Chapter One
Rory Merchant was the most furious red fox in the universe. Although she hadn’t been around red foxes since she was a child, she was certain that was an accurate statement.
A series of events surrounding her best friend Jess, an owl shifter, an arranged mating, and asshole human hunters had ended with Jess landing in the middle of a zoo that was secretly run by shifters. Rescued by Auden, a wolf and Jess’s soulmate, like some kind of romance novel hero, had put Jess at odds with the owls, who didn’t believe in soulmates.
The only thing Rory thought the owls truly believed in was the authority of the males over the females.
The day had started like any other for Rory. The adopted daughter of the king and queen of the nest, she’d woken up in her treehouse bedroom, dressed for the day, then had grabbed a cup of coffee from the kitchen. King Ahar had already gone, which wasn’t surprising. He was an up before dawn sort of male. Rory liked to occasionally watch the sunrise, but she didn’t make a habit of it. Her adoptive mother, Rinna queen of the nest, had been scrubbing the stove, the scent of cleanser heavy in the air.
“Morning,” Rory said.
“Did you sleep well?” Rinna asked, not stopping the back and forth motion of the sponge.
“Yeah. Where’s Dad?”
“Out looking for Jess with the others. They came in late and caught a few hours’ sleep, then headed back out. Have you heard from her?”
Rory didn’t like lying in the general sense, but she wasn’t about to out her bestie. “Nope. I hope she’s okay.”
“I’m sure they’ll find her,” Rinna said.
She finished her coffee and ate a bowl of scrambled eggs, then headed out for what she liked to call the nest’s “gardening club.” In treetop greenhouses, she and several other females tended to the fruits and vegetables the nest used. Rory personally loved sugar snap peas, so she always filled a pocketful to nibble on as she worked, listening to music on wireless earbuds so she didn’t have to make small talk with the females. They were forever asking when the king was going to hook Rory up with a mate, but she wasn’t having any of that.
She wasn’t an owl, so she didn’t want anyone to choose her mate for her but herself.
As the day progressed, Rory was sent on an errand, but she wasn’t allowed to take her cell phone. The king had said he needed to update the phone’s security, and he’d return it to her when she got back from the errand. He hadn’t really given her a choice, but she’d had misgivings about not having her phone with her. Particularly with what was going on with Jess. She’d been careful to delete the messages from her, writing Auden’s cell number down on a tiny piece of paper and sticking it in her back pocket.
Because Rory’d had an odd feeling, she abandoned what she figured was simply a plot to get her away from the territory and headed back, parking her car away from the main cluster of treehouses and sneaking around. Skulking in the shadows as the sun set, she’d seen a large group of males, including Jess’s father, the king, and Miles. Rory’s bad feelings about the situation increased dramatically.
Rory’s home was vacant, but a quick scent of the air allowed her to follow her adoptive mother’s scent to Jess’s home, where she overheard the two females discussing the mating ceremony that was to occur between Jess and Miles. It took only minutes for her to realize that everything about that day had been a set-up. Jess and Auden were on their way to the territory to be ambushed by the nest, in order to secure her for that asshole Miles.
Hurrying away before she was discovered, she let out a yelp and covered her head in surprise as she heard an explosion rock the woods. Shaking her head to clear her ears, she heard howling wolves and roaring lions, and Jess’s panicked scream.
She ran like a madwoman through the woods, shouting for help and banging a stick against tree trunks as she moved in an effort to draw the owl males away from the scream she’d heard. When she knew she was being followed and had effectively drawn them away from her bestie, she dropped the stick and switched directions, silently running to catch up to her friend.
The scene was shocking. An owl male was dragging Jess through the woods by her ankles while she vainly attempted to grab onto something for purchase. As Rory was about to leap on the male and knock him down, a wolf jumped over Jess and landed hard on the male.
Wolves and lions surrounded her fallen friend.
“Need some help?” Rory asked, walking into view.
“Hey! What’s going on?”
Rory offered her hand to Jess and helped her stand.
“Dear old Dad arranged for the ambush. I didn’t know ahead of time because he sent me on an errand. When I got back to the nest, I knew something was going on, and then I heard the explosion. Shit, owls are assholes. Present company excluded, of course.”
The wolf swung his big head around to look at Jess and growled in a way that sounded like he was asking a question. He was standing with his huge paws on the owl male, who was alive but unconscious.
“I’m okay,” Jess said, answering the growl.
Rory snorted in disbelief. “You just got dragged through the woods you know. Your arms are all scratched up.”
She didn’t seem to care, most likely too keyed up from shock. “You should get out of here or you’ll get in trouble.”
Rory was touched she was worried about her. “No one will know I’m here. Besides, I had to make sure you were okay. Is this your mate?” She looked at the wolf leaning against Jess’s legs.
“This is Auden.”
Rory smiled at him. “Nice to meet you. Be good to my bestie.” She looked at Jess and told her she’d be able to avoid the majority of owls looking for them if she swung around the tree where they used to play hide and seek. “They’re headed away from here now.”
“How do you know?” Jess asked.
“Because I sent them that way by running like a lunatic through the woods and making a ruckus.”
“Thanks.”
Jess and Rory hugged.
“Anytime. You can’t call my cell because Dad took it from me after we texted earlier. He said it needed a security upgrade, but clearly he was taking away my ability to alert you to what they were planning. I should’ve known something was up, but I didn’t until I saw a lot of males heading toward the entrance to our territory.”
“My mom wasn’t there. Do you think she knew about the ambush?”
Rory nodded sadly. “I’m sorry, babe, but yes. When I saw the males heading out, I went to find my mom to see what was going on, and your mom was there. They were talking about your mating ceremony. I left before they realized I was listening and did my best to lead our males away from you.”
“That sucks,” Jess said.
“Yeah, but at least you’re with your soulmate. The nest didn’t succeed in separating you. You don’t need all this negative bullshit in your life anyway. The nest can go to hell with their ass-backward ways.”
“You still live here, you know. You’re the daughter of the king.”
“I’m my own woman, and if Dad thinks I’m going to mate an owl because he says so, then he’s got another thing coming. Fortunately, owls don’t look at me like a mate, so I think I’m in the clear.” Rory canted her head and listened for a moment. “They’re changing direction. You need to go. Email me. I have an old laptop hidden in my room, so we can stay connected.”
“Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
Jess looked down at Auden. “Follow me.”
Rory watched Jess and Auden, and the shifters with them, disappear into the woods. She waited until they were away, then melted into the shadows, heading to her home and sneaking into the bedroom through an open window. She was angry that the nest had turned on Jess instead of celebrating that she had found her truemate. She sure as hell didn’t think attacking her and trying to separate her from her mate was the way to go about things, but it wasn’t the first time the nest had gone all haywire over a mating. Their history was fraught with females forced into matings they didn’t want in the name of an alliance or some other male-centric reason.
Stepping into the shower, Rory vowed to help Jess as much as she could. Maybe in the process, she’d find her own soulmate and could get the hell away from the owls.