My moment of solitude is interrupted.

  The large black wolf hangs on the edges of the rocks past the waterfall, his blue eyes looking at me, waiting.

  I bare my teeth.

  What the hell are you doing here? I speak to him. To human ears it would just sound like a growl or a bark, but that was the thing about telepathic communication. Unless you were tuned into the same frequency, you’d never hear it as it was meant to be heard.

  Dustin sits on his hind legs, the wind rustling his fur.

  You don’t own the woods, Jade. I have just as much a right to be here as you.

  I snarl.

  How dare he think he can intrude…

  I don’t want you here.

  My haunches are up, and I can’t deny that both my wolf and I want to bite him and show him who the true alpha is. Because it isn’t him.

  I know. But I’m not here to fight with you.

  I scoff in my own head as I stalk my ground.

  Then leave. Because if you stay, I can’t guarantee you won’t get my teeth in your fucking neck.

  I growl viciously.

  Ever the cool, emotionless son of a bitch that he is, Dustin stalks closer.

  I mean it! I snap my jaw in his direction.

  Save your venom. We’ve got bigger problems than… us. He cocks his head to the side, towards the dirt path that I know leads out of the falls and back into the neighborhoods of Starfall Creek.

  Don’t start with this shit…

  Jade, Ranger just got back from his trip. He’s pretty fucked up.

  My heart stills. No, not Ranger.

  I can handle a lot of things, but I can not handle something terrible happening to Ranger.

  My only connection to the outside world. My best friend.

  Ranger is part of Hollow Pack, although he isn’t a blood Hollow. My father had taken him in when he was just six years old. He is the sun to my moon, probably the only person who really knows me, and quite possibly the only person who can deal with me and my attitude.

  Ranger is just so… likable. He gets along with everyone, whereas I…

  He’ll be ok. But he was injured… Dustin approaches me cautiously and sits down in front of me, putting one paw across the invisible line that separates us. I look down at it, then back at him. My heart aches in my chest for reasons I won’t admit to anyone. Not even to myself.

  Cut to the chase, Dustin. What aren’t you saying? I twitch my neck, and feel the anxiety pooling once more. The need to run is pertinent.Something else happened on his supply run. A human saw him shift.

  The world seems to completely still on its axis.

  That just can’t be right… shifting in the human world is forbidden.

  If Ranger really did shift, there has to be a good reason. He wouldn’t break a cardinal rule like that without a damn good reason.

  I run as fast as I can, my heart beating heavily in my chest. Dustin follows behind me, and for the moment I don’t care. It’s not long before he’s at my side.

  Race you to the Hollow House? Dustin runs beside me, keeping my pace.

  My wolf twitches at the challenge, and I can’t resist. It’s always a competition with him.

  It’s your funeral, Blackridge. I nod in response as we both take off like a rocket in search of the moon.

  To most people, Starfall Creek probably looks like your average neighborhood, just with a lot more greenery. There’d been plenty of times over the years we’ve caught game hunters in the woods and had to chase them off the properties; the fact that the woods were settled nearby the town was enough to scare them off with threats of calling the sheriff. Some of them even came upon the shifting sheds, thinking they were outposts, but they couldn’t be more wrong.Every pack has their alpha house, and essentially, their own neighborhood of smaller homes and land. Starfall Creek saw quite a boom in the ’90s, and the neighborhoods went up practically overnight. But the forests... the forests belonged to every shifter in Starfall Creek, and due to the influx of new neighbors, and good old shifter drama, the shifting sheds had been erected. Hollow Pack, being the alpha pack of Starfall Creek has five. Scattered around the perimeter of their expansive acreage, of course. Which means that thankfully, I don’t have to wait for Dustin or see him in his birthday suit, as we can both easily find some privacy to shift back into our human form before entering the house.

  I stalk up to the first shed and nod at Dustin.

  Feel free to use one of the outlying sheds, if you want, before you leave.

  Dustin’s nose twitches.

  Thanks for the hospitality, but I’m not leaving.

  I still my need to growl. After all, I have bigger things to attend to than Dustin Blackridge.

  My future husband.

