Chapter 2
TWO
Jameson
Night Grove Falls is supposed to feel like home. It is my home. Has been my whole life. The mountains still rise the same way they always have, jagged and proud, cutting against the sky. The air still smells like pine and rain and woodsmoke. The river still runs cold and fast at the edge of town.
On the surface, nothing has changed.
But I have.
I roll my stiff shoulder as I move along the tree line, the old injury twinging with every step. It’s a familiar pain now. One I earned overseas. One that ended my career in the Army and sent me straight back to the town I once couldn’t wait to escape.
I loved the Army. The structure. The brotherhood. The missions. I felt like I was helping people, like I was making a difference, like what I was doing mattered. I was good at it, too. Damn good. For the first time in my life, I knew exactly who I was and what I was meant to do.
Then, on my last deployment, everything went wrong.
A blast. A medic shouting my name. The sharp, blinding heat of pain. My bear howling in my head.
And just like that, it was over.
The doctors called it “career-ending.” I called it hell.
Coming back to Night Grove Falls felt like a punishment at first. Like I was being benched while the world kept moving without me. But then I learned the truth about what had been happening here while I was gone.
When my Alpha, Foster, first told me about the cult, I was surprised. Night Grove Falls, and this area is nothing but small, sleepy towns. Nothing ever happened here when I was younger, but that’s changed.
Foster told me about the disappearances, the kidnappings, the growing darkness creeping beneath the surface of this quiet little town.
Then he asked me to help.
Told me about their idea for Midnight Haven, a rescue and protection group formed in secret here in town. A safe place for anyone trying to escape the cult’s grip or who needed help. The Alphas told me they needed leadership, someone trained, someone who wouldn’t hesitate.
Someone like me.
So, I took the job.
Being in charge of Midnight Haven gave me a purpose again. Helping people. Using my skills to keep everyone safe. It’s given me something to fight for. I may not be on a battlefield anymore, but this is war. It’s just as real, and just as deadly.
My bear stirs beneath my skin as I patrol the outer perimeter near the cult’s land. He’s restless tonight. Pacing. Snarling.
We need our mate, he reminds me, as he always does.
“I know,” I mutter under my breath.
We’ve both felt it for months now, that pulling ache of emptiness. The sense that someone important is missing. That our other half is out there somewhere in the world.
Soon, my bear insists. We will find her soon. We need her.
I know, I agree. We just need to get things settled here. Then we’ll find her.
My bear growls low inside me and resumes his pacing. I try to ignore him as I patrol my section.
Headlights break through the darkness ahead, cutting through the trees. Instantly, my body goes still. A truck crawls down the dirt road toward the cult’s outer gate.
Too late for a visitor. My instincts light up like a warning flare.
I move silently closer, staying hidden in the shadows, every muscle coiled and ready.
That’s when it happens.
Something launches from the back of the truck. It takes me a second to realize that it’s someone jumping out, and by then, they’re already colliding into me.
The impact knocks the air straight out of my lungs as we crash to the ground in a tangle of limbs. Pain blooms across my ribs, but I barely feel it because…
Because I’m staring into the wide, terrified eyes of the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.
Mate, my bear howls.
The word slams through me with the force of destiny itself.
My bear is losing his damn mind. Her. It’s her. OURS. Mark her! Claim her!
She yelps softly beneath me, and I lift myself off her curvy body so I don’t crush her. The scent of fear and pain wraps around me so tightly it nearly steals my breath.
The truck slows at the gate, and reality snaps back into place.
We’re exposed here.
I roll us both behind a thick cluster of bushes as the truck comes to a stop. My body shields hers completely as voices drift through the trees—men laughing, the creak of the gate opening.
They don’t know she’s gone yet, but I know they will soon. Real soon.
My bear snarls at me to move, to get her to safety.
I roll, taking my mate with me. I grip her gently but firmly, lifting her over my shoulder in one smooth motion. She doesn’t fight me. Doesn’t scream. Doesn’t make a single sound as I take off at a dead sprint through the forest.
Good. That tells me everything I need to know. She didn’t want to be with those men.
Now she’s with me, exactly where she belongs.
Branches whip past us as I run through the woods.
My shoulder screams in pain, but I don’t slow down or loosen my grip on my mate.
Adrenaline drowns it out. I don’t slow until the sounds of the truck fade completely into the distance, until I can see the chimney of my house. Only then do I finally stop.
I lower her carefully to the ground and step back so she can see my face.
She’s shaking, terrified, but I can see that she’s trying to hide it.
God, she’s brave as hell.
“What’s your name?”
She licks her lips, her eyes darting to the forest and back to me. “Fern.”
My heart kicks against my ribs.
“Fern,” I repeat, testing her name on my tongue. “My name is Jameson. And you’re safe now.”
My bear growls softly inside my chest, on edge but content at the same time.
We have our mate, I tell him.
Good, he says. Now keep her safe and convince her she’s ours.
Yeah, that might be a little harder to do…