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ASPEN

I held my breath as I sprayed myself with far too much perfume. Fletcher, my brother, watched from the doorway. His arms were folded, and the concerned crease between his eyes looked deeper than usual.

He was the biggest werewolf I’d ever met, and none of us came in size small. Including me.

Fletcher and I had the same light skin and brown hair, though his was cut short and I’d had mine highlighted to match most of the human women who lived with the pack.

I needed to blend in, even though the bleach had smelled so bad my eyes stung for days afterward.

“Just spit out whatever you’re thinking, Fletch,” I said.

He was silent for a moment.

I waited.

He finally spoke. “You know running is a risk. Your scent gets stronger when you sweat.”

“Everything is a risk.”

Fletcher grunted in agreement. “Maybe this is one you should reconsider taking.”

“If I stop running, my wolf is going to break through my skin and show herself to the world. Running keeps her satisfied enough to stay quiet. Stopping isn’t an option.”

“I’ll start going with you.”

“Your pack already thinks we’re weirdly codependent.” Fletcher was the Alpha of the second largest pack in Crimson River, which kept me safe. Our city was packed full of werewolves, who usually only came in the male variety. Which was why I was in danger.

Being a female werewolf made me a fluke. And in a city full of wolves, that was far from ideal.

“We are weirdly codependent,” he grumbled. “And it’s the only reason you’re still alive and free.”

Free was a loose description of my life, but it wasn’t technically untrue.

I set my perfume down and started braiding my hair back. “I never said it wasn’t. But you know it would make people ask questions if you started running with me.”

He ran a hand through his hair, spiking the short strands up in the process. “If the king catches your scent…”

“He doesn’t run through our part of the forest,” I said firmly.

We didn’t need to talk about that.

If the werewolf king caught my scent beneath the perfume, he’d realize what I was, and he would do one of two things.

He would either force me to join his pack—he collected strong werewolves like they were prizes—or he would lock me up and let his scientists experiment on me.

Probably the latter.

“You don’t understand,” Fletcher growled. “You haven’t met him. He’s fucking unhinged.”

He had been trying to get Fletcher to join his pack since we were teenagers. Fletch was the strongest wolf left in the city outside the king’s pack. They were known as the Savage Pack, and they killed first, asked questions later. They also ran the city’s law enforcement, along with who knew what else.

“I believe you, but he doesn’t run in our forest. We would smell him.” I tied the end of my braid and stood up.

The only way I was ever going to be truly safe was if I left Crimson River. But living with the humans would literally drive my wolf insane, so that wasn’t an option any more than handing myself over to the king was.

Someone knocked on the door of the cabin Fletcher and I shared.

“Fletch?” A woman’s voice called out.

I grimaced.

It was Fiona, one of the pack’s groupies. Because werewolves were always born male, and tended to be both bigger and more attractive than human men, some human women came to our city and clung to our men.

The women who were born among wolves like I was were equal members of our society. They were just called pack women, or pack females.

Groupies were typically women who clung to a pack and went from wolf to wolf without care as to how much drama they caused. And they always caused drama.

Fiona had exclusively dated seven other men in the pack for differing periods of time before turning her attention to Fletcher. She hadn’t managed to convince him to sleep with her yet, but she was determined. If Fletch wasn’t so entirely focused on keeping me safe, I was pretty sure he would’ve given in to her advances already. She was beautiful, and even though she caused drama, she was usually nice.

When I glanced over at him, I found him gritting his teeth.

She always pissed him off. Alphas were usually against anything that caused drama—when they weren’t actively screwing it.

“We’re starting lunch!” Fiona called out.

Fletcher made a noise of frustration.

He didn’t particularly like being Alpha, even though I knew he loved the pack more than he wanted to admit. It was his, and he’d worked hard to make it that way.

“Go. I’ll be careful, and bring extra perfume. Like always,” I said. “It’s the middle of the day, so I’ll be fine. The same way I always am.”

He ran a hand through his hair before finally agreeing.

“Don’t stay out too long,” he growled, as he headed down the hall. There was dominance behind the words, which was an alpha wolf’s power. It felt a little like electricity. The command would’ve worked on most people, because he was insanely strong. But my wolf didn’t answer to anyone.

Not even me, most of the time.

So, the zap of his magic rolled right off me.

I zipped a thin jacket over my sports bra. It was early September, which in the mountains, meant it was starting to get cold for humans. And I was supposed to be human.

I’d tie the fabric around my waist as soon as I was on the trail, but no one in the pack would know that.

Finally ready to go, I tucked another small perfume bottle in my pocket and shut my bedroom door behind me. Fletcher’s was across the hall, and already closed.

