Page 1 of Pack Rage (The Splintered Bond #4)
Welcome back to The Splintered Bond!
When we last saw Flor and her guys, she and Glen were recovering from the brutal battle at Southern, Brand had just flown from Mountain to get to her, and Luke and Grigor were being carted away by Elina McDonnell to Eastern for her own nefarious purposes.
If you’ve slept since you finished Pack Ruin, you may have forgotten a few key details. This section is intended to get you up to speed so you can dive right into Flor’s final book.
Pack Reject
Flor is the “prey” in her pack’s Hunt, a nightly event where Southern’s unmated males attempt to trap and claim her. Some want a mate, some want the glory of capturing the most elusive target in years, but for many, the real prize is the extra food rations awarded to the winner in the dirt-poor pack. After she mouths off to an Enforcer in the dining hall, Flor is forced to flee into the woods, waiting until the Enforcer Games begin at the upcoming North American Conclave, her only chance to escape and be adopted into a better pack.
Disguised as a boy, Flor hides in the woods, but tragedy strikes back in the compound. Del, the only person who had protected her since her mama was thrown to the rogues to die, is murdered by Alpha Callaway and his Head Enforcer, Van Blackside. When a group of extremely hot visiting Alpha Heirs discovers her, they suspect she’s not just a rogue and Del’s accused killer, but something far more dangerous: a true mate, and possibly to more than one of them. Flor wants nothing to do with the guys, though; she just wants to get the heck out of Southern. The four Alpha Heirs and a mysterious stranger, Joaquin, help her to sneak into the Games to give her the chance.
At the Games, she fights and wins against Finnick, the Eastern Heir. She barely survives her second fight and is promised sanctuary in Northern by Margarette Hillier, Glen’s mom. Southern Heir Luke challenges his father and wins, but ends up leaving Callaway alive and both their positions in question.
The Council Head, Bradley Hillier, plans to put things right in a meeting, but Southern’s leadership has no honor, and they attack their visitors, setting Callaway free. Battle erupts, and Southern comes to the fight with silver weapons.
During the battle, Flor goes into a rage, decapitating Van Blackside with her trusty steak knife, and saving everyone. Afterward, she takes Margarette up on her offer to hit the road. Luke lets her go, knowing it might cost him his life. Finnick attempts to reject her for reasons of his own, but stops short. Flor leaves for Northern with Brand, Glen, and the Hilliers, while Finnick’s chickenshit father assumes the role of Interim Alpha of the Council.
Pack Refuge
Northern isn’t the refuge Flor had hoped. Upon arrival, Glen’s snake of a cousin Vanessa escorts her to the servants’ quarters and sets the ranked males on her. Despite its claims of equality, Northern’s unranked members live in fear. Margarette swiftly punishes Vanessa and the offenders, while Brand vows to take Flor to his own pack if she says the word (lake). She chooses to stay, for now, though her hostess is annoyingly obsessed with Flor being her son Glen’s true mate.
Under the watchful eye of Sergeant, an older, scarred shifter who seems oddly familiar, Flor trains with the lowest ranks, not revealing her years of experience fighting with Del. She’s willing to earn her place, with her ranking fight only weeks away. When the day arrives, Sergeant angrily realizes he’s underestimated her and assigns her to spar with Brand. Distracted, Brand inadvertently stabs her. The wound refuses to heal, which makes it obvious he is her true mate. Near death, she survives when Brand asks her to accept their bond.
But guilt consumes Brand. Unable to forgive himself for the circumstances of their claiming, he distances himself, determined to earn her love. Before he can, Flor is abducted by Vanessa and delivered to Russian rogues. She escapes, only to be hunted by the silver-toothed General Ivan until an unknown dark presence slaughters his shifters. The stranger is Joaquin from the Games, but he tells Flor his true identity. He’s Grigor Dimitrivich, an ancient, evil, super sexy, magic-wielding shifter. When the others arrive, Grigor vanishes to hunt Ivan.
