwood, where Sadie had spent her entire life. Ironwood, like Willowridge, was small, but Ironwood was entirely wolf, from the businesses that catered to the pack to the homes and schools.

The Silvercrest Pack had called Ironwood home for generations, utilizing the dense forests of Michigan’s upper peninsula to hunt game and keep the pack members close. Sadie was the only pack member who didn’t work in town and help the pack out, and it was because no one wanted someone like her around.

She was bad luck.

A walking curse.

Because of her albino fur, her wolf wasn’t welcome to hunt or commune with the pack or participate in any gatherings. She was a perpetual outsider among her own people. The only person who treated her well was her mom, who was the most gentle and compassionate person Sadie had ever known.

She knew that it hurt her mom deeply that Sadie was so mistreated and had been ever since she shifted right before her sixteenth birthday. Alpha Holloway had taken one look at her bright white fur and declared her to be the worst thing to ever happen to the pack in the history of their people.

Which was quite a terrible burden for a teen to bear.

Everything bad that happened was blamed on Sadie, from crops not coming in to a bad hunt to someone in the pack getting injured.

But Sadie tried not to think about that.

She tried to remain upbeat no matter how defeated she actually felt inside, because she knew it hurt her mom to see her unhappy. Sadie should have left ages ago. She’d asked her mom once to leave the pack with her, but she hadn’t wanted to. The idea of being away from the pack was too scary for her mom to contemplate, so Sadie had stuck it out, borne the brunt of the Alpha’s blame for every bad thing that happened, so she could stay with her mom.

Stopping behind a truck at a stop sign, she saw the couple in the vehicle lean over to kiss and she smiled.

Would that ever be her?

Probably not as long as she stayed in Ironwood. Alpha Holloway had made it clear that he wouldn’t approve of her mating any of the pack males, and that was okay because she didn’t want to mate any of them anyway. No one wanted to risk having a child with her in case she passed along her freakish fur color.

So she held out hope that she’d meet her truemate at some point.

Maybe he’d wander into the library looking for a history book and she’d know just what he was looking for and they’d share a passionate kiss among the shelves.

Snorting as she pulled ahead to the stop sign and shook her head at herself, she pushed away the romantic thoughts and focused on the drive home. Maybe someday she’d meet her truemate and he wouldn’t care what color her fur was. But in the meantime, she had to keep her head out of the clouds.

It wasn’t any use thinking about a future she didn’t know if she’d ever have.

“Honey, is that you?”

“Yeah, Mom,” Sadie said as she walked into the house. She set her bag next to the door and toed off her shoes.

She found her mom in the kitchen.

Her mom looked…weird.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Um, honey, Alpha Holloway wants to see you.”

“Why? Did someone’s houseplant die?”

“Honey,” her mom chided. “I know it’s not easy for you, but you can’t be so glib. What if he heard you make that kind of comment?”

“How could he treat me any worse?”

“It could get worse, honey, you know it could.”

Sadie dropped her chin to her chest. “Okay. When does he want to see me?”

“He hasn’t called for you yet, but he’s going to. I heard some of the high ranked males talking when I was picking strawberries for a pie.”

“Talking about me?”

“Yes. I think he’s going to send some of his males to bring you to him later tonight. I think…” Her mom’s gaze dropped to the table.

“You think what?”

Her mom paused long enough that a knot formed in Sadie’s gut.

“A pack is coming for a visit. Alpha Holloway’s brother is the alpha and there’s going to be a big party this weekend with a huge hunt on Saturday during the full moon.”

“Why would he want to see me about that?”

Her mom finally lifted her head, and there was so much genuine worry on her face that Sadie wanted to cry. She hadn’t cried about the alpha and his traditional, anti-albino-fur feelings in a long time.

“Mom?”

“I don’t know if he’s going to just keep you in the house for the weekend or if he’s going to put you in the cells, but I’m worried. I’m… genuinely worried.”

Sadie sat heavily on the kitchen chair.

The cells were a literal prison in the basement of the alpha’s home, where he kept people who didn’t toe the line with his rules. Sadie had never been put into one of the cells, but the threat had always been there.

“He wants to hide the freak away from his visiting alpha brother.”

“I believe so. It’s just a guess on my part, but the males were talking about what the alpha was going to do about the curse to make sure that his brother didn’t find out about it, and you’re the only one the alpha refers to as a curse. Sadie, I think you should leave here.”

“Like now? Where would I go?”

Her mom came over to the table and put her hand on Sadie’s shoulder. “I have a place for you to go. An old friend.”

“You have an old friend? Who?”

“Her name is Alli and she’s a fallen angel. She and I met long ago before I met your father and settled down. I reached out to her and she said you can stay with her. I packed a bag for you, but you need to get going. It’s a long drive.”

Sadie rose to her feet, nerves skating through her. “A long drive to where?”

“Cleveland, Ohio.”