Chapter 1

Razl Drone had always believed that if there was one thing that didn’t mix well, it was humans and wolves— which was why he had a bad feeling about the current situation. Or more specifically, about the woman.

Climbing out of his truck, he stared through the hazy glow of silver-threaded moonlight, struggling to make out the features of the female sitting behind the wheel of a sky-blue Volkswagen bus. A human female. And a ridiculous- looking bus. With a whimsical confection of puffy white clouds painted down its sides, the vehicle looked more like something that belonged on a laid-back, surfer laden beach in Southern California, rather than the rugged terrain of the Maryland mountains. It was parked in a narrow field, just behind a small line of trees that hid it from the nearby road and any passing cars, which had obviously been the driver’s intention.

Velvety green sprigs of dog-mercury were scattered on the red soil. We came to the top of a slope, where the wood thinned...There was a deep little dell, sharp sloping like a cup, and a white sprinkling of flowers all the way down, with white flowers showing pale among the first inpouring of shadow at the bottom.

Fortunately, a pair of Silvercrest scouts had discovered the bus and its occupant while patrolling this private  stretch of road. It split off from the main highway a few miles back, then slowly wound its way up toward Shadow Peak, the mountaintop town the Silvercrest Lycans called home—a fact which made this particular area exceptionally dangerous if you were human…and nothing more.

Razl didn’t want to think about what could have happened to the woman if she’d put herself in the path of a ravenous werewolf out roaming the dark woods in search of prey. As a rule, his pack didn’t feed on humans—and those who did were marked as rogue wolves, hunted down and assassinated by the Bloodrunners. But to find a defenseless human alone in the mountains while on the hunt for fresh meat would be a temptation some might find difficult to resist. Despite knowing it was wrong, the dark, destructive craving could all too easily overpower a Lycan’s reason and sense of rightness.

The lady was lucky to still be sitting there in one piece.

Razl tried to get a good look at her, but even his exceptional night vision couldn’t make out her features. Apparently uninterested in who had just arrived on the scene, or,  judging by the stiff set of her posture, too furious to care, she sat behind the steering wheel with her face turned to the side. A long, thick fall of brown hair covered most of her profile, so that only the delicate tip of a small nose could be distinguished, along with the soft-looking swell of her lower lip.

Hell of a mouth, he thought, wondering exactly what he was going to do about her. The situation obviously hadn’t improved since he’d received the call from Hendricks, one of the two scouts who were on the scene. Her frustration seemed to all but fill the interior of the bus with the weight of a thick, oppressive fog. With her shoulders tight, back straight and arms crossed protectively over her chest, she didn’t appear ready to give in to their demands that she leave the area immediately, and go back to wherever she came from.

Drawing in a deep breath, he searched for her scent on the heavy mountain air, but the bus was sealed tight, windows up. Whatever trace might have escaped through the window as she’d talked to the scouts earlier had been carried away by the howling wind sweeping through the forest, rustling the new spring leaves upon their branches, bringing with it the damp, humid promise of a storm. They were common enough this time of year in western Maryland, and after flicking a quick glance toward the thickening, bruise-colored clouds that marked the midnight sky like blotches of smoke, Razl realized he was going to end

up soaked if he didn’t get a move on.

Alpha of the Silvercrest Pack was a man and a wolf of honour. And Razl knew that he had to keep his honour intact in the memory of his father and his human mother who had sacrificed her own life in order to keep him and his sister safe. And so under no circumstance could he allow any harm to befall on a human who as in his territory.

Shutting the truck’s door with a sharp snap, he ran a quick visual on the nearby area. One of the scouts, a Lycan named Franks, stood near the driver-side door of the Volkswagen. The guy kept a wary eye on the woman as the wind whipped his shaggy blond hair around his gaunt features, while the other scout hurried over to Razl, launching into a hectic, breathless explanation, his words stumbling over themselves in his haste to get them said.

“I’m sorry again for bothering you on a Friday night, sir, but she refuses to leave the area.”

“What has she said?” he asked, wishing he hadn’t just smoked his last cigarette.

“She showed us a picture of a young woman and asked if we’d seen her. After we told her that we’d never seen the girl, we tried to explain that she can’t stay here, but she insists that we can’t kick her off the property, and I’m afraid we didn’t know how to get her to leave without… um, that is, without…”

“It’s okay, Hendricks,” Razl murmured, trying to put the younger Lycan at ease. “You know we want all territory infractions called in, so you’ve done the right thing.”

“Are we to stay here, tonight Sir? Guarding the perimeter?” asked Hendricks as he had not finished yet making his explanations.

“I don’t think that it is going to be necessary that I am here. You can take the night off and I shall take care of this. There is no point in exposing our secret unnecessarily to human world,” said Razl and both the scouts nodded.

“I am going to deal with this interloper,” said Razl with a low growl.