Cujo Brown stayed behind in Hayden Lake to make sure his birth pack didn't self-destruct after the death of the old Alpha and the installation of the new Alpha — his father.
His father had sworn allegiance to the Northwest Council of Alphas and promised to see to the well-being of the future generations of shifters — starting with giving the girls the serum that would save their lives at first shift.
It wasn't that Cujo didn't believe his father, exactly. But, well, truth was he wasn't sure he did believe his father.
Not to mention, the pack felt unstable. The old Alpha had been sliding into dementia before Abby Stafford took him out, and he'd been taking some of his pack with him. Too many were teetering on the balance of losing control. It would take just one. Just one to lose their grip, shift and attack the new Alpha — and they'd have a cascading meltdown of the entire pack.
It had happened before in shifter history. No one wanted it to happen again. Not here. Not now.
One week. Cujo could give his father that. And a pack medic could stay with him. They'd give the girls the serum. He'd back up his father as he sought to stabilize the pack — not as his Second, exactly, but as his enforcer? That was as good a term as any. And if he had to put down some of these mangy, deranged Lost Cause wolves? It wouldn't break his heart.
Then his sister came to him. "While you're here," she said....
Damn those sisters, right? Cujo Brown may regret ever listening to her.
Book 3 in the Wolf Harbor Rescue trilogy. A part of the Wolf Harbor universe.
L.J. Breedlove is a former journalist writing mysteries and thrillers about what she knows: complicated people, small towns, big cities, cops, reporters, politicians, assorted bad guys.
L.J. grew up on a cattle ranch and then went to college to be an oceanographer. She decided getting seasick was not a good trait for any oceanographer to have, and discovered journalism instead — a field that liked people who asked questions!
As a reporter and editor, she worked in Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Texas, and Washington, D. C. — places that have become the sites for her books. She got homesick for the Pacific Northwest and came home to work with college newspapers and teach journalism.
She is an over-educated, bleeding-heart liberal with a penchant for heroes such as Jack Reacher. She isn't particularly bothered by the inconsistency. Some of her thrillers have werewolves in them — that doesn’t faze her either.
You can follow her on Facebook at ljbreedlove. Best place to find her — besides a local coffee shop — is at ljbreedlove.com. You can sign up for her email newsletter there!