Page 1

Chapter One

Zacktookaswigof beer and watched as darkness fell and the yard lit up with twinkling lights. Mattie seemed to have enjoyed himself, and even managed to score a goal with Alex’s encouragement and Mac helping by not putting up much defense. He looked down fondly at his son, mouth open, eyes tight shut, completely dead to the world. He knew he needed to take him to bed, but he just wanted another minute with his family, to remind himself he was a lucky bastard.

Zack looked over as the door to the house opened and his mom stepped out, followed by Rashid and Roxanne, the mated alpha pair of the huge wolf pack that in shifter terms owned the land right next door to Hunter’s Creek. Actually, now that he considered it, he knew they owned it in human terms as well. His mom’s face softened as she saw Mattie asleep, and Roxanne clutched Raschid’s hand in response to the same thing. Not that Zack minded anyone acknowledging the cuteness overload when they looked at Mattie.

His eyes narrowed as he took in the fourth person walking toward him. Victor Ramirez, wolf shifter, beta commander of Raschid’s pack, and all-round pain in his ass. Zack wasn’t sure why he’d taken such an instant dislike to him. No, he knew. Victor thought he was God’s gift to everyone. The man oozed confidence and power and seemed to think he could dictate to the shifters at Hunter’s Creek. Well, Zack didn’t answer to him, and he’d had to make that clear on a few occasions over the past year and a half.

“Zack, he’s so adorable,” Roxanne murmured and practically threw the brightly wrapped gift at her mate so she could bend down and softly kiss Mattie’s hair.

“I was just going to take him up for a bath,” Zack countered, because the little tyke was covered in grass stains and purple icing. He carefully plucked a twig from his black curls.

Roxanne beamed, then looked at his mom, who caught on immediately. “Let us,” Mom said and without waiting for an answer, plucked him from Zack’s arms and turned to the house. He didn’t mind though, she and his dad were away so much on council business that she didn’t get the chance to be a grandma as much as she liked.

Roxanne turned to follow, and Raschid met her. His hand slid down to her belly, and he kissed her cheek. “Be careful.”

Zack understood immediately, and he was happy for them both. They had two pups, and the youngest was ten years old. Either this was a surprise or the happy conclusion to a lot of trying.

Riley walked over with a few beers and handed one to Raschid. Victor thanked him when he offered but shook his head. Raschid huffed and held his hand out for the other bottle, which Riley handed him, then pushed it at Victor. “You’re not on duty. I have five excellent wolves outside that, incidentally, you trained.”

Victor smiled sheepishly, and Zack was so shocked at seeing it, he missed Raschid’s question. “Sorry,” he turned, registering the silence. “Busy day.”

Raschid chuckled and clinked his bottle with Zack’s. “It’s not often your son has his second birthday.” He glanced behind him at the house.

“Congratulations,” Zack said.

“That’s the trouble with shifters,” Raschid smiled. “We can’t do a surprise announcement.” Raschid was assuming he’d heard the heartbeat, but he hadn’t. Too noisy and, to be honest, not something Zack had ever really registered before. He could in his animal form, but not in his human. He had no intention of admitting that while Victor was listening, though.

Riley tipped his head to the side thoughtfully. “What's wrong?”

Raschid grunted and took another swig. “I can’t visit my neighbors with my pregnant mate?”

“You know you can,” Riley said in amusement. “But you have something else you want to say as well.”

“I was going to call around tomorrow.”

Riley leaned forward. “No one’s listening.” They weren’t. The yard was packed, and various kids were yelling as one team scored or didn’t.

Raschid met Riley’s gaze, and Zack wasn’t too thrilled with what he saw in them. “We’ve had a few problems with our younger pack members.”

“What sort of problems?” Zack asked immediately.

“Look, we’ve all done it. Partied, drank too much.” Raschid shook his head. “Pretendedto drink too much.” Zack chuckled. That was true. It took an awful lot of alcohol to affect a shifter, and those with human friends couldn’t ever say why. Zack had never found anything that could give him more than a very mild buzz. Not that he’d ever go any further. Mattie’s mom had taught him that lesson, even if he might have ever been tempted.

“It started about a month ago,” Raschid said. “One of our pack lost her seventeen-year-old daughter. She didn’t come home one day from the high school both Alex and Tyler go to. She was found in her human form by the cops five days later when they raided a crack house in Billings. We were horrified, obviously, but discovered she’d gotten involved with a human boyfriend who was bad news. It’s rare with shifters, as you know, but I suppose this is the downside of trying to integrate into society.”

Because the day was approaching when the regular world would find out about the existence of shifters. They all knew that and were trying to prepare the generation it would affect the most.

“Then three weeks ago it happened again,” Raschid said. “Except the cub was thirteen. Still alive, thank the goddess, but to use a human term to describe him, he’s a nerd. He started at the mixed school in the fall as his shift was secure and he’s a science enthusiast. He was bored at the pack school, and we were confident in our decision. Apparently, his older brother noticed he was behaving strangely at school. At lunchtime, in fact. Evan was worried Emilio was going to shift, so Evan and another pack member brought him home. We’ve straightened out his disappearance with the school, but trying to get him to shift was difficult even for me. It was as if what he’d taken robbed his wolf of that ability, which, as you can imagine, is a huge problem.”

It certainly was, Zack thought. Shifting was an ingrained response to any threat, and his wolf should have taken over, to say nothing of a powerful Alpha like Raschid commanding his wolf to shift.

“He has no memory of that day at all. There is no link between Rachel’s human boyfriend and Emilio. In fact, the human boyfriend dropped out of school and seems to have disappeared.”

Riley glanced at Zack, worry shadowing his features. “Then we have two problems,” Zack said. “We have a drug powerful enough to severely affect shifters, and we don’t know where it’s coming from, or how they’re being targeted.”

“You agree with me, then?” Victor spoke up. “That Emilio wasn’t some random choice. That he may have been targeted because he’s a shifter.”

Zack hadn’t until Victor spelled it out, but he had to admit it made some sense. “It’s still only one or two in a school population of eighteen hundred.” He wouldn’t have agreed normally, but the circumstances were shocking enough.