Luna Hunted
Chapter 1

Kara

Dad’s fingers clasped the amber-filled glass sitting on the kitchen table in front of him. I could count on one hand the number of times he’d drunk straight whisky. Each time was a death in our family. First was my mom’s unfortunate death when I was twelve. The second was the horrific deaths of my entire family in a tragic avalanche over our village. It was sheer luck Dad and I had traveled to the main town Iqaluit on Baffin Island that day to buy Christmas presents.

Those presents were long forgotten when we’d arrived home to a thick blanket of snow covering half of the mountainside of our village. Wolf shifters survived a lot, but we couldn’t hold our breaths for hours on end, nor did our pelts keep us warm indefinitely when buried under an avalanche of snow.

At least half our village survived, even if no one in my family did. They’d all rallied around Dad to help raise me through my troubled teenage years, and now, at twenty-three, I’d come out the other side as a well-adjusted woman. That was a lie. But we all hid our flaws. Some were better at it than others.

Dad’s flaw was gambling. A vice he’d fallen into after everyone died. I didn’t blame him for seeking an outlet for the grief. Nor did I blame him for his gambling losses because he lost more times than he won. We’d lived dollar to dollar for many years. I’d taken a part-time job as soon as possible, so we didn’t go without food or electricity. I loved Dad, flaws and all. He was my only family.

Bile rose in my throat that he was about to tell me bad news—about him. But what might it be? Wolf shifters didn’t get sick. Our special genetics always kept us strong and healthy. We lived remarkably long lives. Longer than humans. Death only befell us from tragic accidents, fights, or straight-out murder.

“Kara,” he choked out. He raised the glass to his lips and took a sip.

“What is it?” I drew out a chair and slumped onto the hard timber.

“I screwed up gambling.”

A relieved sigh escaped me. At least I still had my dad. He might have his faults, but he was all I had left. “Whatever it is, we’ll fix it.”

He shook his head. “Not this time, sweetheart.”

I reached across the table and placed my hand over his, holding the glass. He’d almost finished the amber liquid. “Why not?”

“I lost everything last night.”

I jerked back. “You lost the house?”

I couldn’t lose the house that reminded me of Mom. The house we’d rebuilt after the avalanche to the exact way Mom had decorated it. A shrine to her. To all we’d lost. Dad had loved her so much. Their happiness was one thing I looked back on with fond memories.

“Worse.” Tears welled in his aquamarine eyes. “I lost you.”

“I’m right here, Dad. How could you have lost me?”

He snatched my other hand across the table. “I didn’t want to do it. He tricked me.”

“Who tricked you?” I asked as a sense of dread and foreboding skittered down my spine.

“Garth.”

My jaw clenched as I ground my teeth. “How?”

“I should have had the winning hand.” He hung his head, unable to look me in the eye. “I lost you.”

The realization of what he said made my heart drop to the swirling bile in my stomach.

“You bet me?” The incredulousness all but screamed through my high-pitched voice.

“I did.”

“You had no right.” I wrenched my hand out from under his and stood. “So what? After avoiding Garth’s unwanted advances for years, I’m just supposed to sleep with him now because you lost a bet?”

Dad shoved back his chair and grabbed my shoulders. “What do you mean, avoiding his unwanted advances?”

I shrugged out of his hold. “It doesn’t matter now.”

“It does. I never knew. I thought you got along with Garth.”

“No one has a choice but to get along with Garth since he’s the alpha’s son.” I wrenched open the fridge door, needing a drink myself.

Dad rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t know. I promise. If I’d known…”

“Too late now, isn’t it?” I scowled, opened a bottle of beer, and drank while kicking the fridge door shut.

“It’s never too late. Run away, Kara. Get out of town before Garth comes to claim you.”

“Claim me?” I spluttered. “No. Not Garth. Anyone but him.”

A loud knock pounded on the door. Our heads swiveled in the direction as though we sensed it was the person we were talking about.

“Run out the back,” Dad urged me.

I took in Dad’s distraught face, then raced for the back door. As my hand closed around the knob, the door flung open, wrenching me outside into the solid plaid-covered chest of the man I was trying to flee.

“Kara, Kara,” Garth asked. “Where were you going?”

I swallowed down the bile at everything that was Garth. His scent of burned wood mixed with slick oil. The hard glint in his eyes held no warmth or compassion, and the cruel twist to his mouth said he enjoyed doling out pain. All of it I’d witnessed one day hiding high in a tree while he’d ripped apart the vibrant blue wings of a hummingbird when I was twelve. The tree had afforded me protection. Wolf shifters never climbed trees, but I liked the scent of pine, the freshness of the air higher toward the pale-blue sky, and the rough bark that scraped against my palms. I’d run home crying to Mom. It was our last talk together.

I backed up, holding up my hands as if the pitiful act would hold him off. “I’m taking the garbage out.”

His cruel, dark gaze snapped to my hands. “Good try, but you shouldn’t lie to your future mate. There is punishment for lies.”

“Now, Garth,” Dad said, stepping between us. “There’s no need for that. Kara—”

Dad’s voice cut off as Garth’s hand wrapped around his throat.

“Stop it.” I slapped Garth’s arm over and over. “Stop it.”

His grip tightened. Dad’s face turned red.

“Please,” I begged, dropping my hand.

“I like it when you beg.” He smirked and let go of Dad.

Dad fell to the floor so hard the tiles under his knees cracked. He gasped for breath, but in a split second, he half changed and slashed the backs of Garth’s ankles, severing his tendons. A grunt of pain puffed out of Garth’s mouth as he crumpled to the floor.

“You fucker,” Garth spat.

“Run, Kara, run,” Dad bellowed.

Garth lunged at Dad, wrapping his hands around his throat again.

“No!” I jumped on Garth’s back, pummeling my fists into the flannel covering his solid, muscular back. It was like punching a rock.

Dad’s eyes bulged. His face turned purple. No matter how hard I hit Garth and screamed at him, he kept strangling my dad. I scrambled off his back and frantically wrenched open drawers, looking for something, anything, that would make Garth stop. My fingers curled around a meat tenderizer. The paltry utensil wouldn’t be enough. Nothing would ever be enough against the brute strength of the alpha’s son.

I swung the instrument anyway. The tenderizer connected with Garth’s temple. His eyes fluttered back in his head, showing the whites, then he slumped over Dad. I heaved and shoved at his unconscious form until I’d half dragged Dad out from under him.

Dad didn’t move.

He didn’t breathe.

His eyes stared lifeless and bloodshot.

A strangled, anguished sound fled my throat in a sorrowful howl. Garth’s fingers twitched. Fear skittered over my skin.

Run… Dad’s last words to me. Run, Kara, run.

And so I ran.