Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 112(@200wpm)___ 90(@250wpm)___ 75(@300wpm)
Alara was a rare lynx shifter raised inside a fiercely insular chain, and her alpha brother hesitated to bless the mating. She felt the bond just as intensely as her wolf shifter mate. But pack politics became the least of their problems when an exiled lynx resurfaced with a plan to overthrow her brother…and Alara became the key to his revenge
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
1
ALARA
Ibreathed in the morning air from my balcony, letting my fingers curl around the carved railing. Below me, our settlement clung to the mountain like it had grown there. As a child, I often wondered how my ancestors had built the stacked terraces, narrow walkways, and lookout posts into the cliff. It had just seemed impossible to me.
My home was undeniably beautiful, but every time I looked beyond the woods, something inside me tightened.
“Alara?” A guard stationed two balconies over shifted his weight, alert even in the early morning stillness. “Your brother wants you to have an escort if you plan to run today.”
Of course he did.
Caelan’s intentions were good, but being his little sister meant I was treated like the one breakable thing in a chain that prided itself on strength. Lynx shifters weren’t rare because we were weak. Our litters were just small and achingly far apart. Being so much older than me, my brother was wildly overprotective.
In all fairness, I understood to a certain extent why he insisted I never go off exploring on my own. Our parents had been on one of their annual adventures when they disappeared. Their deaths were still a mystery since their bodies were never recovered. We only knew they were gone because the alpha role passed to Caelan at the same moment I inherited my mother’s gift. There had been no logical explanation other than their demise.
But that didn’t mean I wanted to live my life without ever leaving the Nightbriar borders.
The moment the guard’s gaze wandered toward the far path, I slipped out of my room and down the back stairway. Unfortunately, my brother seemed to have a second sense when it came to me, and he rounded the corner just as I hit the bottom step.
“You’re up early.” His gaze swept over me, a concerned gleam in his eyes. “Did you sleep at all?”
“Well enough,” I lied.
He took in the faint shadows under my eyes, and a muscle in his jaw tightened. “I thought I heard movement during the night. You weren’t wandering the halls again, were you?”
“I stayed inside,” I hedged.
That wasn’t really an answer, and Caelan knew it.
His posture shifted—less brother, more alpha assessing territory. “You know I’m not trying to cage you.”
Except that was exactly what it felt like. My home was beautiful and comfortable, but I still felt cooped up.
He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “We’ve increased boundary patrols. Korrin spotted signs someone crossed near the northern ridge sometime this week.”
My heart gave a small jolt. Not from fear, though. It was just that strange internal shift that sometimes happened when something wasn’t being said aloud. My intuition stirred beneath my ribs.
“He’s your best tracker,” I reminded him. “If someone came this way, he’d know it.”
“Could’ve been an animal,” he conceded. “But until we know, no one should be out alone.”
No one sure as heck didn’t include him, our beta Riven, or any of the guards. But it definitely applied to me, as far as my brother was concerned. And as our alpha, his opinion was the one that should matter most.
“You’re asking the entire chain to stay inside because of tracks?” I kept my voice airy, but Caelan’s eyes narrowed the way they always did when I used humor to deflect.
“I’m asking you, just until we know what we’re dealing with. Losing our parents was enough risk for one lifetime.” His throat worked, like he had to force the next words out. “I can’t lose you, too.”
Guilt tugged at me, shoving my irritation back into its box. “I know you mean well.”
His smile was filled with relief, and it made my chest ache with equal parts affection and suffocation. “Good. Then you’ll stay within the settlement this morning. I can have Lira walk with you if you want fresh air.”
Fresh air with a chaperone. Again. Not quite the freedom I was hoping for.
“I’m fine.”
Caelan reached out and adjusted the collar of my sweater the way he used to when I was little, before I learned to do everything myself. “I just want you safe. The last thing we need is an outsider wandering too close while you’re out there.”
The comment landed strangely inside me, resonating in a way I didn’t understand. It was almost as though a plucked string vibrated faintly beneath the surface of my thoughts. A faint vibration fluttered under my ribs—my extra-sensitive intuition whispering again.
I forced a smile. “I’ll be careful.”
“I know you will.” He brushed a kiss to the top of my head as if I were still twelve and not a grown woman who could shift into a lynx and climb a cliff faster than he could blink. “I’ll check on you later.”
He headed down the hallway, and I stood there for a moment, breathing through the familiar mix of affection and restlessness that always followed our conversations. He tried so hard to protect what was left of our family that he didn’t see how small my world had become.