  The words enter my thoughts before I can even stop them. Dustin twitches his nose once more and heads off. Part of me wishes he’d say something, some sarcastic comment, But he just leaves, allowing that awkward silence hanging between us. I nudge open the door, finding my way inside the wooden shed which is always stocked with at least a few pairs of drawstring sweats and hoodies, and of course unmentionables, in an array of sizes, in the plastic drawers Ranger had brought back from one of his many trips.There is also a nice selection of non-perishable post shift snacks. There is even a sink to wash up should someone incur an injury in their wolf form that didn’t heal right away.

  The shift from wolf to human is always more painful than the shift from human to wolf. It’s like my bones know who it is truly meant to be, and it resists any sort of dominance otherwise. The sound of crunching bone on bone, the retraction of warm fur leaving chilled flesh in its wake, the dizzying feeling of my human senses coming back and overriding my animal ones often leave me feeling a bit spaced and quite hungry.

  I stand in the sheltered space, my naked body adjusting to the temperature as the heat in my body falls back to normal. I close my eyes, taking a deep breath to ground myself to the world around me, and then finger through the plastic drawers for something that will make me feel more human.

  I grab a pair of boxers that smell fresher than anything else in the dank shed, and settle on a tie-dye hoodie and sweatpant ensemble that had to have come from the thrift shops. I tousle my naturally wavy hair out of the hood, open the door, and settle my eyes on the luminance of the back porch. The tiki torches are lit, the string bulbs Ranger claimed were some form of magic known as LED lights which didn’t need to be plugged in, casts a warm glow over the expansive deck which is filled with a small crowd.

  I walk towards the deck, my bare feet resonating with the moist earth beneath me—cool to the touch. Dad rubs his temples and my younger sisters Hannah, Melody, and Scarlet are all fawning over Ranger, as usual. My mother, JoEllen, is tending to our guests, who include Dustin and…

  Someone new. Someone I’ve never seen before.

  Shifters are a breed all their own. While we may look human on the outside, we are tuned into a completely different frequency. Our eyesight is better than most, more in line with the animal that lives inside of us. Even though I am a distance away, I can still make out the finer details.

  Like Ranger’s nasty gash, which looks to be healing. That must have been unsightly when it was fresh.

  I walk up the steps, and Ranger turns his gaze on me. He sits in the chaise lounge, looking every bit like he is enjoying the attention, but also he looks... scared. Like he knows he fucked up. But what could Ranger have done to put that look on his face?

  “Jade, nice of you to join my recovery party.” He smirks at me, honey eyes glimmering in the LED light.

  “Cut the shit, Ranger. What happened?” I know my tone must sound bitchy to our guest, but Ranger just smiles.

  “I’ve missed you too, baby.”

  I roll my eyes and cast a glare at Dustin. “I thought you said he was ‘fucked up’ beyond all repair, Dustin. He looks fucking fine to me,” I say as I lean against the wooden beams which boasted wraparound christmas lights. I cross my arms. I can feel movement beside me, realizing I just knocked into the complete stranger.

  “Sorry,” I shoot quickly, as I give him a once-over.

  He isn’t tall or muscular like Ranger, or the other shifter men. Nor does he smell like them.

  In fact, he is average height, dark eyes and hair, lean and trim like he doesn’t work out much, but he probably knows what kale is. He looks... different. Handsome and mysterious. I kind of… like it.

  He smells like ginger and orange peel. Like my favorite soap. It is the most soothing scent to me.

  “Don’t mention it.” He glances at me swiftly before averting his gaze to Ranger.

  Ranger dramatically clutches his heart and winks at me. “Your concern wounds me, Jade. I’m fine, really... just…”

  The hot stranger perks his gaze up. His eyes narrow at Ranger.

  “You are absolutely not fine. Just hours ago you nearly passed out from blood loss... in my house, no less. You could barely walk a straight line to the door.” His voice was solid and unwavering.

  Who is this guy?

  “Who attacked you, Ranger?” Maverick crosses his arms, his biceps looking larger from the motion in the warm, artificial light. It is the golden hour, and will be dark soon.

