Fallon Caldwell pressed herself into the corner of the SUV where she sat on the floor in the back, heart pounding like it wanted to beat right out of her ribcage and flop around on the floor.The vehicle was silent except for the steady rumble of the tires on the road.The three shifters up front—Joss the alpha wolf, Jupiter the lion, and Alfie the wolf—didn’t say anything to her or each other, just watched the road, prepared for anything.
She hadn’t said a word herself since she’d been hurried into the back of the SUV once the sun set, leaving behind her best friend Sunny and the Amazing Adventures Safari Park—the last place that had felt remotely safe.
The past week had been a clusterfuck of the highest order, and Fallon didn’t know what was going to come from this trip.
She’d been told that the destination would bring safety, but the reality was she wasn’t sure she’d ever feel safe anywhere.
She trusted Sunny.They’d been best friends ever since Fallon’s mom, Sera, had taken her in when her parents had been killed by her dad’s tiger pride.And then the alpha of Fallon’s jaguar prowl had decided to kick Sunny out for being a non-shifting half-tigress.Which was bad enough.
What followed had been far worse.
Alpha Dario had used Fallon as collateral to save his own skin from another alpha taking over the prowl, promising her in an arranged mating to a psychopath named Otto.Fallon had fled the prowl’s territory in Tennessee to join Sunny at the safari park where a large group of shifters lived and worked in secret from humans, who didn’t know that shifters existed.
It had been strange but safe.
For a while.
Then Dario had found them both and gone after Sunny again and again.
He’d lost his life in a battle where Sunny had been able to finally shift to save her mate Seneca.
Safe again?
For a heartbeat.
Then Otto had sent flowers to the park for Fallon.
He was coming for her.
So here she was, hiding in the back of an SUV heading toward Little River, a small farming town in New Jersey, to the territory of a group of stallion shifters.
One of the males in the SUV coughed and she stopped musing on the past and focused on the present.Lifting her head, she looked out the back window but could only see darkness.
“You okay back there?”one of them asked.Joss perhaps.
“Yeah.”
“It’ll be fine,” another male said.“The stallions are a great group.Very protective.And we’re not being followed.”
She wanted to ask how he was sure, but she thought that might be insulting.
“I promise we’re not being followed,” the third male said.“You’ll be safe at the farm.”
“Thanks.”
She let her head fall back against the side of the SUV and closed her eyes, seeing Sunny’s face as they’d said goodbye at the park.Sunny had promised Fallon would find safety at the farm and that eventually Otto would forget all about her and the arranged mating and move on, but Fallon wasn’t so sure she’d be that lucky.
Plus, her mom was still with the jaguars, and Fallon had no idea if she was okay.
Communication with her had been spotty, everyone afraid to bring danger around with too much chatter.
Damn, she missed her mom.
She missed things being normal.Peaceful.
Just her and her mom and Sunny, in the campground the jaguar prowl had called home before everything went to hell.
How long was she going to be with the stallions of Little River?Was her mom okay?Would Otto try to hurt Sunny to get information on Fallon?
