The patch of sunlight from her window angled perfectly to slice across her tear-swollen eyes. Scrubbing the heel of her hand against her face, Claire sat and studied the white curtained room with its festive blue trim. Deeply feminine with its touches of lace and delicate things, it also boasted a white cedar wood-carved bed. A gift from her sixteenth birthday and, though she’d never slept in it, her parents had replaced the bed in her room with the hand-carved monstrosity. Why? She’d never know. They’d both passed and weren’t answering any questions. Pushing the covers away, she rose and stretched her legs. She’d arrived home late, pausing at a diner on the highway to place a call to the new alpha and confirm she still had permission to enter their territory. Though she’d been born and raised in Willow Bend, she’d willingly broken pack ties to relocate to Arizona and the Sutter Butte pack. Mason Clayborne was very different from the previous alpha.
