The Silver Cage

By Ana Raine

Danny barely remembers who he is, let alone his mate. After being taken from his pack years ago by a group of overzealous hunters, Danny identifies only as “Wolf” -- the pet of the pack who helps track down other shifters for the hunters’ sport.

When Danny tracks down a female wolf, he hesitates to help imprison her male companion. At first Danny doesn’t remember this wolf, at least not logically, but his senses are completely overtaken and he’s sure he’s met this Alpha before.

This wolf isn’t just his former Alpha. Jamie is also his mate, and after years of believing Danny dead, Jamie’s not going to let his mate go ever again. Even if it means working together to kill each of the hunters so they can never take their lives again -- or come between their mating bond.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Changeling Press
• Release date: Jul 9, 2021

Book preview

Chapter 1

I had been broken. It was a long time ago -- so long I barely remembered who I was before. Now I was only Wolf.

Words fade easily when you don’t use them. My teeth ached most days, even when I was conscious enough to remind myself not to bite the metal of my cage. Those were the good days, the days I remembered, but for most of them I just kept gnawing. At least the pain was in my jaw and not in my heart.

In the early days, back when I was a teenager, I’d tried to resist. But the hunter’s knives were sharp and their guns loud. It had been easier to stay, easier to retreat into my other form where there was more fur than skin.

That was a decade ago. At least I thought so. There were few things I remembered. I was twenty-six. I had green eyes when I was a human, and still green when I was a wolf. My name started with a D, but I thought of myself as wolf.

The hunters had kept me because I was skilled at tracking, and they thought it would be a waste to let me be sold as an exotic pet. Langdon, the deadliest hunter I knew, probably begged to differ on that front. He was endlessly touching the top of my head and whenever I was permitted to be in my human form, rare as it was, his eyes lingered on my skin like a trail of fire.

There was a memory I clung to -- a wolf with fur as red as a forest fire. But he was probably dead, same as everyone else in my pack, so that was probably why the memory was faint.

Are we ready to go?

Hunter was the worst of all, and not because his name literally matched his profession. He had a buzz-cut better suited for the army and had chewed tobacco for so long, half of his teeth had rotted right out of his skull. What he didn’t have in neck, he made up for with muscles. He was huge and I thought so even when I was a wolf. The tip of his boot often found my ribs when I moved too slowly.

Jax was a little better. He had a kind smile he only ever wore when he video-chatted with his girlfriend and son. Hunters traveled as they tracked down the hundreds of small packs around the globe. For some reason or another, probably money, he’d become a hunter, but I knew he hated being away from his family.

Langdon was downright arrogant and awful, which completely marred his beautiful beach-ready looks. There was his father, Langdon Sr. and Savannah, who kept her hair in a severe bun at the nape of her neck and an engraved silver ring around her second finger.

Before me, there had been two other wolves, brothers. But after I’d come around, the wolf hunters had fallen in love with how quickly I could track my kind and kept me. I didn’t exactly know what happened to the brothers, but I knew they were brought outside, there was a loud bang, and they were gone. I assumed their bodies had been left in the dumpster. It was fairly easy to discard wolves, after all. Their screams when they realized what was going to happen… that was never going to fade.

Just about. Savannah loaded a gun as she cocked her head in my direction. Wolf ready to behave?

Langdon crouched down in front of the cage, his dirty fingers hanging through the bars and invading my space. I’d learned long ago what happens to a wolf who bites, but I still salivated at the thought of my teeth penetrating his throat.

He’ll be good, Langdon purred, wringing the leash in his hands as he stared at me. He’s always my good wolf, aren’t you?

I lowered my eyes because that was how to survive.

Where did they say they’d be? Hunter asked before spitting a wad of tar in an empty coke bottle. How many?

Our scouts at the border said two. One female and one male, Langdon Sr. answered. They’re to be broken and sold. Beautiful beasts, I heard.

I sighed in relief and frustration. Had they been better suited to being their pet, my life would be over as I was easily replaceable.

Oh, no, Langdon whispered so only I could hear. The others were consumed with their guns and weapons. Oh, no, Wolf, you’re my boy. And pretty soon, we’ll find a replacement for you, and you’ll finally be all mine.

For a person to actually keep a Wolf as a pet, the wolf had to be severely broken. I knew I was broken enough to obey and fear their knives, but somehow, my mind was still convinced I wouldn’t let him have his way with me. From the way he made it seem, I wasn’t far from finding out.

Come on, boy. Out you come.

Sometimes, when I closed my eyes, I imagined his hand on top of my head was the boy from my memories. But the scent was wrong. Langdon was steel and blood and hate. The boy’s had been wind and cinnamon and love.

Langdon mistook my contentment about the boy for thinking it was because of him. I didn’t really care anymore.

The leash slipped around my collar, the steel biting ever so slightly into my fur. As a human, it was much looser, but still not enough for me to slip out of.

And we’re ready, Langdon Sr. stated, pointing around the room of the small cabin. Hunter, Savannah, you’re with me. Langdon and Jax, you take the wolf.

Langdon’s grin was feral.

And you track from the south while we go north.

Bet they’ll wish they hadn’t left their pack, Jax teased.

When I’d been taken, my pack had only been about ten wolves. Now, wolves kept in packs of at least twenty so they could be seen as less vulnerable. Why these two wolves had left the safety of their pack was beyond me.

It was a death sentence.

Langdon