Shadow Pack 1
K. Easton (Amanda Richardson)
PROLOGUE
Adrianne and Zade have been betrothed their entire lives, but just learned about it recently at the age of 13. Zade’s father is the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Adrianne’s father is his beta. The match makes political sense, but something about it feels wrong to Adrianne. He suggests they practice kissing. Adrianne eventually agrees and decides it isn’t so bad. Zane takes her home and the whole situation still feels wrong to her.
1. Adrianne shifts into wolf form and rushes out to run. She finds Zade and their wolves play for a while before they both take human form. He tells her she needs to be on her best behavior for the meeting they have soon. Adrianne is torn between her stubborn human half and her omega wolf half that wants to submit. They will be married later that year and they had sex once. She agrees to behave before turning back into a wolf and heading home. She tells herself she is lucky she is paired with a nice alpha rather than one of the cruel ones.
2. Adrianne’s sister, Deirdre, helped her get ready for the meeting. Their parents, George and Anita, drive them over for the meeting. The Willow Creek pack will be hosting the Shadow pack to keep their treaty in place. The Shadow pack is where outlaw wolves are sent. The two packs went to war in the 1800s and it killed both their alphas, the treaty had been in place since. When they arrive, Adrianne is relieved to be in the AC. Zade is talking with his father, Godric, but excuses himself to welcome Adrianne. When Godric also comes over, her wolf is scared of him. Adrianne doesn’t understand why because he has always been nice to her. He asks if her father prepared her for the meeting (her first one) and she doesn’t bother to correct that it was her mother that did all the work that her father gets the credit for. When the Shadow pack arrives, Godric says they will all go to the foyer to greet them.
3. Adrianne wonders why she and Emma, Godric’s wife, are placed last in the greeting line. As the Shadow pack members start to make their way inside, Adrianne feels hot and cannot get her wolf to calm down. Emma notices and sends her to the bathroom saying she will cover for her. After she calms down, Adrianne joins the others. Godric introduces her to Valen Stark first and then the alpha Phoenix Adair. She is surprised to see his eyes glowing and knows hers are too. They are fated-mates.
4. Phoenix is surprised to have found his mate. He thought he had found his previously. Godric seems furious and Phoenix thinks about how Godric’s mate had died a long time ago. He looks at Adrianne’s father and he seems to be pleading with Phoenix not to say anything. Phoenix looks at Adrianne and realizes she is a Shadow pack wolf and her parents have kept that secret from her.
5. Adrianne feels conflicted. She is drawn to Phoenix and can feel his heartbeat. But when she looks around at her pack and family, she feels ashamed. She knows this could ruin the family as well as the treaty. Zade is furious. While Godric is trying to stay diplomatic, Zade overpowers him and refuses to accept it. She can hear Phoenix speaking in her head. She tells him she could never be mated to a Shadow pack member. He rejects their bond out loud and she feels crushed. Phoenix agrees to sign the treaty and leave. Zade carries Adrianne to his room and she asks him to leave her alone. She and her wolf cry for the broken bond.
6. Phoenix is upset about leaving Adrianne with the Willow Creek pack. He thinks they are awful and chauvinistic. He tells himself that she never would have fit into the Shadow pack and he couldn’t have a mate that was only interested in being a house wife. He only wanted to prevent them from starting a war and the signing of the treaty did that. Adrianne will learn she is a Shadow pack wolf eventually. He thinks they will hear from them before too long.
7. Adrianne wakes up in her own bed. She gets up before the rest of her family, stops for coffee, and makes her way to the woods entrance at Zade’s house. She starts running and smells him there already. She goes tobhimnandnshifts into human form. He has clothes waiting for her and she gets dressed. He says he is glad Phoenix rejected her because he would have killed him if he had tried to take her. She tries to tell him he would have gotten hurt trying to fend off an Aloha from his mate. Adrianne is surprised to hear they have already left. Zade points out there aren’t any black wolves running around. Adrianne suddenly realizes something is very wrong and she orders him to tell her what he knows. He tells her that her parents were desperate for a kid and adopted from a poor family from the shadow pack. Deidre came later and is considered a miracle. He admits he has known for a few years but says he doesn’t care if she was originally from the Shadow pack. Adrianne is furious at the betrayal. She shifts and takes off running.
