Page 1 of Mated in Darkness

Chapter 1

Kaylee

The wolfin front of me snarled and I glared at the stranger with red fur before I slid to the side, their claws raking down my skin. I cursed under my breath, rolled in the dirt, and shook off the pain.

Another wolf came at me, its dark fur sleek under the fading light, and pushed me to the ground before he jumped at the wolf who had clawed me.

I sighed, rolled my eyes, and got back up. “Conner, stop it.”

My twin didn’t pay me any attention, but I didn’t think he would.

This was why Conner and I were rarely on patrol together. The twin bond was athing, and a growly over-protective twin brother who thought because he was a fraction more dominant than his baby sister that she needed protecting meant that the two of us should not be fighting together.

However, we were just out for a stroll, the two of us taking time between our shifts because we enjoyed each other’s presence.

It wasn’t our fault that the rogue had come at us—a rogue that we hadn’t even realized was out in the woods outside the Redwood Pack den.

My brother needed to remember that I was a dominant wolf, and I knew what I was doing. I was an enforcer for my cousin, Gina. She expected me to be able to fight, and I did. Conner was also an enforcer, and that meant he thought he needed to protect me at all times. No matter that I was bleeding, in quite a bit of pain, and my wolf kept batting at me.

Conner had shifted quickly, the ability coming to him faster than most of our generation. I didn’t have that kind of time, and so I had stayed in my human form.

Most wolves took at least a few minutes, if not longer, to shift into our wolf forms, but Conner could do it almost instantly if he needed to.

He’d be shit later, and he’d sleep hard and eat his weight in carbs and protein, but he could shift in a blink of an eye.

He’d seen the rogue come at us and shifted after stripping down quickly. He’d become his wolf at the exact moment I let my claws out to fight the wolf who’d lost his humanity and wanted to end our lives.

The Redwoods had been through more than one war to protect our people, as well as every single human, witch, and shifter on Earth.

I had been part of two of those wars, one against the humans when they had realized those things that went bump in the night were real.

The other against the Aspens when their former Alpha had tried to take down the Talons. The Talons were our allies, so much so we were practically one Pack at this point.

When they’d needed us, we’d fought alongside them. There had been losses, but we had done what we could to protect our people.

I pushed thoughts of the past from my mind and focused on the battle in front of me. The wolf seemed to be a lone wolf from the look of it, one who had gotten too close to their animal side and couldn’t find their way out. I could handle this on my own, yet Conner kept standing in my way.

We were usually a better team than this, but Conner was dealing with things in his own life that kept getting in the way of thinking—hence why he kept trying to save his poor little twin sister.

I snarled at my twin, knowing if I didn’t get my head in the game and protect his flank, both of us would be dead.

If Conner wasn’t going to let me fight completely, I would let him take the majority of it so he didn’t get hurt, and then I would kick my twin’s ass later.

If I didn’t kick his ass, one of our parents would. If they knew what Conner was doing now, they wouldn’t let him get away with it. Neither would any of our five siblings. Conner was the eldest, and right now, he was the jerk.

Conner let out a strained whine when the rogue bit at his flank and my claws went out, my fangs elongated, and I roared.

The ground shook beneath us at the sound and the rogue’s head twisted towards me.

That’s right, little wolf. I’m more dominant than you. More dominant than many of the wolves in our Pack.

I might be small, but I was mighty—at least according to my mother. That I was also in my thirties and I used that phrase didn’t matter.

This wolf had hurt my brother, and now, if we couldn’t control it, we’re going to have to end its life. That was the last thing we wanted, but the problem with this rogue was that its animal was too close to the surface, making it stronger and far more dangerous. That’s why it took enforcers and the strongest of the most dominant wolves in the Pack to take them down.

I leaped, taking the wolf to the ground in a quick movement. It let out a shocked gasp and groaned again, its entire body shaking. I cursed under my breath and held my arm around its neck as it twisted and turned.

Bone snapped, tendons tore, and the wolf let out another pained moan.

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