Chapter One
Trinity
I know when I cross into Katu territory because the dead stop following me.
It’s not sudden.Nothing in my life ever is, but the ghosts thin out the way fog does when the sun rises—reluctant, dragging their feet, and whispering last warnings that curl around my ears and sink into my bones.By the time I reach the tree line, there’s only one left.
A young wolf.A male with his throat torn open.His eyes are soft with relief.
“You’ll be safe here,”he tells me, fading away as I take another step forward.I stop anyway.I always do.
Six months alone teaches you caution like nothing else can.Six months of sleeping light, running hard, and pretending the whispers don’t hurt teaches you that safety is temporary and packs are worse than the wilderness when they decide you don’t belong.
The forest smells different here.Lived-in.The scent of wolves is layered over the scent of even more wolves and other shifters I can’t quite place, not sharp with dominance or rotten with cruelty.There’s a lot to take in, but somehow, it’s not overwhelming.The ground hums under my boots, a low thrum of natural magic that makes my wolf stir.
Home, she whispers, hopeful and stupid before I silence her with practiced ease.Home is a lie wolves tell themselves before they’re torn apart by it.
I adjust the straps of my pack and keep moving, skirting the border instead of crossing it.I don’t want trouble.I want food, water, and somewhere to sleep where I won’t wake with a knife at my throat or teeth in my spine.
The dead were right, though.I can feel it in my chest.
Katu Wolves.I’ve heard the name in murmurs and half-spoken hopes.A pack that takes in the unwanted.The broken.The dangerous.Which means they won’t want me.
The snap of a branch is all the warning I get.
I spin, knife in hand, my wolf surging up my spine as two shapes step out of the trees.Both male.Both wolves.Neither hiding their presence.
That’s ...unusual.
One of them is broad and scarred, eyes sharp and assessing.A fighter.The other...The world tilts.
The mate bond hits like a fist to my sternum, knocking the air from my lungs.My wolf howls, wild and desperate, clawing forward with a joy so fierce it borders on pain.
Him.He’s tall, dark-haired, and steady in a way that makes my knees want to buckle.His eyes are a deep, stormy gray, and when they lock on mine, something ancient and unbreakable snaps into place between us.
Mine.I stagger back a step instead.
“No,” I breathe, because fate has a cruel sense of humor and I don’t trust it not to laugh at me again.
The other male swears under his breath.“Shit.”
My mate doesn’t move.Doesn’t bare his teeth.Doesn’t crowd me or reach out.He just looks at me, eyes burning with recognition and something else I don’t want to name but looks strangely like acceptance.And the thought of that scares me more than the thought of rejection ever did.
“I’m Grayson,” he says quietly.His voice wraps around my name even though he doesn’t know it yet.“You’re on Katu pack land.”
I lift my chin, not showing any of the turmoil I am feeling.“I’m just passing through.”
His gaze flicks to the knife in my hand, the worn boots, and the dirty pack slung over my shoulder.To the way my eyes track empty spaces in the trees, where echoes still linger.
“Passing through usually doesn’t smell like running,” he says.
I don’t answer because I don’t owe him anything.The dead are silent now, and the absence is loud enough to make my skin itch.
The other wolf steps forward.“Alpha Caine is going to want to meet her.”
Grayson nods slowly, his gaze never leaving me.“I know.”
I laugh, short and sharp.“I’m not meeting your Alpha.I’m not staying here.”
