Daring Fate: Silver Tip Pack series Read online

  Daring Fate

  Silver Tip Pack series

  Megan Erickson

  Volume 1

  Contents

  Daring Fate

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Glossary

  About the Author

  Other books by Megan Erickson

  Acknowledgments

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  * * *

  Copyright © 2016 by Megan Erickson

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.

  * * *

  Copyedited by Edie Danford

  Cover design by Natasha Snow

  * * *

  First edition November 2016

  Daring Fate

  We all have tragic backstories in today’s world…

  * * *

  I wake up chained to the wall of a dark cell aware of two things: I failed my sister, and I smell my enemy.

  * * *

  When I’m taken to meet Dare, the alpha of the Silver Tip pack, I’m sure I’m about to lose my throat. The last thing I expect is for the Alpha to recognize me as his fated mate. No way is he going to let me go now, and I still have to find a way to rescue my sister.

  * * *

  As I plot my escape to save her, I find that if I leave, Dare could be killed by power-hungry members of his pack. And now he’s more to me than my fated mate—my heart is involved. With time ticking by on my sister’s life, I have to make a choice I never thought I’d face—my sister’s life or my mate’s? That’s if I can survive the undead shifters intent on killing me first...

  Dedication

  To Scott Speedman, who made a damn fine werewolf in Underworld.

  * * *

  And to Jon Bernthal, who was the best zombie killer on The Walking Dead.

  They did you dirty, Shane!

  Author’s Note

  There is a glossary at the end of the book for terms used relating to geography and shifter life.

  Thank you for reading!

  Chapter One

  Reese

  * * *

  For one blissful moment, as my body came awake, I felt nothing. Then my brain clicked online, synapses firing, and with that came the hot, branding sear of pain.

  The motherfucking pain.

  I didn’t move from where I lay on my back. The floor beneath me was hard, so even breathing was sending bolts of agony up my spine and through my ribs. I hoped I had no permanent damage. I was too weak to shift, and even if I had been strong enough—I blinked out of my non-swollen eye at the silver cuff on my ankle—that right there would prevent me.

  Jude.

  My brother’s name was a bright light through the fog of pain. I tried to say the word, but only managed a puff of air. My throat was sandpaper, and when I licked my dry tongue across my lips, I tasted the iron tang of crusted blood.

  This was my worst nightmare. If they found Jude too…

  I’d been in Xan’s isolation pits before—pure fucking torture for a species that needed companionship like air—but this wasn’t a hole dug in the ground, covered with a crude locked grate.

  The room was dark and small—maybe twelve square feet. My depth perception was fucked up, because only one eye was functional. A large metal door seemed to be the only entrance in or out. One single beam of sunlight snuck into the cell and lit a foot-long patch on the ground. Maybe this was a special place for wolves he planned to kill in slow, torturous ways? Probably.

  I scraped my fingernails on the dirty concrete floor, then my gaze followed the length of the chain to where it was attached to a bolt in the corner. I lifted myself onto my elbows, gritting my teeth as that simple motion stole what little energy I had left.

  I inhaled, expecting the ever-present scent of wolves, fear, and starvation.

  Instead, I sniffed dirt, blood, and Were.

  Were.

  My entire body went tight, my canines punching down as my body sought to protect itself from an enemy. I was a werewolf, which meant I had two forms—human and four-legged wolf. Weres had three forms—human, four-legged wolf, and Were. Their Were form was like a giant wolf/human hybrid. They stood upright about eight to nine feet tall, with clawed hands and feet, wiry hair coating their bodies, and massive jaws the size of my torso. Werewolves and Weres were separate species with no real love between them, which was why the smell of Were was enough to send me into a frenzy.

  My heart raced as I took stock of my injuries. It was always good to know which limbs were in working order, especially when I had to defend myself.

  My ribs were fucked, and one knee was not bending like it was supposed to. Oh, and I was pretty sure my left arm was broken. So…two out of four functioning appendages. Wonderful. Great. Grand.

  I’d wanted to get my siblings away from Xan’s rule and the tyrannical way he ran the werewolf Bluefoot pack. Well, I’d gotten past step one. Step two? I rattled the chain. Apparently step two was surviving Weres.

  Piece of fucking cake.

  Something moved in the corner of the cell, and the hair on the back of my neck rose as I bared my teeth—instinct even though I wasn’t able to shift.

  A hand, its fingernails caked in dirt, entered a beam of light. Then a dark head and a face with familiar blue eyes peered at me with trepidation. “You’re awake.”

  Ignoring the pain and the dread, I scrambled toward Jude as he came toward me, and we met in a clash of limbs under the beam of light. I inhaled him, snuffling my nose into his neck as he did the same to me. My brother was alive and for right now, I’d celebrate that victory. He clung to me, his slender body shaking as I ran my hands over his skin. “Are you hurt?”

