Claimed by the Rogue Wolf

As the daughter of a nomad wolf and a mother who would chase passion to the ends of the earth, I learned early to pay attention to my instincts. At the top of Bald Mountain’s Black Diamond trail, the swirl of snow
was trying to tell me something.

I wouldn’t be the same person when I reached the bottom of
the summit.

As the smell of ice burned my nostrils and a trickle of
sweat ran down my spine, I glanced up at the sky. The moon was almost full.

This could be it.

My twin sister Jessica frowned at me. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” It was the worst lie I’d ever told, and I didn’t care. I pushed my goggles down over my eyes, but the conversation wasn’t over. It never was. We weren’t only twins, we were werewolves on the verge of our
first shift. “Let’s go.”

She gave me some serious side eye before steadying herself
at the head of the trail. “Tell me about it when we get back to the cabin if it’s still bothering you. You can’t be sad on Christmas.”

And then she pushed off, leaving me with my jumbled thoughts and the animal that was clawing against the inside of my skin.

I followed her, praying that I didn’t have a whole different
set of problems by the time we got back to the cabin. Honestly, I was hoping I
made it back to the cabin in one human piece. In the last couple of weeks, I’d
become all too familiar with this feeling. At first I thought it was the stress of finals. Then getting everything ready to spend Christmas with our parents in Sawtooth Forest. Now that I was here, I should’ve been able to relax.

But the feeling had only intensified, now that I’d left the
concrete jungle of Los Angeles and come someplace my wolf felt like she could make herself at home. There was only so much longer I’d be able to fight…

I did everything I could to catch up with Jessica. Usually,
I was the better skier, but my sister hated to lose. She’d never shut up about a couple of really good runs, and Bald Mountain was full of trails worth bragging about. If I wasn’t careful, I’d wipe out or hit a tree.

Or shift.

A wolf howled in the distance. I shouldn’t have been able to
hear it, but it was like it had come from inside me. My vision blurred, and I’d do anything to push off my goggles. The sun had slipped below the horizon,
surrendering the night to Santa and the magic of the holiday.

I loved Christmas, and I really didn’t want to spend it as a
wolf…

But the next howl was too close. It ricocheted through my
body like it came from my own animal. Shit. I was pretty sure it did. Or was it my own screaming? Jess pulled up on her skis and tore her hat and goggles away from her face.

I couldn’t stop. Too many things were happening to my body. So I wiped out on purpose.

The heat was unbearable. I tore at my clothes, and Jessica
ran over to me.

“Jasmine! Tell me what’s wrong.” Her hand was over her
mouth, and she swallowed a scream.

I opened my mouth, but I didn’t have words. All I had for
her was a howl, which would tell her everything. Well, the obvious stuff, anyway. I was shifting. Hopefully our twin telepathy still worked when I was a wolf and she was human. She had to know I was freaking out. I wasn’t the
impulsive one. She was. I was the one who cleaned up her messes.

That wasn’t all I had to tell her. She needed to know about
the other wolf that was near. I didn’t know if he wanted to help us or hurt us. Somehow, I was pretty sure he was, in fact, a he. And that those howls were meant for me. But I couldn’t understand him.

“Holy shit.” She kept repeating it. “Okay. You are definitely shifting. Oh my God. Why don’t I know what to do?”

Jessica ripped the rest of my clothes off me. My animal was
finally free. Fur blossoming in place of skin, my face was doing something funky, and my fingers turned black and turned to claws.

“Shhh,” Jess said. Human me was screaming, and it came out as a howl. She put her finger over my snout and I nipped at her.

“Can you hear the
other wolves?” I asked, hoping she could understand me. When our dad shifted, we could understand him, but I didn’t know if that was something that just happened. My sister and I were only half shifters. So even though we’d
been prepared for this moment, in theory, there were so many wildcards. There was no telling how wolf I’d be until
I shifted.

Right now, I was feeling pretty wolf.

Jess let out a yelp and jumped back. She didn’t answer right
away. Instead, the other wolf chimed in, like he could understand me. She
nodded.

“We’ve got to get down
the mountain.” I nudged her arm. “We’ve got to get back to Dad.”

“What about our stuff?” She stood and started picking up my clothes. “We can’t leave everything here. People will think something happened.”

“Something did happen.”

“I know, but I don’t want anyone out searching for us when we’re home with our family. Safe.” She looked back at me and frowned. “I hope.”

“We’ve got to get off
this mountain.” I punctuated it with a whine.

“Okay.” She picked up our skis and sticks and tossed them
off the trail. “No one will see them.”

She was wasting precious time. I trotted down the summit. It
was best we stuck to the trail. If we tried to hide we could get lost, or that wolf could find us.

