Ryan acknowledged his friend and shot a question at his mother.

“Go,” she said, putting amusement in her voice. “I promise I won’t kill anyone.”

“It’s not like that, Mom,” Ryan said. “I was watching.”

No doubt he had been, and no doubt he was right. Not much got past Ryan. “Thank you,” Kenzie said sincerely. “Go. Be back for supper.”

Relieved of the duty of guarding his parents, Ryan ran off toward his friend’s yard. He ran fast, the strength in his legs, which she swore grew longer every day, apparent.

They were the luckiest Shifters, Kenzie thought as she watched Ryan. Unlike other Shifters around the country, who’d been stuck into the slum ends of cities, their Shiftertown had been built in deep woods, in an abandoned housing project from early in the last century.

The houses were surrounded by old-growth forests, with trees that reached several hundred feet, branches reaching out well above the floor of the woods to provide a roof of green. Pine needles carpeted the ground, inches thick. The air always smelled slightly damp but cool, and wind perpetually creaked in the trees high above.

Clean air, far from giant industrial cities, and mountains rising to surround them in beauty at all times. The small houses had been originally built with a woodsy theme, their walls fabricated to look like split logs rather than actually being split logs from any trees around here. In summer, this area could be hot, the air turning dank and humid. Winters, on the other hand, could be fairly mild, with dustings of snow to keep everything moist.

Shiftertowns were places of confinement, but this Shiftertown had always felt welcoming to Kenzie. She’d been to others that made her uncomfortable, but here she’d found home. Didn’t matter that she wore a Collar and couldn’t run free—yet, Bowman would always add—she’d discovered a sort of peace here.

Her clan had come from Romania, in the wilds of the mountains there, which was perhaps why she liked this Shiftertown in the middle of nowhere. But here, Kenzie was no longer alone. In Romania, she’d been part of the clan run by her formidable uncle Cristian and dominated by her grandmother, Afina. Kenzie’s immediate family, however, had all passed when she’d been a tiny cub. Lonely and withdrawn, she’d known no one but her cousins, and since Shifters couldn’t mate within the clan, and Uncle Cristian wasn’t letting her out of his sight, she thought she’d never find a mate of her own.

Then Shifters had been outed, the clan had been rounded up, and Uncle Cristian’s Shifters had been herded to the States and this Shiftertown.

And Kenzie had seen Bowman. She’d first caught sight of him across the gym of the closed school they’d been taken to. She’d seen a tall, tight-muscled Shifter in jeans and a sweatshirt, with tousled, short hair and movements that said he was more comfortable in his wolf form than his human one.

He’d turned his head, as though he’d felt her gaze, and looked at her. A long look that burned the air—it didn’t matter how many Shifters or human soldiers moved between them. His eyes were light gray, she remembered; Bowman on the edge of shifting.

He’d stood very still, looking at her, Kenzie gazing right back at him. She’d stared at him, and he at her, until one of Kenzie’s younger cousins had called to her, needing her.

Bowman had let her go, but the slight nod of his head acknowledged her and the spark that had danced between them. His nod was also a dismissal, an indication that he considered her submissive to him, no matter that he’d never seen her before in his life.

Arrogant, insufferable . . . Kenzie had muttered to herself, but for the rest of the time they’d spent in those temporary quarters, she hadn’t been able to keep her eyes off him.

Bowman had been chosen as Shiftertown leader by the human government’s Shifter Bureau. Kenzie’s uncle Cristian hadn’t liked that one bit, because he’d thought that, being older and from a bigger clan, he should be leader of all Shiftertown. But the two other Lupine clans, smaller and less dominant, had conceded to Bowman’s authority. The Felines and bears had wanted to challenge Bowman to put one of their own in the top position, but the Shifter Bureau had decreed Bowman leader. In the human government’s view, that was good enough.

Uneasy peace had ensued for a couple of years, but Uncle Cristian couldn’t leave well enough alone. Cristian was a dominant wolf, and he chafed under Bowman’s leadership. He was also a crafty devil, good at stirring up trouble. Kenzie had always been grateful to Uncle Cristian for taking her in, but she wasn’t blind to his personality. He could be a total bastard.

It was too easy to return to wild ways out here, and Shifters over the next years had started reverting to clan loyalty above all else. Uncle Cristian had started turning the Lupines from the lesser clans against Bowman, even joining with Felines who wanted Bowman out. Bears always did their own thing, but after a while even they’d stopped agreeing to obey Bowman, even though Cade was already his second.

Bowman kept everything together by his strength and his smarts, and all would have been right after a while, but the humans got wind of the problems. Kenzie had no doubt at all that Uncle Cristian and his most loyal trackers had made sure the humans had heard about the unrest in their Shiftertown.

The humans had come to Bowman and given him an ultimatum. He either calmed things down, or they’d close this Shiftertown. They’d split up the clans, packs, and prides in order to fit them into other Shiftertowns, deciding that the dominant families would cause less trouble if they were scattered.

When they’d gone, Bowman had walked over to Kenzie’s grandmother’s, where Kenzie had been living, strode straight into the kitchen, ignoring that it was the territory of a rival clan, and told Kenzie that he was taking her as mate.

Kenzie had gotten in his face, saying she didn’t simply roll over and obey when an alpha wolf walked in the door.

Never mind that her heart had been hammering like crazy, her breath gone, every need she possessed screaming at her to leap on him. She’d yelled at him—like hell she’d jump to obey him when he’d been fighting her uncle and every other Shifter in Shiftertown.

His eyes had been white gray with rage, his hard face, with its brush of dark whiskers, speaking of years of kicking the asses of every Shifter who confronted him. But Kenzie wasn’t afraid of Bowman.

And yet, she was. But her fear was more of herself, of something primal in her that responded to him.