Prologue - Nikita

I dug my toes into the soft white sand and looked up at the golden and red sky. The water was blue all the way to the horizon, and the first sunbeams were just starting to shine on its surface. It was quiet on the beach, so I closed my eyes and let the Caribbean breeze kiss my skin one last time.

I had been running away to Isla Mujeres for years. When I had a few days between cruises, I would go back to the tiny apartment I rented here. It was just a few steps from the ocean and a place of peace and quiet. I would eat seafood that was brought in fresh every morning by a fisherman who lived two streets away and was expertly cooked by his tiny, old grandmother at their little storefront. I'd relax in the bright red hammock I'd strung up in the backyard, read, take naps, and enjoy the peace and color of my own little piece of paradise.

It was a beautiful life built on an ugly lie.

Every day I was here, I told myself it was fine to treat myself. That I was "finding myself" and that my time as Operations Manager for a major cruise line would teach me how to be a leader. I pretended that I thought my grandfather was finally stepping up, that he would finally do everything he had been putting off because he was getting old and sick. I thought about him putting his foot down and getting rid of the bad things that were in our small group. I told myself that he was securing succession and that the notice that I was his heir with the support of the pack as a whole would come any minute.

Now, like everything else that was built on shaky ground, my private world, which I loved so much, had fallen apart and was in pieces all around me.

My grandfather died the same way he lived: he didn't want to take on all of the responsibilities that come with leading a pack. There had been no planning for who would take over. There will be no housework. Certainly not by him.

Instead, there were uprisings and people moving away. My parents were gone, and so was almost everyone else from their generation. Jeff, Sid, and the rest of their gang of crooks had taken over the pack and were mistreating the few members of our generation who didn't run away. Ana, my sweet cousin, was forced to get married to Jeff in a fake ceremony, and he got her pregnant. I went back long enough to set her free, but instead of taking my rightful place as Alpha, I ran away with my tail between my legs when the fight that followed almost tore me apart.

My fingers went to my ribs, where, under my thin shirt, four scars ran in parallel from just below my heart to my right hip in a rough line. I felt sick to my stomach when I thought about the taste of Sid's blood on my tongue after I ripped out his throat in a desperate attempt to stay alive and save Ana. Even though they didn't regret anything, they still had nightmares.

I was hurt and confused, so I went back to my safe place to lick my wounds. I didn't do much but lay in my hammock for weeks, barely able to move. My body was taking a long time to heal, even though shifters should heal at an impossible rate. Every painful second that went by was a sign that I was selfish and arrogant.

I had grown up seeing my grandfather not do what he was supposed to do as Alpha. I had seen how it split up my family and my pack. What had I done, though? The same old crap. I ran away from my responsibilities, and everyone in my pack paid for it. This meant that everything that happened was my fault.

Instead, there were uprisings and people moving away. My parents were gone, and so was almost everyone else from their generation. Jeff, Sid, and the rest of their gang of crooks had taken over the pack and were mistreating the few members of our generation who didn't run away. Ana, my sweet cousin, was forced to get married to Jeff in a fake ceremony, and he got her pregnant. I went back long enough to set her free, but instead of taking my rightful place as Alpha, I ran away with my tail between my legs when the fight that followed almost tore me apart.

My fingers went to my ribs, where, under my thin shirt, four scars ran in parallel from just below my heart to my right hip in a rough line. I felt sick to my stomach when I thought about the taste of Sid's blood on my tongue after I ripped out his throat in a desperate attempt to stay alive and save Ana. Even though they didn't regret anything, they still had nightmares.

I was hurt and confused, so I went back to my safe place to lick my wounds. I didn't do much but lay in my hammock for weeks, barely able to move. My body was taking a long time to heal, even though shifters should heal at an impossible rate. Every painful second that went by was a sign that I was selfish and arrogant.

I had grown up seeing my grandfather not do what he was supposed to do as Alpha. I had seen how it split up my family and my pack. What had I done, though? The same old crap. I ran away from my responsibilities, and everyone in my pack paid for it. This meant that everything that happened was my fault.

I turned away from the water and walked back to where my shoes and duffel bag were waiting on the wooden boardwalk. By water taxi and then walking through the city, Cancun International Airport was less than ten miles away. If there were no weather delays, it would take me seven hours to fly to the small town where I grew up and see the wreck of everything I used to know. By tonight, my island haven wouldn't be there anymore. The first thing I would be is an Alpha. Everything else I loved or wanted would be taken away as punishment for what I and my family had done wrong.

I put my feet into my shoes by reaching down, then grabbed the handle of my duffel bag and put it over my shoulder. I started walking while my heart was beating like crazy in my chest.