Chapter One
Present Day
“At Least It Wasn’t Eggs”
Theon Gardener hated the trick part of trick-or-treating. Especially when it came four days before Halloween.
He and Bryon had been hauling a bunch of crates from his truck bed to the big house when a small group of masked teenagers suddenly raced past them, their mischievous laughter lingering in his ears.
It had taken Theon a couple of seconds to realize they shouldn’t be on his property, and yet another to register the dozens of toilet paper strips hanging down the sides of one of the barns like a white curtain.
By the time he and Bryon dropped their crates and gave pursuit, the kids were already nearing the edge of the property.
“Hey—stop right there!” Bryon cried, streaking past him. “Stop, all of you!”
In all forty-nine years of his life, Theon didn’t think he’d ever seen anyone stop running away upon request. And these kids were no exception. If anything, they ran faster, and in mere moments all four of them had gotten clear off the property, laughing as they disappeared from sight.
Bryon slowed to a halt, turning to face Theon as he jogged up to meet him.
“What a mess,” the animal rescuer muttered, glancing toward the TP’d barn. “What the hell are those kids playing at? Halloween is still four days away. It’s way too early for this.”
Theon said nothing, watching as a half-roll of toilet paper tumbled down the side of the barn. His jaw clenched slightly. He was already tense as it was, with his Halloween party coming up in mere days. Silly pranks like this did nothing to help matters.
He turned away and began heading back to his truck, Bryon trudging next to him.
Around them, Green Sanctuary stretched far and wide, its borders mostly completely out of sight.
West of him, a hundred meters away before a low fence, stood the long line of tall trees that separated the property from the vastness of Paradise Woods.
The property itself resembled a ranch, with two barns and a big house just ahead.
Indeed, when Theon purchased this property ten years ago, it had been a ranch, teeming with horses, cattle, and cowhands.
Now one of the barns had been converted into a clinic, the other one containing whatever animals they’d rescued.
Grass stretched out as far as he could see, a few dirt paths leading from the main exit toward the barns and the house.
As they drew nearer, the house came into clearer view.
It was a white, two-story building with enough rooms to house an entire extended family.
When Theon first bought the property, the house had been nothing to speak of, but over the years, he’d turned it into something more livable.
A few trucks sat outside the building. Ten feet away from the front porch, covered in bold green lettering, was a sign.
GREEN SANCTUARY WILDLIFE RESCUE
A Safe Place for Every Wild Heart
The sound of a horse braying as they neared his truck drew Theon’s attention back to the barns. He frowned at the toilet paper. It would take them some time to clear up that mess.
“Sorry, boss,” Bryon said suddenly, and Theon turned to find the man looking at him. “At least it wasn’t an egg attack.”
Bryon was only slightly taller than Theon was, with long brown hair and deep brown eyes. He had on a sleeveless top that exposed his muscular arms, his forearms covered in sprinkles of hair. Typical wolf shifter.
“Right.” Theon pressed his lips together. “At least it wasn’t eggs.”
He didn’t hate Halloween. Quite on the contrary, he loved to celebrate it.
The potential for annoying pranks and mishaps aside, this was one of his favorite times of the year, and every year for the past five years, he’d organized a Halloween party at Green Sanctuary.
This year shouldn’t be much different. If anything, it should be better.
Hopefully, he’d be able to raise funds for the sanctuary in the process.
Theon stared at the big house for a moment, an unidentifiable emotion curling in his belly.
He’d founded Green Sanctuary and had become its first animal rescuer ten years ago, after his wife Clara’s death at the hands of poachers who hadn’t known the difference between a regular tiger and a tiger shifter.
Over the past decade, he’d devoted his life to rescuing endangered animals, whether from themselves or from humans.
But the way he saw it, Green Sanctuary wasn’t just a safe space for animals.
It was a haven for shifters as well, in a way.
They needed this sanctuary as much as the animals did.
Sure, he wasn’t running a clinic for injured shifters or anything, but he ran a staff of mostly shifters.
Over the years, he’d taken in not one but three others like him—shifters in need of a purpose, a space where they could exist peacefully as they were.
They worked for him as animal rescuers, sharing his dream of protecting as many animals as they could from any form of cruelty.
Bryon Sanders was one of them. The wolf shifter had been the first to show up at the ranch, not very long after its establishment.
He’d been on the run from a couple of humans who’d found out he wasn’t one of them and wanted him dead for it.
Even before Theon could agree to take him in, he’d offered to work as hard and as long as he needed to.
Within the year, he and Theon had become good friends. Of the four animal rescuers at Green Sanctuary, they were the closest. Bryon was diligent and trustworthy, among other things, and no day went by that Theon wasn’t glad he’d hired the man.
“Those kids are lucky,” Bryon said. “If they knew a wolf shifter and a jaguar shifter had been after them instead of two middle-aged guys, they’d be wetting their beds every night until Halloween.”
Theon couldn’t resist a scoff at that. Like almost anywhere else in the world, not many people in Sylva were aware that supernaturals existed, much less that some lived here among them.
