Skye’s POV

“The Hunt Festival is our most sacred tradition. Tonight, we celebrate our strength, our speed, our very nature as wolves.” Alpha James began. His voice carried across the clearing. “Tonight, we hunt as our ancestors did. We prove ourselves worthy of our lineage.”

Our breath formed clouds in the frigid Alaskan air as the entire Frostshadow Pack gathered around the massive bonfire.

Alpha James stood before us. His powerful frame was silhouetted against the flames. Leon, his son, stood at his right. He was tall and proud. Those piercing blue eyes that seemed to look through everyone.

Now, pack members began shifting around me. Human forms melted into powerful wolf shapes. Some were massive, like Leon’s dark brown wolf. Others were smaller but no less intimidating.

Soon, the clearing contained only three groups. The elders who chose not to hunt. The children too young to participate. And me. The adult without a wolf.

“Skye,” Alpha James approached. “Since this is your first Hunt Festival as an adult, you may use this.”

He extended his arm, offering me a hunting rifle.

Whispers rippled through the remaining crowd. This was unprecedented. Weapons weren’t typically allowed in the Hunt Festival.

“Thank you, Alpha,” I said. I accepted the rifle with steady hands despite the humiliation burning in my chest.

“Good luck,” he said, but his eyes held pity.

As the wolves disappeared into the forest, I felt the weight of sympathetic stares. They all believed I would fail. That I would return empty-handed.

I gripped the rifle tighter. I’ll prove them wrong.

Midnight found me deep in the forest. I was alone with the rifle and my determination. The full moon illuminated the snow with an otherworldly glow. It turned the landscape into a sea of silver and shadow.

My breath formed crystals in the air as I tracked a snowshoe hare through the underbrush.

Not the most impressive prey, but it would be something. Better than returning empty-handed.

I positioned myself behind a fallen log. I sighted down the barrel as the hare paused to nibble at exposed bark. My finger tensed on the trigger.

Then it hit me. A scent so powerful it made me dizzy.

Pine and snow and something wild that I couldn’t name. The smell invaded my senses. It was overwhelming in its intensity. I’d never experienced anything like it before. My nose had never been this sensitive.

My heart pounded against my ribs as realization dawned. This was what they’d described. This was what happened when you found your mate.

But this can’t be happening.

Without my wolf, I shouldn’t be able to detect a mate’s scent. Yet here I was. I was drawn by an invisible thread I couldn’t explain or resist.

The scent pulled me deeper into the forest. It led me away from the familiar hunting grounds of the Frostshadow Pack.

Perhaps this was a sign my wolf was finally coming.

The scent grew impossibly stronger. It made me dizzy with its intensity. I closed my eyes, trying to steady myself.

When I opened my eyes again, all thoughts of mates and wolves vanished in an instant.

I found no mate. Only a monster…

Not twenty feet away stood a massive grizzly bear, its breath visible in the cold night air.

In the moonlight, I could see the silver tips of its brown fur, the massive paws that could tear me apart with a single swipe.

I had wandered far from the pack’s hunting area, far from any help. And without my wolf, I was just a human girl facing one of nature’s most dangerous predators.

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