Chapter 1
Willow
My heart pounded. My lungs burned.
I ran.
Snow swirled around me, biting into my bare skin. My fingers were numb, my breath ragged, my legs trembling with exhaustion.
But I couldn’t stop.
Something or someone was chasing me.
“Willow.”
The wind roared my name, howling through the mountains. Calling me. Pulling me.
“Willow.”
I tried to push harder, to move faster, but this body, this frail human body, wasn’t my own. I was strong. I was a wolf. The Southern Wolves’ blood ran in my veins.
But here?
Here, I was powerless.
My legs buckled.
I hit the ground, sinking into the snow, sharp gravel biting my knees beneath the frozen powder.
“Willow.”
His voice was closer now.
I turned toward the sound. Toward him.
“Ezra—”
I lurched awake, gasping.
The silk pajamas clung to my damp skin, my sheets twisted around my legs. My chest heaved, heart still racing from the phantom ache of running.
I felt him, even now. His name still burned on my lips, like a prayer I had whispered a thousand times before.
A sleepy voice mumbled from across the room.
“Another dream?”
I swallowed hard, reaching for the lamp, clicking it on. Warm light chased away the shadows.
“Yeah.” My voice was hoarse. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you.”
Rachael groaned, pushing herself up onto one elbow, her dark brown waves a tangled mess.
She yawned, then blinked at me half-asleep.
“Ezra again?”
I let out a slow breath.
She was the only person who knew about him. About the man who had haunted my dreams for six years.
Rachael had been my best friend since my freshman year of high school. My rock. The one person I knew I could always count on, whether it was burying a body or stealing snacks from the pack house kitchen.
(Not that we had ever needed to bury a body.)
“Yeah,” I admitted. “But this one was different.”
She hummed. “How so?”
“I was in the mountains. And… I was human.”
That got her attention.
Her eyebrows lifted slightly, her gaze sharpening despite her exhaustion.
“That is new.”
I nodded, running a hand through my damp hair.
Rachael was already fading again, her body sinking into the pillow.
“Go to sleep,” I murmured, switching the lamp off. “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
“Mmm… okay,” she mumbled.
She was out before I could reply.
But I wasn’t.
The silence of the pack house closed in, pressing against me.
So, I left.
—
The moment my feet hit the forest floor, I shifted.
My bones stretched, reshaped, fur sprouting along my limbs as I morphed into my wolf.
The wind howled through my coat as I raced through the trees, claws digging into the earth, the cool morning air sharp in my lungs.
I ran for hours, pushing my body, forcing my mind to quiet, to erase his name from my thoughts.
Ezra.
I snarled.
Even this wasn’t enough.
By the time I reached the pack house again, my muscles ached, and I was no closer to shaking him from my mind.
Shifting back, I pulled on the clothes I had left outside earlier, tugging my second boot into place.
“Willow.”
My father’s voice boomed across the yard.
I winced.
Shit.
Slowly, I turned, facing the Alpha.
---
My father stood at the back door of the three-story compound, arms crossed, his piercing gaze tracking my every move.
I tried for nonchalance.
“Sorry,” I muttered, breath still coming heavy from the run. “I needed it.”
His jaw ticked.
“That’s fine,” he said, voice even. “But you should have taken someone with you.”
I stilled.
I knew where this was going.
“You know as well as I do about the reports of Snatchers in the area.”
A cold dread curled in my stomach.
I had read the report. I had known about the growing threat.
But out there, lost in my own head, I had forgotten.
My father hadn’t.
His eyes softened for a split second.
“I can’t lose you too, Willow. Not to them.”
I inhaled sharply.
His words hit their mark.
I knew how much he still hurt. How much he still mourned my mother.
And yet…
“I’m not a child, Dad,” I said, forcing steel into my voice. “I’m twenty-six years old. You can’t protect me from everything.”
His expression hardened instantly.
“Then don’t act like one.”
The words stung, but I held my ground.
The stare-down between Alpha and heir began.
I refused to back down, lifting my chin as his dark eyes bore into mine.
It might have continued if Lucas hadn’t appeared.
The pack’s Beta strode onto the porch, gaze flicking between us before settling on my father.
“A word, Jonas?”
My father exhaled sharply, turning away.
“Sure, Luke.”
I smirked, sauntering away before he could think twice.
I knew I had been reckless.
I knew I had let my guard down.
And yet, a part of me still resented the way he hovered, the way he couldn’t let go of the past.
Because I wasn’t my mother.
And I refused to be trapped in the grief that still shackled him to a life he no longer lived.