The town’s population was mostly human. Which was part of the reason Green Sanctuary had so few employees—that, and the fact that Theon simply couldn’t afford to hire so many people.
The only human working here was their vet, and he’d been uncomfortable with his own decision to hire her—at least, until he learned that she was familiar with shifters because her fiancé and one of his workers, Calvin, was one.
He and Bryon reached the truck and continued lugging crates filled with food and decorations toward the house.
“Hey, where are Cal and Henry?” Bryon wanted to know. “Shouldn’t they be helping us?”
Theon shook his head. “I sent them into town on an errand.”
The wolf shifter frowned. “They got off easy.”
“Not exactly.” Theon’s lips twitched in a smirk. “I asked them to spread the word about the party, invite as many people as possible.”
Bryon’s lips formed an O. “I take back what I said.”
Both men laughed at that. They worked in silence for the next couple of minutes, hauling more crates onto the front porch until the truck bed was completely bare. By the time he dropped the last crate, Theon’s face was slick with sweat.
He wiped his face with the back of his hand just as Bryon whistled.
“That’s a lot of food and drinks,” the man remarked. “Are you trying to invite the entire town to this party?”
Theon simply shrugged in response. “It’s going to be a big party. All are invited.”
“All...including her?”
He didn’t even have to mention her name for Theon to realize who he was talking about.
The jaguar shifter’s heart nearly skipped a beat.
Despite his best efforts at shoving it aside and focusing on something else, anything else, an image settled right in his mind, the details clear as ever: auburn hair... green eyes...a set of lovely lips...
He and Janice Kennedy had known each other for years since she moved into Sylva, but it hadn’t been until recently that they’d really gotten to know each other.
Earlier this year, they’d bumped into each other at Rubicon Valley and ended up sharing a bottle of whisky.
If Theon recalled correctly, she’d been working late that night, and he’d only recently returned from an animal rescue mission outside town.
Looking back on it now, maybe he shouldn’t have struck up a conversation with her then. Or offered to share his bottle of whisky with her. Or hooked up with her.
From that point onward, things had taken a pleasant upward turn.
The more Theon got to know her, the closer he’d been drawn to her.
She was a beautiful, driven woman, the first he’d found himself so intensely attracted to since Clara’s passing.
Sure, she was human and he a shifter, but Theon had never found that to be much of an issue—especially since she hadn’t seemed too taken aback when she found out about the supernatural, even if she didn’t fully understand it.
They’d dated for three months. And then things had gone downhill.
He could still remember the night Janice ended their relationship. They’d stood outside on this very property, Theon in utter disbelief as she broke the news of her decision to him.
I can’t do this, she’d told him. I think we need to see other people.
Upon inquiry, Janice had confessed that she didn’t feel like he actually liked her.
You don’t seem...present, emotionally, she’d said.
That’s very important to me. Sometimes I can’t tell whether you’re actually interested in me as a person or if I’m just someone you’re hooking up with.
You’re not open or present enough, Theon.
And despite his protests, she’d walked away, leaving him stunned on the spot.
In her absence, Theon had almost fallen apart.
Somehow, he’d managed to hold himself together in the aftermath of their relationship, throwing himself deep into his work at the sanctuary.
Not that it had worked, anyway. Even now, thoughts of her snuck up on him, reminding him of what he’d lost in the blink of an eye.
Only a matter of time, he reminded himself. You’ll get over her eventually.
“I doubt she’ll show up,” he told Bryon. She’d avoided him for the past three months since the breakup. The odds that she would decide to make an appearance at his Halloween party seemed pretty slim.
Bryon gave a shrug, and they resumed working, lifting more crates onto the porch.
Once they were done, Bryon began moving some of them into the house.
Theon stared after him for a moment before returning to his truck and shutting the doors.
He turned back to face the house, staring at the crates, and breathed a sigh.
This party had better turn out amazing. He was putting all the effort he could into its preparation this year. And he wasn’t about to let anything keep it from being a success. Not even a bunch of kids trying to be funny.
He glanced toward the TP’d barn. How come he and Bryon hadn’t even noticed them earlier, anyway?
Before he could come up with an answer to that thought, the rumble of a car engine and the crunch of tires reached his ears, and he turned just in time to see a black vehicle rolling across the property, heading straight toward the big house.
Theon’s brows furrowed slightly. Probably someone looking to adopt a pet, he thought, stepping toward the car even as it approached.
It slowed to a stop over a dozen feet away, the engine humming for a moment before shutting off.
Theon drew nearer, peering at the car, and his heartbeat accelerated.
He ground to a halt, blinking to make sure he was seeing correctly.
It was a Toyota Camry. And even before the driver climbed out, he knew exactly whom the vehicle belonged to. He stood almost completely frozen, staring as the woman closed the car door and walked toward him.
She didn’t look the least bit different from the last time he’d laid eyes on her.
She had on a brown blazer over a white shirt and gray pants, her auburn ponytail fluttering behind her head as she moved.
Green eyes landed on Theon, appraising him as she neared him.
The woman came to a stop a few feet away, looking around for a moment and then at him.
“Hey, Theon,” Janice said. “I need your help.”