Chapter
One
Freedom.An illusion that was about to shatter.
“Stop! The council requires all shifters to be registered with a pack city.”
Not bothering to look back, I sprinted down the alley, heading for the metal ladder I secured to the ground the day I moved into this apartment block. I never went into any situation without a plan B, C, and D in the works. These plans had kept me out of shifter cities for the past ten years, ever since Mom died.
“Fucking rogue! Stop!” he shouted again.
I felt the force of his dominance as he attempted to halt me in my tracks, but it rolled off me like it was never there. The fact that I was unaffected would clue him in to my designation, increasing the danger to me tenfold. Which I’d worry aboutifI got caught.
I’d never expected to encounter an alpha in Jacksonville, Florida. Alphas, as a rule, stuck to the main shifter cities, and I, as a rule, never went near those places.
Slamming against the ladder’s metal rungs, I scaled it in seconds, my long legs and lithe frame giving me the assist needed to move quickly to the second floor. When I scrambledonto the metal balcony, I partially shifted and used my wolf claws to swipe through the rope binding the ladder.
I was gone before it even retracted. In these situations, the difference between freedom and finding myself at the mercy of the packs was a matter of seconds. This wasn’t my first chase, but it was my first from an alpha.
“Unregistered shifters are required to face the Alpha Council in Golden Claw City,” he repeated, his rage spilling so loudly that even inside the building I heard him. If there were weaker alphas—or beta and delta shifters—around, they’d be on their knees at his dominance. Thank fuck I didn’t have to deal with that. There weren’t a lot of positives to my designation within the packs, but this was one.
I heard a bang as he grabbed the railing to pull himself up, but I was already racing through the empty apartment hall. I’d lived in this rent-by-the-week craphole long enough to know the quickest path to the other side and into the alley where I’d stashed my bike.
Without my baby, a Yamaha YZF-R6, I’d already be dead ten times over.
Golden Claw City was the absolute worst place for me to end up. Or any of the pack cities. The moment I stepped foot in front of the council they’d figure out my designation and the alphas would fight to destroy me. I’d spent too many years avoiding my mom’s fate to give in now.
Exiting the building through an open window, I dropped the full story down to the ground, my legs barely registering the impact as I scrambled for my bike. I hadn’t even been here a month, and it was already time to move on. Farther from the pack cities. Farther from whatever destiny awaited me at the hands of the council.
Farther from turning into my mother.
Not that she hadn’t deserved absolutely everything that happened to her, but that wasn’t the point. The point was, I couldn’t let the same happen to me.
My baby was exactly where I’d left her, tucked into a side street, already packed with a bag holding enough essentials to get me through a week. My getaway bag never left my bike, no matter how long I spent in a town.
The engine roared to life with a twist of my key and press of the button. There was a shout from behind.Fuck a delta!He found me fast. The alpha had my scent now, which would absolutely bite me on the ass, but I couldn’t worry about it today.
I had to get out of Jacksonville.
Lifting the kickstand, I pulled the clutch and shifted it into gear, taking off into the darkening street. It was early evening, but the weather in Florida was far from cooling off, even as we approached Halloween. I had wondered about the weather changes here, but I wasn’t going to find out; it was time to ditch the East Coast and head into a new territory.
Step one: avoid the main pack cities. There were five that I was aware of: Silver City in Vermont, Greenville in Louisiana, Durangille in Montana on the Canadian border, Thorny Gardens in Kansas, and the largest of all cities was Golden Claw. It sat on the West Coast in Oregon, right near the Californian border, taking up a large chunk of its forests and land.
Don’t get me wrong, shifters could be anywhere—witch magic kept the humans out of shifter cities, but unfortunately it didn’t keep shifters from human towns. But they never stayed long-term. If you weren’t tied to one of the cities and their council, then you were considered a rogue.
And rogues got put down.
I’d been on the run for a long time, but the last eight months had been particularly tough. It was almost as if I kept findingmyself drawn to areas where shifters were visiting, which had forced me to run more than usual. It was freakin’ exhausting.
My ride through the dense urban center started slow, then I was able to fully open her up on the highway. As I sped into the darkness, my pulse finally stopped hammering in my throat, and my wolf’s growl simmered down in my chest. We weren’t on the best of terms these days, my beast and I. We might share a soul but her instincts were ancient and didn’t always align with human emotions. To her, we should be with other shifters, going on pack runs, protected from the human world.
A wolf’s instinct knew that a strong pack was the greatest force on Earth, and she pushed me toward the shifter cities every time I was in wolf form. Hence why I hadn’t shifted in weeks and would hold out until there was no other choice.Pack,she rumbled before settling down.
It’s too dangerous, we’re not like other shifters.
My wolf huffed, and I knew she thought I was an idiot ruled by a weak brain, but she left it with a derisive huff for now.
Forcing my thoughts away from another narrow escape, I let my mind calm, until there was nothing except the open road.
