To the hubs; my life, my love, my mate.

Prologue


Winnie



Past …



"Please don't leave me here." My voice cracks at the plea. I hate this. I  hate all of it. I stare up at the alpha of the Gray Ridge pack, not  wanting to part with him. One would think I'd want to get away from him  as fast as possible. Everything about him screams strength and power.  I've noticed no one even really makes eye contact with him, but I do. I  stare up at him, pleading with my eyes. I feel safe with him. It's  almost funny because he's easily a foot-and-a-half taller than me. Maybe  more.

Stone's an alpha in every sense of the word. I knew it from the moment  he picked me up in his arms. I could feel it almost bleeding off him. He  was attractive, but not what I would call handsome by any stretch. His  dark-brown hair is shaved at the sides, with the top a little bit  longer. He always grips it when he gets a little bit agitated with me.  Which seems to be a lot since I started following him around like a lost  cub. Which I am.

Even at night, when everyone would go to bed, I'd sneak into his room  and crawl into bed with him. Maybe that's why he's making me leave. Who  wants a lost little cub following them around everywhere they go? He's  all I know, but that's not saying much since I can only remember the  last seven days of my life. He's my world at this point. He and Gwen are  all I know, and I don't want to let that go.

His big hand cups my chin, and I lean into it, trying to inhale his  scent. It's now become the scent I think of when I think of home, and  he's trying to take it from me. His thumb brushes my cheek, and  something flashes in his dark-blue eyes before he drops his hand away  liked I burned him. I want to reach out and put it back, but I don't.

When I was first found in the woods, they brought me to him, and he held  me for days. Lay on the floor with me in his home, petting me, trying  to get me to shift out of bear form. I couldn't do it. I didn't know  how. I didn't know anything except my first name. I still don't know  much. I seem to remember everything except my previous life. I know how  everything works, and I can read and write, but my life just isn't  there.

Even the first few days after being found in the woods is still hazy in  my mind. Just like the rest of my life, but no one has come for me. No  one has come forward to claim me as theirs. I was abandoned and  unwanted, it seems. And now it's happening again. In seven days I've  been cast out twice. Okay, maybe Stone isn't casting me out as much as  placing me in a new home, but it feels like it. He's found me a  permanent place among a family in his pack, but it feels as if I'm being  thrown away.

"This is what's best. Trust me," Stone finally says. I want to believe  him. Trust him. I turn my head to look at the place that's to be my home  now. A man and a woman stand on the porch with two blonde girls who  look to be about my age. Well, what I'm guessing is my age. They look  like they've been plucked right out of a magazine. Stone said it was a  nice family. They have two daughters, and I will like it here.

I hear Gwen, Stone's sister, let out an unhappy huff from behind him.  She doesn't want me to leave either. She and Stone have been fighting  for the past two days about it. I hate that they were fighting about me.  Maybe that was another reason he wanted me gone. She wanted me to stay  with them, but Stone said it just wasn't possible. I think it's a lie.  He's the alpha; he could make it so. He just doesn't want me to.

Even knowing it's a lie, I try again, not caring how pathetic it is.  "Please don't make me go. I promise I'll be better." My voice drops a  little before whispering the rest, even knowing everyone will hear it  anyways. They're all wolves, they hear everything. "I won't sneak into  your room anymore. I'll stay in mine. Please don't make me go." I feel  the tears hit my cheeks.

Oddly, this is the first time I've cried. Even when I finally shifted  out of bear form, I didn't cry, and it felt like my whole body was on  fire. Somehow this hurts more. How I've become so attached to him so  fast, I don't know. But I am. The thought of leaving him steals the  breath from my lungs.

A low growl leaves his chest, and I can hear everyone take a step back,  but I don't. No. I step closer. I like the sound. It seems to scare  everyone else, but it makes me feel safe. Even if the growl is directed  at me. I want to lay my head on his chest and hear where the growl  emanates from.