Page 1 of Shadow of Fury

CHAPTER ONE

It had been six years since he’d set foot in pack territory. Six long years since he’d run away from the small town in eastern Oklahoma where he’d been born and raised, run away from his family and friends and everything he’d ever known. Now, the winding road leading him home seemed endless and the trees on either side of his black SUV towered overhead, blotting out the rest of the world as if it had never even existed.

Logan Kemp had never let himself think about what returning to his pack would feel like. He’d missed his packmates of course, especially in the early days. He’d felt the magnetic pull towards home, particularly on the full moons when his wolf longed to run with the pack. But he’d had Vivian to think about, to take care of, so he’d focused all of his energy on creating a life for his younger sister where she didn’t have to deal with the same horrors that he had.

She’d only been seventeen when he had woken her in the middle of the night and asked her to leave with him. She’d been so close to coming of age but he hadn’t been able to stomach leaving her behind with their self-centered parents. She’d looked at him with confusion and fear but ultimately she’d nodded and he’d thrown her things in a bag and they’d hit the road together.

They’d had each other’s back through thick and thin, and though he’d never been able to tell her the full truth of why they’d needed to get out of Shadow Pines, Vivian had seemed to understand that he couldn’t talk about it. She had never asked. Not once. At first he thought it was because she was too young to comprehend the enormity of what leaving meant but as time went on he realized it was actually because she was wise beyond her years.

They didn’t talk about Shadow Pines and Logan had spent so long pushing down every thought and feeling he had about their family that it wasn’t until he’d gotten that phone call from his childhood best friend that he’d actually let himself believe that he might be able to return to it.

It wasn’t a happy homecoming, not by a longshot, but it was time. Time to be the man he had been born to be. Time to make some changes, even if he could never make things right.

When he’d left Shadow Pines he had barely been more than a kid himself. He’d been nineteen and scared, hurt and angry. He’d felt powerless and at a loss for any other way to escape his grief or the new reality of his situation. He had left because he hadn’t known what else to do and now, he was returning for the same reason.

He didn’t have a reason to stay away anymore. He was needed here. Dominic had demanded that he come home and take his rightful place at the head of the pack. And no matter the painful memories this place held for him, he knew it was where he belonged.

As if she could sense his trepidation, his sister reached out from the passenger seat and put her hand on top of his. A sense of calm washed through him that he knew wasn’t his own and he shot her a thankful glance before refocusing on the road. Vivian had always been able to read him better than anyone and he was more thankful than he could ever hope to put into words that she had agreed to leave with him all those years ago and again, now, that she had once again uprooted her life to return home with him and face whatever awaited them.

For six years they had been out in the world without a pack and it changed the both of them. It had been up to him to protect Vivian and keep her safe. He had become more than just a big brother. He had become a man who understood what it meant to put others before his own desires. He wasn’t the same kid who had left. He was stronger now and ready to face his past and build a new and better future for himself, his sister, and his pack.

The sun was setting by the time the sign that welcomed them back to Shadow Pines came into view. He held his breath as he drove past it but he couldn’t shake the shiver of awareness that overtook him the moment he crossed into pack territory. His wolf must have felt it too because he stirred from deep within Logan, suddenly alert.

Vivian shifted restlessly in her seat as well, no doubt experiencing at least a little of the same anxiety Logan was feeling.

After all, the last time they’d been in Shadow Pines was the day they had buried the woman who was meant to be Logan’s mate. He had lost the woman he loved, the woman he’d planned to spend his life with and it had broken him. In so many ways, he still grieved that loss and knew he always would. Lark’s death, the way her family had blamed him for what happened, the way he’d blamed himself, it would have been too much for the teenage boy he’d been even without the added weight of keeping his family’s secrets.

The irony that he had left Shadow Pines after burying the woman who represented his future and now, he was returning to bury the man who represented his past, didn’t escape him.

