Destined to the Pride

by Kristen Strassel

  “I’m so happy for you, Daphne. You and Leo,” Mom said. She reached out for him and included him in the hug. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”

  “Because.” All my fears seemed so irrelevant now that she held me in her arms. “Everyone’s been so...”

  “Daphne.” Mom was stern. “This is my grandchild. I don’t care what it is. I love her or him already. And I always will.”

  That was it. No more holding back the happy tears.

  “Him.” Leo nudged me.

  I rolled my eyes and wiped away the tears. “Her.”

  Leo still held Dakota. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Why’s Daphne crying?”

  “Daphne and Leo are going to have a baby,” my mom told her.

  Dakota’s mouth dropped and her big eyes grew even huger. “You are?”

  I nodded.

  “Is it going to be a lion or a doe?”

  This was easier than I thought it was going to be. “We don’t know yet.” Both lions and deer were born human.

  “You’re going to bring her over to play with me, right? Like Juliette?”

  “Of course.”

  Dakota looked back to Leo, twirling her fingers in his hair. Thank Gods for my mother that we didn’t date until The Mate, because Dakota was going to be handful. “I hope it’s a lion.”

  One Year Later

  “SORRY WE’RE LATE,” I said to Chloe as Dakota and I rushed into the house. We came from gymnastics class. “Traffic was insane in town.”

  “That’s all right. We weren’t going anywhere.” Chloe was surrounded by babies. Juliette was in her rolly chair, and Dakota was already on the floor handing her a teddy bear. Jett, who was a couple weeks old, was draped over Chloe’s shoulder, and she patted her new baby’s back.

  “Hey, pumpkin.” I fell to the ground as Liam, my baby, crawled over to me. As soon as he was close enough, I scooped him up and covered him in kisses. He squealed with laughter. It was my favorite sound in the whole world, so I kissed him more. “Were you a good boy for Auntie Chloe?”

  I pretended to toss him up in the air, but stopping at the last minute. He loved it. He loved it even more when Leo actually let him go airborne, but Mama was a little more cautious.

  We still had no idea what Liam would be when he shifted. He was almost a perfect split of me and Leo. His curly hair was dark, and his huge eyes were hazel. Now that he was here, it didn’t matter anymore. Whatever he shifted into, he would always have the love and support of his family.

  “He was awesome, like he always is.” Chloe eased Jett into her lap, and tossed the burp rag that had been on her shoulder into the basket she kept in the living room. With three kids under two here, efficiency was a necessity.

  “You’re so organized. I’m still a mess from the move.” We got a bigger place, so Liam could have his own room. And a spare bedroom.

  “You’ll have it all sorted out soon. Take your time. Everyone’s so focused on getting things ready on the mountain.”

  “Yeah, can you believe they’ll have the ski lift up and running by November?” I was so proud of what Leo and Dylan had accomplished this year. They were keeping the ski lodge and the cabins rustic and retro, thanks to Ari’s eye for design and color. Now they were working on outdoor lighting so all the activities they had planned could go well into the night. Traver turned one of the cabins into a pub, and all the shifters on the mountain were working on a luge track.

  “That’s what Cane said.” He was a partner, too, and his focus was on bringing entertainment to the mountain. “It’s going to be so much fun when we all get snowed in together.”

  “Yeah, everyone will be partying and we’ll be snuggled in with babies.” Not that I minded at all. Cuddling with Liam was my favorite thing to do. And Chloe was going to be running the daycare center.

  “I know. Hot carob, pajamas, warm babies...under blankets in front of the fire, watching movies. I can’t wait.” Chloe smiled as she watched her daydream.

  “Leo’s going to have this one on skis as soon as he can stand up on his own.” I rolled my eyes and bounced Liam on my knee. “He tells me every chance he gets.”

  “Ma...Mama...Ma Ma Ma Ma.”

  I gasped. “Did you hear that?”

  Chloe’s face lit up. “I did. Is that the first time he said that?”

  “Yeah.” My heart skipped a beat every time he said it again. I thought I couldn’t be any more in love with this kid. “He’s said Dada for a couple weeks, but this is the first time he’s said that.” I kissed his head.

