Finding Hope (Seaside Wolf Pack #6) - C.C. Masters

Chapter 1

Anna

I wrinkled my brow in concentration as I ripped a hole in the fabric of reality. The trick to building a gateway was to focus on my goal and not get lost in the details. I let out my breath as the gateway shimmered into existence in front of me.

“Check that out,” I said proudly. “This one goes all the way to the beach.”

“Alright, Anna!” Jason shouted.

Mason wrapped his strong arms around me and gave me a kiss on my temple. “You’re such a magical badass.”

I let the gateway wink out of existence and turned to face Mason, so I could wrap my arms around his neck. His hazel eyes were shining with pride, and I couldn’t resist running my hands through his already messy brown hair. Jason was his identical twin, and they enjoyed confusing strangers by dressing similarly and wearing their hair the same. Today, they were both in long-sleeved Henley shirts that showcased their broad shoulders and were snug enough to show their sculpted arms.

I felt Jason come up behind me and rest his hands on my hips, so that I was in the middle of a twin sandwich. I allowed myself to bask in the warmth of their bodies for only a moment before pushing them away. I still had a lot of work to do today, and I couldn’t allow myself to be distracted by their hard bodies.

Jason chuckled. “We need to make a list of all the pranks we can pull using Anna’s new skills.”

Mason smiled, but his eyes weren’t as bright as Jason’s. “I think we might need this for more than just pranks, bro,” he told his brother with a light punch to the arm.

“Yeah,” I agreed with a sigh. Making a gateway to the beach, or to sneak up on James, might sound fun, but there were bigger reasons why I was pushing myself so hard to learn this.

The dark fae had manipulated Justin into releasing them from their prison. I’d broken out of the iron collar that held me helpless too late to stop him, and two fae from Winter had kicked my ass in a magical battle. The Morrigan and the dark fae were set free into this world. They were responsible for setting off a chain of events that exposed supernaturals to the humans.

While the dark fae had been imprisoned, they’d been reaching out and influencing others to a small extent. Now, there was nothing stopping them from having free reign to cause chaos and destruction everywhere they went. They fed off war, violence, and death, and there was plenty of that right now. The humans hadn’t taken the revelation that they weren’t alone in the world very well, and their negative reactions had been magnified by the dark fae. Rioting led to mobs that attacked people suspected of being supernatural. The violence escalated from there.

Lines were drawn, and people separated themselves into small communities. Wolf packs kicked humans out of their territory, lamia claimed cities as their own, and humans created ‘safe zones’ where only humans were allowed in. The US government didn’t have enough military to take back the entire country, so they had chosen strategic locations and carved out pockets that they could control. Trade had screeched to a halt, and the economy crashed. Grocery store shelves were empty on a regular basis, and looting was prevalent in areas that didn’t have a strong military presence.

Our small piece of Seaside was far enough from the military bases to leave us outside of the human sphere of influence. Still, it would be stupid to think we could hide here forever. We hadn’t been identified as a wolf pack, but I’m sure it was only a matter of time. What human government that remained would investigate the area once the chaos died down, and we’d be exposed as supernaturals. Austin wanted our pack lands to be fortified and well-secured for when that day came.

Mason put an arm around my waist and pulled me close to him. “Sorry,” he murmured to me. “I didn’t mean to bring things down.”

I gave Mason a kiss on his scruffy cheek. “We’ll have plenty of time for pranks once we get the world back to normal.”

Mason smiled back at me, but I saw the doubt in his eyes. Things had gone too far to ever return to the old normal, and I wasn’t oblivious to that. However, I hoped that we’d find a new normal that wasn’t filled with hate and violence.