Chapter 1

Blair inhaled deeply, assessing all the scents that surrounded him. Slowing down, he approached the cliff’s edge and sat. He checked the air again, he found nothing that shouldn’t be there. Slumping, he huffed out a breath and slid forward until he was almost hanging over the edge.

He’d been at Bruce’s for two weeks now and he wasn’t feeling more settled with the turmoil rolling inside of him. Kelsey was mated to Gage. He’d known for years it was coming—everyone knew it was going to happen, but that didn’t make the pain lessen. He watched some birds take flight in the bush below. Scenting the wind, he checked to see if they flew because of an intruder or not. Satisfied it was nothing important, he looked out across the land.

The last two weeks were meant to be a fix for his broken heart, a distraction, with tasks to occupy his mind and moods that kept bouncing from mopey to furious without warning. It wasn’t working on any level. Usually, he enjoyed the change of scenery when visiting Bruce’s—it was overpopulated with female shifters of his kind. He hadn’t even been able to muster the excitement to flirt with the women. That made him more annoyed than anything. Was he going to be this pitiful always, or was this only a temporary rut he was in? He didn’t know, needed to figure it out, but couldn’t find the focus to work through it.

He was acting like a pathetic, lovesick—puppy, kitten, or whatever the appropriate equivalent would be. Glancing behind him, he knew he should continue checking the perimeter, but he needed a few more moments of his pity party before he got back to it.

That Tomas asshole had cranked up his game, and all the clans were on high alert. It felt like the Alliance was one step behind lately, and they needed to figure out how that was happening. Females were disappearing from all over. Bruce needed all the help he could get with the many women that lived here. He would not fail—again. Blair shook his head to try and prevent the next thought, but was too late. Kelsey and the future Queen of the Alliance, Rayne, were abducted on his watch—Straightening up, he decided to get moving. He couldn’t go and think about that. His blood pressure sky-rocketed when he did. A run usually helped to clear his head, but he couldn’t go too far while he was helping Bruce watch over the clan.

Of course, the one thing that nothing helped to erase was the image of Kelsey in the middle of a thunderstorm, soaked and oblivious as she stood in front of Gage in his cat form, and accepted him as her mate. That moment had broken something inside of Blair. He’d been in love with Kelsey for at least five years, could be longer. He wasn’t sure the exact moment it had happened—just one day it hit him. He’d spent the day in a fog trying to figure out how to tell her. He never got the chance. The next day he found out that the reason Gage was the jerk he was toward Kelsey, was because she was his mate, and he was trying not to claim her because she was too young. Nothing in his life had been the same since that day. Nothing.

Blair glanced to the East and checked for movement. Being here was supposed to be his new start, a cleanse. He chuffed at himself, stop answering the phone when she calls, and you might stand a chance, idiot. He looked in the other direction. How could he ignore the call when it was Kelsey? He’d even told Gage he was trying not to answer all the time, but it was Kelsey, and he was just a man. Dropping his chin, he looked at the large white paws on the ground in front of him—okay; he was mostly a man.

Turning, he took off full speed down the incline. When he finished this sweep, maybe Bruce would let him tear apart that old tractor and try to get it running. Mechanics, he understood—it was life that was a puzzle for him. Gage’s old man, Ed, who was his Alpha, had taught him everything he knew about mechanics, big equipment, and repairs alongside Gage, Jake, and Gary. For that, he would always be grateful. That alone was also the reason he hadn’t acted on the idea of going back to his birth clan. He owed Ed for giving him a purpose in life. His mother, before she passed away, had sent him to the Lockman clan. He was only two, so he remembered nothing about her but had to trust in the decision. According to Ed, he had some relatives living in his original clan, yet he had discouraged him from reaching out to them. In Blair’s mind, if they hadn’t contacted him, there must be a reason—or they just didn’t care. Of course, someday he might need to know more. Now, was not that time, he couldn’t handle any more intense issues in his brain.

