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Chapter One

The air felt wrong, like a thousand tiny needles pressing into the flesh of Alex Warren’s arms and shoulders

He sat in his Border Patrol SUV in front of the Savage Territory station His shift was over for the night, but he wasn’t ready to head in just yet

So down He just didn’t knohat

He glanced at the row of black vehicles parked at an angle to the gray, ce He’d spoken with dispatch Everyone had checked in for the night No casualties A few bruises, a couple of gunshot wounds, a knifing or two But all souls accounted for

He had an hour before dawn, so there was plenty of time to burron for the day Given the needle sensation, he decided to stay put for a fewwas in the wind, he wanted to knoas going on

He had a companion as well, one he hadn’t asked for and who’d refused to head home on his command

You still there, Kiara? Apparently, telepathy worked best when a witch was invisible

Of course,

I a close until you’re back at Caldion for the night

Kiara was a beauty with large, dark brown eyes and long brown hair and he had a thing for her But he didn’t want her close, not when every wolf instinct he possessed told hiht He needed to find a way to get rid of her, if he could

So, you’re playing at being uard What are you? A buck-ten?

I’ve got more curves than that, Handsome

His jaorked as he ground hishi but He bore hideous scars over the left side of his face and into his scalp His left eye had been closed up for the eight years he’d been in Five Bridges Calling him handsome was a joke

Except she wasn’t joking

He’d objected to the nickname when Kiara had first used it, but the woo She kept saying she saw past the scars She saho he was and that handsoht word

Like hell

He ht have been passable before his alter transfores But a witch had used a poisoned paste on hius hadn’t gotten him the help he needed

It had been a fiery baptises He’d faced death a thousand tiht the introduction a fitting precursor to his normal everyday life

If he saw trouble, he went after it

Some said he had a death wish He saw it differently He stayed in the thick of things because he’d vowed to do all he could to put Five Bridges right and e a better place for his wolves

Or he’d die trying

He was also resigned to going it alone If he was going to face off with the Grih that kind of torment