Heartsong

Heartsong, the third installment of the Green Creek series, is set in a world where werewolves live in secretive packs governed by Alphas and bonded to witches who wield tattooed magic. Wolves who lose their pack bonds risk becoming Omegas, feral creatures with violet eyes who lose their sense of self.

Robbie Fontaine lives in Caswell, Maine, with Ezra, an elderly witch he considers the closest thing to a father he has ever had. Robbie serves as second-in-command to Michelle Hughes, the Alpha of all and supreme leader of North American wolf packs, who resides in a walled compound around Butterfield Lake. He is plagued by recurring dreams of wolves in a forest, but he deflects Ezra's questions about them. His backstory emerges through memory: His mother, Beatrice Fontaine, was a wolf fleeing hunters. She hid six-year-old Robbie in the hollow of a tree during an attack, telling him to be "quiet as a mouse." She never returned.

Michelle sends Robbie and Ezra to check on a small, unresponsive pack in Virginia led by a young Alpha named Shannon Wells. Shannon's second, Malik, secretly brings Robbie to an old silo where he reveals a hidden child named Brodie whose eyes glow violet, marking him as an Omega despite having a pack. Malik claims a prisoner in the Caswell compound is responsible and urges Robbie to kill the prisoner. Robbie refuses but keeps the encounter secret. Before leaving, Shannon slips him a card with a phone number and four words: "FOR WHEN YOU'RE READY."

Back in Caswell, Robbie's reality fractures. He loses days to blackouts and discovers objects he does not remember possessing: a stone wolf carving and his mother's driver's license hidden alongside Shannon's card. A young cub named Tony tells him his parents said Robbie "used to live here before" and was different then. While fixing Michelle's computer, Robbie finds a leather journal with the initials "TB" and pockets it. He tricks a guard into giving him the code to the prisoner's house and finds not a wolf, as Ezra claimed, but a human witch named Dale, who manages to say: "You. Are. Wolf. You. Are. Pack. You. Are. Bennett." Robbie flees. Shannon calls and tells Robbie his memories have been stolen, directing him to a bridge in Lignite, Virginia. Robbie drives south.

At the bridge, Robbie meets the Bennett pack: Gordo, a witch missing one hand, and his mate Mark; two Alpha wolves, Joe Bennett and Ox Matheson, whose eyes carry both Alpha red and Omega violet; and a man wearing a work shirt with "ROBBIE" stitched on the chest and a bite-mark scar on his neck. This man, Kelly Bennett, tells Robbie he is Robbie's mate. Robbie denies it. Then Ezra appears above them on the bridge, his aged appearance falling away to reveal Robert Livingstone, a younger and far more powerful witch. Livingstone uses a trigger phrase, "Would you hear me, dear?" to command Robbie to attack. Kelly intercepts, and Robbie's claws sink into him. Livingstone seizes Kelly and forces dark magic into him, stripping Kelly of his wolf entirely. Kelly, bleeding, grabs Robbie's ankle and begs him to stay. Robbie does not take Livingstone's outstretched hand, and Livingstone detonates an explosion of magic.

Robbie wakes in a basement cell in Green Creek, Oregon, behind a line of powdered silver. Elizabeth Bennett, the mother of Joe, Kelly, and Carter, explains that Livingstone wiped Robbie's memories. The pack's attempts to break through the magical barrier in his mind fail. Robbie escapes into town, where the human residents know about werewolves, recognize him, and are glad he is back. In a mechanic's garage, he finds photographs of himself with the pack and a missing-person flyer bearing his face, dated February 2019.

Over weeks, the pack works to reintegrate Robbie. Kelly visits daily and reveals that Robbie was a beloved member of the pack for nearly six years and was Kelly's mate. Kelly also shares the painful truth: Livingstone planted a trigger that made Robbie kill an Omega and nearly kill Chris and Tanner, two human pack members whom Ox had to turn into wolves to save their lives. The pack believed Robbie had betrayed them, and it took eight months for Kelly, Gordo, and Ox to locate him in Caswell. Rico, a pack member who held Chris as Chris briefly died, harbors deep anger toward Robbie. Gordo calls in two allied witches, Aileen and Patrice, who warn that the pack is too fractured to face Livingstone, citing Kelly's lost wolf, an Omega infection consuming Carter and Mark, and unresolved rifts. Despite these tensions, Robbie begins working at the garage again and rebuilds his bond with Kelly over shared lunches and quiet evenings. Kelly explains he is asexual, and Robbie accepts this without hesitation.

During a full moon, Livingstone's voice breaks through Robbie's mind. Omegas attack Robbie, drawn by the magical residue Livingstone left on him. Kelly kicks apart the silver line trapping Robbie in the basement, and every pack member crosses over to sleep beside him. Robbie gives Elizabeth the leather journal, which she recognizes as belonging to her late husband, Thomas Bennett, the former Alpha of all. Hidden inside the cover is a letter addressed to whoever Kelly's future mate would be, asking that person to cherish and protect Kelly. Robbie shares the letter with Kelly, and they share their first kiss.

Shannon Wells arrives at Green Creek's wards, dying. She reveals that Livingstone used magically controlled wolf children to destroy her pack. Elizabeth video-calls Michelle. Livingstone appears on screen and demands Robbie's return along with "my son," the timber wolf, a large Omega who has been shadowing Carter. Livingstone reveals the wolf is Gavin, his child born of a secret affair. Gordo is stunned to learn that Livingstone, his own father, had another son he never knew about. Carter refuses to surrender Gavin. Livingstone promises war.

The pack travels to Caswell with allies. The compound's wards have been dismantled, and feral wolf children ambush them in deserted streets. Inside the walls, adult wolves are imprisoned in living trees by black magic. In the ensuing battle, Michelle bites Livingstone. The bite of an Alpha to a witch should be fatal, and his magic briefly dies: Kelly's wolf returns and the Omega infections afflicting Carter and Mark clear. But Livingstone survives, kills Michelle, absorbs her Alpha power, and transforms into a monstrous beast the pack cannot defeat. Gavin shifts to human form for the first time and offers to leave with his father to save the pack, telling Carter he does not want pack or brotherhood. Robbie sees the heartbreak on Gavin's face and knows it is a lie. Gavin severs his bonds and leaves with the beast.

Joe addresses the leaderless wolves of Caswell and is accepted as the new Alpha of all. Back in Green Creek, Rico, fatally wounded in the battle, is saved when Ox bites him and turns him into a wolf. Robbie's stolen memories remain locked behind a door he holds closed, afraid of reliving his attack on Chris and Tanner. In September, during a moment of intimacy with Kelly, Robbie opens the door. His memories flood back: arriving in Green Creek as Michelle's spy, falling in love with the pack, exchanging mate bites with Kelly, and the helpless horror of Livingstone's ambush.

In December, Carter severs his pack bonds and leaves alone to find Gavin, leaving a video message for Kelly explaining that Gavin saved the pack and Carter must do the same. Kelly howls for his brother, but there is no answer. In an epilogue set 11 months later, Carter drives through Kentucky and collects a terse note from Gavin: "STOP FOLLOWING ME. GO HOME ASSHOLE." Carter laughs, looks at a photograph of himself and his brothers, whispers "Soon," and drives north.