Chapter One (Indigo)
This was it. The beginning of the end of Indigo’s life with the wolf pack. She straightened her shoulders in preparation for the birthday party she knew waited for her on the other side of the heavy oak door. Before she could knock, Lynne threw the door wide, grabbed Indigo by the wrist, and pulled her into the two-story log house.
“Happy birthday!” A chorus of voices rang out from around the room.
Indigo forced a smile that didn’t feel as tense as she expected. The wolf pack was her family and Creekwood her home. But without a wolf of her own, there was no sense in staying now that she’d turned eighteen. She nodded and smiled, faces flashing past as she turned in a slow circle to appreciate the decorations that littered the house.
Overhead wooden beams were wrapped in pink and white streamers. Balloons of the same colors drifted high into the arched ceiling while ribbons tethered them to the beams. She’d never understood Lynne’s obsession with floating balloons so high in the ceiling that no one could enjoy them. Or pop them. Which was exactly what Indigo wanted to do.
A warm hand wrapped around Indigo’s upper arm. She spun to face them, and a genuine smile pulled on her cheeks. “Hi, Miles.”
The young wolf smiled so wide his cheeks dimpled. “Happy birthday.” He lifted a small box wrapped clumsily and tied with a white bow. The paper crinkled under his grip. “Lynne helped me pick it out.” At ten years old, Miles was one of the few children in Lynne’s Pubhouse who’d not been put with a new family.
“Thanks.” She took the present gently and cradled it against her chest. “I’m sure I’ll love it.” She gave him a nudge toward the long row of tables that were all but bowing in the center under the weight of food that had been prepared for the party.
One thing about werewolves, they sure loved to eat. Indigo’s stomach grumbled as she sniffed the air. Everything from smoked sausage to a bowl of brightly colored jelly beans waited for her. And cake.
Lynne had a great proclivity for creating cake masterpieces that were complemented by heaping scoops of ice cream.
Music pumped from a Bluetooth speaker hidden in the bookcase, the soft melody drifting in and out of the multiple conversations. Now that she’d arrived, the pack moved onto the part of the day they looked forward to most. Mingling and eating.
They cared for her, of course, but she was a nobody in the pack hierarchy. Less than a beta but not quite an omega. Not shunned but not completely welcome without the ability to manifest her wolf.
Indigo let the conversations swirl around her. Dustin, Lucas, and Margorie discussed a new hunting location while scooping food onto their plates. Indigo tipped her head in their direction when they each lifted their plates in a sort of salute of gratitude. They had nothing to thank her for, really. She’d tried to talk Lynne out of the birthday celebration.
“Get out there and dance. Or eat.” Lynne bumped her elbow into Indigo’s side. “Participate. It’s your party after all.”
“I will.” Indigo chuckled and unclenched her hands before her nails dug grooves into her palms. This would be her last big event with the pack. She should make memories while the opportunity presented itself.
Miriel ran past, hooked Indigo’s arm, and hauled her onto the space clearly designated for dancing. She waited all of two beats before talking. “I can’t believe you’re really going. My best friend is going to be a college girl.” Her red curls bounced as she shook her head.
“I can’t believe my best friend is so anxious to get rid of me.” Indigo grabbed Miriel’s hands and twirled them both in a circle until laughter spilled out. Her stomach cramped. What would she do once away from her pack? No more Miriel to brighten the days.
No more woods to run and play in. She’d be bound to life in the big city. Riding the bus or the subway instead of walking under the clean canopy of trees with the sunlight bright on her face.
“No pouting.” Miriel always knew Indigo’s thoughts before she spoke them. Effects of being best friends for as long as either of them could remember.
She let her body relax and sway to the thumping beat. “Wouldn’t dream of it.” The lie rolled off her tongue easily enough. She’d said it a thousand times by now, the implication that she was okay with her lack of a wolf and having to leave the pack for the outside world.
Lynne stepped from the doorway leading to the kitchen with a three-tiered cake in her hands. She started singing “Happy Birthday,” and the rest of the partygoers joined in, filling the house with cheer.
Miriel pulled Indigo to the round table, meeting up with Lynne in time to help slide the massive cake onto the carved oak. A midnight sky spread across the cake, stars sprinkled across the cosmos to wink in the soft glow of candles decorating the top tier.
Eighteen candles.
How did so many years pass in such a short time? Yet she felt more ancient than their pack alpha, Aiken?
As though called forth from her thoughts, the aged wolf met her gaze with a solemness that sent her heart tripping. He blinked slowly, breaking the spell of the moment and drawing Indigo back. The song ended. She blew out the candles but didn’t bother with a wish. The one thing she wanted could not be given.
To wake up from this wolfless nightmare and find herself truly a part of the pack.
While Lynne sliced the cake, handing the first piece to Indigo, the rest of the pack gathered around. Indigo tried not to let the press of warm bodies bother her. There were several dozen wolves in the open room, and their combined body heat caused sweat to trickle down her back.