  “They always say Dada first.” Chloe laughed. “We get no credit.”

  “Right?” My phone vibrated in my pocket. Dakota had moved over next to us and was already playing with Liam as he kept saying Mama over and over. I hated to let him go as he said my name, but I knew this could be important, so I handed him over to her.

  “Hey, Ari. What’s up?” I said when I answered.

  “It’s Dylan. Ari’s in labor.”

  “Oh my Gods!” I gasped and clapped my hand over my mouth. Chloe kept motioning for me to tell her what was going on. “Where are you guys?”

  “On the mountain.”

  “She’s got help, right?” The last thing I wanted was Ari to be alone with no medical help on Mount Deception. Her pregnancy was risky to begin with. She couldn’t lose another baby.

  “Yeah, there are nurses up here, and there’s a birthing center.”

  Sometimes I forgot how sophisticated the mountain really was.

  “We’ll be there as soon as we can.” I hung up the phone and turned to Chloe. “Let’s get the kids ready to go. Ari’s having the baby.”

  LATER THAT EVENING, Dylan came out of the birthing room, his eyes rimmed red, but looking happier and more exhausted than I’d ever seen him. “She’s beautiful.” His voice cracked on the last word.

  “Can we see her?” I asked.

  “Yeah.” Dylan sat down next to his brother. Leo clasped his hand in congratulation. “She’s wiped out, but she wants to see you guys.”

  Chloe and I left the babies with the boys and tiptoed in Ari’s room. She lay in the raised bed, a tiny baby resting on her chest. It always shocked me how little they were when they came out. And it made me sad that Liam had already grown so much.

  I already knew her name was Maisie, and all I could see was the top of her head. The blonde fuzz had already dried from her first bath.

  “How are you doing, Mama?” I asked, leaning over to kiss Ari on the cheek.

  “Absolutely amazing.” Even after having a baby, Ari glowed. I knew how bad she wanted this. And how scared she was she’d never have it. I knew exactly how she felt. “Isn’t she beautiful?”

  “Yes, she is.” I sat down on the edge of the bed, lacing my fingers through Ari’s. “Now our little family is complete.”

  THANK YOU!

  I can’t believe this series has come to a close! I’ve had such a good time writing it, and I’ve met so many great people because of it. My thanks to the Wolf Pack, for being so supportive. All I have to say is these animals on Mount Deception sound interesting. Let’s see if they have some stories to tell. Either way, you can’t get rid of me that fast, there’s many more stories coming down the pike. And please stay in touch! The voices in my head keep me pretty close to my computer, so I’d love to hear from you! My website has a blog where I talk about book stuff and whatever else comes to mind, I’ve always got Facebook and Twitter open, and I send out newsletters with new releases and cover reveals. And sometimes treats. Want a look behind the scenes? Join my Facebook reader group, Kristen's Backstage Pass.

  Who doesn’t like treats? Keep reading for the first chapter of Forever Home, which is book one is my Sawtooth Shifters series. It’s free on all retailers, so make sure to grab a copy!

  Happy reading!

  Chapter One—Forever Home

  Shadow

  The plan didn’t change because we were prisoners.

  We weren’t me
ant to be in one place for this long. Wolves needed to move, needed to hunt. Ryker, the bastard who captured us, knew it, and he’d set it up so we could only hunt each other. Chained, starving, and wallowing in our own filth. The worst part of it was that we’d been outsmarted by one of our own.

  We had the three Lowe brothers in our sights when we’d been caught. We’d meant to scare them away from Ryker’s farm, and avoid a pack war. Little did we know what horrors were actually harbored here. Now we were all in a fight to survive.

  A sliver of the moon lit the open doorway. The dull roar of the crowd rose with the old man’s arrival. No surprise. Nothing on Ryker Farm happened by accident.

  “All right, beasts, I’m upping the ante this month.” Ryker curled his tobacco-stained lips in a nasty smile. Still in his human form, he was skinny as we were, meanness consuming him. All that was left was flesh, bone, and a black heart. No soul. Ryker had every advantage over us. He knew our secrets, our traditions. He knew how to keep us weak. The new moon did us no favors, we relied on its power for our energy. Every month he starved us, beat us, and kept us in complete darkness when we should have been reveling in the moon’s full beauty. It kept us from shifting back to pissed off men. “Whoever wins gets set free.”

