Prologue

Emerald, Maine

“There’s something going on with the Sentinels,” came the announcement that had Jax reluctantly looking up from his wrist, telling himself that he was relieved that he was ending this weekend without a mating mark, but…

Fuck it.

“There’s always something going on with the Sentinels,” Jax pointed out, pushing aside his disappointment as he ran his gaze over the camp his Pack set up a few nights ago, noting that several of the tents had been moved past the boundary that he’d set, bringing them closer to the tree line and away from the rest of the Pack.

“True,” Tyler, his beta and the closest thing that he had to a brother said, following Jax’s gaze as he shifted his attention from the tents that had been moved this morning after they’d shifted back to the small group watching them from the other side of the camp. “They seemed determined.”

“It’s never going to fucking happen,” Jax said as he glanced from Thomas, the Alpha of the Prias Pack, before he moved his attention to the small woman who’d been really fucking hopeful that she would be the one to mark him.

“How long did she follow you last night?” Tyler asked as a chime had him pulling his phone out of his back pocket.

“Until I had enough of her bullshit and went for her throat,” Jax drawled, fucking exhausted just thinking about all the bullshit that she’d put him through over the past month.

It started when he met with Thomas to make arrangements for this shift to give their Packs a chance to find their mates. He’d barely had a chance to walk into the room when Lydia was rushing to his side and grabbing hold of his arm with a hopeful look on her face that slowly died away when nothing happened. That had been followed with a look of desperation that actually terrified him as she readjusted her hold and held on tightly until her brother had been forced to tear her off of him.

At the time, Jax had laughed it off, used to desperate females hoping to be mated to an Alpha, but that all changed three days ago when her Pack finally showed up. As soon she spotted him, Lydia couldn’t seem to take her eyes off him. She’d found a spot across from him where he’d waited to greet the rest of the females in her Pack and waited, watching as every unmated female in her Pack took her turn to find out if she was the one.

Every time a new female stepped up in line and took his hand, Lydia would hold her breath as she waited for the telltale mark to seal their fate only to slowly exhale when nothing happened. When it was finally over and none of the females in her Pack had managed to mark him, she’d watched him for another minute before she disappeared into the woods while it was left to the rest of the women in her Pack to find their mates.

He didn’t see her again until later that night when it was time to shift. He’d noticed her watching him from the tree line as he went over the Pack duties. After six hundred years, they knew what was expected of them, but Jax still made sure that he drilled the rules into their heads to make sure that everything went smoothy.

He didn’t take chances.

Not when it came to his Pack’s survival, which is why he couldn’t fucking wait until Thomas took his fucking Pack and left. He didn’t want them here, but he hadn’t been left with much of a choice with more than half of his Pack left unmated. They needed to find their mates and that meant calling truces so that his Pack had chance to find them.

With the war coming, Jax couldn’t risk any of his packmates going off on their own to find their mates. This way, he could protect them and ensure that none of the Packs tried fucking with them. They followed his rules or he didn’t allow them near his Pack. This meeting had taken ten months to negotiate because the asshole tried to force any male that found himself mated to one of his females to join his Pack.

It wasn’t fucking happening.

Once Thomas accepted the fact that he wouldn’t be getting his hands on any of his males, he’d reluctantly agreed to this meeting, knowing that with the war coming that it would be in his best interest to make as many alliances as possible. As long as Jax’s packmates were mated to members of his Pack, he was obligated to protect them, which is why he’d put up with all the bullshit this weekend.

The first night of their shift, Lydia had kept her distance, watching him as he made his way through the woods, checking on his Pack and making sure that Thomas’s Pack stayed out of trouble. The next morning when most of the Pack worked the excess energy leftover from the shift out through sex, he’d found his way back to his tent only to find Lydia waiting for him, naked on her hands and knees with her legs spread, giving him one hell of a view that hadn’t done a fucking thing for him.

Shaking his head in disgust, he’d dropped the tent flap, turned around and made his way to Tyler’s tent where he’d been forced to grab his Beta by the back of his neck and shove him out of the tent when the bastard refused to let him have the pillow. After grabbing a few hours of sleep, Jax checked on his Pack, made sure that there weren’t any issues with the freshly mated couples, and once again found Lydia watching his every fucking move.

The next night was the same as the first and then last night, she’d finally made her move. While he’d been prowling their borders, she’d followed close behind him, doing her best to keep up with him, waiting for her moment to make her move and when it came, he’d barely resisted the urge to tear her throat out. She-

“What the fuck…” Tyler whispered hollowly as he stared down at his phone.

“What’s wrong?” Jax asked, reaching for the phone as agonizing pain ripped through his chest and spine, sending him to his knees as he got his answer.

The war had just begun.

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