Chapter One
The pack war had started the day I was born.
After killing each other for years, the packs had come to a truce a little over a decade ago. But there are still plenty of shifters out there who want me dead.
So, here I was kicking someone’s ass. Again.
“Dude, haven’t you learned from the others?” I asked my opponent.
“Bitch,” he spat, wiping the blood from his mouth to prepare for round three. “I’m going to do what all the others failed to do: I’m going to kill you.”
I darted forward, taking his neck in my hand and squeezing until his face turned an odd purplish-red. Strangulation won’t kill us, but it sucks while it’s happening.
“That’s highly unlikely. You’re weaker than a pup, but you’re free to keep trying.” I watched as his eyes bulged and saliva oozed from his lips. It was disgusting and fascinating at the same time. “Do you want to continue?” A grotesque gurgling sound escaped him. “Oh, my bad.” I eased my grip enough to let him speak.
“Fuck you.”
“In your dreams, buddy.”
I released my hold on him and watched him fall to the ground, then rise to his hands and knees to gulp in air.
Footsteps approached before he could recover. I didn’t need to turn around to know it was Isaac. I’d sensed him coming even before he spoke.
“What’s going on, Ember?”
“Oh, the usual.”
“Another one?” he asked.
“I can’t help it if these asshats keep attacking me,” I said, motioning to the man still gasping on the ground in front of us. “Like the others before him, Chris here thinks I’m marked by the Curse of Artemis. You know the story of my life is fighting off idiots who not only believe in a moon goddess, but think she’d taken the time out of her divine schedule to curse me in the womb.”
Chris scowled up at me, blood still covering his face. “You are cursed. You don’t deserve to live. Your dad should have put you down years ago.”
“Oh, trust me, he tried plenty of times before he killed himself. He was an Alpha, and he couldn’t kill me, so what makes you think you can?”
My dad had hated me more than any of the others, and he would remind me of his disgust every day of my life until he’d overdosed on Wolf’s Bane. Because he’d been the Summer Alpha, his death had sent a shock wave through the packs, making them hate me even more.
Alphas don’t commit suicide. Ever. But I guess having a ‘cursed’ daughter had pushed him over the edge. My anger toward my dad rose inside me, and I couldn’t stop myself from kicking Chris in the gut.
“Let’s go, Em. He’s not worth your energy.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I said
On the walk back to my place, Isaac called Chris’ Alpha to send someone to pick him up. That call couldn’t have been fun for him. He hated the Autumn Alpha almost as much as I did.
“So, what brings you here?” I asked when we entered the house and went straight to the kitchen for a beer. I handed him one and popped the top off mine.
He took a swig and shrugged. “I just wanted to see my friend.”
His bright blue eyes twinkled as he smiled at me. I knew that look well.
“Uh-huh, sure. You were screwing my neighbor again, weren’t you?”
Miles of forest separated me from my nearest neighbor, but she was infatuated with Isaac, like most of the females in the Season Shifters packs. His bronzed skin and sun-streaked, light brown curls that stopped at his chiseled chin made it hard not to be smitten with him.
“Is that a problem?” he asked.
“No,” I said. “Why would it be?”