Chapter One
Come on … Come on!
Kimberly stood by the river that coursed through Larson Caves Park, the waters flowing languidly and reflecting the silver moon in their rippling current. All around, the songs of the night birds trilled from the treetops, oblivious to her struggle.
Stripped down to her skin, the chilly night breeze made her shiver. Gooseflesh crawled down her arms and legs.
After several moments of concentration, she felt no burn through her blood, no constricting of her bones, no ripping through her muscles and sinew to signal the transformation from woman to wolf. Not a damn thing. She never wanted to be in such excruciating pain this much in her life.
She stomped her bare foot in the grass and groaned in frustration.
She really thought tonight would be the night.
The last couple of weeks had been episode-free.
Things were slowing down at the flower shop, so her anxiety was at an all-time low.
For a while, she felt like she was getting back to her old self, or close to it. All but this one thing.
Exasperated tears stung the corners of her eyes.
Maybe she would have been better off joining the other shifter ladies at El Paso’s for their monthly girls’ night out.
Her friend, Tracy, had extended an invitation earlier that day, but Kimberly turned it down, knowing this was her only plan for the night.
By now, she would have been two margaritas into the evening and maybe a little happier.
The night was still relatively young. Maybe, if she gave up now, she could join them.
The idea of giving up set her teeth on edge.
The wolf spirit that made her a shifter might have been all but dead in her chest, but remnants of its boldness, once more, told her to stay, to keep trying.
Words—or more correctly, lies—from her childhood danced in her head, chanting that she was weak and had to accept it.
Fighting the truth would only make her more miserable.
Yet, that little, rebellious streak wouldn’t die so easily.
She had to keep going, or it’d never get better.
It had been weeks since the attack, since the night that seemed to reinforce everything her family had ever told her.
The shifter who assaulted her, Nathan, was part of a bigger plot to help an ambitious alpha take over Tolstone.
Wyatt had wanted Tolstone for himself, not to take over the role as Prime Alpha, currently held by Dominic Beaumont and secured by the Beaumont family for generations.
He didn’t want to ensure that Tolstone remained a sanctuary for refugee wolves who needed a safe place to stay while they got back on their feet.
He would never help those packs find new territories or assist lone shifters looking for a home.
Wyatt wanted Tolstone for his own pack, to boost his ego and make him a hero in the eyes of those who followed him.
That was what she had been told. To do it, Wyatt schemed and challenged Dominic for the town.
He lost that challenge and his life. But the plot had left behind more than just a wrecked antique store, the one Dominic owned, and where part of the final showdown took place.
Nathan was told to attack a wolf to throw Dominic off kilter, to show the rest of the shifters in Tolstone that under his leadership, they were not safe.
It was just one of many instances where Wyatt’s pack had stirred the pot and made conflict where it wasn’t needed, to run Dominic ragged in the process.
So, Nathan picked a defenseless wolf who was weak, whose death or injury would spur the most reaction. He picked Kimberly, and he picked well.
Every wolf shifter possessed a level of innate power with which to defend themselves.
A pulse of this dominant energy could tell another shifter to back off or even subdue an attacker.
Alphas had the most dominance in a pack.
Betas had a lot, but not as much as an alpha.
Everyone else, no matter their rank, had at least a little to their name.
Kimberly had none. Zilch. Nada. Ever since she first shifted as a teenager, it was clear to her family, her pack, and herself that she was different.
It meant she only had her shifter strength and wolf form to protect herself.
While they were useful tools, other shifters had more, and they could use that advantage against her.
While most didn’t seem to discriminate against Kimberly for her lack of dominance, her father never let her forget what a liability she could be.
She’d always need protection because she couldn’t defend herself.
She was the weakest link. She’d always need to be part of a pack and could never be someone great or important.
There was no such thing as an alpha or beta with no dominance. She was just … Kimberly.
Nathan’s attack on her had provoked the shifters of Tolstone, but not in the way Wyatt had wanted.
Instead of turning against Dominic, they turned against him.
Gage Phelps, Kimberly’s alpha, battled for her honor and defeated Nathan so he could be taken into custody by the town’s sheriff—another alpha and protector of Tolstone—and charged with assault and battery against Kimberly.
In the end, Nathan shared the same fate as Wyatt at the hands of Erica Barrett, Dominic’s human mate. A silver bullet was always a surefire way to drop a shifter, and there were plenty of wolves, including Kimberly, who wished they could have pulled the trigger.
Nathan might have been dead, but his face still flashed into Kimberly’s mind for weeks after the attack.
He, and what he did to her, reminded her of all the things she had tried to escape when she left her father’s house just after graduating high school.
She didn’t want to hear her father’s voice in her head, telling her she was a worthless shifter.
In the years ever since, she had proven him wrong and would continue to prove him wrong.
She found another pack at university, one that accepted her and didn’t make her feel like someone defective or pitiful.
Just because she had no dominance didn’t mean she was any less of a shifter. She had to hold onto that truth.
Nathan left no scars or bruises, since shifters could heal almost instantly, but her spirit was still battered by that night when she just barely held her own against someone stronger and fiercer than herself.
Nathan had beaten her wolf into submission with dominance, and her wolf had never gotten back up on its feet, no matter how much Kimberly begged it.
And ever since, she couldn’t shift. Tonight, she wanted to leave Larson Caves Park in triumph, but that seemed less and less likely.
Still, she tried again, and again, and again. Nothing. Anger, an all-too-familiar emotion lately, collected hot in her belly, and her body trembled with the force of it. She couldn’t let Nathan win. She couldn’t let her father win. She just had to keep trying harder.
But something cut through her determination. The wind carried a new scent to her. A live scent. Another wolf.
Kimberly went perfectly still, but her mind sifted through the scent.
Something about it was achingly familiar.
Fresh hay and soil from a place that was little more than a memory.
A tainted memory. Still, the scent was just foreign enough to inspire a wave of anxiety.
Her chest tightened, and her limbs went numb.
Darkness rimmed her vision, and Kimberly battled the impulse to cower.
A stranger might have been headed her way.
A stranger whose intentions she couldn’t predict, couldn’t anticipate.
A stranger who had more dominance than her.
To fight the brief panic, she took a deep breath and snatched up her pale blue sundress that lay in a pool of fabric nearby.
It had a low neckline and loose, short sleeves, perfect for the nights that were becoming warmer as they entered the summer season.
She slipped into it, feeling that a layer of modesty would give her a little more confidence, as she tried to reassure her racing heart.
It was just another wolf. There was no need to be afraid, no need to freeze up.
Despite recent events, she would handle herself just fine.
Slowly, she turned in the direction of the scent. The soft, steady padding of paws sounded down the path she had taken to this spot by the river.
Soon, a mostly white wolf with swaths of dark gray across its shoulders and haunches emerged from the shadows of the forest. The moment the wolf’s golden eyes locked on hers, the wolf stopped in its tracks, and Kimberly thought she’d collapse.
She knew this wolf. He was bigger now, his figure filled out by age and experience, but there was no mistaking who he was.
This shadow from a time in her life she would have rather forgotten stood before her, not a few yards away, all too real.
“Shane.”
His erect ears twitched, as if the way she breathed his name sparked further recognition in him.
Kimberly didn’t know what to do, what to say. She never thought she would see him again. Her mind spun in a thousand directions. What was he doing here? Not just in the woods, but in Tolstone. What did that mean for her? What did that mean about him?
Shane was the first to break eye contact long enough to search for a nearby sheltering bush. He trotted away to hide, leaving Kimberly to wait again as he took the time to shift from wolf to man.