  He shook his head. “Not hurt.” He wasn’t chained like I was, probably because he was a novus and couldn’t shift yet. His fingers grazed my swollen face as his eyes hardened. He was so close to his muto, and although he was a wisp of a thing now at seventeen, he’d be formidable once his first change hit. “I saw it all.” His teeth were clenched. “If you hadn’t made me promise to stay hidden, I would have tried to stop them.” His lip trembled. “I thought they killed you.”

  My memory was fuzzy, but I knew the members of our old pack hadn’t even given me a proper cast-out as a shifter. They’d prevented me from shifting and then took turns beating the shit out of me. “Well, they didn’t,” I mumbled, my tongue thick, my throat swollen.

  He was trying not to cry, my brave brother. “Selene’s still there.”

  As if I weren’t already in enough pain, the guilt over failing to save my sister threatened to suffocate me. We’d planned this escape for months. I got Jude out first, stowed him away in a small cave outside the walls of the compound, and had been on my way back inside to get Selene. Except Xan’s men, for once, didn’t do exactly what they were supposed to be doing. I got caught and nearly killed.

  Despite the pain now, I’d do it
all over again. Selene was still there, and in a month, Xan planned to mate her. I’d seen what he did to mates, and there was no way I’d allow that to happen to my sister while I was still fucking breathing. I’d be back to get her, as soon as we figured out how to get out of here.

  “I know, man.” I glanced around. “So where the fuck are we now?”

  He curled in on himself. “Shit, Reese. I’m sorry.”

  The dread intensified. “Sorry for what?”

  “When you were unconscious, they carried you outside the city and left you for the Noweres. You had no protection. I couldn’t… I didn’t know what to do.”

  Noweres. Even now the name sent an arrow of poison-tipped fear through me. A century ago, a virus eradicated the human population and killed two-thirds of all Weres. But those dead Weres? They became…undead. Stuck in their Were form, they roamed the earth in packs, feeding from or infecting any living thing they could. As a werewolf, I couldn’t be infected like Weres, but I sure as hell could be very, very dead. If a Nowere had found me last night, it would have ripped me apart and scraped the meat from my bones with its rotting teeth. I gripped Jude’s chin. “What’re you sorry for?”

  “I asked for help.”

  My stomach dropped. “From who?”

  He swallowed. “Weres.”

  “Ju—”

  “The Silver Tip.”

  My muscles gave out. I collapsed onto my back and stared up at the ceiling, unsure whether I should cry, laugh, or just kill us now before the Silver Tip did. It was promising they hadn’t killed Jude and me on sight. But then, I was chained to the wall in a cell, so it wasn’t like they’d given us some excellent hospitality.

  The Silver Tip and the Bluefoot pack had a truce that went back decades. The only rule? We left each other alone. And we certainly didn’t step foot in each other’s territories.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said, full-on crying now, and I closed my eyes, trying to summon the willpower to comfort him when I didn’t even have enough energy to comfort myself. “They were the only ones I knew who would enter Nowere territory. They shut me in here while they went to get you. You were still unconscious when they tossed you in with me and chained you.”

  He sniffled, and I didn’t move. I’d never actually met a Were. Rumors about the Silver Tip pack and their ruthless Alpha were all the rage in the Bluefoot pack. I had absolutely no idea what they’d do with us. Starving under Xan’s rule might have been preferable. What had I gotten us into? Out from under the dictator’s thumb and right into the path of the killer’s giant jaws.

  I raised my hand to my throat. I kinda liked my throat. Not sure how much longer I’d have it, to be honest. “I’m surprised they didn’t kill you on sight.”

  “I know everything we’ve been told about them, but I couldn’t do nothing. And they haven’t killed us yet.”

  A key rattled in the door’s lock, and despite my seriously broken body, I stumbled to my feet, shoving Jude behind me with my one good arm. I pushed us into the corner as far as the chain would allow. “Reese,” he hissed. “You don’t have to protect me.”

  I ignored him. Despite my injuries, I wasn’t a novus, and at six-five in my human form, I had a good couple of inches on my brother, as well as about fifty pounds.

  When the door opened, I sucked in a breath as a massive Were in his human form filled the doorway. His scent was overwhelming, like dirt and pine. His head was square and sat on a neck as thick as my waist. His skin was dark and his scalp bald. He could have tossed me around like a rag doll, and he could have eaten Jude in two giant bites.

  His black eyes shifted from me to Jude, then back to me.

  I swallowed.

  The giant Were stalked toward me, and I braced, because even though I’d lose this fight, and lose badly, I’d fucking go down fighting, especially with Jude still alive to protect. The Were stopped in front of me, then reached down, and with one yank tore the silver chain out of the bolt in the wall.

  Jude whimpered behind me. And yeah, I had the same reaction, but fortunately kept my noises to myself.

  The Were straightened and pierced me with those black eyes, the end of the chain in one of his massive fists.

  “Come with me.” His craggy voice dropped the words like boulders between us.

