Chapter 1

Yara

It's been too long since I've let Annika out to run. With the number of classes that I'm taking and the heavy schedule I'm keeping at the university, there isn't a lot of time to eat, much less let Annika run. But I have to let her out. She's becoming more and more restless.

'School is boring. Humans are boring. I want to do something fun,' she grumbles in my head.

'We're going for a run, Annika. Calm down.'

'Next time, don't wait so long.'

It's been a couple of months since I took her out. She's right, it's been too long. But I know how the packs fight, and I haven't wanted to risk getting in the middle of a battle, or worse, getting caught by Simon.

'I'm too smart for him to catch us. Besides, he has no idea that we're still so close to the pack.'

By 'so close' she means two hours, but it is too close. A wolf can run nearly as fast as a car, and when that wolf is on the hunt? Goddess forbid anyone gets in their way.

In the past, when I've taken Annika out to run, I've taken her in the opposite direction of Simon's pack. Well, technically, it's not his pack, it's his father's pack. Alpha Solomon has been the Alpha of my previous pack for as long as I can remember. His son, Simon, is a nasty piece of work. He loves to fight and he loves to kill. The two of us couldn't be any more different. I like to heal, and I like to save.

For whatever reason, Simon set his sights on me. I don't know why. I'm an orphan, I'm not ranked. My parents were warriors and while I can fight, I prefer to use my biggest strength, my brain. Simon much prefers to use his strength, his Alpha strength. He doesn't have to work for it, being genetically predisposed to being larger and stronger than most wolves in the pack, so he doesn't appreciate what he has, in my opinion. Me, on the other hand, I've had to work for everything I've achieved in this life, with the help of Alpha Solomon.

My parents were killed in a pack war when I was young. Alpha Solomon took over as my guardian and made sure that I was cared for all my life. Maybe it's because he never had a daughter, or maybe it's because I'm more like him than his own son, but he's always looked after me, even to the point of sending me away from the pack when he realized that his son had taken an interest in me. He knows Simon is no good, and he didn't want me to suffer with his son's infatuation.

When we get to the spot where we like to run, I stop, sniffing the air, making sure there are no other wolves around here.

'Annika?' I ask, making sure she's not smelling something I'm not.

'No other wolves,' she says, almost sadly. She misses the companionship of being in a pack. I look around once more, then make my way into the forest before stripping off my clothes and tucking them onto a tree branch, high enough that someone would have to look up to see them. I have a spare set of clothes in the car, just in case anyone steals these. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen. Rather than assume that someone was being malicious, I choose to believe that they needed the clothes more than I did. They're only clothes after all.

I let Annika pull the shift, feeling my bones snapping and reshaping after so long of not shifting. It's more painful than it should be, but soon enough, Annika is shaking out her reddish-brown fur and taking off into the woods.

Even though I'm in the background while Annika runs, I can feel how good it is to stretch her legs, to feel her muscles flexing in her body as she runs. It's quiet tonight, thankfully, and Annika's paws on the ground are nearly silent as she runs, giving both of us a chance to enjoy the sounds of the forest around us.

I'm not sure how long she's been running when we smell it, blood. She slows, lifting her nose in the air.

'There was fighting nearby,' she says in our shared mind space.

'Do you hear anyone?' I ask.

'I'm not sure. I hear rustling, what sounds like a wolf in trouble. Do you hear it?' she asks as she tilts her head from one side to the other.

I do hear it. It does sound like a large animal who is struggling.

'Annika…'

'I'll be careful,' she says, knowing that, if I can, I will want to help this animal, even if it is a werewolf. It may not be possible, they may not let me get close enough to help. But I'm going to school to become a doctor for a reason. So, I can help wolves in just this type of situation.

Annika slowly and carefully makes her way to the sound of the struggling animal. As we get closer, I can tell that it is a wolf by the soft sounds that it's making. I can't figure out what it's doing though. Maybe it's caught in a snare of some sort and trying to figure out how to get out. Or maybe it's just stuck in a hole that one of the packs dug to capture other pack members so they can interrogate them for information.

'Please be careful, Annika. We can't afford to get caught.'

"I'll be careful, Yara.'

When we get close, she begins to belly crawl, slowly making her way closer. When the wind shifts, her whole body goes rigid, the scent of teakwood filling my nose and making my body tingle with unwanted desire.

'Mate,' she says softly.

'WHAT?'

'That's our mate, Yara. Our mate is injured.'

This is terrible. This isn't just an injured animal, it's our mate. I can't leave him out here to die, but I also can't have him trying to take me back to his pack. I have school, and I'm still in hiding from Simon.

Chapter 2

It's takes me a moment too long to realize that the wolf, my mate, has stopped moving around.

Annika barely breathes, waiting to see what he'll do.

