Janine Read online

  Never happening.

  As I pulled back the duvet and slid under the cool sheets, I could feel my exhaustion weighing me down. My eyes drifted closed and just before I slipped into unconsciousness, Lenny’s nonchalant words came back to me.

  Loner.

  Since I had abandoned my pack in the middle of the night, was I now a lone wolf?

  ♥♥♥♥

  Ten Years Ago…

  “What’s going on, Mama?” She’d been uncharacteristically quiet all day and I was concerned.

  She gave me a wan smile that looked as fake as it probably felt. “The Elders have requested you. I’m taking you to them.”

  I chewed on my lip as I considered that information. “Okay… why?”

  Her eyes left me and settled on the road we were walking on. Our pack lived in a small neighborhood in the western suburbs of Houston. Everyone’s house was within walking distance and—except for the few people who were allowed to work outside of the pack—no one needed to drive for anything. We got all of our food delivered from the Elders; the children were homeschooled, and shopping was done online on approved websites only. The Elders knew what was best for everyone, and we deferred to them for our everyday decision-making. If they requested me, Mama wouldn’t spare a second to question it. Usually, I was with her on that.

  Today was different, though. Something about this felt off. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was there nonetheless.

  When we arrived at the two-story house that the Elders lived in, Mama moved to stand in front of me and knocked on the door. I clutched my backpack closer to me and peeked over her shoulder while we waited. Moments later, Elder White opened the door and stared down at us with a stern look on his face. His brown face was wrinkled, and on his head was a thick, white afro reminiscent of cotton. He was seventy-five, barely taller than Mama, and couldn’t have weighed much more than her either. But even given all of that, I knew how strong he was. I had seen him throw a man across an eight-foot wooden fence for simply speaking disrespectfully once.

  I learned early on that it was the hidden strength that was the most miscalculated.

  “Hello, Elder.” Mama bowed her head in reverence, and I dropped my eyes to his feet as I’d been trained to do in the presence of an Elder.

  “Well done, Jeanetta. You will be rewarded for your obedience.”

  Mama stepped to the side and pulled me forward, pointing with her head at Elder White. It was unnecessary. I knew what I was supposed to do. I kept my eyes to the ground as I approached him.

  “Good evening, Elder White.” I bowed my head as my Mama had done.

  Elder White grunted. “We’ve been waiting on you, Janine Winston.”

  His words caused a chill to creep up my spine, but I kept my eyes lowered. He stepped back into the house and raised a hand, indicating that I should enter. I looked back at my mama before stepping over the threshold and something told me that things would never be the same again.

  Chapter Two

  “You need to call a meeting, son.”

  I expelled a silent breath as I lifted the bale of hay onto the bed of the trailer attached to my pickup truck. Without turning around, I acknowledged my mother with a question.

  “Why is that?”

  “The meeting has always been quarterly, Langston. It was established long before your time, or mine came to be. Letting six months go by without gathering the pack leaders is not the way to honor your father’s memory.”

  A fresh stab of pain sliced through my chest at the reminder that my father was dead and gone. We were approaching nine months since the day we received word, and I still wasn’t over it. I knew she was right, that I should resume the meetings that had been a part of Madow tradition since the two eldest sons of Bani Dowd returned from Austin and began to implement everything they had learned. It had been eight months since the last meeting had been held. Eight months since every alpha and pack leader in Madow had come together to give their condolences instead of reporting on the progress of their pack as per usual.

  I added another bale to the trailer, the strain on my limbs a wonderful distraction from my mother’s unwavering stare.

  “Langston?”

  “Yeah, Ma?”

  “When will you call a meeting?”

