Free Desired by the Alpha (Wolf Destiny Book 1) by Violet Ray

Prologue Ten Years Earlier
    Blaize bounded rapidly through the trees, his paws crunching over the patches of new-fallen snow, blood pounding through his veins. He couldn’t wait to start patrolling the perimeter of the forest. It was his first time to be allowed to go out by himself.  
    Officially, that is. There might have been a time or two when he had snuck out on his own, late at night, unseen and unheard by his family.  
    But this. This was the real thing. Few wolves were ever given this much responsibility at his age. But he has proven himself in so many tests, the elders couldn’t deny him even though he was only sixteen.  
    Of course he shouldn’t be making so much noise, and he was more than able to be super-stealthy when he wanted to. In fact, Blaize was the best tracker of his pack. But his enthusiasm was so great, he couldn’t possibly hold himself back now.  
    Before he left, his father had taken him aside for a final talk.
    “Remember, Blaize. Don’t take on any fights you don’t think you can win. If you’re outnumbered, if they have weapons—”
    “I know, Father. You’ve been training me for ages. I know everything,” Blaize said, hardly able to sit still. He was dying to shift out of human form and bolt out of their cave, but if he tried to take off before his father was done his mini-speech, the old man would only block him and take even longer to finish.  
    “I don’t think you know everything,” his father said, his eyebrow arching upwards. “But you know what you need to know. For now. Protecting our forest is important work, Blaize. It’s not a time to play around.”
    “I know,” Blaize said, practically bouncing with impatience.
    “Go on,” his father said. “And be careful.”
    “I will!” Blaize called, already making a run for it, shedding his clothes as he went. The moment he shifted into wolf form, well before he was anywhere near the entrance to their home cave, he went into high gear, racing at top speed, heading outside to freedom.
    Upon reaching the clearing close to the edge of the forest, he stopped abruptly. He sniffed his way around the edge of the circular area, where all the underbrush had been trodden down after centuries of the wolves of his pack gathering together. All good.  
    Blaize walked right to the edge of the forest, so close that any creature on the other side with sharp eyes could have spotted him. It was forbidden for any wolf to make themselves visible to the human world that existed outside of their forest, but nothing could stop him from taking a look.  
    At first he had been annoyed that he was assigned this part of the forest for his very first solo patrol. It was full of sparse patches of thin, narrow trees. That meant there was lots of legwork to do. Blaize would have preferred to stay hidden and jump out at the last moment, terrifying any human that entered their territory before he attacked. This area provided very few hiding spots good enough for that tactic.
    Then he learned this was the point at which the humans were most likely to dare to show themselves. In their whole uneasy history of wolves and humans living so close to each other, this was where they would take their lives in their hands and venture in.
    It was only recently that his pack leaders had discovered why this was so. Some time ago, the humans had gotten bolder and began to build their dwellings closer to the forest than ever before. There was even one so close that he could see it clearly from where he stood among the trees.  
    Somehow the humans thought that moving themselves closer to the forest made it safer for them to come inside.  
    They were wrong.
    Blaize gazed at the house and its surroundings, watching the lights inside go out one by one, tracking a faint shadowy figure moving around in the only part that was still lit up.  
    Blaize had never been outside of the forest, had never wanted to go beyond its edges, but now a spark of curiosity ran through