He chuffs at us, letting us know that he knows we're here. I'm not sure how I know that he's not going to hurt us, but something in his chuff seems more like a request for help, than a threat of violence.

Annika slowly and carefully makes her way through some bushes until we can see him. SHIT! He's caught in a bear trap. No wonder he's still in wolf form. If he shifts, it will rip his leg off.

'I can't believe he's not howling in pain,' Annika says.

She's right. His leg, where it's caught in the trap is shattered, no question.

'You have to help him, Yara. He's our mate. You have to," Annika practically begs me.

'I know. I will, if he'll let me.'

As much as I hate the idea of being naked in front of this unknown man, even though he's my mate, I have no choice if I'm going to talk to him and try to help him.

I pull the shift, standing in front of the midnight black wolf who is watching me with his beautiful, intelligent green eyes.

"Hey, big guy. I see you're caught in a trap. I want to help you. I know you can't shift, or you'll rip that leg off and that looks really painful. Your bones are probably shattered but I want to help you, if you'll let me," I say softly, keeping my tone gentle.

I slowly approach the wolf. Mate or no, this wolf must be in terrible pain and he's going to be feeling vulnerable, unable to escape. I extend my hand, letting him sniff me and see that I mean no harm.

"I'm a doctor. Well, I'm studying to be a doctor, to both humans and wolves. I don't want to hurt you. Will you let me see if I can help you?"

The wolf sniffs my hand, then nuzzles me. I gently run my hand through his fur, stopping when I come to stiff fur that smells like blood. I don't want to know what else is in this wolf's fur, but I can guess that guts and bones are stuck in there as well. He's obviously been fighting and whether he got separated from his pack, or he was part of a group that intentionally separated out trying to cut off the other pack's escape, he's now out here alone without anyone to help him. Well, anyone except me.

I look up, trying to see where the moonlight is so I can get a better look at the trap.

"Okay, big guy, are you able to move to your right a bit? I need the moonlight to help me see how I can spring this trap and set you free."

He moves to his right, keeping an eye on me as I carefully look over the trap. "Nasty piece of work," I mumble to myself. "Stupid idiots doing this to each other."

I look back up at him. "Okay, I think I've figured it out. Before I spring this trap, you need to know that when I release this, it's going to hurt, really bad. But then you'll be free and I can take a look at how badly your leg is broken," I tell him. I already know it's shattered. I can see bone splinters sticking out of his skin from above the trap.

I move my hands in position. I'm going to need Annika's strength to help me open this trap. "Try not to bite me and if you can, try not to howl. I have no idea if there is anyone else nearby that might hear you, or try to come hurt you," I tell him. He chuffs at me again, letting me know he understands.

"On three, ready? One… two … three!" I say and push the release with all my strength, Annika pushing with hers as well. I feel the spring give and the trap snaps open. The wolf yelps but it's quickly cut off as he moves away from the trap, keeping his injured leg off the ground.

He turns, looking at me a moment before his bones begin to snap as he shifts back into his human form, his ridiculously gorgeous, tall, muscular form.

Warren

I can't believe that Arric and I got caught in this bear trap. Fucking Brady! I know he's the one who set this trap. He knew that he and his pack would retreat this way. I raced around, attempting to cut off their escape route, but I'd ended up caught in the trap.

I know my pack will come back for me, but they're in a battle and I've been waiting for them to find me for hours. When I wasn't able to cut Brady off, they continued following his pack, hunting them down like the fucking dogs they are.

I knew immediately that I couldn't shift. While I could use my hands to spring the trap, it was too risky. I wasn't willing to lose my leg and therefore my rank as Alpha. While the pain is significant, Arric and I are strong Alphas, and I know it's only a matter of time before the pack finds me and gets me out of here.

We'd been struggling with a way to get the damn trap off when we'd smelled her. I've been looking for my mate for over ten years and now, here, in the middle of the forest, in the middle of an area covered in blood from a recent battle, I find her. Her cinnamon and nutmeg scent instantly calms Arric.

Her wolf is a beautiful reddish-brown color and she's obviously a skittish little thing. Through all of her conversation with Arric, she never once gave us her name. So, as soon as she releases the trap, I step back and begin to shift so I can talk to her.

The shift hurts like a fucking bitch, my bones trying to reshape but unable to in my leg because they're in pieces. I watch her eyes go wide and she scoots back, farther away from me.

"Easy there. You just got me out of a trap. I may be a vicious Alpha when I'm hunting my pack's attackers, but I'm not the kind of man who kills someone who just helped me," I say. Because she didn't give me her name, I'm resistant to giving her mine until I know what pack she's from.

Chapter 3

"You said you're a doctor?"

"I'm studying to be one," she says, watching me carefully.