  My brothers and I looked at each other, wary. We never saw eye to eye with the Lowes, but they were on the same page with us on this one. Ryker’s promise wouldn’t come without a catch.

  Ryker threw food on the ground. Fucking kibble. The Lowe brothers scrambled for it, pride replaced long ago by the need to survive. Anticipation gnawed at my empty belly. Growls rose from the other side of the pen. Probably made for pigs, we didn’t have room to turn around without hitting another body. Even if we did, our chains were too short to allow it. No place to get away from anyone’s thoughts, especially my own.

  The old farmer cackled as he brought the bag closer to us. My brother Baron nipped at the sack. For that he was rewarded with a boot in the face. Kibble spilled from the torn burlap. “You want to be greedy? That’s all you savages get.”

  Good. We’d be hungry for the fight.

  “Who are we sending out?” my brother Dallas asked, gaze fixed on me. My brothers expected me to have the answers, but it was impossible to think straight with the chain cutting into the skin on my neck. Anger and hunger swirled through my body, mixing together and becoming a dizzy anger. Every time I looked at my brothers, the less I thought I could save them. I couldn’t show weakness, especially with the Lowe brothers close enough to smell it. They’d been calling us weak for years. They’d be picking us out from between what was left of their teeth if I gave them the chance. Dallas lowered his voice, so only the four of us could hear it. “Are we going with speed or strength?”

  He was dying for me to say speed. Last month Ryker had paired him against Xavier, and the fight got called with X’s paw on Dallas’ throat. X hadn’t shut up about it all month. Both wolves were raw, bloody, and barely breathing when they were thrown back in the pen, chained so healing properly was a luxury. I wouldn’t exactly call it a victory, but revenge would be so sweet.

  I whacked Dallas, my paw still sore from last night’s scuffle for food. Ryker had thrown chickens into the pen and the chance at actual meat had all of us slobbering, baring our teeth at each other, brother or not. The spilled kibble still littered the ground below our feet, dirty as we were. Ryker was treating us like livestock, planning to slaughter us in a different manner.

  “Doesn’t fucking matter what you do.” Xavier, no it was Major, called out from the other side of the pen. Xavier was too chicken shit to talk out of turn. “Every single one of us can fuck you up.” Major had trained his brothers to be bloodthirsty, to take what they needed and not look back. Search and destroy.

  I couldn’t argue, it was a pretty good philosophy, and it was shared by most of the werewolf packs in Sawtooth Forest. We were dying out, killing each other. Now in Granger Falls we weren’t much more than a legend. Ghosts. No food and a lack of female wolves insured we’d be history by the end of this generation. I wanted a future, and we needed to change everything or else all we’d have was a past.

  We’d been brought up differently. Yeah, we hunted and killed, but we didn’t destroy. We protected our own. Less prey in the wild had me scared more for my brothers than myself. That mindset didn’t make the Channing pack popular in Sawtooth, but it wasn’t going to matter what anyone thought if we were all dead.

  But what really scared me was being without a mate.

  “I’ll take him,” I growled, pulling on my chain to get as close Major as I could. I’d had enough of his mouth over the last six months. I’d enjoy stomping on it. “Fight to the death.” I’d sunk to Major’s level, but hard time in Hell did that to even the strongest wolf.

  There was no reasoning with anyone during a dogfight.

  Archer nudged my haunch with his snout. “No,” my baby brother whispered. He’d taken my name, Shadow, to heart and become mine as soon as he was old enough to venture away from our mother.

  Major roared with laughter, angry pink skin visible where the chains had worn away his fur. We could understand each other when we spoke, but a human spectator would only hear barking and growling. I glared at Archer. He was weak, there was no hiding it. He hadn’t been a liability until we’d been captured. “You lose, Shadow, and your little pup belongs to me. I’ll make him a man. Somebody’s gotta do it. I don’t have time for the babying bullshit.”