  Ranger cast an annoyed glance at Dustin.

  “What the hell is he doing here?” Ranger nods at him.

  “I—”

  “Dustin is my successor, Ranger. It was decided today.” Maverick’s tone carries that bold “drop it” sound he often takes on when another man asks him questions. Sometimes I wondered if that was the wolf speaking, or if it was just his own stubbornness talking.

  “You can’t be serious.” Ranger leans up, setting his elbows on his knees, and I don’t miss the gasp of breath he takes when he does.

  I feel the same way, Ranger, I think. Shocked, pissed, annoyed...

  “There will be no discussion. As the future alpha of this pack, Dustin has every right to be here.”

  Maverick looks at Dustin, who looks extremely uncomfortable with the shift of attention, but he straightens his shoulders anyway. He hates for anyone to think he’s less than perfect.

  “It was his fucking asshole packmate, Donevan, who bit me in the friggin neck! For all we know he’s just going to go right back to his fucking daddy and tell him everything,” Ranger spits out, gesturing a hand at Dustin.

  “I’m nothing like those assholes, Ranger, but you’re too much of a goddamn idiot to ever think for yourself.” Dustin’s shoulders tense as he growls at Ranger.

  “You should see a damn therapist for those anger issues, Blackridge.” Ranger smirks.

  “This has been wildly entertaining and all, but... I kind of need to get home…” The hot stranger says as he shifts his weight next to me.

  “That’s the other issue…” Ranger looks at Maverick with worry. His shoulders tense, and he looks nervous.

  “What’s the other issue?” Maverick looks tired.

  “This here is Reverie... er, Rev. He’s a friend, but… he kind of saw the whole thing. My fight with Donevan, that is.” The silence that follows is palpable.

  Maverick blinks, his jaw making that clicking sound it always does when he grinds his teeth together—a sign of his frustration.

  And then it hits me.

  The scent of orange peel and ginger, the trim build, the average height, and the awkwardness…

  Rev is a human.

  A human who witnessed Ranger shift, but also who witnessed a wolf attack in the human world.

  Dustin had said as much, but…

  I can’t deny that a part of me is intrigued by Reverie’s presence. I’ve never been out of Starfall Creek; the only humans I’ve ever had contact with were the garish hunters who stumbled across the borders by accident, hunting game. But now there is one here, at my house. Problem is, I’m not so sure he will make it out alive.

  Chapter 5

  Jade

  “Look, I don’t want any trouble. Really… I-I would just like to go home.” Rev can’t even look at my dad, though I could hardly blame him. Pretty much everyone is terrified of my dad. Except me and my mom. Even my sisters hate to piss him off.

  Scarlet, who’s sitting on Ranger’s left side, casually strokes his hair like he’s her boyfriend or something. Which is kind of hilarious, considering he’s told her a million times he’s not into her. He swats his hand at her dramatically, while Melody gives him a hug from behind.

  “I’m grateful that you have cared for and brought Ranger back to us in one piece, and I don’t mean this to sound so shitty, but… I don’t even know you. How can I trust you?” Maverick looks at Rev skeptically, who swallows nervously.

  “Because I’m a nobody. The kind of nobody that no one ever notices—” he looks at me briefly before forcing himself to meet Maverick’s eyes. “Besides, I’m not even sure what I saw.” He sighs. “I don’t know a thing. I won’t say a thing. I don’t even have anyone to talk to. I don’t have any friends, well, except for Ranger and Mrs. Hursch…”

  Ranger’s eyes soften at his words, and that is all I need.

  Ranger trusts this man, Rev. He considers him a friend, too. He trusted him when he was vulnerable, weak, and afraid. And this human bravely cared for him and returned him home safe and sound.

  “If Ranger trusts him, Dad, then I do too.” I speak up, knowing I need to back up Ranger—I’ll always back Ranger up.

  Rev does a double take and looks at me as if I’ve grown three heads.

  “Jade, it isn’t that simple. There are rules for a reason.” Maverick sits down in one of the big Adirondack chairs, his head in his hands as he shoots me a skeptical glance.