The Alpha usually lived in his packhouse with a good portion of his pack, but Fletcher wasn’t willing to leave me alone or risk having me stay with everyone else.

I slipped out the back door and down the trail just outside. I’d been down it every day for the entire five years I’d spent with the Creek Pack. Sometimes two, three, or four times a day. It connected to a web of other trails, and the easy access from our doorstep was a huge part of the reason Fletch and I picked that particular cabin.

“Aspen!” Lucas called from behind me.

I wrestled my snarling wolf, fighting the urge to snap my teeth myself.

Neither of us liked the bastard. He wasn’t terrible—he was the closest thing to a friend Fletcher had ever had, so I forced myself to try to like him. He was also Fletcher’s Beta, which meant he was one of two people who helped my brother run the pack.

But he was interested in me. Romantically.

Which was obviously a problem.

“Hey.” Lucas jogged up to me, flashing me a flirty grin that I ignored. If I acted too friendly, he took it as a sign that I wanted him too. “Want some company on your run?”

“You know I like to run alone.”

“One of these days, you’re going to change your mind,” he said, keeping pace with me.

“Bye, Lucas.”

“Bye, Gorgeous.”

I rubbed my chest, hoping it would soothe my wolf’s fury.

It didn’t.

He finally left as I picked up the pace.

My wolf snarled at me as I started to jog. The sky was dark, so it’d probably start raining soon. We were in the stormy season, so that was unavoidable.

I’d be fine, of course. A werewolf’s magic prevented most sicknesses, and made us run hotter than most humans, so we were rarely cold.

“I know. We’re not going to mate with him,” I murmured under my breath to the beast trapped inside me. She and I couldn’t communicate with words, but we didn’t really need to. We could sense each other constantly, regardless of which form we were in.

The tightness in my shoulders eased slightly as I jogged down the trail, focusing on my feet. Running wasn’t as good as shifting, for either of us, but it was safe. And my wolf did seem to understand our need to keep her hidden, thankfully. We could rarely shift, but she had never tried to force her way out.

I settled into my run, taking my favorite trail for the first time in two weeks. I rotated them without a schedule, so no one would know where to wait for me if they were waiting. They weren’t, but it didn’t hurt to be careful.

As my heart and feet pounded the dirt, my body relaxed further.

I was fine.

Life was good. Or decent, at least.

People would realize I wasn’t aging the way a human should in the next few years, but we had time. I would figure out a way to live among the humans without losing my mind. It would all work out.

And hey, things could’ve been much worse.

I could’ve had to work fast food, like some of the average-sized packs. Because Fletcher’s pack was so strong, we all worked for the Alpha King, maintaining the massive expanse of forest the human government had given us.

I could’ve been locked up and used for my gift, which I had to keep quiet even more than my wolf.

I could’ve been trapped and studied by either human or were scientists.

All in all, things were going well. I didn’t get to shift often, but that was okay.

I was?—

My nostrils flared as I caught a strong, male scent.

I smelled male wolves on the trails often. Saw them now and then, too. I never ran as fast as I could, and spritzed myself with the perfume often enough to hide my wolf’s scent.

But I’d never smelled a man that strongly before.

A wolf’s dominance was what made their scent stronger. My brother stank worse than most.

But this smell was really, really bad.

Which was far from a good sign.

I sprayed myself with perfume quickly, skidding to a stop as I heard branches break off to my right. Whoever the man was, he was being loud on purpose to warn me that he was there. He wouldn’t do that if he was going to attack.

And male werewolves never attacked women. We were humans. Weaker than them. Defenseless.

I wasn’t, of course, but he couldn’t know that.

I didn’t dare turn around, forcing my wolf to stay down. I tried to calm the pounding in my chest as I turned around, lifting my hands with the perfume clutched in one of my palms. “I’m just out for a run,” I said, ignoring the beat in my head. “My brother leads the Creek Pack. He taught me to cover my scent to avoid catching interest. I mean no harm.”

Despite my words and effort, my heartbeat didn’t slow.

Usually, the wolves I bumped into just ran next to me while I jogged. They were friendly. Polite. They always left space between us. Wolves just liked having company.

The wolf with the strong scent finally stepped through the forest, and my gaze landed on him.

I inhaled sharply.

Holy fuck, he was huge.

Bigger than Fletcher, with a pure black coat and piercing green eyes.

He had to be part of the king trio.

All packs were led by three wolves. An Alpha, his Beta, and his Gamma. All wolves had their own rankings, too, but those were the only official pack roles. The king was a triplet, and his two brothers were the other part of his trio.

If this was the Alpha King, or one of his brothers…

Well, then I had no idea what I was supposed to do. Or if there even was anything I could do.

