Howl for Me - Cecilia Lane Page 0,1

really knew how to party, and this training session was just the precursor to the entire pack coming together for a run.

Each tiny group he encountered came with its own share of happy exchanges. Laughs and faces crinkling with smiles, and that bright, springy scent of mate bonds and friendship and freaking fairy dust futures.

He wanted that. With every damn breath he pulled into his lungs and spat back into the world on a sharp exhale, he wanted that. So far, fate had decided he wasn’t worthy.

He’d watched his brother and sisters find their matches. Not even an hour before Gavin set the sentries on their wild goose chase, he’d taken a call from his youngest sister, Cara, and learned another pup would join the family in a handful of months. The first boy, which frankly, was a relief. He’d been feeling a little underrepresented whenever the family got together, not that Cara cared. Or thought his joke about needing a tutu to fit in was funny.

Her loss. He could be hilarious.

Another pup. Christ, soon the siblings would be overrun by the little rug rats. He and his brothers and sisters had certainly overwhelmed their parents by sheer numbers. But that was the natural order of things. The young replaced the old. He just hoped he’d be around to see them grow up.

Feral wolves didn’t get first Christmases, or birthday, or any other milestones, for that matter. They got put down.

Tor slammed back on the idea. He was still alive and kicking. Still tracking scents through the woods. Still proving himself to his new pack mates. Just because he hadn’t found his mate yet didn’t mean he’d be one of those lost souls that went feral.

Tor prowled forward. Summer wasn’t even marked off on the calendar, but the sticky June heat didn’t give a damn about dates or the canopy above his head. Still, it was better than being locked in a concrete jungle with the only breeze the hot gas blowing from someone’s mouth. Poor bastards. He’d gladly take a small town in the Georgia foothills over city living. Coming back to Ashtown after so many years away had its advantages.

The town had changed dramatically since he’d watched it slip away in the side mirror so many years ago. It was bigger than he remembered. Stranger variety of folks, too, but that was Mason’s doing. The Blackwood alpha had plans to keep the place alive for generations to come.

Now he just needed to prove he had a spot among them. And keep his wolf in check. And hope his mate fell into his lap.

No big deal.

Tor reached a clearing on the other side of the mountain and skirted around another group of hunters making enough noise to scare off any wild creature within fifty miles. The scents under his nose were thick and garbled, making it difficult to pinpoint who had padded through, and when.

He crouched low, using shadows and the brush of the forest floor to keep hidden. At the center, with light shining down like it was a holy relic, a big, blue cooler sat by itself.

Tor kept his paws locked on the dirt. Something felt off. Their objective stood out in the open, ready for anyone to grab it and send up a howl of victory. No way in fuck was he the last wolf standing, as much as that would have stroked his ego. Something was absolutely, definitely, off.

He didn’t have long to wait to prove the fact. Across the clearing, he spotted another wolf nose out from the tree line. Three steps in, a barrage of paint splattered his sides and knocked him out of the running.

Oh hell, he hoped this wasn’t supposed to be some kumbaya bonding experience where they had to fight as one to get to the center. That ship sailed when they gave each other shit before they even shifted.

Tor tensed when he heard a distant yell. Leaves rustled along the edges of the clearing before the pop, pop of paintball guns went off in rapid-fire. The yells turned to roars and commands to run this way, that way, and over there.

He opened his jaws in a wolfish smile. Someone out there was giving the pack hunters a run for their money, the same as he’d done earlier.

His amusement faded as soon as he spotted Shane slinking out from under the shade of the trees. New to the pack, like him, Shane shot him a steely glare and bolted for