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“What’s he doing here?” I whisper.

The Alpha isn’t seen around town much nowadays. He’s been preparing his nephew, a good man in his late thirties, to become his heir. Rumor has it, though, that there are a couple of other contenders who feel like this decision isn’t fair. I prefer to keep myself out of it.

“You didn’t hear?” Zahra murmurs back. “There’s an Alpha visiting from another pack.”

I jerk back, unable to conceal my instinctive reaction. “What? What pack? Surely, not the Blackburns—”

“No, of course not,” Zahra quickly cuts me off. “The old man would never…and anyway, I don’t think it’s an Alpha visiting. Just an heir. I don’t know the details because I’ve been holed away all day trying to treat Sam Poulin’s arthritis. Poor old thing can’t even shift he’s been in so much pain…”

She trails off.

My stomach swoops. It’s not totally out of the ordinary that Henry would choose to hold a meeting with another pack leader in public. It is a little weird that he would opt for The Diner as the venue, though. I love working here well enough, but it’s a dusty old place with bad lighting and crooked tables.

Whoever it is, it’s clearly not someone the Alpha is worried about impressing. Either that or it’s an old friend. Or a friend of a friend. Probably someone who has stopped through town plenty of times before.

I shake my head. It doesn’t matter. It’s really none of my business. I’m not part of the pack. I’m just a civilian resident of West Pond—a small-town waitress.

“Anyway,” Zahra continues, tearing her eyes away from the Alpha and circling back to our previous discussion. “If you don’t shift within the next twenty-four hours, Alina Sinclair, I’m going to kill you.”

I huff out a laugh. “Is that so?”

“Affectionately, of course. I’ll kill you with love in my heart.”

“That’s sweet of you.”

Zahra snickers, but then her brow knits with sudden concentration as she turns to glance toward Henry’s table. I follow her gaze to see one of the old man’s Betas leaning in to murmur something in his ear. I could use my shifter hearing to listen, but that would only cause me more discomfort in my current condition. Zahra listens, though.

I give her a questioning look when she turns back toward me.

“The visitor from the other pack is here,” she informs me.

Before I can respond, and before I can bother to look in the direction of the door as it swings open with a cheerful ding, Noah calls out to me.

“Mom, I think I have a brain freeze.”

The tension in my spine eases as I let out a quiet laugh, stepping out from behind the bar toward my son’s table. With my attention on him, I don’t even notice the beast who wanders inside the restaurant.

Chapter 2

Rowan

“You’ve got to be joking.” My voice drops into an annoyed growl.

Cal, my cousin and second-in-command, gives me a wry smile. “Afraid not.”

“The Whiteroses? Are you sure? When have we ever had an issue with them?”

My father, sitting in the Alpha’s seat at the head of the table, heaves a tired sigh. “Not since 1973. Henry’s great-uncle was Alpha back then, and he liked to cause trouble when he was bored. Not a very popular guy.”

I consider my father’s input for a moment, wanting to be respectful, and then turn back to Cal. “So, what exactly happened?”

“Sounds like it’s just a territorial dispute,” he explains. “You know Lara and Jamie Macleod?”

I nod impatiently. They’re two elder Greenbriars who live way up in the northwest corner of our territory. They have a small farm that curves along the border we share with the Whiterose Pack.

“Well, I guess they were in bed one night when their chickens started freaking out, so they assumed another fox got in the coop. Butthen, when they came outside to investigate, they scented two wolves. Jamie didn’t pause to think too hard about it, unfortunately, and shifted to go after them.” Cal shrugs again, ever the casual bearer of bad news. “There was a tussle. Some scrapes and bruises. Nothing too bad.”

“But it is the first time a Greenbriar has spilled Whiterose blood in decades,” adds my father.