8. Adrianne tries to sneak back to her room, but sees Godric and Emma in the kitchen with her parents and sister. She rushes up the stairs unnoticed and packs a bag. As she is leaving, Deirdre sees her and follows her out. She says she understands that she has to leave and supports her decision. She had no idea what was going on, but became suspicious when Adrianne and Phoenix bonded. She goes inside and gets her a bag of food. They hug goodbye and Adrianne takes off. She cries for a long time before taking off trying to get away from the Willow Creek wolves she has never fit in with.
9. Carrying her bag in her mouth, Adrianne mostly sticks to wolf-form as she makes her way north up the coast. She is around the boarder of Willow Creek and Shadow packs when she hurts her ankle while trying to bathe in a creek in human form. Shifting back to her wolf form feels safer, but she still has trouble moving. She hides in a cave and is getting weaker by the day. When she hears another wolf howl, she howls back. Four black wolves enter her cave and she wonders if she has made a mistake.
10. The wolves change into their human forms and tell her to do the same. They ask her name and she says it is Adri. When they Donny respond, she asks theirs. When they sneer at her, she demands they tell her. Cain and Jarek seem to be alphas. Kendo is the Beta and Aspen is introduced as their bitch. Jarek carries her to their cabin and tells her if she had refused to go with them, he would have come back for her that night. they all put some clothes on. They start to make her food while saying she is going have to pay for it. She offers them the little money she has, but they have other ideas. They say they intend to have her healthy before they run her. Aspen says Adrian is going into heat and they could smell her from a mile away. Adrianne tells them Pheonix Adair is her boyfriend and they laugh at her. She tries to come up with a plan to get away.
11. Valen interrupts Phoenix’s boxing session to tell him they suspect Adrianne is wandering around the southern boarder. Pheonix orders that they get her home to her fiancé before it impacts the treaty. He tells him to make sure no one hurts her or else he will kill them.
12. After eating her steak, Cain drags Adrianne to the bedroom. She tries to get away as the other three follow him in. Aspen tells her it will be worse if she tries to fight them. Cain explains they want to get her pregnant. Before they can do anything Phoenix and Valen come in the cabin. Adrianne doubles over in pain. The shifters beg for Phoenix’s forgiveness, but he kills them. Adrianne hears some snaps before the room goes quiet. She is able to relax when Phoenix picks her up, he puts her in his car with a blanket and she has trouble keeping her head up. They realize she was drugged. Phoenix tells her to rest inside her head and she does.
13. Adrianne wakes up in a strange bedroom and tries to remember what happened. As things start to come back to her, she finds her things nearby and her phone charging. She packs up her things and heads for the smell of the kitchen. She packs her bag full of nonperishables before stuffing herself from the fridge. She starts heading for the front door, but as she is about to open it Phoenix asks her where she is going.
14. Phoenix tells her she can’t leave. He calls her Midnight and says it means “dark queen.” Adrianne is scared of him, but her wolf is excited to see him. He explains that if she leaves, another worse pack of wolves will find her. She thinks about how he killed his last mate and she can see flashes of his memories with the woman on the ground before him. He tells her she wasn’t his mate. Adrianne says she isnmt either anymore. She says she will stay until morning and then he will fly her far away from his pack. She thinks she’ll be lucky if she survives until morning.
15. Phoenix has word sent out that he will kill anyone that tries to hurt Adrianne will die. He let Aspen go and hopes she finds a new pack that respects her. Valen calls to tell him he spoke to the Willow Creek pack. They are glad she is safe, but leave the decision to Adrianne on what she wants to do. Phoenix is upset that they don’t seem to care about her. He wants her and wants to protect her, but she doesn’t want him.
16. Adrianne wakes up and has to remember where she is. She checks her phone and sees she has a lot of kissed messages. She texts her sister to let her know she is okay. She ignores the demand from her father to come home immediately. She decides she’ll look at the messages from Zade later. She looks out the window at the beautiful mountain scenery of Alaska. She goes out of her room and finds Nora (the woman shifter that has been helping her) at the table on a laptop. Adrianne asks if she can help her find her birth parents.
