“No, it’s perfect! I’ve got it all worked out!” Tina protested. “I’m going to drive up the coast and meet up with her and get her identity card tonight, and we’ll swap out your picture for hers. And she’s going to give me her bus ticket too.”
“But what if her pack calls and wants to make sure she arrived safely?”
“Well, it’s a new territory, so there’s not going to be any cell service, internet, anything like that. It’ll be pretty hard for them to get ahold of you.” Tina looked her up and down. “She’s larger figured, like you, but she does have shorter hair. We’ll just give you a quick haircut. Other than that, you’re good.”
Dakota frowned. Could this possibly work? Shifter identity cards were pretty easy to alter. They didn’t even have an online database like humans did; shifters liked to maintain a low profile.
“What would I do for work?” she said.
“Do anything. Waitress. Babysit. It would be like a vacation in the beautiful mountain region of New Hampshire.”
That did sound tempting.
“Bottom line. Do you want to be forced to marry Roy?”
Dakota found herself actually considering it. It was probably her only chance. She and Tina used to meet up in an abandoned hunter’s cabin when they were in high school; nobody else from her pack knew about it. She could hide out there and wait for Tina to bring the fake ID and bus ticket…
“My dad would search everywhere for me,” she pointed out.
“How would he find you, though? He wouldn’t know you had a fake ID and new name, and he doesn’t know about the cabin, and the shuttle you’d be taking leaves from Los Angeles the day after tomorrow.”
“But how long would I have to hide out?” Dakota felt a clenching in her chest. There were many, many things she hated about being here, but still…she liked some of the pack members, and she clung to the hope that someday her father would come around.
“Probably just a few months,” Tina said. “If Roy’s that much of a man-slut, he’ll move on and find someone else, so then your dad can’t force you to marry him. And your dad will be so grateful to see you again, he’ll back off and let you marry whoever you want.”
Or he’ll lock me in my room until I’m a hundred years old, Dakota thought. But she’d deal with that when the time came.
Tina was right; Roy was eager to marry so his father would let him start his own pack, and he wouldn’t wait for Dakota.
Even a few months living under another name sounded so tempting. No more people being fake to her face and spitting insults behind her back. People could like her or hate her, but it wouldn’t be because she was the daughter of Brandon Sheffield.
“Let’s do this,” she said. “Where’s a pair of scissors?”
Chapter Three
“Looks like the Montenegro pack chickened out,” Anders said to his cousin Miles Williams, the Alpha Prime of the Fenris Pack.
Anders, Miles, and the pack Omega Baldwin had arrived at the town square early – and been disappointed.
“Yep. What a surprise.” Miles flicked an annoyed glance across the town square at the shuttle bus that had parked there a few minutes ago. The last of the shifters had climbed off…and all of them were either females, or species of shifter other than wolf.
Baldwin just shrugged. He was a wolf of few words.
“Man, I was looking forward to a little recreational killing. Everyone’s going to be disappointed.” Anders grinned and stuck his hands in his jeans pockets.
It was true. The town square was much more crowded than usual. Half the shifters in the territory had taken off work and gathered at the center of town for the bus’s arrival. They were itching to see the fight between Miles and whatever suicidal fool the Montenegro Pack had sent to “lay down the law”. Their Alpha, Ludwik Torville, had sent formal notice that their challenger was arriving on this morning’s bus to seek revenge against Miles for killing one of his grandsons.
Of course, the Montenegro Pack knew their challenger was a dead wolf walking, but they had little choice. If they didn’t send someone, they’d appear weak, and other packs would start moving in on them. Miles had heard a rumor that they’d all drawn straws, and the one who’d picked the short straw had been the one forced to come up here to die.
Miles scowled at the bus. “So the Montenegro pack are a bunch of liars, as well as thieves,” he growled.
Miles had killed Shaun Torville after he’d been caught stealing from the Fenris Pack’s job site. Shaun had been nothing but trouble since he’d showed up at the Greenlands territory a couple of months earlier with his ratty little nieces and nephews in tow. He’d drunk, he’d stolen, and he hadn’t done a lick of work. At first Miles had let it slide because of the cubs, but then he’d figured out that Shaun left them to fend for themselves anyway.
“And my ribs had just healed,” Anders mock-groaned, patting his broad chest. When Miles didn’t have anyone to fight, he sparred with his packmates. The power that coursed through him needed a release – or the consequences would be deadly, for him and everyone around him. Baldwin did his job as Omega and absorbed as much as he could, but he could only cycle so much through his body without getting desperately ill.
“Don’t get your fur in a knot,” Miles said. “There’ll be another death challenge before the week’s out.”
Well, no arguing that. In this raw, newly developing territory, packs were still jostling for power and land – and everyone turned to Miles for answers. He didn’t have a problem with that; he was Alpha Prime, and death challenges came with the job. He and his pack had been the first to arrive there six months earlier, and Miles had made it clear from the beginning that he would be the one laying down the law.