Those howls were louder. Closer. I broke into a run. My new limbs still felt foreign, but all the emotions like fear and panic made it through the shift intact.

“You’re going too fast,” Jessica called after me. As a human, she was in better shape than I was. She could catch her breath when we got back to the cabin.

I couldn’t explain to her that the wolves were getting
closer. They might be able to understand me. But I did stop for her, as she inhaled huge gulps of air. We weren’t used to the altitude, and she was kinda
freaking out. So was I, but I couldn’t let her know. I tipped my snout up to give her a nuzzle. It had comforted me so many times when Dad did it.

Jessica screamed.

We were surrounded by wolves. Some with red fur, just like mine. Just like Dad’s.

“Look what we have
here.” The one I assumed was the alpha stepped forward. Jessica fell to her knees and clung to me as he began to circle us. “The traitor’s little princesses. Ready for a lesson in pack justice?”

“Leave us alone.” Jessica’s voice shook and she scrambled
backwards, with her arms locked around my throat. “We don’t want trouble.”

The wolf snickered. “It’s
about time you learn that you can’t get everything you want, princess.” He jerked his head back to the rest of his pack. “The human is worthless. I want the brand-new wolf. If she’s ready to shift, she’s ready to mate.”

“No. I’m not ready.”

Jess screamed. “I’m not going anywhere without her.”

The alpha wolf stepped closer. “If you don’t go, little human, we’ll kill you.”

Jessica stifled a whimper. Her body trembled against mine.

“Go,” I said. “Don’t be stupid. There’s no reason for you
to get hurt.”

“I can’t leave you alone,” she tried to whisper. “They’ll
kill you.”

Deep in my bones, I knew she was right. But I had no plans
of dying on Christmas Eve. Somehow, I had the audacity to believe I could take on an experienced pack with a vendetta against my dad and still be home in time
to open presents. It was the only thing keeping me sane right now. The promise
of that cozy little cabin and drinking hot cocoa with my family.

“Go,” I repeated to Jessica. “Find Dad.”

We didn’t even know about his old pack until today. He’d
always been his own wolf, and because we’d been raised without a pack, we’d
never thought to question it. Until he brought us to Granger Falls, Idaho, not knowing that his old pack had been causing trouble in the area.

The wolves laughed at my instruction. “Cole Williams runs from fights that aren’t staged,” the wolf said. “He can’t save you.”

I shook free of Jessica’s grip, looking back at her and
growling. She scrambled in the snow and started running. The wolves let her go. That was a relief. I feared they’d rip her to pieces if she tried to escape,
just because they could. To send a message to me and Dad, loud and clear.

Stepping toward the wolf, mirroring his smile, I was aware
that my fur stood on end. I didn’t know if that meant I was about to attack or be attacked. No matter what happened next, I wasn’t going down without a fight.

“I don’t need him to save me.”

The wolf’s eyes widened. “Is that so?”

I nodded.

“Take her,” he instructed to his pack. “Bring her deep into the forest and we’ll show her what it’s like to be a part of a pack.”

The wolves were bigger than me, and there were so many of
them. They nipped at me as I fought, but not enough to really hurt me. They were trying to see how far I’d go. I burst away, and one of them got me by the
tail.

Damn, that thing was sensitive.

That was how he dragged me off the trail, and into the
woods. Rocks and brush scraped against my belly, and I was getting motion sick.
A metal collar clamped around my neck, and a thick chain bound me to a tree.

This couldn’t possibly be good.

One of the wolves picked my head up by biting my fur, so I
was once again eye to eye with the alpha. “Do you know why you’re here, princess?”

“Because you’re pissed
at my dad.”

“Because your dad
betrayed this pack, and he was too much of a coward to face the consequences,” he said. Until now, I always thought smiling dogs were cute. I’d been so wrong. This wolf gave me a nasty grin that sent a chill down my spine. “But you’re telling me you’re a brave wolf,
so you can take the punishment for him.”

I wasn’t that brave, because there were only a handful of
punishments that could fit this crime. But if I showed fear, it would be worse. This wolf could be calling my bluff. I wouldn’t trust anyone my dad walked away from. Dad took responsibilities like family very seriously. There was a damn
good reason he abandoned this pack.

I took a deep breath, steeling myself for whatever came
next. I’d fight, and I’d adjust the plan as necessary. “Show me what you’ve got, wolf.”

The alpha nodded. “Boys,
have at her.”

The wolves stepped forward, wearing their own versions of
that sickening grin. I was going to puke. I was chained to the tree, with no way to escape.

“No,” one of the wolves in the back said. “Don’t touch
her.”

The alpha groaned, and some of the others snickered.  “Since
when does an omega give commands?” he asked.

“Since she’s my mate.”