  The Were started walking, and I had no choice but to follow or else I was damn sure he’d drag me by my leg. I limped along behind him, concerned about all my body parts but having no other choice. He was moving way faster than I could walk, his tree-trunk thighs eating up the distance as he took us down a dark hallway. When I stumbled, he stopped and turned, watching as Jude tried his best to help me along with his arm around my waist.

  When he began to walk again, his pace was slower this time.

  Did Weres…have empathy?

  That was brand new information.

  We reached the end of the hallway, where our guide pushed open a door. At that point, I lost all sense of direction as he guided us up some stairs and through a couple more hallways. The plaster walls were peeling, and the sun shining through large, cracked windows lit our way.

  Finally, we entered a large room, and my bare feet made a hollow sound on the warped wooden floor. We seemed to be on the bottom level of a warehouse-type building. The ceiling was probably four to five stories high, with balconies on every level lined with Weres peering down at us.

  Deep voices followed our movements as we made our way to a large platform on one end of the room. Beside me, Jude spun as he walked, taking in our new surroundings. I glanced up but wasn’t in the mood to dwell. I followed our guide doggedly, refusing to get behind and end up tripping in front of this room of predators.

  We reached a small group of Weres in human form, who stood with their arms crossed, waiting for us. They weren’t as big as the one holding my chain, but they were still all giants.

  Fuck my life.

  “Whatcha got, G?” one asked.

  The Were holding my chain dropped it onto the floor with a loud clank, probably assuming I wouldn’t bolt with an entire warehouse of Weres surrounding me. He was right. “Dare asked to meet the Bluefoot wolves.”

  The sound of footsteps had me taking a step back, and Jude crowded against my back. With every thump of a footfall, my anxiety ratcheted up a notch, because whoever was making that sound walked with purpose. With authority.

  With ruthlessness.

  The footsteps stopped, and I held my breath until a movement caught my eye. In one moment, the space in front of me was empty, and in the next, a Were was there, landing with a shuddering thud from out of nowhere, the dust swirling up around his black boots and legs clad in leather pants. My gaze rose. And rose. And rose. Up past thighs the size of my torso, a bare stomach rippling with muscle beneath tanned skin, twitching pecs glistening with sweat, over shoulders that could bench press three of me, and finally up to meet the green-eyed gaze of Dare.

  Alpha of the Silver Tip.

  I knew with every beat of my heart that he was alpha. If I had any hydration left in my body, I would have pissed myself.

  He was by far the largest Were in the room. When he opened his mouth and bared elongated canines—even in his human form—Jude clutched my shoulders and muffled a small scream into my back.

  “Hey Dare, we can put ’em to work,” one of the Weres said. “Or you could give the little one to me. Wolf novus? Yes, please.”

  I’d kill myself and Jude before that fucking Were touched him.

  Dare opened his mouth, his throat working like he was about to speak when he paused and sniffed the air.

  My nose was half-clogged with blood, and I could barely breathe. But a whiff of a scent caught my attention. I inhaled as much as I could, and as soon as the sweet aroma hit my nostrils, my knees buckled.

  That scent was nothing I’d ever experienced before…like the pine of the Were mixed with honeysuckle…

  This couldn’t be happening. Not here. Not now. But that scent was overwhelming me,
setting my blood on fire. My skin tingled, and my heart pounded like a drumbeat in my chest. When Dare locked eyes on me, I knew it.

  He was my True Mate.

  I’d finally escaped my former prison, and now I was stuck in another one. My life as I knew it was fucking over.

  Dare

  * * *

  The moment the wolf smelled it, his expression morphed into terror. Pure terror. He scrambled backward, the chain slithering across the floor like a retreating snake. He tripped and continued to crawl backward on his hands and feet, gaze on me the whole time.

  I flicked my fingers at G to take care of the novus as I stalked after my mate, who was hell-bent on getting away from me. Which was hilarious because he wasn’t going to get any-fucking-where. This entire place was filled with Weres loyal to me. The solid stone walls of my territory were thirty feet high and three feet thick.

  I’d never expected to find my True Mate. The odds of finding one were incredibly slim in this day and age where we all locked ourselves away behind fortified walls. True Mates were mostly an urban myth nowadays, but the deep recesses of my shifter brain knew the scent on instinct. And now that I smelled him—a minty, sweet smell—I understood why the True Mate bond was so coveted. I craved him, and my blood rushed through my veins like fucking fire. Of course, I’d have to wait to take him until he healed a little. The wolf was beat to shit, squinting at me through one good eye. His lips were split and he was holding his body in a way that made me suspect some rib damage.

  G had told me the wolf’s pack had beaten him and left him for dead. I typically wouldn’t give a shit about one dead wolf left as Nowere bait, but his brother had begged for help. We didn’t mess with the Bluefoot pack, but the novus had said they had been thrown out. My brother said I was going soft, but the thought of a pack leaving a member to be eaten by the Noweres didn’t sit well with me—even if he was just a werewolf.