Seneca (Were Zoo #22)

Chapter 1

If I see you again, I’ll kill you myself.

Solstice “Sunny” Kittridge hadn’t had someone tell her directly they wanted her dead in her entire life, but less than an hour ago, she’d heard those words from Dario Hawke, the new alpha of the jaguar prowl that had been her home since she was seven years old.

The new alpha’s voice echoed in her skull like a broken record.

The last hour was a blur of shock and humiliation.

Her hastily packed bag sat beside her, half-zipped, its contents spilling onto the floor.

The only thing she could hear besides Dario’s voice was the crunch of gravel under her tires as she fled Shadow Rock, hidden in the thick Tennessee wilderness, her life collapsing behind her.

Gripping the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white, she ignored the heart-pounding grief and fury, and focused on the old, winding road that cut through the forest like a scar.

She was leaving behind everything she’d known and found comfort in, and heading toward what she could only describe as a sliver of hope.

Hope that there was actually a group of shifters who lived and worked at a safari park in New Jersey that her adopted mom Sera had whispered to her about as she hugged her goodbye for the last time.

The Amazing Adventures Safari Park.

She thought it was strange that a group of shifters would be so out in the open around humans, when the prowl had stayed as far removed as possible, utilizing an abandoned campground for their home.

But if the shifters could manage to live and work around humans without discovery, then maybe they’d take her in.

If they didn’t, she wasn’t sure what she’d do. She didn’t have enough cash on hand to do much of anything except get herself to New Jersey, some seven hundred miles away from the thick forest that had been her home.

Since her parents were taken from her that night in a terror-filled nightmare that had haunted her for years.

Was there hope in New Jersey? Real hope?

She wasn’t sure.

But there wasn’t anything for her in Shadow Rock anymore.

She wasn’t allowed to contact anyone from the prowl—not her adopted mom, Sera, or her best friend, Fallon.

Exile meant she might as well be dead to them, a ghost sent off into the beyond where they couldn’t reach her under threat of punishment.

It was a hell of a way to start a day.

She glanced once in the rearview as she headed toward the highway, her heart cracking a little bit more, and then she ground her teeth together and focused on the road ahead.

No tears right now. She’d cry later, maybe after she was out of Tennessee.

She was too numb for tears.

* * *

The morning had started out normal enough.

She’d been up at five, not quite bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but something close to that.

After trudging to the kitchen of the home she shared with Sera and her daughter, Fallon, for her first cup of coffee, she showered and dressed for the day.

Sera worked for the jaguar prowl as a caretaker, focusing on cooking for the high-ranked males who weren’t mated.

Fallon and Sunny had helped her put meals together since they were old enough, and while Sunny didn’t consider herself a great cook, she loved to plate food and make it look pretty—even if the males didn’t care one way or the other.

And she could wield a knife and cut produce like nobody’s business.

She’d been scrambling an enormous bowl of eggs for omelets while Fallon yawned and cooked bacon on the next burner, the two considering driving to one of the larger cities near their hidden campground to watch a movie or get a drink that night, when their phones pinged with an alert from the new alpha, Dario.

He’d pulled a coup on former alpha Francis after he’d grown sick and been unable to perform his duties.

Dario had been his second-in-command. While Francis didn’t particularly care for Sunny one way or the other, Dario had never liked her.

He'd called her a half-breed and a waste of space because she’d been unable to shift.

Not enough of her father’s tiger DNA to counteract her mother’s human DNA.

She could feel her tigress a little when she got emotional, but the beast was as much a figment of her imagination as her imaginary friend, Mrs. Lady, when she was little.

The notification from Dario was simple: Mandatory all-prowl meeting at six a.m. Those not in attendance will be punished severely.

“What is that about?” Fallon asked, wiping a splatter of bacon grease off her hand.

“No clue,” Sera said. “He’s probably going to lay down some new laws and flex his muscles. I was out harvesting onions from the garden last night and heard some of the enforcers talking about Alpha Francis and his mate being kicked out.”

“That seems harsh,” Sunny said. “He’s ill.”

Sera shrugged, brushing a lock of dark blond hair from her eyes. “Life in the prowl can be brutal. We’ve got fifteen minutes; let’s clean up and we’ll cook when we get back.”

Sunny finished her coffee and put the eggs in the fridge, then took off her apron and hung it on the hook by the back door.

The trio walked through the prowl’s territory to the alpha’s home, where Dario—a thirty-something asshole who had yet to find a female to mate him—stood with his newly appointed high-ranked males, the most brutal of the prowl’s enforcers.

The prowl was small with only nineteen members now that the former alpha and his mate were gone.

When the prowl had gathered, Dario looked across the small crowd and then his gaze landed on Sunny’s. A chill wove down her spine at the harsh look.

“We must protect the prowl at all costs,” Dario said with a loud voice. “And that begins with rooting out what doesn’t belong. Solstice Kittridge, I exile you.”

Sunny’s heart fell into her stomach. Had she heard that right?

Fallon whispered no, and Sera covered her mouth as she gasped softly.

Dario continued, his voice low and filled with menace.

“You don’t belong here and you never did.

You’re not one of us. You have one hour to leave our territory.

If you contact anyone from the prowl, they will be punished severely.

You will never step foot in this territory again.

” He growled softly, then said, “If I see you again, I’ll kill you myself. ”

Sunny hadn’t expected anyone to step up to defend her, because she really only had Sera and Fallon on her side, but it still stung that she was exiled so publicly and so harshly. Humiliation burned her cheeks as she turned and hurried through the woods toward home.

Which wouldn’t be home much longer.

She’d packed her bag frantically while Sera and Fallon cried, both scrambling to put together what cash they could. The enforcers showed up ten minutes after she’d arrived and told her to hurry up, so she wasn’t even getting an hour.

One bag of personal items.

Her old beater car.

Hugs from her adopted mom and best friend.

You’ll always be my daughter, Sunny, and you’ll always be part of our family no matter what. Don’t forget that. Don’t forget that we love you dearly. Be safe. Find people who will treasure you.

The whisper about the safari park seemed like a pipe dream.

Did it even exist?

All she had was a state and a name, and she didn’t have time to stop and run a check on the internet or search on her map app. She just had to get the hell out of Tennessee.

If there was a safari park that was run by shifters, would they accept her? Half-tiger, half-human, orphaned by her father’s pride when they came to kill her family because they didn’t believe shifters and humans should be together, and now exiled by the jaguar prowl that had taken her in.

She’d always been other. Too human, not enough shifter.

One foot in two worlds that couldn’t be more different.

Would she be too different for this place too?

With the campground and her home far behind her, the only company the rumble of tires on asphalt as she hit the highway, she’d never felt more alone and uncertain.

All she could do was drive.

And hope.

Maybe the safari park would be the refuge she needed and she’d finally find a place where she’d be accepted. Or maybe it would be a dead end and she’d have to figure something else out.

The exile made her miss her parents even more. Her dad’s booming laughter and gray eyes that crinkled when he smiled. Her mom’s kind heart and warm hugs.

She’d had Sera and Fallon stepping in when she’d lost everything at age seven. A chance meeting at a library had formed a friendship between her mom and Sera that had ultimately saved Sunny’s life.

Now Sunny was on her own.

For the first time in her life, it was just her.

As scary as it was to be shoved out so fast, she believed she’d land on her feet.

She had to be okay.

There was no other choice.