Page 26 of Luna Trials

“Excuse me.” I pushed back my chair. The Luna Trials hadn’t even started yet and I was already in way over my head.

9

Ranger

Aspen Harper Nuva.

I rolled her name around in my mouth, testing it out as I pulled up a basic search report on my laptop. She was twenty-three and didn’t have any social media profiles. Which was strange. Even I had a page on ShifterConnect. I didn’t use it much, but it was there.

I knew of her pack and the prison. Every Alpha did. It wasn’t a place that I would have personally used–I preferred to handle issues in house without government interference–but it was there for unruly shifters if we ever needed it.

What bothered me though was that I’d never heard ofherbefore. I prided myself on knowing every potential enemy or asset from the major packs. It was one of the reasons I was able to protect McCaw Pack during our seemingly endless negotiations since I’d assumed my position.

Assumed.

I chuckled to myself.

It wasn’t as if I’d been handed the pack like most of the daddy’s boys here would one day do once they inherited the packs they were born to. I’d fought for my pack, bled for it, and I expected every surviving member of McCaw to do the same now that I was in control.

I thoroughly vetted each ranking member, stripping titles of wealth and handing them to the wolves who earned the privilege by the sweat of their backs. My team was efficient and deadly.

I was proud of them, but I also had a duty to protect them.

That was the reason I was here.

And Aspen was a complication I didn’t see coming.

She’s mine.My beast growled.

I heard you the first time.

The report finished loading and I clicked through the file. A 4.0 GPA accompanied a cute little high school portrait taken for the yearbook. She’d grown a lot since that photo. Filling out in all the right places with curvy hips I wanted to sink my claws into and full lips I wanted to taste. She still had those same honey-brown doe eyes I wanted to see with pupils blown wide and staring up at me while she begged...

I shook my head, dispelling that notion and got back down to business. No infractions on her record. She wasn’t high ranking, but a backwoods pack like Nuva didn’t usually document their positions. I Google-Earthed her address, pulling up a satellite image. There was a busted old trailer in a dirt lot with no street view.

Something wasn’t adding up.

She didn’t fit in with the group of Luna contestants who were all chomping at the bits for a position of power with an elite mating arrangement.Unless this was a cover and she was here for other reasons. Like me.

Which only fueled my curiosity.

Who are you, Aspen?

I clicked back to the search results, seeing her name trending on theMating Seasonfan pages. She sure knew how to work a crowd.

I don’t like this.My wolf was pacing as protective fury surged through him.

I didn’t either. But I wasn’t exactly sure why.

The keycard sounded in the lock.

I exited out of the multiple tabs loaded and closed my laptop just as Fallon came marching into our penthouse suite.

“Aren’t you supposed to be getting makeup or something?” I growled at her. The producers had wanted her in a room downstairs and I kind of liked that idea, but my annoying little sister wasn’t used to being told what to do.

It was probably my fault.

After the childhood we had, I’d spoiled her a little too much. The penthouse suite was basically a whole apartment anyway. It would be wasteful not to share the space.