She’s determined to escape.
And yet, once the two of them have bonded on the road…
Will she be able to leave them behind?
Chapter One
My brother Alan tapped on my bedroom door. “Saoirse?”
I debated whether to answer him or not. He knew I was in here.
I didn’t have anywhere to go.
I leaned my forehead against the glass of my window. Outside, our yard was shadowed by the trees; the moonlight was thin, the moon itself a sliver barely visible through the wispy clouds that floated across a black sky.
I could’ve used a full moon tonight. Wolves feel strongest under a full moon.
Goddess help me.
I lived in a world where the gods were the only ones who mattered, though.
“Sosh?” he asked again, using his pet name for me, the one from when we were little kids and he couldn’t say Saoirse.
Which, to be fair, was true for ninety-eight percent of America, as well.
That name, in his soft, broken tone, dug into my heart, and I heaved a sigh as I turned and headed across the carpet. I leaned against the door, knowing my twin was right on the other side. “What is it, Alan?”
“You’re alright,” he said, an edge of relief in his voice.
“For now,” I said, but something unsettling wormed through my stomach at the realization he thought I might hurt myself in here. “Does our father really think you’re going to talk sense into me?”
There was a pause for a second. Then he said, “You know I’d get you out of here if I could, Sosh.”
“I know.” But I hated him a little bit because he couldn’t help me.
I hated myself even more, because I couldn’t help me.
“You could just marry him,” he said. “He could meet an untimely end...”
As if it would be that easy to murder an alpha.
“He’s going to meet an untimely end compared to mine,” I said. The man my father had picked to marry me to was so much older than I was.
“Just come out and say you’ll do it,” Alan said. “It buys us time. You know that…”
He trailed off. Our father and the pack alpha had agreed that if I didn’t agree to marry Robert Bell, I could starve in my room until the Shifter Guard came to take me away.
In the world of the wolf packs, defying the alpha was a crime.
Even if the alpha was a worthless asshole determined to marry you to another worthless asshole.
They’d thought I’d bend long before this. But hunger had faded into nothing but emptiness over the past few days. I felt faint, but somehow that just made me more stubborn. They’d rather let me die than let me control my own life. They’d rather send me away to prison than let me choose my own mate.
My father said fated mates were nothing but a fairy tale, that I’d find love where he told me. But I couldn’t give up on the idea that there was someone out there meant for me, someone gentle and kind.
“Where’s Mom?” I asked.
There was a long pause on the other side of the door. I could feel him sigh. “Sosh…”
My lips tightened as I nodded. She didn’t want to see me, because she wouldn’t defy my father. She’d told me the whole time she was growing up about her love story, about how her parents chose her spouse for her, and it ended up so happily.
Except I’d seen enough to doubt that happily-ever-after.
“Sosh, please,” he said from the other side of the door. Desperation made his voice break. “Just say you’ll do it. We’ll figure something out later.”
“What are they going to do, lock me up forever?” I asked. It didn’t make sense to me anyway that the prison would go along with this, that they would lock teenage girls away for daring to want their freedom.
“Our father says that after you’ve been in prison for a while, no one will want you anyway…”
“You’re not helping, Alan,” I snapped.
The sound of tires rolling over gravel drew me to the window. I pushed aside the filmy curtains and watched as a long, sleek muscle car came to a stop.
After a second, the doors opened, and my heart stuttered in my chest, waiting. These would be the men who were taking me away.
Who were taking me to prison.
The two men who rose from the car were beautiful. That was the thought that struck me first, even though the rise of fear. The one who closed the driver’s side door was tall and broad-shouldered, his dark hair tousled, and his features were roughly handsome.
He looked across the top of the car at his companion, who was slender—especially for a shifter—with sharp features. When he moved, it was with catlike grace.
Then, as if they both sensed me, they looked up. Their gaze went to my window.
I froze there, with my fingertips tangled in the filmy curtains. They were too far away for me to see the color of their eyes, but I could almost feel their gaze, as if it soaked through my skin. My skin flushed hot, as if I were embarrassed.
I jerked back from the window, then moved rapidly away, so they wouldn’t be able to see me anymore. I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror at my dresser. Sure enough, my pale skin was suddenly flushed as if I’d blushed, my delicate cheekbones touched with pink in a face surrounded by masses of dark blond hair. I touched my cheek tentatively, studying my face in the mirror. My amber eyes were dilated, the pupils small in a sea of dark gold. Was that...embarrassment at being caught watching them? Or something else altogether?
“Sosh,” Alan said again. “Last chance. Please… I don’t know what will happen if they take you away.”
My twin cared for me, but suddenly I wasn’t sure if those
