Read Falling for the Alphas: Part One for Free Online

grin as he'd raced away. No, she
realized. She didn't.
    Shania sat down next to
her. "Being kin isn't easy." Her tone was different. Gone was the
cruel edge. "I ran away twice when I was younger. The first time
for a week. The second for almost a year. It didn't feel fair,
having my life determined by my blood. Being part of this war.
Being told to do my duty, to support the pack, to be a good little
kinfolk."
    Sophia looked over at her
sidelong. Shania was staring down at her hands, brow furrowed. "Why
did you come back?"
    Shania looked up,
shrugged, and let out a deep sigh. "Because I missed my family. And
nothing seemed to have any meaning away from here. The pack, it
makes a difference. In the lives of everybody in the city. I mean,
look how fast Fort Brixton's slid down the tubes since last year
when the totem and alpha were killed."
    Naomi nodded. That had
been the focus of her investigations for some time now. The vicious
downward spiral events had taken since last July. The spike in
crime. The defunding of the police department. Urban flight, the
understaffed fire department that often couldn't even get to
burning buildings within the first few hours. Almost a quarter of
the city was abandoned now. You could buy houses for $1,000, or
less. It wasn't quite as bad as Detroit, but it was
close.
    "I was close to Kayden."
Shania's looked studiously at her hands. "We were friends, growing
up. He wasn't even the beta of the old pack - just a promising
young warrior, you know? Dylan was beta to Gerard. Then everything
went to hell. Kayden left. Dylan's been doing his best, but without
a totem..." Shania trailed off.
    Naomi tried to imagine it.
The upheaval. The despair. She waited. Shania shook her head
slowly.
    "Kayden's got a good heart. He's
just... he's in a bad place. I don't want him to die. I don't want
either of them to die." She lowered her head into her
hands.
    Naomi reached out and
touched her shoulder, then slowly rubbed her back. "There's got to
be a way to prevent that. A way to bring them back without their
fighting."
    Shania took a sharp breath and
straightened. "Not that I see."
    "Maybe if he sees Illixy -
the totem seed, I mean. Maybe that would make him more reasonable."
Naomi searched Shania's face. "What do you think?"
    Shania thought it over. "Maybe? I
don't know."
    "It's worth a shot, right? Any chance
to prevent him from fighting Dylan is worth checking
out?"
    Shania nodded. "Yeah. But
Kayden... he's very intense. He might not even talk to
you."
    Naomi squared her
shoulders. "Oh, he'll talk to me. I may not know much about being
Kin and all that, but I can't pretend this isn't happening. I want
to learn more. I want to help, and if Illixy can make a difference,
then I'll do what I can." She stood up and smiled at Shania. "I've
never been passive about anything. And I'm not about to start now.
I'll find Kayden, and I'll do whatever it takes to change his
mind."

Chapter 4
     
     
    Dylan paused and raised
his muzzle. Sniffed once, twice, and then blew a sharp snort of air
into the afternoon sunshine. He stood in a glade close to the road
that led to Anna's House. In wolf form, the world was another place
- magical, subtle, alight with potential and information. It made
walking as a human an experiment in blindness. Standing still, he
could smell where a young deer had passed by just half an hour ago.
Instinct bade him turn and follow, silent and predatory, but he was
more than just instinct. He curbed it. Above him, hidden from
sight, he could smell an owl. An old bird, as dangerous in its own
way as he was. Pollen rode the air currents, goldenrod mostly,
undercut by the heavy, wet smell of loam from a few hundred yards
away where the land dipped into a small bog.
    Life. It throbbed around
him, vital and precious. Nothing like the city. The arteries of
asphalt, the stench of gasoline and smoke, the acrid burn of car
exhaust and sewage. Where every surface was hard. Where there were
no curves, only angles.