Blair always considered himself easy-going or had until his first shift. That day he discovered he was a lethal weapon. He enjoyed the feeling, and it took all his restraint to not attack, maim or kill everything in his path when he was in cat form. If he was being truthful, as a man he often struggled to contain the rage inside of him. There had to be a reason, but he couldn’t figure out why. Fury and rage were the only words he could find to describe what he felt and his need to control was insane at times as well. All the more reason to stay with this clan. Ed was a strong Alpha, and if Blair’s cat ever got out of hand, Ed’s son, Gage, was damn good at using his dominant tone to control him.

Grabbing his jeans, Blair pulled them on and zipped them up quickly. Habit had him checking his phone immediately after that. Six missed calls. He clenched his jaw and stared at the screen; did he want to look? If any of them were from Kelsey, he’d have to call her back. “Sorry, Sweetie.” He stuffed the phone back in his pocket and picked up his boots and shirt.

As he came out of the tree line, he saw Ketu walking out on the other side of the lane. Ketu shook his head and pulled his shirt over his head. “Nothing out of place.”

Blair flipped his shirt over his shoulder. “That’s a good thing.” It was—despite his need for blood and finding something to take out his frustration on.

Ketu nodded, then brushed his black hair back out of his face. “Bruce said there was trouble at a clan three hours west of us a few days ago.”

Blair rubbed his hand over his short hair. “Yeah, I told Devin I’d happily go lend a hand.”

Ketu stopped, putting his hand out so Blair would stop. “What are you running from?” He lifted his hand then dropped it again, “we usually have a blast when you’re here—” He motioned up and down in front of him, “You’re in Blair’s body, but man, you are not our Blair.”

Blair couldn’t help smirk at that. He shrugged, “just working through a few things.”

Ketu snorted, “work fast, dude, Layna is moping about like a heartbroken teenager and it’s depressing.”

Blair started walking hoping that would end the discussion. Layna was Ketu’s sister, and she was a sweet woman, for that reason alone, he’d put space between them the moment he’d arrived. As if she knew he was thinking about her, she came out of the barn as they went across the yard. She paused and smiled at him. He gave her a brief movement of his head that he hoped came across as friendly and not offensive. He stopped when he noticed something. In all the years he’d been coming here, he had never put it together. Layna had the same build as Kelsey, her hair was a darker red, but the sprinkled freckles that covered her—shit—now he felt like a bastard. He’d been using sexy little Layna as a substitute all these years. Hell, she even called him the two times her cycle had hit. Fuck.

After cursing a few more times inside his head, he turned to go talk to her. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Bruce come out onto the porch of the house. Bruce leaned on the railing and jerked his chin, calling him over.

Bruce was a big burly man, the kids here called him Teddy Bruce. He may appear to be easygoing, but Blair knew there was a reason Ed trusted him to watch over the clan members here. The scars on the man’s face were a testament to how not a teddy-bear-like he could be.

Blair glanced to see Layna noticed as well, and then she turned to go back in the barn. He’d fix that situation later; he decided as he went over to stand below the porch.

“You or Ketu pick up anything?” Bruce spoke softly, as always. Although he’d heard the man use a much louder voice, he preferred the soft version.

“It’s clear.” Blair shrugged. “I’ll check up the road when I run into town later.” He glanced over at the tractor.

“Sounds good.” Bruce straightened up, “Gage called and told me to tell you to answer your goddamned phone.”

Frowning, Blair pulled it out of his pocket. He quickly brought up the call log, five of the six calls were from Gage. The sixth was from Jake. He frowned. “I’ll call him now.” He waited for Bruce to give him a nod and turn to go back into the house. Hitting send, Blair put the phone to his ear.

“About fucking time. Where the hell have you been?” Gage’s tone was harsh.

“Checking the boundaries. What’s going on?” Tucking his hand in his pocket, he turned and looked back to the lane that led toward the cliff.

“A complete shitshow,” Gage growled. “Coop’s hurt and was in the hospital...”

Blair jolted like someone had just slapped him. “What?” Their kind didn’t go to hospitals, they had a shifter doctor on call but risking going to a hospital was rare.