"For humans and wolves?" I ask her. It's unusual and I'm in desperate need of a good doctor in my pack. My doctor needs to retire. I need someone young, someone intelligent, someone like my little mate here, to take over my pack hospital.

"What pack are you from?" I ask, not sure I care. I'm at war with so many packs that the odds of her being from one of them are highly likely. Of course, she's out here on her own, not fighting with a pack, which is also unusual.

"I'm not from a pack. I'm a lone wolf. Did you want me to look at your leg?" I notice that she changes the subject away from her. Interesting. Or maybe not, lone wolves are alone for a reason. It makes me wonder what happened to make my mate a lone wolf.

"Yes. I would appreciate your medical assessment," I say, wanting her closer to me. I know her touch will help with the pain.

She moves closer and her intoxicating scent fills my nose as I take in her beautiful body. She had looked shy but determined when she'd shifted. Her lean body isn't as muscular as the wolves in my pack, which makes me think she hasn't been part of the pack wars for a while. However, the softness of her only adds to the allure. My finger twitch with my desire to touch her.

"What's a lone wolf doing out here all by herself?" I ask.

"Letting my wolf out. It's not easy when you go to a human university," she says, not looking up at me. I, on the other hand, can't look away from her. She's beautiful. The reddish-brown fur of her wolf is now long reddish-brown hair on the woman. It falls over her shoulder as she looks at my leg and I watch as she distractedly flicks it back over her shoulder and out of her way, as if this is a common occurrence in her daily life.

"You know there are pack wars going on around here," I say. She may not be mine yet, but I want her safe.

"There are pack wars going on everywhere. If I tried to find someplace where war isn't happening, I'd have to run in the human areas and risk hunters shooting Annika. You're going to need surgery on this leg. You have multiple fractures, several being compound fractures," she says, once again diverting the conversation from herself.

I already knew I was going to need surgery. I could see Arric's bones sticking out of his leg when we were in the trap.

"Annika? Your wolf's name means merciful? How appropriate for a doctor," I say, still studying her. Her fingers on my leg are gentle. She seems to inherently know where to touch so that it only causes minor discomfort.

"Gracious or merciful, yes. And Annika is a wonderful wolf," she says proudly, still not looking up at me.

I'm about to tell her that Arric agrees when I hear my Beta's howl.

My mate's head snaps up and I smell the scent of her fear as her heart rate spikes. However, she doesn't run. She looks like she's about to take a protective stance in front of me. A perfect Luna, pushing her own fear aside to help someone in need. I smile. She's perfect for me.

"Relax, it's my pack coming back for me," I tell her.

"Oh, well then, that's good, you need to get someplace safe. Hopefully, they won't attack me for helping you."

"I'll protect you," I say, smiling at her discomfort.

My warriors come rushing up, surrounding us as my Beta, Charlie, shifts and snarls at my mate. "Who are you?"

I snarl at him, startling both of them. "She's the one who got me out of the bear trap I was in. Stand down!" I command. I won't allow anyone to disrespect my mate.

He looks at her, then turns back to me frowning before crouching to look at my leg.

"How bad is it?"

"Bad."

"Okay, let's get you back to the pack," he says, getting a couple of warriors to help me up. I wrap my arms around their shoulders and lift my bad leg, gritting my teeth against the pain.

"Ready, Alpha?" Charlie asks.

"Yeah, let's go."

Charlie shifts, taking point as guard, and the warriors holding me start to move fast.

"Wait!" I say, and everyone stops. "Bring the doctor."

"The doctor?" one of my warriors asks.

"The girl! Bring the girl," I bark, turning to look at her. I can see that she was ready to slink away. I watch her turn and look behind her as if judging whether or not she can make a run for it.

"Don't even think about it," I say to her. Charlie's wolf, Gregor, moves swiftly to her side, nudging her forward with his head. I don't like how close he is to my naked mate and Arric growls softly.

Her eyes flash up to mine. "I should go," she says. "Like you said, there are a lot of pack wars going on around here. I probably should get home."

"Home?" I ask. I know I sound arrogant. The woman is a lone wolf going to school. Where exactly is home for her? I'm not letting her go back to wherever she wants to go. I'll never see her again. I know from the little I've learned about her that she'll never let her wolf run in these woods again. And, by the time I healed and went to find her at the university, I'm sure she'd have transferred. She's too skittish to stay where she might get caught.

"School," she says, clarifying her intended destination.

"Hmm, well, as you just reiterated, it's not safe out here, especially for a lone wolf. What kind of Alpha would I be if I left you to fend for yourself? No, I think you should come with us," I say and my voice holds no room for argument.

She presses her lips together and stands, nodding, and reluctantly following behind me.

Warren

Charlie orders two wolves to flank my mate, keeping her safe, but also making sure she follows my order.