  “I get that. Believe me, I am not much of a rule breaker, uh... sir.” Rev stumbles over his words a bit.

  “He’s really not.” Ranger chimes in.

  “I just… uh, I need to get home. Clean up the store. My parents must be scared out of their minds not knowing what happened and all. The sooner I get back the easier it’ll be to explain.” He brushes his hair back as he starts to ramble.

  “If containing this is what you plan to do, Rick, then the less questions there are the better.” My mother sets her hand on his shoulder and I can see his tension alleviating.

  “You’re right, Jo.” He sighs.

  “Of course I am,” she purrs.

  “What do you plan on telling them, Reverie?” Dad looks at him once more.

  “Robbery gone wrong.” Rev answers almost instantly.

  “Robbery gone wrong and I was injured. You helped me through it,” Ranger adds. Rev blushes slightly but nods with a smile.

  “Yeah, that’s… much more believable.” He runs his hand through his hair, and something about the motion draws my attention to his slender arms, which look decently toned in the warm LED light.

  I feel a strange stirring in my stomach, and have to blink to come back to reality.

  What the hell has gotten into me?

  Dad looks stoic, as if he were truly contemplating this solution.

  He glances at me, then at Dustin.

  “What do you think, Dustin?” he asks. The back porch falls silent.

  My wolf stirs, itching to growl.

  I know in reality, what he is doing is just. After all, Dustin will take his place as Hollow Pack’s Alpha one day, and thus my dad needs to bring him into the fold, needs to know he is leaving his pack in good hands.

  But it still pisses me off that it isn't my opinion he seeks. An actual Hollow.

  “I think—” Dustin turns to me, his eyes soft in the light.

  “Ranger might be an idiot but... he’s a good friend. If he trusts this Rev enough to drive his truck,” Dustin chuckles as he looks at Ranger. “Then I do too.” Dustin looks back at me with sky blue eyes and a small smile gracing his face.

  My stomach twists into knots, and I force myself to look away from his eyes. I refuse to give in that easily.

  Not that I want to give in at all.

  “Well, it seems I am outnumbered then, doesn’t it, Jo?” I watch my father as he slides his hand over my mother’s, and I note the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes, as his lips turn up in his own smile.

  “It appears so, baby,” my mom answers.

  “Jade, take Rev home. Make sure he understands what’s at stake, understood?”

  “What?” I ask in confusion, realizing I must have completely spaced out for a moment.

  “Head’s always in the clouds, isn’t it, Dad?” Scarlet chuckles.

  “Take Rev home. Make sure he understands what’s at stake, and that he’s safe. Come back home.” Dad smirks.

  “Yes. Of course. Got it,” I answer confidently.

  For the second time in the day, I feel completely shell-shocked.

  I am going to leave Starfall Creek. Albeit, it’s only to take Ranger’s human friend home, but still. This is a big deal. It means Dad trusts me. I can’t help but smile like a damn schoolgirl.

  I am leaving Starfall Creek. I am going into the human lands.

  I am equal parts excited and terrified, but I can't let any of them see that.

  “Take the Jeep,” Dad says as he fishes his keys out of his pocket and tosses them to me.

  I catch them in midair.

  “You’ll need to leave now if you want to make it there and back before dawn,” Ranger says with a wink.

  “Can I at least change first?” I kick out my leg, showing off my ill fitting sweats and bare feet.

  “Make it quick,” Dad huffs.

  I turn to Rev. “Be back in five, meet you out front?” My eyes find his.

  That weird stirring feeling is back, and I feel like if I look long enough I’ll see the center of the whole damn universe.

  Rev’s voice catches. “Yeah. Sure,” he breathes. I break our intense stare off, and head into the house.

  Chapter 6

  Reverie

  I awkwardly say goodbye to the group of people hovering around me. I consider shaking Ranger’s hand or giving him a hug, but I fear if I get close enough to him those girls will latch onto me and never let go. I don’t know who they are, but they seem to really like Ranger. Maybe one of them is his girlfriend? All of them? I shake my head at the thought, fighting away the heat that crawls up my neck at the thought of multiple partners.