1 Prologue

Makai's POV

10 Years Ago

From my perch on the tree, I watched the three boys screaming and laughing as they came tumbling down the woods. I'd seen the other two boys before and knew exactly what they were up to. Their names were Rowan and Adam, and at the time I think they were 10, three years younger than my 13. I'd heard them mention each other's names several times during the five or so times they'd come to my wooden shack to cause trouble.

They were terrified of me, but they had no qualms about annoying me. I rarely ventured into the main pack lands, preferring to stay at home or visit my shack to paint. But even I recognized the new boy they'd brought this time. It was impossible not to know the pack's golden boy. They crept forward slowly, water guns in their hands, looking around to make sure I wasn't there.

I pushed back my long, shaggy hair and smiled as I watched the little troublemakers. They were awfully loud for little wolves, even if they thought they were being stealthy. My gaze was fixed on the newcomer today, as it had been since I first noticed him. While the identical twins were adorable with their blonde hair cut short at the sides and back with dark eyes, this one had dark, curly hair and blue eyes, and he was very pretty for a boy.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" the object of my attention asked nervously, looking around. When he suddenly looked up, I drew back in surprise and shrank deeper into the branches.

"Storm! Shhhhh! He might be around!" hissed one of the twins, thankfully regaining his attention from up the tree.

"Storm," I repeated quietly, testing the name on my tongue for the first time since seeing him around the pack. I felt the beast within me calm down and settle, which surprised me. The beast was constantly alert and "watchful."

I wondered what my wolf Kitai would think of Storm, but we had a terrible argument and said hurtful things to each other, and he hasn't spoken to me since. That was 2 days ago. But I knew he would come around soon. He always did.

Taking my mind away from my temperamental wolf, I returned my attention to the boys, watching as they picked up craft paint I had purposefully left for them to find. They mixed it with water and filled their guns with it, gleefully painting on my walls.

Rowan motioned to Storm, who was just standing there staring at them. "Come on, Storm! I know you want to!"

I looked at Storm. He appeared to be in a dilemma as he wistfully watched Adam shoot away.

"What if he gets mad? It's not nice to trash someone's hut."

Adam paused the shooting for a moment and shrugged. "I think he woulda reported to Alpha if he was mad. We do this every week!" Little devil one assured Srorm, going back to splattering my walls.

Rowan drew Storm in closer to my shack.

"Besides, you have to shoot as well so we know you won't snitch. Best friends get into mischief together!" Little Devil Two cajoled. "and you promised to do something crazy with us today."

I had to hold back my laughter. These kids were amusing.

I leaned forward a bit to listen to what Storm would say.

"You said you do this every week?" he questioned his friends, who nodded vigorously.

It had happened unintentionally the first time. I'd thrown out the craft paint because it was a wrong delivery that I didn't need, and the boys had discovered it while playing in the woods with their water guns. Adam had decided it would be better than the water, so they started a gunfight and ended up painting my walls.

As I sat there on the tree that first time, I felt disbelief, shock, mild annoyance, and finally amusement as I watched them.

They returned a second time and were disappointed when they couldn't find any more paint to use. When they left, I noticed they had left a cupcake behind. I was stunned and strangely moved. I ended up purchasing more craft paint for them to find when they ran off to the woods on Saturday afternoons.

"And to thank him for the paint, we always bring him some of your cupcakes," Adam added.

Now, I watched as Storm considered their words. "Then maybe you're right and he doesn't mind."

"See?" Adam asked, taking a wrapped cupcake from his backpack and carefully placing it on the table in front of the shack. The door was unlocked, but they never went inside the shack, which I suppose was kind of polite.

Storm nodded, a mischievous grin spreading across his pretty face.

Then he lifted his gun and began shooting in earnest until they were all laughing hysterically as they emptied their guns on my walls and each other.

I stayed on my perch for a while after they left, slightly amused by their antics. No, I didn't mind that they destroyed my walls. I'd never admit it out loud, but watching them have fun in ways I knew I couldn't was amusing and fascinating.

I started to make my way back down to clean up the mess they had made and to finish my cupcake. "Storm's Cupcake."

Did that imply he baked it? I mused, my affection for the cupcake growing at the thought. "There was something about Storm-"

I nearly screamed when the boy in question reappeared in front of the shack.

I leaned back again, my mouth embarrassingly open as I watched him in disbelief. How?? How did he manage to do that?

I stood there, completely transfixed, as the paint he and his friends had splattered on my walls vanished when he waved his hand over it and muttered a few words. My walls were now gleaming clean- cleaner than they had been before the mischievous paint job.

I shrank back with a muffled yelp when he suddenly looked up at the tree I was perched on and said softly, "I know you're up there."

I didn't respond, wondering what he would do next.

"Can you keep a secret? If you don't tell anyone I have magic, I won't tell my friends you're always there when they come around."

I held my breath, torn between climbing down to possibly talk to him, and staying up here where I was safe from hoping for an honest interaction, and he was safe from me.

"I brought you more cupcakes because you seem to like them," he continued in the same soft tone, dropping the box I hadn't noticed earlier on the table- next to the one the twins had brought.

When I still did not respond, he sighed a heavy sigh that amused me to be coming from a ten-year-old.

"Bye, Makai. We're going to be good friends! Just wait and see," he announced before disappearing just as suddenly as he had appeared.

I exhaled a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and placed a hand on my beating heart. What had just happened? And how on earth did the alpha's son know my name? I doubted even his friends, who had made it a sport to come around often, knew me as anything but "Wild".

Friends. I almost laughed at the ridiculous notion of the pack's golden boy, the alpha's son whom everyone adored, becoming acquainted with the wild, brooding boy no one wanted near their children.

Climbing down cautiously, I opened his box first and took out a white-frosted cupcake topped with rainbow sprinkles. I couldn't help but smile as I bit greedily into the cake.

"Friends. How absurd."