  “He’ll never follow you.” Major and I stood snout to snout. The edges of his nose were dry and his threat was empty. My brothers were restless behind me. If I turned around, the Lowes would know my family doubted me. “I don’t plan on losing.”

  “I don’t either.” One side of Major’s lip turned up in a feral smirk. “He’ll be my slave. You can go to Hell with that on your conscience.”

  After a few more rounds of grunts and huffs, both Major and I retreated to our sides of the pen. If we’d had the chance, we’d settle it here. That bastard Ryker made sure our chains were too short to do any real damage to each other. He knew we’d have plenty of pent-up rage for the paying customers.

  They’d get their money’s worth tonight.

  “Eat,” I huffed at my brothers, kibble catching in my dry throat.

  “This shit?” Dallas said, kicking at the kibble. “It’s barely food.”

  No kidding, brother. “We need to be prepared.”

  “I thought you were going in?” Archer’s eyes widened. I pushed more of the kibble toward him. I’d been too busy scarfing down chicken last night to notice if Archer got anything more than feathers stuck to his tongue. Omegas ate last, and I was ashamed I hadn’t taken better care of him so close to the fights.

  “What’s your plan if Ryker actually lets you out of here, Shadow?” Baron asked quietly, not to be overheard by the Lowes. We learned long ago we could only trust each other.

  I glared at Major, speaking loudly enough for him to hear me. “I’m bringing that bastard down.”

  WE MIGHT BE EMACIATED and humbled, but no one would mistake us for meek or common as we were paraded to the ring by Ryker’s thug farmhands. Heads held high, nothing to hide. Even in chains we were stronger than these bastards. We were still proud.

  So close to freedom.

  The air was thick with beer, weed, and sweat. I’d dreamed of this moment since Ryker and his thugs had shot us all with tranquilizer guns and enslaved us.

  It was our own frigging fault. The Lowes had set their sights on Ryker’s barn. They’d started a livestock smuggling business. Hunting was harder every season with Granger Falls expanding into our territory. Farms were easy prey and that kind of meat went for serious money in the forest.

  They’d been stupid and lazy about it. Ryker was an old bastard, but he was one of the first wolves who managed to acclimate with humans in Granger Falls. I had no doubt he was running his livestock on the black market. Otherwise, he’d never have all these meatheads doing
security for them. Had the Lowes been caught with Ryker’s livestock, it would’ve started a war between the packs. We were minutes away from stopping them when we got caught. The Channings had always kept order in the forest. For generations, our family had been the peacekeepers.

  Now Ryker was using that to his advantage with his very own gladiator ring.

  Blood and bad decisions packed the stands every month. No two fights were the same. Over the last six months, we’d been conditioned to be prepared for the worst case scenario at all times.

  Ryker scanned over the seven of us. “You.” He pulled on Shea’s chain. Fuck, Shea didn’t have any limits or any conscience. He’d been a bloodthirsty lunatic since we were kids. I considered it a weakness. Major needed to get a rein on his brother. The pack only had room for one alpha.

  I didn’t care which one of them I fought, but tonight it looked like the opponents were already chosen. Ryker hated a fair fight. The crowd had already placed their bets and Ryker loved to protect house money.

  “And you.” Our chains were tangled, and all four of us skidded forward. Ryker exhaled loudly, pushing one of his thugs out of the way so he could untangle the chains, pulling roughly on them while he worked. We all stumbled off balance as the chains came free. One more tug made it clear who he wanted. Archer.

  “No!” I dove at Ryker, who responded by kicking me in the ribs. The old man was rattled when I latched onto his ankle; he pried his bloody leg free of my grip. My neck snapped back, and a boot landed on my head. The thug didn’t press down hard enough to break anything, just held me down as Ryker landed one last blow to my stomach.

  Archer refused to move, digging his paws in the dirt and staring at me, Baron, and Dallas. “Save it for the ring,” I yelled to my little brother. The pain in those blue eyes would haunt me forever. Ryker dragged him through the dirt, and I nodded to him. Six months in captivity left me weak, but I’d give my brother everything I had. Archer understood. He picked up his feet, tail up, prancing with all the pride a beaten wolf could muster beside Ryker.