But then Kylie fucked with Annie Withell, head of the Withell Pride, and all hell broke loose. During a confrontation, Kylie somehow killed the 400-pound Annie and started a Pack-Pride war that had continued to this day. By the time Sara was one year old, Kylie’s torn and half-eaten wolf carcass was found dumped on the front door of the Pack’s den.
Bruce had been inconsolable. And he, with the help of several Pack mates and against the Alpha leader’s orders, attacked the Pride. Killing two of its prime breeding males. Then he’d taken his daughter and left. Moved to Arizona. Everything went quiet. Until the pair went on a hunting trip in an Arizona state park. No one knew the details, but the human remains of Bruce were found by the campsite.
Sara was missing for a day, but was eventually found 20 miles from where her father’s body was found, unconscious next to a riverbank. Her face torn like it had hit jagged rock. Her leg torn as if hit by an animal paw. She was in a coma for a week. No one thought she would survive. When members of the Pack went to the hospital to visit and protect her, they were greeted by Lynette. She took Pack members outside of the hospital to “chat.” But her chat consisted of her attacking them with a thin blade. She got one in the shoulder. Another in the back and a female in the face, taking off part of her ear. She left them all alive, but told them never to come back. That the “bitch” was hers now.
She’d taken the girl to this tiny town in the middle of nowhere Texas and raised her. The ultimate revenge against a daughter that had abandoned her and represented everything she hated about herself.
But why would Lynette bring Sara here? To a town run by wolves? Marrec was a shapeshifter and so was half the town. He protected and loved Sara like his own daughter. He could have turned her himself. So why hadn’t he? Or was it once again the wrath of Lynette, clearly a psychotic bitch to the extreme, which kept him from putting his life and the life of his Pack at risk for a girl that, in the end, was not his blood?
Yet his loyalty to Sara was still strong. Palpable, in fact. Apparently Casey had to do some fast talking to keep the guy from pushing them off his territory. Maybe now that the old bitch was dead, Marrec decided it was time for Sara to know the truth. To know who and what she was. Perhaps he’d waited until he felt that the death of her grandmother was far enough away, that she could more easily learn to accept what she was. But before he had the chance, they’d shown up. The Magnus Pack. Her true father’s Pack. Perhaps to Marrec having her turned by her father’s Pack seemed only fitting. So, in the end, he’d allowed them all to stay without much trouble.
Now here Zach sat. On a Friday night, watching a house. He could see into it through a window, but all he saw were the two other females still arguing. Boy, could those broads go and go and go. Sara had disappeared and he was really starting to miss seeing her. Although Conall was enjoying his view of Miki. The angrier she got the more Zach could smell Conall’s desire for her. Twisted. He saw Conall quietly pad by, his white-blond fur ruffled by the light wind coming from the East.
Zach scratched his muzzle with one paw as German techno music hit his ears. Good German techno music. In the boonies of Texas? He looked back at the house. The music died after a few moments and a couple of minutes later Sara stumbled out onto the porch. She was wearing baggy sweats and a big Hockey shirt. He heard her friends laughing, but he refused to believe they were laughing at the fact that she seemed to have trouble walking. He’d hate to have to kick their asses.
But Sara was laughing too and he realized he was getting protective over a woman he didn’t know and really didn’t want to know. He had no plans of getting all tangled up with a female. Especially not this female.
He was a good 100 feet from the house, but he could hear her clearly. “I hate both of you!” She yelled as her friends came out on to the porch. Sara sat straddling the banister, and boy, was he envying that banister, while Miki hit the swing and Angelina sat on the stairs.
He was marveling at how they went from full-on screaming one minute to hysterical laughter the next.
And he wished he could have heard what they had just been talking about in the house because Sara’s next sentence completely intrigued him, “But forget about me, I think Miki’s the one with the chance to get laid.”
“Don’t start.” Miki warned.
“He was like the dog,” Angelina offered, “and you were like the chew toy that was on top of the cabinet. He couldn’t quite reach it but he wouldn’t stop staring at it.” Sara burst into another round of laughter while Miki looked like she was about to lob her beer at Angelina but changed her mind and took a long swig instead.
“But,” Angelina continued, “No one seemed the least bit interested in me.”
“Well, of course not,” Sara answered. “You have no obvious physical flaws and you weren’t balls-out rude. Why would they be interested in you?”
The three women laughed some more at that. Then they drank their beer and quietly listened to the night. Zach couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was so beautiful. And when Sara leaned back and stretched, a low growl coming from her throat that he felt more than heard, it took all his control not to charge over there and drag her beautiful ass back into the house and to her bed.
“We should go hunting next week.” Angelina offered, “Work off some of that aggression.”
“Yeah, Miki.”
“She’s talking to you, bonehead.”
Sara was floored. “What are you guys talking about?”
“Oh, come on. When you told that biker last week you were going to shove your fist up his ass?”
“He touched my tits.”
“You’ve got big tits,” Miki muttered.
“And when you threw that helmet at Marrec?”
“I missed.”
“Barely.” Miki added.
“Would you shut up!” Sara snapped at Miki. Both her friends smirked at her, and Sara realized that they were right. She had been aggressive lately. Really aggressive. Perhaps dangerously so. But she didn’t know why.
She took a deep breath. “Sorry. I’m sorry. I’m just stressed.”
“Your leg?” Angelina gently asked.
“It’s nothing serious,” she lied. “It’ll be fine.” She smiled at her friends, “Really.”
Angelina and Miki exchanged glances, but moved on.
“So,” Angelina offered, “That Zach’s quite a piece of ass, huh?”
“We are so not having that conversation!” The three friends laughed as Sara felt her face get red. “Bitches.”
Zach gave Conall a wolfish grin. He had to admit, it was nice being referred to as a “piece of ass.”
He watched Sara lie to her friends. And she was lying. The girl was in a momentous amount of pain, but she was hiding it amazingly well. She was a lot stronger than any of the Pack, himself included, was giving her credit for.
Sara finished her beer. “I’m thinking about getting a new dog.” Well that came out of nowhere. And based on her friends’ reactions they were none too pleased.
“Oh, for fuck sake.” Miki snapped.
“I thought you guys liked dogs.”