Prologue 6-1-2016
"I'm sorry, sweetie... I... I wish I would've told you earlier." The tan she-wolf looked into his blue eyes with tears sparkling in the twilight. "Now that you know, nothing will be the same..."
"You're damn right," her mate answered. His tone seemed like a threat.
"You're not mad at me, are you?" She tilted her head.
"No, no. Of course not." He smiled with a hint of sarcasm. "I'm sure this news will settle quite nicely with me."
"I won't tell the pups," she said, determined.
"I don't care who you tell," he replied. "Nothing in this fucking world can change it or render it unaffecting." The grey wolf put one paw on his mate's cheek, a light touch while looking straight into her brown eyes. "I am eternally ashamed to call you my mate. All of Jasper gazes upon you with hope and the liveliness of a tree, but now all I see is a hollow log that grows poisonous mushrooms and unwanted insects." Kate was made frozen, paralyzed by her mate's quiet yet deafening words. Her own thoughts were lost in the shock of it all.
"Who are you...?" She didn't recognize this wolf she knew for many years now. The one who was there by her side through thick and thin, through hardships and peacetime.
"Go ahead and tell the pups," he continued. "They're nothing but an utter waste of bone and flesh to me..."