Free Feint of Heart by Aimee Easterling Page A

alpha werewolf.
    "Hnnh." The snort could have been laughter or anger—it was hard to tell the difference with Crazy Wilder. But then he whistled shrilly, the high-pitched sound grating against my lupine ears.
    Once again, the field descended into restlessness as we waited to see what would happen next. It was hard to get two alphas from different packs moving in the same direction at the best of times. And now we were all hyped up on adrenaline, itching for the hunt to begin. Eight alphas plus Crazy Wilder—the combination was akin to a keg of dynamite standing on a hilltop during a thunderstorm.
    But still we waited, shuffling feet and murmuring questions. Wilder hadn't said the word either way, so the jury was still out on my team's participation in the game. And no alpha could initiate the hunt until our prey shifted and took the lead anyway.
    So fifty shifters watched impatiently as a newcomer appeared, running flat out over the hill that separated our encampment from the main Wilder village. I could smell her scent before she came fully into view. Bitter at first, then almost unbearably sweet. Like biting into an unripe persimmon, but in reverse. First your mouth puckers, then the rich orange flesh explodes into a fruity delicacy.
    I shook my head, trying to clear away the cobwebs that seemed to have formed out of nowhere as soon as the aroma entered my nose.
    Then the female was before me, her warm brown eyes meeting mine and holding. My chest seemed to swell with an emotion I'd never felt before as I dove into the dark depths of her soul.
    Is this what they mean by love at first sight?
    Beside me, Wade whined and leaned forward. Fen responded by grabbing the older teenager's ruff, pulling him back onto his haunches.
    But I took in my pack mates' actions only through changes in air currents, not because I flicked my eyes to the side to check on my companions. Instead, my gaze remained riveted on the newcomer.
    "Alexis will join Wolf Young's pack to even the odds," Wilder intoned, his voice beginning to deepen as his body settled into the shift. "May the hunt begin!"
     
     

Chapter 2
    We'd left the other packs behind hours ago. Alexis knew the terrain much better than the rest of us did—no surprise there since I assumed she'd lived on this mountain her entire life. So I allowed the female to lead us up hillsides and down deep draws, running flat out until our hot breath steamed in the cold air.
    As my paws pounded across wet earth, a tiny voice at the back of my mind told me that I should be bothered by the fact that the Chief's scent had disappeared nearly at once. Plus, the occasional howls from other crews now seemed to be emanating from an entirely different part of the property than the one we were currently combing through.
    But I trusted Alexis to give us the home-court advantage. She likely knew all the Wilder hidey holes and was taking our team on a grand tour of possible locations where the Chief might choose to go to ground.
    The strategy made perfect sense. If I were Chief Wilder, I'd definitely hole up somewhere isolated and difficult to access, then laugh up my sleeve while the region's top shifters stumbled over each other trying to find my lair.
    Smart wolf , I thought, glancing toward Alexis with approval. Her white fur glowed like a star in the near pitch darkness. Then she glanced over her shoulder, and I once again fell into those dark, alluring eyes.
    An image of an entirely different pack princess drifted through my mind. Terra. There and gone in an instant. I hadn't hunted down Crazy Wilder's younger daughter a third time, but I still thought of her often. She was the one who got away. The one I mooned over in human form when my wolf brain wasn't quite as fully engaged, when I forgot that the only shifters who mattered were those within my pack.
    Now, though, I couldn't seem to make Terra's image stick on the insides of my retinas. Instead, when I closed my eyelids, all I saw was Alexis's