Book 1
Chapter One
Oz
This was it. Everything I had been working towards for five years in essence came down to this moment. Sure, it wasn’t active duty, which would come in time, but I was part of them, finally. It wasn’t enough just to get through selection; I had to become one of them. I had to prove myself to be truly accepted by the elite band of alphas that I would call brothers until I was either returned to my regiment in a coffin or rejected by them. With Special Alpha Force, those were the only two options. And rejection wasn’t an option for me.
I had wanted this for too long. I had trained and dedicated myself. This regiment was where I belonged. Of course, it didn’t matter if I thought I belonged with them or not. If just one of my troop decided I wasn’t a good fit, I would be scrapped. I would have to return with my tail literally between my legs and instead stand shoulder to shoulder with humans who didn’t know what I really was. I would have to return to my father, with his chest full of war medals, and admit that I wasn’t strong enough. A bullet to the head would be better than admitting that to him.
I already knew what he thought of me. Weak, much too soft to make it in the regiment. I had grown up hearing those words every single day of my life. And I had made it my life’s work to prove him wrong. Partly to prove to him, mostly prove to myself that I was good enough.
I was good enough.
“Oz.” My name hissed in my ears, startling me out of my daydream. “Snap the f**k out of it,” my commanding officer barked angrily. Raising my eyes to him, I found him scowling at me over his shoulder. The look on his face caused ice to run through my veins. He was looking at me with disapproval.
This was my chance to prove myself to them all, and already I was failing. My past was clouding my future. I snapped my head up in a sharp nod. I had to do better. I wasn’t a failure. I never had been. I was Stuart “Oz” Osbourne and I belonged here.
“Back with us, Oz?”
“Yes sir,” I muttered. My use of his rank caused him to raise an eyebrow in question. There were no formalities here. I was Oz; he was Ace. He expected me to follow his orders, but I didn’t have to lower my eyes and show him the deference I would to a normal wolf alpha. After all, we were all alphas here. We were the biggest and the strongest. Ace just happened to be more experienced than the rest of us.
“Yes, Ace,” I amended.
He didn’t respond to me. Instead, he turned to survey the trees in front of us. They filled my vision, standing tall and proud as far as my eyes could see. With my enhanced wolf senses, I could see so much more than any human though. The ground had been steadily rising on an incline. Not enough to wind us just yet, but I knew that was coming. We would march, the packs heavy on our backs, and at some point, someone would ambush us. We all knew it was coming. This was just one way we trained.
“Move out.” Ace lifted his hand, gesturing for the men behind him to fan out. They did so silently, disappearing into the gloom amongst the trees like shadows. And that’s exactly what they were. Shadows and death. The unit that was called in when the government needed something done quickly and quietly.
We were the unsung heroes. The nameless ones. It was the only way we could operate. After all, humans didn’t know preternatural creatures existed, let alone that they lived amongst them.
I took one step forward and froze. Something in the wind that flowed across my face sent a prickling of unease that made the hair at the back of my neck stand to attention. What the hell was that?
“Move soldier, and don’t you dare shift.” Someone shoulder-barged past me, but I barely felt it. “You shift, we all get weekend duties, and there’s a pretty barmaid in the village who I have been waiting to see for months.”
Turning my head to the side, I sucked in another deep lungful of that tantalising scent. Sweet and sticky, it seemed to coat my throat. Never in all my years had I ever smelt something so good. Without thinking, I took another step, this time in that direction. I needed to know what it was, who it belonged to. And when I did, I would make them mine.
For the first time in my life, my wolf wanted to claim. He wanted to stalk and chase down whoever that gorgeous smell belonged to. He wanted to make her ours. It didn’t matter what she looked like, or if she belonged to another.
She would be ours.
The shift happened the second I took my third step. It was seamless. One second I was a man, and the next my clothes ripped to shreds and my wolf, much bigger than any natural wolf, burst from the remains of my combats.
“Ace, we have a runner.”
I rushed forward, ignoring the calls of the men behind me, even ignoring the shouted commands of Ace to stop. Deep down, I knew I should. Shifting there, so close to civilians, was a court martial offence. But I just didn’t care. Nothing else mattered but finding the woman who belonged to that scent and making her mine. There was no question in my head that she belonged to me. She was my mate, and nothing could stop me from going to her. Not my commanding officer, not the risk of being booted out of the regiment.
Nothing.
“What has he gone after?”
“Woman.” The voices behind me were closer, but not close enough to force me to stop. Nothing could do that now that I had caught the scent of my mate. I leapt forward, not caring that the low-hanging branches were scratching across my face. My thick fur gave me some protection, but I knew when I finally shifted back, I would be cut up.
She would be worth the pain though.
“Oz,” Ace yelled after me. “Stop.” His direct command was hard to ignore. It made my bones ache and my brain itch, but I pushed forward.
“s**t, there’s only one thing that makes a wolf lose control like that and that’s the mate bond.” Ace swore long and loud. “We best get to him before he does something stupid like marking a human.”
