Page 1 of Finlay

Prologue - Finn

A HUNDRED AND FIFTY-THREE YEARS AGO

Iknew something was wrong the moment I stepped over the clan’s boundary line.

It was too quiet.

The air too heavy.

The hair on my arms rose as I halted, my bag falling to the floor.

Then I was shifting.

Running.

As I flew through the woodland, a thousand scenarios raced through my mind, all of them revolving around the same theme. The one fear that kept me awake at night. The reason I had argued against the visit I had just taken, insisting I might be needed here.

The fear that the council might do something to Danny. Our alpha. Leader.

My best friend.

Myself and my brother, Calan, had been concerned about this for months now. The rumblings that Logan had heard while spying on meetings had us all on guard. Something was heading our way. Something that would sendricochets through the clan, rewriting our history and our future.

If only we knew what.

All we knew was that they wanted Danny gone. Our alpha was considered a first-generation shifter in terms of lineage, his parents having sought sanctuary with the McCarthy Clan before his birth. But when Danny came of age, there had been no denying his power. What he was. Namely, the first alpha to be born in the McCarthy Clan in over two centuries.

When no others followed, and the time came for a new leader, Danny was the only option.

While myself and the other betas had supported him with fierce pride and loyalty, the same could not be said of the council members.They thought leadership should fall to Calan or me.Our lineages could be traced back through the generations, as far as the earliest records.

But we weren’t alphas. We were betas. More than that, we were Danny’s best friends. His most loyal defenders. His inner circle.

We would rather break with the clan than betray or murder Danny. Because that was what it would take. The only way to become the next alpha, and the leader of the clan, was to kill them. Their power would transfer to you, along with their position.

Just because Calan and I refused to stoop that low did not mean the rest of the clan felt the same way. There were a number of them who would rather see Danny dead than leading. It was why the three of us were so protective of Danny. Calan, who went everywhere with him.Logan, who climbed into gaps between walls to spy on secret meetings.

Then there was what I was responsible for. Or ratherwho.

The council had tried to force Danny to leave the clan by insisting upon an arranged marriage. They had claimed it would foster peace between the McCarthy and Tully clans.

We had seen it for what it truly was—another way to try and take the clan away from him. Danny was stronger than that, and far more stubborn. It would take more than a marriage to have him hanging up his responsibilities.

Me though? I had been furious. That he had to give up his heart, his one chance of happiness, to appease the council? It went against everything our natures called for—choosing a mate ourselves. The one we felt completed us. Who spoke to our wolf and claimed them as their own too.

To have that choice taken away from Danny…it was unspeakable. As his beta and second, I was furious. As his best friend, I was devastated.

That was, until we met Sarah. Then a whole new set of problems had revealed themselves.

For me, at least.

Maybe if it hadn’t been my duty to guard her, to spend so much time with her, maybe then…

It wouldn’t have changed anything.

Wolves didn’t have fated mates.If we did, maybe Sarah would have been mine. Perhaps it would have been our daughter I cradled in my arms. A perfect family, better than anything I could ever have dreamed of.

But dreams were what they’d have to stay, because Sarah wasn’t mine. Maria wasn’t mine.

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