  I didn’t have an answer for her, but as I stopped working and slowly wiped my forearm across my brow as a stalling technique, I was saved from having to answer her. My twin sister, Lenora, appeared on the trail that led from our house to the pasture my mother and I currently stood in, and I silently thanked my ancestors for Lenny’s good timing. She enveloped our mother in a hug and pressed her forehead to Ma’s cheek. A soft smile trickled across Ma’s face as she turned and squeezed Lenny to her side. Seeing my mother smile gave me relief. If that frown was gone, I was off the hook, at least momentarily.

  “What’s up, Lenny?” I glanced over at her as I resumed filling the trailer with the rolled bales that were in a neat line and only fifteen feet away from each other.

  The sun had long since moved from its position high in the sky and was gently falling toward the earth on my left, meaning it was almost time for dinner. Our pack usually ate dinner together around the circular, wooden table that my grandfather had built with his own two hands. It hadn’t moved from its location in the dining room of the ranch house Ma, Lenny, and I lived in for over thirty years. The rest of our pack lived in their own homes on the same property as our ranch house.

  “I finished up at the Welcome Center and just stopped by to let you know I was bringing a guest to dinner. She arrived this morning, and I got her settled in at the Alphabets.”

  The Alphabets was what we called the transitional housing near the Welcome Center. It was where the people who hadn’t yet chosen a career in Madow lived until they made a decision.

  “If she arrived this morning, why didn’t she head straight over to the Career Center?” It was already after five in the evening, which was when most businesses closed in Madow.

  “Some things take time, son.”

  I lifted the gate on the back of the now full trailer. “I know that, Ma. If I know anything, I know that.”

  Lenny’s eyes widened at my tone. “Uh oh.”

  Ma propped her hands on her hips. “The difference between your situation and that of this woman is that you have had your time and then some. Your time is up.”

  I groaned as her words grated on my ears and I wished that I could shift and disappear into the pasture to escape them, but my wolf wasn’t even fazed. Since my father’s death, the mangy mutt had curled into a depressed ball of fur and ignored every coax and command I lobbed at him.

  “Who decides when enough time has passed? Who, Ma?” My temple throbbed as I clenched my jaw.

  Lenny stepped toward me with her palms outstretched, and I could feel her emitting soothing waves of energy in my direction. Even if it wasn’t physically evident, my sister could always sense when I was tense or on the brink of raging out. It went beyond our bond as twins and was why she was the omega of the Hurst pack. She kept the balance in the pack by keeping emotions from getting too high, whether they were of sorrow or anger. Her abilities were traditionally unexplainable, with our ancestors simply praising the celestial beings for the blessing and accepting it as such. And it was a blessing. In my studies as a youth I learned that while omegas weren’t rare, they weren’t as common as alphas. The Hurst pack was blessed indeed—at least it felt that way when I let my mind wander from the untimely death of my father.

  I held up a hand to stop her from coming close enough to touch me. I understood what she was trying to do, even unintentionally, but I wanted no parts of it at the moment.

  “Lenny, chill. I’m good.” I forced myself to relax the muscles in my face and smile at her. She grimaced and reversed her steps, glancing backward at our mother.

  “Ma, you hear how he’s just lying to me all willy-nilly?”

  Ma pursed her lips. “I wonder who he is trying to convince, us or himself.”

  Lenny turned back to me, her grin a mischievous thing that made me dread the words coming out of her mouth. “Oh, definitely himself. He’s clinging to this shroud of depression so that he can avoid being mated.”

  And there it was. All Lenny had ever talked about was finding a mate the way our parents had found each other, but since pack life was all about balance, no member of the pack could take a mate unless the alpha was mated. Once our father died and I became the alpha, she stopped scouting for herself and fixated on helping me find someone. I wasn’t having it, though.

  Throwing my hands in the air, I asked, “Why are you two ganging up on me? It was just a question.”

  Lenny rolled her eyes. “It’s never just a question when it comes to you. There is always something deeper going on in that brain of yours.”

  I grinned, pulling off my work gloves and shoving them into my back pocket. “You sound a little jealous, Lenny. It’s not my fault that I’m the smarter twin.”