They had enhanced hearing. Enhanced senses of smell. Enhanced everything .

And I’d just been sweating.

If he’d been following me for long enough, he might’ve caught my natural scent. I kept it hidden with perfume, body wash, and deodorant, but I had no idea if that was enough to conceal the way I smelled from the king or his brothers.

Even my wolf curled back, uncertain of what to do.

My heart beat faster.

Ba-dum.

Ba-dum.

Ba-dum.

It was so violent, I could hear it in my head.

The giant wolf cocked his gigantic head to the side, and the beast within me decided we needed to bolt.

I gritted my teeth, holding her back.

The last thing we needed was to make the king suspicious. The king and his brothers were the people who would use me or kill me, if they realized what I could do.

But they didn’t have to realize what I could do.

Hopefully, they didn’t have to realize what I was, either.

“I don’t mean any harm,” I repeated, lifting my arms a little higher when the wolf didn’t do anything after a solid minute.

Finally, he shifted.

I let out a shuddered breath as the most beautiful man I’d ever seen replaced the gigantic black wolf. He was massive, made of pure, thick muscle in a way very few wolves—only the strongest ones—ever were.

His skin was naturally tan. His hair was chocolate-brown and a little curly, falling over his eyes but only managing to partially conceal three thick scars that ran through one entire side of his face, over a bright green eye that was still intact despite whatever horror he’d apparently survived.

I wasn’t going to look at his abdomen, or his flaccid cock. Nope. Wasn’t going there.

…but if I did, it would’ve been proportional. Very proportional.

“Why do you smell like a wolf?” he asked, his voice low and tense.

There was no interest. It was just a demand.

Shit.

My wolf shrank further.

We agreed that we were screwed.

“I spend time around a lot of wolves,” I said.

His nostrils flared. “You’re not lying, but that doesn’t explain the scent. You don’t smell like a male wolf.”

If the king trio could sniff out lies, I wasn’t just screwed. I was fucked.

If I said I had a mate or something, he’d know I was lying. If I admitted the truth, he could kill me.

Or take me.

Neither option was appealing, so I said nothing.

Instead, I reached for my wolf.

Could we outrun him?

Probably not.

And running was a bad call if we couldn’t get away. The king trio wouldn’t be able to use their dominance on me, since it didn’t affect anything, but the guy was so much bigger than me that he wouldn’t need dominance.

He took a step toward me.

I took a step away.

We both did the same again, and again.

His legs were longer than mine, so he was making up ground slowly.

His hands went up, matching mine. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I can’t sniff out a lie like you can.”

His eyes flashed. “You know what that means?”

“I told you, my brother’s the Creek Alpha. I’m constantly around wolves.” I hoped dropping Fletcher’s name would help me somehow. It probably wouldn’t, but it was worth a try.

“Your brother is Fletcher Keys?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve never heard anything about him having a sister.”

“I can’t imagine the Alpha King and his brothers keep track of pack women or groupies.”

His eyes narrowed. “You know who I am. How?”

We were still doing our slow, tense dance.

And he was still gaining on me.

I barely dodged a tree, nearly trapping myself.

“You’re bigger than Fletch. There should only be three wolves bigger than him,” I explained quickly.

Big, Dark, and Sexy paused.

I kept moving backward, though I slowed a little more, so I wouldn’t set him off.

The guy finally said, “Most of our pack is the same size as Fletcher, or just a fraction smaller. All of the strong alphas join us.”

He said “our” pack. He couldn’t have been the king. Fletcher never would’ve referred to his pack as anything other than his pack.

“I didn’t know,” I said. It was true enough not to tell him I was lying. I hadn’t known that their pack was full of gigantic men, even if I had known that most strong alpha wolves joined them.

The man suddenly started moving again—and covered the distance between us so fast, I didn’t have time to move.

His hand wrapped around my wrist. His grip wasn’t gentle, but it wasn’t painful either.

He inhaled deeply, his forehead creasing as he took in a lungful of my awful-smelling perfume. He coughed, but the crease didn’t fade. “Who are you?”

“I told you, I’m the Creek Alpha’s sister.” It was taking a lot of energy to keep my voice even.

“ What are you?”

I didn’t answer.

I couldn’t answer.

“Tell me the truth, or you’re coming back to my pack with me.” He held my gaze with something that felt like a dare.

But he was going to take me back to his pack either way. If I told him the truth, he might realize I had something more to hide. I needed to act like being a female werewolf was my biggest secret.

I pressed my lips together.

The guy growled, grabbed me by the waist, and threw me over his shoulder.

Then he took off at a jog down my favorite trail.