For his twenty-fifth birthday, Alec Savage gets the gift of a lifetime -- the chance to meet his father for the very first time. What he finds upon his arrival in Washington, DC, however, is not what he expects. A smashed window. An empty house. A scrawled note with his name and a phone number on it. Panicked, he dials the number and talks to an uncle he never knew he had, one who insists Alec is in danger if he stays in the house. That’s when everything starts to get weird.<br><br>Within minutes, he’s teleported all the way to nowhere Montana, in the company of the most gorgeous guy he’s ever seen, hearing about how he’s the latest mage in the Savage line. Alec doesn’t want to believe Rowan Bouchard, but it’s hard to argue with the reality of his new snowbound location or the confirmation from the uncle who greets him. He even thinks staying on the estate while they hunt for his dad won’t be so bad if he’s got Rowan as eye candy.<br><br>Except Rowan is more than that. He’s a shifter, the most beautiful black panther Alec could imagine. And according to his Uncle Martin, he’s now Alec’s familiar too ...

Savage Estate

He wasn&rsquo;t entirely sure the truth would be reason enough to give him leave from the exercises anyway.


Alec stared at the black-and-white photographs lining the pages with a knife embedded in his gut. The pictures were nothing special, two pre-pubescent boys bundled up in winter coats with their arms thrown around each other. The backdrop was the Savage house, the same one he currently sat in, the ground thick with snow, the skeletal trees standing sentry behind them. The detail wasn&rsquo;t great. The grain made it hard to discern more than the broadest strokes, only that they were clearly brothers, both fair, both wind-chapped, the same narrow face and broken smiles.


They looked completely and utterly normal. Everything Alec didn&rsquo;t feel right now. He couldn&rsquo;t figure out if he was relieved or angry about it.


Chapter 19