Page 7

Raiders.

Bear shifters with trouble on their mind.

And a neighboring wolf shifter pack who are ever testing us.

Orc raids.

And a couple of damn pups rutting a farm lass when they should be on patrol.

Life is never quiet in a pack, and we must be ever vigilant.

We have a good leader—a steady man. But that can change.

Slowing to a trot on the outskirts of the pack village, I pause at the river and lap the cool water in wolf form before I shift to human.

Glen and Clay follow suit.

“Have you made a decision?” Glen asks.

“About the lass,” Clay elaborates as if I don’t already fucking know.

My low, distinctly wolven growl is a warning, one unlikely to deter either of the nosy bastards.

With a heart-shaped face, wavy honey blonde hair, plump cupid bow lips, and big brown eyes, Fawn is as pretty as she is willful. She also doesn’t have a lick of sense. Her cottage sits apart from the pack village, which has long given me concerns. Our patrols cover the area regularly, ensuring the greater pack lands are safe. Still, it is no place for a lass alone.

She needs a husband, preferably one with the necessary disposition to take her in hand. “She would be better off at the human village,” I say.

“She won’t agree to that,” Clay says.

“She has lived in that cottage since she first arrived,” Glen adds.

I turn to scowl at the pair of them. “I do not fucking care,” I say. “I don’t have time to keep dealing with her mischief.”

“If she goes to the village, she’ll just get into a different kind of mischief,” Clay says.

I shrug. “At least when she does, it won’t be my responsibility.”

Fawn

I wake up from a sweet dream where Wolf is kissing me, convinced that the spanking represents a new and favorable development in my quest to make him mine.

Humming to myself, I swiftly complete my morning chores. Then I fill my basket with a dozen eggs and take the short walk to the pack village with Blue trotting along at my side. He’s a happy mutt and enjoys any reason to be out.

Many packs are situated in caves underground, but Blackrock village is built on the lower slopes of the mountain. While the center is relatively flat, many of the surrounding cottages are built on stilts nestled among the steep, forested slopes.

I call out greetings to pack members as I walk steadily uphill until I come into the village proper. It looks much like a human village with little cabins and cottages, some with small plots,but most without, for the ground is rocky and not conducive to farming.

Shifters eat a meat-rich diet, but they have a few humans here, one in particular that I visit often.

Opening the backdoor to the small cabin that was once my best friend’s home, I call out a greeting and step inside. Luna left the pack last year after the half-orc object of her affections finally saw the light and mated her for life. They now live in the Imperium lands on the other side of the sea.

Her mother, Petunia, is like a second mother to me and I stop by often with fresh eggs and other produce that my small plot yields.

“Lovely to see you, Fawn,” she says, emerging from her den, where she has a small writing desk. “I was just thinking about you. How have you been faring?”

There is nothing in her demeanor to suggest she has heard anything about Wolf spanking me—I am assuredly not going to volunteer the information.

“Good, thank you,” I say, smiling as I unpack the eggs I brought into a bowl on the kitchen table.