Free Home (Running With Alphas Book 7) by Viola Rivard

CHAPTER ONE
     
    While Holly dragged Lark to the upper chambers, Taylor followed Fenix back to the main room. Her echoing footsteps felt like a death march and were all she could concentrate on. She had already been hungry and tired, and now she was just plain overwhelmed.
    Just moments before, Lark had revealed that Snow wasn’t quite the wolf her father thought she was. Female shifters were, while physically superior to their human counterparts, incapable of bearing children. From what little she had learned, their infertility was the result of centuries of their skinwalker ancestors breeding with humans.
    For whatever reason, Alder’s daughter was different. Unable to shift and possessing limited preternatural abilities, Snow was also capable of having a female cycle. It stood to reason that one day, she might also be able to have children. It was very remarkable, but it also made her situation at Whiteriver all the more perilous.
    Taylor had seen firsthand what had happened to her own mates while she was fertile. Freed from all sexual inhibitions, they had spent a week living for nothing but desire to claim her, over and over again. While her own experience had been far from unpleasant, Taylor was an adult and moderately prepared for what was to come. She had also had Alder, who had been through the thrall before and could curb his less experienced twin’s aggression.
    Snow was very far from an adult. She was too young for any sexual experience, let alone as primitive and violent as the mating thrall. And Taylor didn’t even want to imagine the consequences of such a thing.
    Fortunately, at this very moment, Silas was considering their offer. Hours ago, Taylor had posed an arrangement to the Whiteriver alpha. If he returned Snow, the Halcyon pack would allow Whiteriver wolves to hunt in its territory. Whiteriver had nothing to lose and everything to gain from the arrangement—provided they believed the offer was genuine.
    Unfortunately, at this moment, Cain—Alder and Hale’s older brother, the alpha of Snow’s pack, and the man who had raised her—had finally showed up. Not only did this threaten the impending peace, but if he told Alder about how much jeopardy Snow was truly in—well, things would get hairy to say the least.
    The passageway opened up into the main room: a long, expansive cavern that started at the mouth of the den and led deep into the mountainside. Taylor didn’t have to look around for long to find her mates. The main room had been cleared out, devoid of any lingering packmates. On the raised platform where Hale took his nightly meals stood her mates, three unfamiliar wolves, a woman she also didn’t recognize, and Cain.
    Cain was almost exactly what Taylor had imagined he would look like. Slightly taller than Alder and Hale, his muscles were more sinewy than bulky. With sable brown hair and olive skin, his features were much darker than his brothers’. They were also severely drawn, making him more intimidating than classically handsome.
    No one looked their way as Taylor and Fenix approached. Alder and Cain were engaged in what sounded like a heated debate. Stepping up onto the platform, Taylor caught the tail end of the conversation.
    “I don’t give a damn, we’re going there tonight,” Cain said gruffly. “He can either give Snow back or face a slow death.”
    Gasping, Taylor blurted out, “You can’t do that.”
    Their heads turned her way. Alder gave her a reproachful look, while Hale appeared to be suppressing a grin.
    Taylor gave the newcomers an awkward wave. “I just mean, we have a plan and we’re waiting to hear back from Whiteriver. If you threaten Silas, it’ll ruin everything.”
    Cain’s face hardened. “I don’t know who you are and why you think you can advise me on what’s best for my daughter. Mind your own business.”
    Taylor’s face heated. A dozen rebuttals shot through her mind, but in the end she remained silent as Cain turned back to speak with