17. Nora and Adrianne don’t find anything useful about her birth parents, so she says she’ll ask around. Valen comes to get Adrianne at Phoenix’s request. Adrianne asks him to wait a moment. She asks Nora about being in heat and Nora explains the process. She explains how her mate is a woman and same-sex shifter couple can reproduce. Adrianne goes to get her things and Nora says she will see her in about a week. Adrianne thanks her for helping her.
18. Valen takes Adrianne to a a meadow where they meet Phoenix. Caleb’s is smiling and wishes them well. Phoenix explains he is taking them somewhere he has safeguards in place for both of them. Since he rejected her as his mate, she is technically fair game and other wolves are trying to get to her. He tells her they need to go quick and she can feel her attraction to him.
19. After three hours in the car together, they arrive at the fortress-like cabin. Adrianne can’t seem to cool down. Phoenix tells her to change the lock codes and not to let him in or have her go out for the entire week. When he shuts himself in his own suite, Adrianne has a look around. She has book, movies, and an amazing bathtub, but her desire for Phoenix is getting stronger. She sees a large black wolf around. She decides to ignore his warnings and goes outside leaving the door propped open with a stool.
20. Adrianne wanders out into the wilderness and follows the scent of Phoenix. She finds him fighting another wolf, Kaz with Caleb’s and Nora watching. Adrianne is overwhelmed with desire and anger. She turns to go, but a twig snaps under her and catches the other’s attention. Phoenix looks like he is about ready to attack her in wolf form. She runs.
21. Phoenix wants to chase her, but his friends are able to calm him down enough to convince him not to. Valen steps in front of him and challenges him to a fight. Phoenix is angry that Valen came between him and his mate. Even though he said he rejected her, he knows she still is his mate.
22. Adrianne makes it back to the door and gets inside and closes it. It isn’t long before Phoenix is at the door asking her to let him in. She does and he is angry she didn’t head his warning. She wants him and lets him know it. He tells her he won’t take her virginity and she tells him Zade already has. He is angrier and ends up leaving. Adrianne feels like he has rejected her all over again and feels like everyone she has ever known has betrayed her.
23. Phoenix tries to reason that he isnmt good enough for Adrianne and needs to leave her alone. He can feel her pleasure and pain and decides he need to go to her and help her through her first heat as he is the only one that can.
24. Adrianne is in bed in pain. Phoenix rips down the door to get to her. They have sex and then he leaves.
25. The next morning, Adrianne wakes up to someone cooking in the kitchen. She goes downstairs to find it is Nora. She has burnt the eggs and throws them out and instead makes smoothies. Adrianne tells her how Zade let it slip she wasn’t a Shadow wolf and felt betrayed and took off impulsively. Note tells her that she, Phoenix, Valen, and Kaz were all kids together in the same orphanage. They sit down so Nora can tell Adrianne the story of how Phoenix became alpha.
26. Twenty years ago, Phoenix and the others lived in an orphanage in Vancouver with their friend West. One night, their windows were shattered and smoke bombs were thrown into the kids rooms, including the toddler room. Phoenix got everyone safe and woke up Ms. Halliwell to let her know what was going on. They moved the sleeping stuff to the cafeteria and Ms. Haliwell calls Alpha Thaler to tell him they will need the windows fixed. After everyone is asleep, Phoenix and his friends sneak over to the other orphanage for revenge. West sneaks in the open window and lets the others in through the front door. They are trying to decide what their revenge should be when West rushes in and runs into a knife one of the other kids is holding. The police and paramedics are called, but West is dead before they get there. Phoenix shifts for the first time and has to hide. When the paramedics leave with West’s body, Phoenix takes off into the woods that boarder the city.
27. Nora goes on to explain that the rivalry between orphanages continued through their teenage years. When Phoenix was 17, they challenged him and he won. They ended up taking off and were their own free-range for a few years. When they were 23, Phoenix and Thaler had a show down and Phoenix won. Phoenix arrives to get Adrianne out of there. Some wolves have scented her and are on their way. They are hoping once they arrive they will be able to smell the mating bond between them and leave her alone. Adrianne is mad at Phoenix as they drive. When he asks why, she explains that he could have said something instead of just leaving. He pulls over and gets out of the car in frustration. They bond over accepting their mating together and decide it is time to let their wolves meet.
