Chapter 1
Tuesday
There were few things in life James Brown took more seriously than food.
Unfortunately, my food was one of them.
I slapped his hand away from the bag sitting between us on the bench. “Those are mine.”
James pulled his hand back just far enough to avoid getting smacked twice, then looked at me like I was the unreasonable one.
“You’ve had them all day.”
“They were in my backpack.”
“Exactly. All day.”
“That doesn’t make them yours.”
“It means you’ve neglected them.”
Across the changing room, Lynn snorted.
JR didn’t even look up from tying his shoes. “Just give him one before he starts explaining the natural life cycle of a granola bar.”
“I already gave him one.”
“You gave me half of one,” James corrected.
“You ate the other half before I gave it to you.”
“That sounds like poor inventory management on your part.”
I stared at him.
He stared back, chewing.
At sixteen and a half, James was already six-foot-two and built like somebody had ordered an industrial refrigerator with shoulders. Apparently keeping all that alive required constant feeding, because I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him go more than an hour without eating something.
He reached for my bag again.
I yanked it away.
“Touch it and lose the hand.”
“Violent.”
“Hungry.”
“I’m older than you.”
I stopped halfway through shoving the bag into my backpack.
“You’re only six months older than me.”
James grinned. “Exactly. Respect your elders.”
“I’ll respect you when you stop eating my food. Besides, I’m the Alpha.”
“You’re not the Alpha yet.”
We stared at each other for half a second before both of us started laughing.
“Keep talking,” I told him. “See who I appoint as Beta.”
“Not how that works.”
“Pretty sure it is.”
“Your dad likes me better anyway.”
“My dad likes everybody better than you.”
“That’s not what he said.”
I narrowed my eyes. “When were you talking to my father?”
James suddenly became very interested in the wrapper in his hand.
“James.”
Lynn laughed. “Oh, you’re screwed.”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“That wasn’t the question.”
JR finally stood and pulled his shirt over his head. “Can we save the domestic dispute until after training? I’d like to survive the first ten minutes before Tobias kills us.”
That shut all four of us up.
For about two seconds.
Then James groaned.
“Fuck. It’s Tuesday.”
Lynn’s head fell back against the lockers.
I couldn’t help laughing. “You people are dramatic.”
“Your father is a psychopath,” JR said.
“My father is standing outside.”
JR’s head snapped toward the door.
I laughed harder.
“He can’t hear you through a building, dumbass.”
“Your family has weird hearing.”
“We’re wolves. All of us have weird hearing.”
“Yeah, well, yours is suspicious.”
James stood and stretched, towering over the rest of us. “Tomorrow’s Wednesday.”
Lynn sighed dreamily. “Connor.”
“Rest periods,” JR said.
“Water,” James added.
“Human rights,” Lynn finished.
I zipped my backpack and shoved it into the locker.
“Cowards.”
Three heads turned toward me.
I smiled.
Then we went outside.
Dad was already waiting.
Of course he was.
He stood near the center of the training field with his arms folded across his chest, watching us make our way toward him.
At six-foot-four, my father was not a small man.
He wasn’t even a reasonably large man.
He was built like someone had taken a normal person, widened everything, added several unnecessary layers of muscle, and then decided subtlety was overrated.
James was getting close.
Dad still made him look unfinished.
“You’re late.”
I looked at the clock mounted on the side of the training building.
“We’re two minutes early.”
“Then you’ve wasted two minutes.”
James leaned toward me. “See?”
Dad’s eyes moved to him.
“Something you’d like to share, Brown?”
“No, Alpha.”
“That sounded suspiciously like something.”
“No, Alpha.”
I bit the inside of my cheek.
Dad’s gaze moved to me.
I immediately stopped smiling.
Mostly.
One corner of his mouth twitched.
Then it disappeared.
“Warm up. Two laps.”
JR blinked. “Two?”
Dad looked at him.
JR reconsidered whatever he’d been about to say.
“Yes, Alpha.”
We started running.
That was the thing about training with my father.
Dad loved us.
Not just me.
James, Lynn, and JR had been running through our house for as long as I could remember. Dad had fed them, yelled at them, driven them places, patched scraped knees, sat through school events, broken up arguments, and threatened all four of us with increasingly creative punishments when we did something stupid.
Which was frequently.
But once we stepped onto the training field, none of that mattered.
I wasn’t his daughter.
James wasn’t Connor’s son.
Lynn and JR weren’t Nick and Daisy’s twins.