  “Boy, stop. Anyway, Janine just got in and if she’s feeling up to it, I’m going to invite her to dinner.”

  “Why wouldn’t she feel up to it?”

  My mother asked the words that were on the tip of my tongue.

  “Well, she drove all the way here by herself and was so exhausted that she started falling asleep on me when we were at the Welcome Center. That’s why she didn’t make it to the Career Center. I took her straight to the Alphabets so she could get some sleep.”

  “Where did she drive in from?”

  I leaned against the truck and folded my arms across my chest as I waited for Lenny to answer Ma’s question.

  “Houston.”

  My eyes widened. “Houston?! That’s at least a nine-hour drive.”
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  Lenny nodded. “I know.”

  Ma’s face pinched in concern. “And you said she arrived this morning?”

  “Yes, ma’am. She walked into the Welcome Center around eleven.”

  I tugged on my beard as I did the math. “So, she left Houston at two in the morning and made that drive by herself? That’s… interesting.”

  My mother glanced at me sharply. “What are you thinking, Langston?”

  “I’m not sure yet, Ma.”

  “Langston.”

  I looked at Lenny whose eyes were trained on my face. “Yeah?”

  “I know how your mind works—how it has to work, as the Alpha—but I’m telling you that she is okay. She’s good. There’s something about her… I don’t know what it is. It’s like this… strength about her. I noticed it the first time I met her, and it was even more prominent this morning.”

  My sister was the best judge of character of anyone I knew. Her wolf could sniff out bad intentions from well across Madow. If she said this woman was good, then I believed her. “Alright, Lenny. Well, I look forward to meeting her.”

  She smiled at me and took a step forward with her arms spread as if she intended to hug me, but then she stopped short.

  “I’ll wait until after you shower to give you this hug.”

  My mother laughed and I narrowed my eyes at Lenny. “Or you could just hug me now.” I pushed off the side of the truck and stalked toward her.

  “Come on you two.” My mother held her hands up but to no avail. It was like she wasn’t even there.

  Lenny started laughing and sidestepped me. “Don’t be like that, bro.”

  Just as I prepared to launch myself at her and envelop her in a big, sweaty bear hug, her phone chimed. She crowed as she pulled it from her back pocket and waved it around like a flag.

  “Stop, stop! This is her!” She stared at the screen for a second then started to backpedal toward the house. “She’s up from her nap and surely hungry. I’m gonna go get her.”

  Ma touched her arm. “Hold on a moment; I’ll walk with you back to the house. I need to check on dinner.” She glanced at me, one eyebrow quirked. “Don’t think that you are off the hook with our conversation, son. This needs to be resolved.”

  I sighed. I had hoped that Lenny’s arrival was distraction enough. “I know, Ma.”

  “Soon, Langston.”

  I nodded, having nothing else to say on the matter. She gave me one last look before joining my sister on the short walk back to the house.

  Chapter Three

  I jolted awake, startled out of my sleep by some unknown source. The room was pitch-black, and I touched the face of my watch to check the time. As exhausted as I had been, I’d slept for six straight hours. Sitting up, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and stretched. I hadn’t thought about the day my mama delivered me to the Elders in quite some time and had no idea why I’d dreamed of it today. It could be a coincidence, considering why I ultimately left, but I didn’t believe in coincidences.

  The screen of my phone lit up on the nightstand, and I reached over to see that I had several missed calls. Most of them were from Brix—I deleted those notifications without hesitation—but surprisingly, two were from my mama. She hadn’t called me in years. There hadn’t been any need to. Seeing her name on my phone could only mean one thing: the Elders noticed that I was missing and had gone to her in search of me. Under different circumstances, she might have been a viable source of information but ever since the day she dropped me on their doorstep, communication between the two of us had been strained. The Elders orchestrated it that way, so to imagine them going to her all these years later was laughable.