28. When they get back to the house, they shift into wolf form. The other three join them and Phoenix is amazed at how quickly Adrianne fits in with them. They get back to the house and Valen cooks dinner. After they eat, Phoenix sends Adrianne to bed seeing how tired she is. He knows one days soon the major changes of her life are going to hit her, and they will be there to help her through it.
29. The next morning, there are pastries out and Adrianne eats with her new pack mates. Phoenix and Nora are going to take her to Red (Thaler’s former Beta) to see if he knows anything about her parents. She prepares herself to be disappointed.
30. Red is in his eighties and grumpy. Adrianne tells him about how she didn’t know she was a Shadow wolf until recently. He tells them some parents complained about missing children about the time she was born, but when he asked if he should look into it, Thaler told him not too. He figured it was just like missing children in another part of the world and did what his alpha told him. One set of parents was very vocal about hit missing child. When asked if any of the parents were missing a little girl; he remembers the last name Alderwood. Nora finds their file from a stack of birth records from the year Adrianne was born. They leave shortly after
31. In her room alone, Adrianne is finally able to get a hold of her sister, Deirdre. She has gotten into some trouble and their parents took away her phone, but forgot about her Apple Watch. She says Zade is planning on going to eat with the Shadow wolves, but the rest of them know it isn’t right because Adrianne is a Shadow wolf. Deirdre has to go in a rush. Adrianne goes downstairs to find everyone is gone. She finds Phoenix in the garage working on a car and is attracted to him. They start fooling around.
32. Adrianne performs fallacio on Phoenix.
33. They fornicate.
34. The next morning, Adrianne asks Phoenix about his previous mate. He explains Jacinda used pheromones to trick him into thinking they bonded as mates. She said she was Kaz’s sister, and was welcomed into the pack. When they went to meet Kaz’s crime listed parents, they had a gun to Kaz’s head. Afterwards, Jacinda admitted all of her dec motions and Phoenix executed her. He said it was awful, but he’d do it again to protect his true pack. They have sex again.
35. After lunch, Nora and her mate, Iris, arrive to tell them Gidricknand Zade on on their way to see them. Phoenix goes to call the others. Nora tells Adrianne that Red called with more information about her parents. He had a newspaper clipping with their picture. The mom looks just like Adrianne and wears the same locket as her. Adrianne is so happy she starts crying. Phoenix returns to tell them Godricknand Zade are almost there. Adrianne goes to change out of her pajamas.
36. Zade comes in the door as the new alpha for Willow Creek with his dad following. He shows them a birth certificate they all know is forged and then a picture of Adrianne’s mother holding her with her birthdate printed at the bottom. He lastly produces a petition from the five surrounding packs that they will go to war against the Shadow pack if Adrianne isn’t returned to Willow Creek. She agrees to go with him. Adrianne uses her mind link with Phoenix to tell him she is going to leave some of her hair behind so he can have DNA testing done to prove she is the daughter of the Alderwoods. He says he will bring her back home. When she gets to the airport, Adrianne waits until she is in the bathroom to try talking to Phoenix from a distance. They’re both relieved they can still hear each other. When she comes out of the bathroom, Zade takes her phone away saying he doesn’t want Phoenix to use it to manipulate her.
37. Phoenix flies into a rage after they leave. His pack surrounds him. He tells them he is going to need their help to get the evidence they need to bring her home and to keep him from grounded so he doesn’t go after them. They all ageee to trust Adrianne and bring her home.
38. They arrive at Adrianne’s childhood home. Her mother rushes out to greet her and her dad tells her not to run away again. They go inside and Zade holds her back to make sure they are okay. He says he still wants to marry her. She plays the part of being into him., but has her own plans to get back at him for what he has done to her. When he walks away, she reaches out to Phoenix to let her know she made it there. He tells her to come home to her husband soon. In Shadow pack law, marriage doesn’t need witnesses and they exchanged their vows. Adrianne has a ring on her hand