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Jerome launched himself at a hunter with a ferocious growl that was more feral than he’d ever heard emerge from his throat before. It startled the hunter long enough for Jerome to knock him off balance and away from the tangle of wolves and hunters where Li Li was fighting.

Seeing the hunter’s knife gleaming in the moonlight, Jerome rolled away agilely and sprung up, snarling as he faced his adversary. Although Jerome was smaller than the other werewolves, he was determined to fight fiercely to protect every member of his pack.

Claws extended and fangs showing, he waited to see what the hunter would do.

The knife swung toward him but missed as Jerome dodged to the side. He threw himself again at the hunter and clamped down on the attacker’s arm—the taste of blood filled his mouth as bone broke under the force of his bite.

A scream filled the air, followed by the dull thud of the knife hitting the ground. Shaking his head, he jerked the hunter off his feet. Once he had him on the ground, he went for the hunter’s throat.

Meanwhile, chaos continued all around them—smoke billowed into the night sky, while howls echoed between bursts of hostile gunfire and aggressive shouts.

As he scanned the area for another target, a shattering sensation crashed into him like a tsunami. Pain swamped him as the bond binding him to Li Li and the pack broke, leaving him reeling.

The break was immediate and profound, leaving a hollow void in its wake. Several agonizing howls reached his ears as his paws gave out from underneath him as he passed out.

Oh no. No!

THE LIFELESS body of Alpha Li Li lay sprawled in the dirt, surrounded by the panicked members of the Cross Creek pack. Her once vibrant fur was now matted and stained with blood, a somber contrast to the peaceful moonlight illuminating her resting place.

The hunters had struck under the cover of night, their stealthy movements betraying their deadly intent. Their weapons had glinted in the moon’s light as they’d closed in on their prey, leaving behind a trail of destruction and fear in their wake. Once Alpha Li Li was dead, they had retreated.

As the pack gathered around their fallen leader, a low growl rumbled from the throat of Beta Henry, Alpha Li Li’s loyal second, as he scanned the shadowed forest.

Jerome knew he was searching for any sign of the remaining hunters, but the darkness cloaked their retreat as effectively as it had hidden their advance. The rest of the pack, shaken and leaderless, looked to Henry for guidance. But that wouldn’t last. It couldn’t because only an alpha could lead.

Oh gods. My alpha is dead.

Henry shifted back to human. “Circle around,” he commanded, his voice steady despite the pain in his eyes. “Marcia, Chan, take the north side. Jensen and Lakisha, take the south side and meet in the middle.”

The wolves immediately followed his orders. Everyone knew hunters had infiltrated San DeLain, and that they were methodical and merciless, abducting specific paranormals for their experiments.

All the leaders of San DeLain had banded together to fight the threat, but this? No one had seen this coming. At least Jerome hadn’t. His ability hadn’t even whispered of an attack.

What. The. Hell?

But it had shown him something else connected to it, hadn’t it? And he still didn’t know what to make of that . Still, to his knowledge, no territory had faced an attack. So why them? And why now?

As the pack secured their perimeter, Henry approached Li Li’s body and kneeled next to her. He lowered his head in respect as Jerome remained next to her body.

“We need to move her back to the den,” Henry said abruptly. “We can’t leave her out here. Tomorrow we’ll mourn, then the next day, well, I’ll need to contact the Council of Wolves. Hopefully, they’ll send a temporary alpha until we can arrange challenges for Alphaship.”

I hope I’ll still be alive by then.

Li Li was gone, and the Cross Creek pack of San DeLain was in chaos. A pack without an alpha was a pack with a target on its back. As alpha mate, Jerome most definitely was in the line of fire.

He didn’t want to die, but he also didn’t want to be forced into yet another mating against his will. All he truly desired was to be left alone, but as an omega, that was an impossible dream.

The damn Council of Wolves, which was the governing body of their kind, was old-fashioned in their ideas in some respects. But Jerome knew they had to be contacted. A beta wasn’t strong enough to lead, much less fight an alpha, and they needed an alpha immediately.

The last thing anybody wanted was for some unknown asshole to show up and claim the pack as his own. Which could very well happen.

The council rarely enforced the old laws, but back then, a new alpha often killed the alpha mate, any cubs, and betas. Unless, of course, the mate was an omega. If so, that changed everything.

Werewolf politics sucked.

Nowadays, the new alpha usually allowed pack members or loyal betas to petition other packs to join. Not omegas. Betas were a dime a dozen, while omegas were a completely different can of worms.

Pack members often treasured the peace and serenity that omegas brought, especially if the alpha and omega shared a Fated bond.

There were rumors that a fated alpha/omega pair was stronger and more powerful when bonded. Jerome had no idea whether that was true because his match with Li Li had been nothing more than a business transaction that favored Jerome’s pack because of his status as an omega.

But Li Li hadn’t been a bad person. In fact, she’d been a wonderful alpha, but there hadn’t been love there.

They were more friends than anything, which had posed a problem in the bedroom. One of several, actually. Sex was a duty, something done for heirs, but their wolf god hadn’t blessed them.

He snapped out of his musings as the pack members gently lifted their alpha. With heavy hearts and silent steps, they carried her back through the forest pathways lit only by streaks of moonlight filtering through the canopy above.

He was sure he wasn’t the only one anxious. Each member of the pack was unusually quiet, likely because of grief, but also worry. Worry about the uncertainty of what lay ahead.

Back at the pack house, they laid Alpha Li Li in a guest room. Jerome returned outside and looked over his pack—their faces gaunt with fear and sorrow. Someone needed to say something, and that someone was him.

“We will not let fear defeat us,” Jerome vowed quietly.

“Alpha Li Li was a powerful alpha, and she made us a powerful pack. Her death was unnecessary and a tragic loss, but her spirit lives on in each of us. We will eventually have a new alpha, but that won’t make us love her any less.

We will get through this. And those hunters will pay. ”

There were several growls of agreement.