  Shaking my head, I swiped away the last of the notifications and typed out a brief text to Lenora, letting her know that I was awake from my extended nap. She responded instantly to let me know she was on her way and would reach me in half an hour. After digging my charger out of my duffel, I plugged up my phone and shuffled into the bathroom to take a shower. Once I was clean, moisturized, and dressed, I felt more like myself and less like a traveling zombie. The mess I’d left behind was still at the forefront of my mind, but the rumbling in my stomach that had nothing to do with the animal inside of me caused me to focus on more pressing issues. I needed to eat something—and soon.

  Soon, there was a knock on the door, and I grabbed my phone and the keys to my Jeep, shoving them both in the front pocket of my jeans before opening the door and stepping out of the apartment before Lenny could come inside.

  “Dang, girl, I couldn’t come in?” The grin on her face let me know she was teasing.

  I shook my head. “Nope. I’m hungry and need something more filling than the cold cuts I found in the refrigerator.”

  She laughed. “Okay.”

  I followed her down the stairs and to the parking lot where she stopped suddenly and turned to me. “Hey, I want you to come have dinner at my house with me and my pack, but do you mind driving? I have to run a pack errand after dinner and don’t want to hold you hostage.”

  “I don’t mind; I actually prefer to drive. It’s the best way to learn the area faster.”

  “Great! I’m in the blue car parked next to you. Just follow me.”

  Jumping in my Jeep, I did just that, following behind her while driving on a smooth, paved road and admiring the many businesses and crops of houses that dotted the area. There were other cars on the road and buildings were illuminated, but one thing I realized that I didn’t see was power lines. Nor did I see the large, metal transformers at the intersections like I was used to seeing back in Houston.

  We turned onto a long, dirt road that ran alongside a wooden fence and led us to a colossal, one-story, ranch-style home. Following Lenny’s lead, I parked under a massive oak tree to the right of the house. I jumped down from my Jeep and looked up at the house, suddenly feeling a pang of longing in my chest. Although it was more than twice the size, Lenny’s home reminded me of the quaint two-bedroom house that me and my mama had lived in until I turned sixteen. Two rocking chairs sat in front of a picture window with a small table in between them that held a vase of fresh, colorful flowers.

  When we approached the front door, I noticed a glass on the table that still had beads of condensation around the bottom half, indicating it was only recently abandoned. I flared my nostrils, and the pleasant scent of meat and spices caused a loud rumble to emerge from my stomach. Lenny looked back at me with wide eyes, and we both burst out laughing.

  “I told you I was hungry.”

  She reached for the door. “Well, come on. It smells like Ma is finished with dinner.”

  I heard a sound that prompted my wolf to sit up and scrutinize the area, and just as Lenny grasped the handle on the door, a foot appeared from around the corner. A second later, the man attached to that foot came into view, and my heart exploded in my chest.

  His skin glistened with a thin sheen of sweat, giving him the appearance of bittersweet chocolate that was just starting to melt after being left out in the sun a moment too long. His head was covered in an inch of black coils as if he was overdue for an appointment with his barber, and the bottom half of his face was hidden by a full beard that extended past his chin to cover his neck. The gray, short-sleeved shirt he wore was sweat-drenched and stretched across his frame to easily display his corded arms, muscled chest, and narrow waist that disappeared into denim jeans which did nothing to conceal his thick, swollen thighs or the obvious muscle nestled in between those thighs.

  “Oh!” Lenny exclaimed, turning from the door and walking over to the enthralling man.

  She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him over to me, unaware how the sight of him was sending my wolf into a frenzy. Eyes so dark they were nearly black were trained on me, and my mind was fried. I was mesmerized by him. The closer he came, the deeper I inhaled until I was holding his scent in place of my breath. There was grass, and sun, and magic dancing underneath the tanginess of his sweaty musk, and it called to my wolf. She had turned, lowered her chest to the ground, and lifted her tail in the air, begging to be mounted. The slut.