She forked the first bite into her mouth and sighed as the tang of raspberry mingled with chocolate and coated her taste buds in creamy vanilla icing. Perfection. Lynne hadn’t asked what kind of cake Indigo wanted. She didn’t need to. This has always been Indigo’s favorite. From her first birthday in the nursery at the back of the Pubhouse until now, she never tired of this combination.
“For being the birthday girl, you don’t look too happy.”
Indigo looked up from her plate and met Astor’s caramel-colored eyes. Her own brown eyes widened. Astor, the alpha’s son, had never bothered to speak to her before. She resisted the urge to flee. Or to check her face for a smear of icing. Wouldn’t that just be the perfect ending to her last birthday party with her pack?
“Just worrying about Lynne. Things will be hard for her once I leave.”
“Hmm.” Astor’s rumble caused a flare of self-consciousness in Indigo.
She started to turn away, but Astor’s hand on her forearm froze her to the hardwood floor. “How are things going with the patrols?” She asked the most innocuous question while praying he wouldn’t feel the quiver under her skin.
He lifted a shoulder and dropped his hand. “Neverending. Seems like as soon as we get one breach reinforced, a rival pack finds another weakness. Dad is on top of everything though.”
“He’s a good alpha.” The response was rote, conditioned. Anyone who had something bad to say about Aiken had to be prepared to challenge him. She was so not the challenging type.
Indigo focused on the sounds around her instead of Astor’s steady gaze. Her pack chomped on their slices of cake, the constant clack of teeth creating a symphony all its own. The music started again, a soothing melody she recognized from Lynne’s collection.
A woman called for Astor, and Indigo used the moment of distraction to slip away. Outside, in a corner of the wraparound porch, she balanced her plate on the railing and stared out at the mountains. Their pack hid away in a remote part of the mountain range. Close enough they could go into town anytime they wanted but far enough away to have complete freedom.
She really should stop feeling sorry for herself. Indigo shoved a large bite of cake into her mouth and worked her jaw, cheeks bulging fatter than a squirrel stocking up for winter. Food therapy. Her favorite.
Unlike all the other wolves’ eighteenth birthday parties, hers included none of the typical wolf celebrations. There would be no games where they shifted into wolves and went hunting for a hidden object in the woods. The birthday wolf always won, so there was no point. Not for her.
“Stop.” Indigo scolded herself and wrapped an arm around the post. Her cheek pressed the rough wood, and her eyes closed. She could not change the course of her future. There was no point in dreaming of what-ifs and feeling contentious about the things she’d never have.
She’d grown up feeling loved, wolf or no wolf.
Indigo scooped up her plate and returned to the party going full throttle inside. Music blasted from the speaker. Miriel winked at Indigo from the opposite side of the room. She waved her phone side to side, a clear confession she’d overtaken the music choices.
Everyone within her age range was on the dance floor, including Astor. Indigo paused long enough to watch him gyrate and throw his hands into the air. She’d never seen him so relaxed. As the alpha’s son, he always seemed to carry the weight of the world—or at least their pack—on his shoulders. They were nice shoulders. Broad but not bulky.
Indigo tossed her plate in the trash and joined the dancers. The music moved through her, calling to an ancient piece of her soul that craved movement. Music helped fill that need with its pulsing beats that reminded her of a heart drumming. Heat coursed up her spine and filled her head with fuzziness that cloaked her usually sensible nature.
A warm body bumped Indigo’s back, then another. She was knocked to the side, and a growl ripped through the room.
Two men faced off, hands in fists and lips curled back into snarls.
The dancers moved back, creating a ring around the pair.
Indigo flashed a look around the room, looking for someone willing to break things up before they came to blows. Wolf tempers. She puffed her cheeks on a breath and held it.
The two men were of matching size, but the one to her right had a look in his eyes she didn’t like. He was known as Jericho by almost everyone, though his real name was Bob. Jericho snapped his teeth, spittle flying from his lips. “Care to say that again?”
For the love of forest mushrooms. Indigo pushed between the two men, putting a hand on their chests. “Take it outside. You’re not fighting in here. There are babies down the hall, and I swear by the full moon that if you wake them, you’ll be sitting there rocking them back to sleep. Even if it takes all night.”
Her heart thundered in her chest loud enough that both men, and probably every wolf ear in the room, heard, but she didn’t back down.
“You’re at my birthday party. Be cool.”
Astor and Aiken peeled themselves from the wall. The crowd parted for them in a wave. Aiken’s gravelly voice dropped words like stones in the river. Each one landed and sent out ripples that touched everything in the vicinity. “Settle down or leave.”
Four words. That’s all it took for the men to drop their heads and melt into the crowd.
Aiken peered after Jericho but spoke to Indigo. “Forgive the intrusion. You had them well in hand, but I prefer not to leave any member of my pack without backup.”
She kept her gaze glued to the floor. To look at him too long was to offer a challenge. She’d had enough excitement for one party. Going out with a bang didn’t begin to express the feelings rattling inside her body as the music picked up once again.
A howl rented the air and sent chills down Indigo’s spine. The call drove the pack into action, sending them out the front door in leaps that Aiken organized into groups before sending them into the woods.
Indigo stayed behind though her soul yearned to run with the pack.
