Chapter 1

POV Eric

I had been able to sense my wolf earlier than most, when I was only 14, he came as a whisper in the back of my mind. Just before my 16 th birthday he pushed forward and shifted, it was clumsy and painful. Shifting one limb at a time, then my torso and head. The pain was excruciating. I thought it would never end but I couldn’t scream, cry or even show discomfort. With my family looking on it was expected of me to show no pain.

As the only son of the Alpha everything was expected of me, from the way I dress and spoke, even who I was able to be friends with. My father had become Alpha by being mated to my mother, not by being the next blood heir. That fact alone was enough to have other packs think less of us, we are also the smallest pack in three states and there is a cloud of secrets about the founding of our pack.

Standing before my father, my head held high, my father walked closer placing his hand under my chin. “What is your name young wolf?”

In a voice deeper than my own he replies “Braxton”

My mother walks over to me, she runs her fingers through my pale grey fur. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.” Her soft, melodious voice breaking the tension of my father’s gaze.

All at once Braxton jumps back and begins jumping up and down all over the place like an

antelope. “I’m free, I’m free, look at these paws!” He jumps onto my mother almost knocking her over. “And this big tail!” He swishes his tail across my father's face then begins to chase it.

My father lets out a groaning sigh, turns around and heads straight to his office, spitting out hairs the whole way.

I forced the shift, snatching my clothes from the ground to cover myself. My cheeks heated with embarrassment.

My mother turned around laughing, “Well, it was quite a lovely tail.” I can hear her laughing all the way into the kitchen.

“How could you…. Why would you…. My father.” I stammered trying to put a sentence together.

“I’ve been stuck in here for years. It wouldn’t kill you to have some fun now and then.” Braxton huffs.

I raced up the stairs to my room, taking two at a time and heading straight for the shower. Feeling humiliated, completely horrified and in shock. Growing up I had always pictured the moment I introduced my wolf to my father. Standing proudly before him, he would at last believe I was good enough to begin training to become the Alpha.

Standing with my head hung, I let the water run over me, after a few minutes passed Braxton finally spoke. His voice startling me, not yet accustomed to having another voice in my head.

“Look, I’m sorry.”

I could feel he genuinely was, in all that had happened I hadn’t noticed. I could feel him, hear him, not just some whisper that sounded far away. Braxton was here with me, inside of me. “I have my wolf.” I stood up straight, feeling taller, stronger more alive than before. The sound of water falling became deafening. Lemon grass burning my nose from my soap and my running shoes, have they always smelled so awful. My stomach growling loudly. I got out of the shower and got dressed.

“You hiding a bear in there?" Braxton laughed at his own joke.

“Is it even possible for you to be serious?” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Nope, that sounds boring, and I don’t want to do it. Now let’s go find some food.”

Opening my bedroom door, I could hear my mother in the kitchen. Our house wasn’t much bigger than the surrounding homes. When her grandfather started our pack, he wanted to ensure there was room to house members when needed but that it didn’t look opposing or out of place. From the front it looked like every other two-story house on our block, only the length was different. Stretching back to accommodate the office and two additional bedrooms. My bedroom is upstairs along with two others of the same size and one Alpha suite as mom called it. Downstairs was the kitchen, living room, a large formal dining room that doubled as a conference room, dads office and their bedroom.

Making my way down the stairs, I almost tripped when Braxton jumped excitedly in my head. “What are their names?” Not sure I would ever get used to his voice randomly popping in my head.

“Who”

“Your parents. Being trapped in your head was like, well, it’s hard to explain. I heard voices but everything was jumbled together and quiet.”

“JoAnn is my, our mother I guess, and my father is Aiden.”

In the kitchen JoAnn had set out two plates for me on the island, overflowing with pancakes, bacon, eggs and sausage. “I figured you would be hungry. The first shift is always the hardest.” Her full lips turned up in the slightest smile but her hazel eyes sparkled with mischief. Carrying herself with all the poise and elegance you would expect from a blood born Luna. At 5’ 9” she was one of the tallest she wolves in our pack. Her long light brown hair always put back in a braid exposing her heart shaped face and soft features.

When her eyes meet mine, I quickly looked away, averting my gaze to the mountain of food and sitting down. “I’m sorry I disappointed you.”

“My sweet boy, you could never disappoint me. What on earth would even make you say such a thing.”

“My wolf acting like a complete fool.”

“You could sense your wolf at 14 and shifted before even turning 16 years old. That alone is impressive, I’m so proud of you.”

“What about dad?”

“Your father will get over it, I know he’s proud of you too. I’ll talk to him and see if you can run with patrol tonight. Be good to let Braxton out and for you two to get to know each other. I remember the first couple months with Grace, we were strangers even though we could feel each other getting closer for months.”

I always found it fitting that my mother’s wolf was named Grace, even shifting looked easy between them. Mom would reach out her hand and before it could touch the ground Grace’s onyx color would melt into her and take over. Grace will stand on her hind legs and become mom's form. Nothing like the twisting and cracking morbidity that took place between Braxton and me.

She was right, of course, she always knows what to say to make me feel better. Most didn’t feel their wolf until shortly before their 18 th birthday, some hadn’t completed a shift before turning 21.

My stomach growled loud enough for her to hear, wrapping her arms around my shoulders she kissed my temple and headed towards dad's office. “Eat up, you’re going to need the calories to shift again and patrol tonight.”

“You don’t know he’s going to say yes.” I called after her.

Her smiling face coming back into view around the door “As if he will say no to me.”

“She seems fun.” Braxton chuckled at me. “So why are you so uptight?”

“Where do I begin?” Letting out a huge sigh, I grabbed a piece of bacon and starting eating. “First of all, I’m the only child of the Alpha and Luna. Now that I have my wolf, once he believes I’m ready, I will start training to be the next Alpha and leader of our pack. I’m expected to take over on my 25 th birthday.”

“Secondly my mother and father are prime examples of mate pairing. Dad is stern and serious all the time. Constantly worrying over back matters, planning and scheduling patrols to keep rogues out. Working with other packs to keep alliances, being a small pack has major disadvantages. Our pack is only 3 generations old, the other packs in our area have been around for hundreds of years. Mom on the other hand everything just seems to come so easy for her. I know that it doesn’t but she’s always smiling and carefree. Overseeing the pack businesses and finances. I swear mom is the only one who can get a smile out of dad.”

Just as I was finishing up, I can hear mom humming to herself coming down the hallway to the kitchen. “You’ll run the border by the lake with Darien tonight.”

“You got him to agree as long as I had a babysitter? I don’t even want to go.”

“Well, I’m not asking you to go I’m telling you; you’re going.”

There was no point arguing. I was not looking forward to shifting again after this morning, but Braxton seemed excited to get out and I couldn’t say I blamed him.