Life at the Jarvela farm hobbles on when the new year rolls in. Losing his wife and co-alpha in the storm of the decade emotionally paralyzed Sean, though he tries to cope and attempts to pick up the pieces with their children. Rider, another alpha, could give him the love and comfort he needs, but Sean is too depressed to recognize the possibility of having a male partner, and he goes into mental tailspin.<br><br>To safeguard his own heart, Rider makes the hard decision to leave for a while, and Sean turns his energy and sadness into working on the neighboring Metsala farm with the other members of their farm family. But Sean isn’t really getting better, and that won’t change until he can let his wolf out again. If he doesn’t, he might lose his sanity too.

Howl Sweet Howl

It seemed as if almost all of his easygoing nature had drained away when the life had left Zoya’s body.


“Hey, Sean, come here for a second,” Noah called from Mikael’s office.


“Get ready. Rider is cooking for us. I’ll be right back,” he told the kids, making sure he sounded kind instead of harsh, and went to see what Noah wanted.


“Hey. Mikael got an email today.” Noah grinned in a way that let Sean know this was something good.


“Oh?” Sean leaned to the doorframe because the seats were taken by all the men in the house


“Yeah, from the Council.” Mikael grinned and then read from the screen of his computer: “We are contacting you to report that Mr. Antonio Veltroni was taken into custody by the Council, and after a swift trial, he was executed by the Council’s enforcers for his crimes against several shifter families, farms, and sanctuaries, including yours.”


Chapter 3