PROLOGUE
GLENN
It’s a supermoon tonight,the black sky illuminated by the shining sphere as it orbits Earth. It’s beautiful, so large and bright, but what makes it even more special is what happens on nights like this.
The Den, a tavern in the forest above the town of Wolverston, hosts an event: the Heat Hunt. It’s an opportunity to go back to our roots, to a time when we shifted and hunted. When we were both human and wolves. When we took what we wanted.
The Heat Hunt is for omegas in heat and the alphas who want to chase and catch them—to push them onto their knees andtake.
I’ve never participated in the event before, but was convinced by a friend to partake this time.
“It will change your life, man,” Fisher said. “You really feel like a fucking wolf when you run through the forest and rut with someone, all primal.”
It took little to convince me to sign up. My life is pretty boring. I paid my fee to take part, had a short interview with the man who runs it, and now here I am.
I glance at my reflection in the windowpane of the room I’m waiting in. I’m completely naked except for the wolf features painted onto my face, hiding my true identity. This event allows you to come, chase, fuck, and then leave at the end with no one knowing who you are. No one needs to know the depraved things you’d do when given the opportunity.
A place where fetishes can remain secret.
I run a hand through my hair and then down my bare chest.
I can smell the telltale signs of heat in the air, the musty scent of slick. Tonight, I’m going to hunt an omega, bring them back here, and fuck them until they cry. Gonna make them mine.
I walk outside The Den, a mist hanging in the air, the looming trees in the distance shadowy and swaying eerily in the moonlight. It rained last night, so the ground is wet and muddy.
All the better to fuck in, I think.
My eyes swivel to several torches placed outside The Den and at least a dozen naked alphas, who are pacing back and forth, getting ready to find someone to bring back, to rut. Similar to me, their faces are all hidden, some even wearing pelts of wolf fur over their bare shoulders.
The scent of anticipation flows through the air, and I feel my lungs expand.
Suddenly, a low voice booms through the night. “The moon is high, the time is now.”
A howl reverberates around us, and manic laughs reverberate through the trees as the alphas take off. I can feel the pounding of their feet, and of my own.
I can hear my heartbeat as adrenaline surges through me.
My bare soles dig into the damp earth as I rush forward, the other alphas moving in opposite directions, hunting their prey. We’re not shifters anymore, but we can pretend. We still have some of those wolf genes, and the primal part is welling up inside of us in this moment.
The knot, the pheromones. The superhuman eyesight and hearing.
We’re not far off from the clans that can still shift.
A branch hits my bare arm as I turn a corner, trying to catch sight of one omega I can hear running through the forest. I can’t scent omegas as well as our ancestors could, but I catch some of the stronger notes, and this individual smells delicious.
None of the fainter hints of other omegas appeals to me. None of them smell particularly enticing. But this one…
I keep moving, leaves crunching under my bare feet as I move further into the forest.
And then I see it—the flash of silver makes my pupils dilate and my breathing grow labored.
A lone, unclaimed omega appears before me.
Not a woman. A man.
Hm. A man. Something different. Something I’ve never tried before.
And this close, he smells different from anything I’ve smelled before. Like he’s not fully an omega. Like he’smore.