We were trainees.
And Tuesdays belonged to Alpha Tobias Johnson.
By the end of the second lap, I was beginning to regret every decision that had brought me to this point in my life.
Dad didn’t give us time to complain.
“Pairs.”
James immediately looked at me.
“No,” Dad said.
James frowned. “We didn’t even do anything.”
“You were going to.”
“I was looking at her.”
“You’ve been looking at her for sixteen years. You don’t need the practice.”
Lynn laughed.
Dad pointed. “James, Lynn. Bren, JR.”
Lynn stopped laughing.
James grinned.
“Still funny?”
“Shut up.”
Dad stepped backward. “Human form. No claws. No shifting. Take your opponent to the ground and hold them there for three seconds. Technique over force.”
His eyes landed directly on James.
James put a hand against his chest. “Why are you looking at me?”
“Because every time I say technique, you hear hit it harder.”
JR snorted.
James pointed at him. “You worry about yourself.”
“Ready,” Dad called.
JR’s attention snapped back to me.
Mine did the same.
“Go.”
JR didn’t charge.
He never did.
That was what made fighting him irritating.
James would come at you like a truck with personal grievances. Lynn moved so fast that half the fight was figuring out where the hell she’d gone.
JR waited.
He watched.
So did I.
We circled.
His eyes dropped toward my right foot.
Too obvious.
I shifted my weight anyway.
He moved.
I was already moving with him.
His hand caught my arm. I twisted, stepped inside his reach and drove my shoulder into his chest.
JR stumbled but didn’t go down.
He caught my waist.
“Oh, shit.”
The ground disappeared.
I twisted before my back hit the dirt, hooked my leg behind his and dragged him sideways with me.
We landed hard.
JR tried to roll over me.
I shoved my forearm beneath his chin.
He trapped my wrist.
For three extremely undignified seconds, we rolled through the grass trying to get leverage until I managed to get a knee across his hip.
“One,” Dad called.
JR bucked.
“Two.”
“Don’t you fucking dare—”
He rolled.
I hit the dirt.
“Start over.”
“Dad!”
“Did you have him for three?”
“No.”
“Then start over.”
JR grinned at me.
I pointed at him. “You’re dead.”
“Apparently not.”
Behind us came a heavy thud.
We both looked.
James was flat on his back.
Lynn was already six feet away.
I burst out laughing.
James sat up. “How the fuck—”
“Eyes on your own fight!” Dad barked.
JR hit me.
Not hard enough to hurt.
Hard enough to teach me why Dad had just yelled.
I stumbled backward.
Dad didn’t say anything.
He didn’t have to.
I reset my feet.
JR smiled.
“Thanks, Tobias.”
“Don’t thank me. She won’t make that mistake twice.”
I didn’t.
Twenty minutes later, all four of us were sweating.
Forty minutes later, I hated everyone.
An hour later, I was considering whether becoming Alpha was really worth all this shit.
Dad apparently sensed weakness.
“Again.”
James bent over, hands braced on his knees.
“I’m pretty sure that’s a war crime.”
“Again.”
“Can I report you to the Council?”
“Absolutely.”
James looked up hopefully.
“I’ll give you the number after training.”
JR laughed.
“Since you’ve got extra energy, Davies, you can go first.”
JR immediately stopped laughing.
Dad worked us individually after that.
That was worse.
James went first.
He had Dad by at least twenty pounds and probably more. Not that it mattered.
James came in hard.
Dad moved.
James caught himself and turned.
Dad was already there.
James swung.
Dad blocked it.
James drove forward.
Dad used the momentum James had so generously provided and put him on the ground.
Hard.
James stared up at the sky.
Dad stood over him.
“How much do you weigh?”
“Why?”
“How much?”
“Two twenty-six.”
“And if the man you’re fighting weighs one sixty?”
James sat up. “Then he’s fucked.”
Dad kicked his ankle out from under him.
James hit the dirt again.
Lynn made a choking sound beside me.
Dad crouched.
“That one-sixty-pound man doesn’t need to be stronger than you. He needs to be faster than you. Smarter than you. Or patient enough to let you beat yourself.”
James’s grin disappeared.
Dad stood.
“Again.”
The second time lasted longer.
The third time, James stopped charging.
Dad noticed.
So did I.
James waited.
Dad moved first.
They circled, exchanged two quick blows, and then James did something I hadn’t seen him do before.
He gave ground.
Dad followed.
James pivoted.