“Old fool tried to do something he should have had help with…”

“Is it serious? Does Ed need me back there?” He would go back. He didn’t want to, but it was Coop, so of course, he’d be there.

“Busted tibia, a stand gave out and crushed his leg. Nona and Shaelan say he can’t even think about a shift for a month, maybe more.”

He didn’t know who either of those people was, but it was still the worst thing to happen to a shifter, being injured so badly you couldn’t shift. “Fuck.” Blair rubbed his hand through his hair.

“He refused to stay in the hospital, so Mom has him put up in the guestroom.”

Blair nodded as if Gage could see him.

“Kelsey and I will be home tomorrow—so,” he paused for a moment, “we’ll be okay in the shop.”

“Okay.” Blair didn’t want to breathe a sigh of relief into the phone, so he moved the phone from his mouth for a second. It was too soon to see Kelsey—way too soon. In fact, he didn’t know how he’d ever face her again.

“The reason I’ve been trying to reach you is there’s a whole other fucking mess.”

Blair frowned, “with what?”

“Devin and Rayne are staying here to try to get this clan back on track…”

Blair still couldn’t believe what Gage had told him last week, the sickness of the shit that clan had been doing and suffered through all these years still blew his mind.

“…we now have clans all over this continent with relatives of members that vanished,” Gage sighed loudly, “the Alliance has designated a team to look into clans that were with the Alliance when it was formed, but haven’t been seen in a while,” he mumbled something under his breath, “but here is just a big emotional clusterfuck.”

Blair cringed, knowing how well Kelsey would handle all that. For a brief second, he was glad he was a tiger and not a panther. “What do you need from me?”

“Dev’s dad asked me to give you a call. The Alliance is ass-deep in so much right now they’re running out of bodies to call in. We have all security amped up in all clans, so we can’t pull any of those—just in case Tomas tries again.”

Blair’s whole body tensed at the very mention of the Tomas organization. “Makes sense, don’t pull anyone from clan security. Just tell me where you need me—” he shrugged, “or what our King requires of me.” It would do him good to have a definitive task to keep himself busy. Any task.

“We need someone to escort nine members of a clan from the border to,” he paused and swore, “fuck, I can’t even remember the details.” He made a soft growling sound, “I don’t think I’ve slept since we got on this damn mountain...”

“Send me the details later. Just tell me where I’m going and when to be there.” Blair looked over at his truck, he could be packed up and pulling out in ten minutes.

“I’ll get Dev to email you the finer points, but Blair?”

Blair lifted his chin at the tone. “Yeah?”

“I don’t know what happened to the rest of the clan, but those nine are the last of it as far as we know.”

A chill went down Blair’s spine. “I’ll get them where they’re going safely.”

“I know you will. We were going to send Cal with you, but he doesn’t want his mate involved in anything like that right now and it’s too soon for them to be separated…”

Blair’s eyebrows shot up, “Cal’s what?”

“Shit—so much has happened, I think we skipped over that.” He cleared his throat. “Yeah, Cal found his mate in this village, and let me tell you, I would not mess with her. Vicious little thing.” Gage chuckled.

“Holy hell. I can’t believe Calum is mated.”

“I’ll tell you all the details later, and they’re quite something.”

Blair smirked at Gage’s tone, “I look forward to it.” He sobered, “I can be ready to head out in ten. Send me the details of where I’m going and make sure Devin has my number and all that.”

“I knew we could count on you.” Gage’s tone was serious again.

Blair bit his tongue, literally, so he wouldn’t ask how Kelsey was.

“Shit, I have to go. Marilyn just stomped by with the fork in her hand—I’ll get Dev to send you that now.” Gage hung up abruptly.

Blair held his phone out and looked at it. He didn’t know who Marilyn was or why Gage sounded panicked over her having a fork, but he would definitely be asking him about it the next time they talked. He looked at the phone for a few more seconds, then hit send beside Jake’s name. Stubborn old ass Coop was the last thought he had before Jake yelled into the phone over the sound of equipment in the background.