His father was dead. That was what Dominic had called to tell him. That was the only news capable of finally bringing Logan home. As the eldest son of the Shadow Pines Pack Alpha it was his duty to step up and take control of the pack now.

Finally, he could bury the old bastard once and for all and maybe, after he was rid of him, he might be able to see a future for himself again.

Logan’s palms were clammy against the leather steering wheel of the SUV as he drove through town. The same stores lined Main Street. The same signs hung in the windows and the same sun-faded awnings covered the doors. He noted the familiarity of it all with a mix of dread and apprehension. Some things never changed and when it came to his hometown, he didn’t think that was a good sign.

Shadow Pines had always been an isolated town, tucked deep in the hills of the eastern Oklahoma forests. It was home to wolf shifters, like him and it wasn’t located on any human map. Occasionally people driving through on their way to somewhere else stumbled into Shadow Pines but they didn’t have a tendency to stay long. It wasn’t designed to be welcoming to strangers. The need to keep the secret of what they were from the outside world had created a town where everyone was connected. It was the insular nature of the place that kept Shadow Pines safe.

Logan had once admired the way the pack thought and acted as one. He’d known since he was a child that his birthright came with certain responsibilities and expectations to keep their existence secret from the outside world. But it had been the other secrets, the darker secrets, hidden even from those within the pack, that had ultimately torn his family apart and sent him fleeing.

No, he reminded himself as he steered the SUV through the gated entrance of the Kemp family estate that backed up to the forest. No, that wasn’t true. It wasn’t the secrets that had ruined his life. That had been his father’s doing. It was his father who had shredded Logan’s picture-perfect vision of his life and his future. It had been his father who made him hate everything that the Kemp name stood for in this town.

He hated his father. Hated what he had done. Hated what he’d forced Logan to do. And while he would never admit aloud that he was happy the old man was finally dead, the truth was, he had been relieved when he answered that call and heard what Dominic had to tell him.

His childhood best friend was the only person he had kept in touch with in all the years since he’d been away. Dominic hadn’t judged him for abandoning the pack and he’d stayed in contact no matter the time or distance between them.

If anyone should have been next in line to become Pack Alpha, Logan thought it should have been Dominic. He was practically pack royalty himself. The eldest son of the Pack Alpha’s Head Enforcer, he had been groomed all his life to fight for the pack and defend it at all costs. He was the one who knew the pack members and their needs. But there was no way Logan’s father would ever admit there was a problem in his lineage by allowing someone other than a Kemp to inherit the Shadow Pines Pack, not even if he hadn’t spoken to either of his children in more than half a decade.

Logan assumed the pack thought he was in contact with his father. That would have been the story the old man told. It would have looked bad if people found out he couldn’t control his children and if there had ever been anything the old bastard cared about other than himself then it was how he was viewed by his pack.

Now that he was dead, now that Logan was back, it was time for the truth to come out.

He slowly pulled the SUV up the driveway, which was strangely empty. It looked almost as if the large manor house where they’d grown up was vacant and he felt Vivian shoot him a confused look before they both reached for their door handles.

Logan reluctantly slipped out of the SUV, taking in the dry and empty fountain in the center of the large drive that had once been a shining example of his father’s virulent need to impress. The thriving gardens that had grown around the base of the house with roses as large as his fist and vines that snaked up to the second story windows, had been reduced to an overgrown tangle of weeds. Even the once vibrant white paint on the faux marble pillars that held up the massive porch and the matching plantation style shutters had faded to a haunting shade of gray. It seemed his family withering away to a slow death was reflected back at him from every facet of the ancestral home.

It almost made him feel bad for leaving. For not staying to take care of what was his by birthright. Almost.

With a looming sense of unease, Logan raised his hand and rang the doorbell. He could hear the old familiar chimes as they worked their way down the large entryway and echoed through the big house. When he heard footsteps on the other side he steeled himself to face the maid or his mother but when the door swung open it wasn’t either of the women that he came face-to-face with.

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