Dad’s balance shifted.
James caught him.
For one glorious second, Tobias Johnson’s feet left the ground.
Then my father hit the dirt.
Silence.
James froze.
JR’s mouth fell open.
Lynn whispered, “Oh, shit.”
I was already grinning.
Dad stared up at James.
James looked like he was reconsidering every choice he’d made since birth.
Then Dad smiled.
“There you go.”
James’s shoulders dropped.
“Again.”
His shoulders went right back up.
By the time Dad finally called a break, the four of us staggered toward the edge of the field like survivors of a natural disaster.
I dropped onto the grass.
Lynn collapsed beside me.
JR sat down with considerably more dignity, which lasted until he fell backward and spread his arms.
James remained standing for several seconds.
Then he bent over, hands on his knees.
Nobody spoke.
We were too busy breathing.
Finally James managed, “Tomorrow’s Connor.”
JR lifted one hand toward the sky.
“Thank fuck.”
“Connor likes us,” Lynn said.
I turned my head toward her.
“My father likes us.”
James slowly looked across the field.
Dad stood thirty feet away drinking water.
“Does he know?”
I laughed.
“I can hear you, Brown.”
James closed his eyes.
JR started laughing.
Even Lynn managed to sit up.
I should have left it alone.
I knew that.
There are moments in life when a person has the opportunity to make a good decision.
I have never particularly enjoyed those moments.
“At least Connor doesn’t try to murder us.”
Dad lowered his water bottle.
James looked at me.
“You had to do it.”
Dad’s expression changed.
Not much.
But I knew him.
The amusement was gone.
“All four of you. Here.”
Lynn whispered, “I hate you.”
“You’re welcome.”
We dragged ourselves back onto the field.
Dad waited until we were standing in front of him.
“You think Connor’s doing you a favor?”
Nobody answered.
Dad looked from James to JR, then Lynn, then me.
“I asked you a question.”
“No,” I said.
His eyes settled on mine.
“Then why are you celebrating tomorrow?”
James glanced at me.
I glanced at Lynn.
Lynn suddenly found the ground fascinating.
JR finally answered.
“Because he’s easier.”
Dad nodded once.
“And you think easier makes you better?”
Nobody said anything.
“Why are you here?”
“To train,” James said.
“For what?”
James hesitated.
“To fight.”
Dad shook his head.
JR tried next. “To protect ourselves.”
“No.”
That surprised me.
Dad looked at Lynn.
She thought about it.
“The pack?”
Something in his expression shifted.
“Yes.”
He looked at all four of us.
“Nobody coming through our borders is going to go easy on you because you’re tired. Nobody challenging your Alpha is going to stop because James needs a water break.”
James straightened. “I don’t need a water break.”
I elbowed him.
Dad’s eyes dropped to my arm.
Shit.
Then they returned to James.
“Good. Then you can run another lap.”
James looked betrayed.
“You walked into that one,” JR said.
“Want to join him?”
JR shut up.
Dad continued.
“Nobody gives Lynn another try because she planted her foot wrong. Nobody waits for JR to finish thinking. Nobody gives Bren a second chance because she’s my daughter.”
His gaze stopped on me.
“And nobody will care how tired any of you are when someone else’s life depends on what you do next.”
Nobody was smiling now.
Dad’s voice wasn’t loud.
It didn’t need to be.
“I’m not training four teenagers to win fights. I’m training four people who may someday be the only thing standing between this pack and someone who wants to hurt it.”
Something tightened low in my stomach.
I’d always known what I was going to be.
There had never been some grand announcement.
No moment where Dad sat me down and revealed my destiny like it was a secret.
I was his daughter.
His only child.
His heir.
Someday, I would be Alpha.
James, Lynn, and JR had grown up beside me knowing exactly the same thing.
But standing there sweaty, exhausted and covered in grass, someday felt very far away.
Dad looked at me.
“The strongest fighter doesn’t always win, Bren.”
I wiped my forehead with the back of my arm.
“That’s convenient considering you just kicked my ass.”
James made a noise somewhere between a cough and a laugh.
Dad gave me the look.
I smiled sweetly.
“The strongest fighter,” he continued, “can still lose because they chose the wrong fight.”
I frowned.
He pointed toward the training field.
“Again.”
Four simultaneous groans answered him.
Dad smiled.
“Keep complaining. I can make tomorrow my day too.”
Every one of us shut up.
Immediately.
There were some things even future pack leadership wasn’t brave enough to risk.
