Chapter 1

To my sister, A.Sean

The end of January came, and Sean was still numb. The new year was proving to be just like all the other years had been in this country—cold. The temperature had dropped well into the minus degrees, even in Fahrenheit.

It was closing in on dinnertime when Sean poked at the fire in the fireplace in the kids’ room and added a couple of logs to make sure the pile of pups would be fine during the night. After their mother, Sean’s wife, Zoya, died in the autumn storm, their eldest, Jude, had taken to sleeping with his siblings again. They all slept sprawled on a king-sized bed: the almost sixteen-year-old Jude; little Jamie, who was almost four; May, who would turn six this year; and June, who’d be ten in the summer.

It was normal for wolf pups to sleep like that, and Sean knew it was a great comfort for them all, but it was also Jude’s way of keeping an eye on the kids, making sure they were safe. Sean couldn’t help but feel as if it was his job and his son was picking up his slack.

Sean went to the kitchen to start dinner. When he got there, Rider was already cooking something. “What are you doing?” Sean asked, his tone slightly snappish. Certainly more than he’d meant.

“What does it look like I’m doing?” Rider asked without looking at Sean.

“Sorry, I’m just….” Sean sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He turned to lean his back into the counter next to Rider and sighed again.

“I know, Sean,” Rider said for the hundredth time.

Sean had a feeling Rider wanted to say more, but nothing came. Sean reached out with his hand and touched Rider’s hip carefully, hesitantly, before pulling away again. He didn’t want those words of moving on, not yet. Not when the wolf inside him was so miserable he could feel it howling in his bones.

“It’s not just me…. The wolf….”

“I know. I can’t even imagine that.” Rider placed a large palm on Sean’s shoulder and squeezed a little. “So, minced meat pies?”

“Yeah, that sounds great. Thanks, Rider.” Sean smiled weakly.

He busied himself with setting the table even though the kids would have gladly done it together. As he took out plates and glasses, he thought about the situation he was in. Sean was glad Rider was there. He’d arrived in early September with two other shifters, Dallas the tiglon—who had proven to be a blast from their resident jaguar Noah’s past—and Erica, an ocelot-shifter who had left the farm after attending to Zoya’s funeral after the storm had hit them in November.

Between September and the storm, something odd had happened. Or maybe it wasn’t odd for some people, but Sean certainly hadn’t thought he would ever be attracted to another man. He wasn’t na?ve enough to think he had been straight, because obviously that wasn’t the case now, but he’d certainly been bisexual without knowing it.

What was even more odd was the fact that Zoya had also thought Rider gorgeous and they’d ended up in a strange, tentative threesome. Before the accident that took Zoya from him, they had slept together, all three of them, a handful of times.

It had started with Zoya taking the initiative and telling the two men to figure it out. Rider, a larger, dark wolf close to the Rocky Mountain wolves in size and color, was a tall, dark-haired man. He was handsome, moved with confidence, and he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty working around the farm.

It wasn’t unheard of, more than two wolves creating ménages, but it was slightly out of the ordinary that it was the alpha pair opening their bed to a third wolf. Alphas were possessive of their mates because they bonded in a different way from other wolves. Even if the shifters’ human sides weren’t sure, their wolves would be tied to each other and eventually convince the human side too.

Rider was bisexual, and he had admitted to being hesitant at first, though he’d found both Sean and Zoya attractive. So one night, after a long discussion of “what ifs,” Zoya dragged the two men into the master bedroom and pushed them onto the bed. Then she promptly walked to the armchair in the corner, sat down, and told them to get naked.

Sean could remember the first touches with crystal clarity; Rider’s warmth close to him and the tentative way they’d kissed before the surge of lust took over. He had almost balked at submitting to Rider, but then Zoya was there and she and Rider together made sure Sean was thoroughly loved and melted into a puddle of relaxed flesh when they were done with him.