Back at Northern, the revelation that Flor was in the presence of one of the most infamous serial killers of the shifter world horrifies her allies. Meanwhile, Finnick announces his departure for Eastern, but Flor’s wolf takes control, marking him on his tongue before he can leave.
Flor confronts Margarette and Bradley, who was secretly healed by Grigor as a courting gift to her, about the injustices in their pack. They are appalled; even if they had good intentions, their “protection” led to great harm done to their vulnerable unranked, even the children. As the Hilliers quickly attempt to put reforms in place, some of their own powerful Enforcers attack. The Hilliers win the battle, but lose an Heir. Disgusted with his parents’ past actions, and unwilling to be parted from his future mate, Glen renounces his pack and leaves with Brand and Flor for Mountain.
But trouble is brewing back at Southern. Luke is being tortured… by a witch.
Pack Ruin
At the Mountain pack’s border, Flor is struggling with her first independent shift when she senses Luke’s impending death through their incomplete bond. Desperate to keep him and Flor alive, Brand channels energy through their mate bond, aided by Grigor, who left a link to Flor’s soul during their earlier meetings. The process of saving Luke and Flor permanently alters Brand, changing his eyes.
Grigor immediately heads to Southern to keep an eye on Luke, and to indulge in his favorite pastime: turning the entrails of those who harmed Flor into grotesque “flower arrangements.” To raise the odds of Luke’s survival, he magically binds their souls, and is left weakened.
Meanwhile, Glen is imprisoned at Mountain on orders from Interim Council Alpha Aidan McDonnell. Flor, learning about shifter history as well as her own family’s past from Brand’s grandmothers, finally reveals her true name, but the author was a total asshole and didn’t share that with the readers.
When Glen is released, he bonds with Flor at Brand’s lake—only for her to sense Finnick’s intimacy with another woman. After enduring torture, Finnick has been coerced into sleeping with a woman under the threat that his underage sister will be given to the same shifter who tortured him. Sacrificing his own future with Flor, he agrees, then devises a plan to send his sister far away before financially destroying his family. In the lower levels, he helps the Hilliers and discovers the missing Alpha Callaway living in comfort. Finnick manipulates him into revealing Flor’s true story.
Samuel struggles to resist the Council’s orders to turn Flor and Glen in for execution. To free him from his oath, Brand challenges and defeats his father, but with Flor and Grigor’s help, leaves him alive. With his new Alpha status only partly secured, Brand remains behind to grow stronger to face Aidan himself, while Flor and Glen leave to rescue Luke.
There, Flor and Glen discover a pack of rogues calling themselves Tenebris, led by Sergeant and Flor’s long-lost mama. With their help, Flor sneaks into Southern, but is immediately captured and placed in the shifter girls’ dorms. Glen finds Luke and is caught by a dying Grigor, who can only survive if Glen bonds with him. Glen agrees as long as he can think of him as Joaquin, not Grigor, because who wants to be brother mates with the boogeyman?
Flor faces her old nemesis, Holly, who is killed in a very satisfying scene by the abused residents of the dorm. Flor discovers that these women secretly supported her for years during the Hunt, and she helps them flee to Tenebris. Reunited with Luke and Grigor that night, she plans their escape, but when Grigor is captured by Finnick’s mother Elina, running is no longer an option. It’s time to fight.
In the battle, Flor and her allies take on Eastern troops armed with silver and guns, led by Torran, the Eastern executioner. Nearly overwhelmed, they are saved by the Tenebris pack, Flor’s mama, and the remaining Southern shifters. But victory comes at a cost, when Luke and Grigor are both taken back to Eastern.
Brand, having channeled the power of his half-pledged pack into Flor and the others from afar, arrives too late to help fight. Their reunion is overshadowed by the grim reality: both Grigor and Luke are up shit creek, and with the full moon and Council meeting looming, the real fight is just beginning.