Chapter 15
ROWAN
After being not-so-welcomed by some of the Glacier Crest Pack members who found us as soon as we exited Malrik’s forest, we’re promptly taken to the pack house, where Liz is.
Apparently, most of them are none too happy that Cade’s been on their land for so long, and they couldn’t find him, but my mate doesn’t seem to care.
Especially as we walk through their hallways and he growls or snarls at anyone who looks at me for too long.
The halls are frigid, but nowhere near as icy as The Keep had seemed at first. Thane, their beta, is filling in for the previous alpha as the pack debates between two others for the official role of alpha.
According to Archie’s whispered answers to my apparently insulting questions, Thane can’t be alpha because he doesn’t have the right genes or some wolf nonsense like that.
Still, the beta leads us further into their house, where less and less people are, with his head held high and pride for his home clear as day.
Cade stays by my side, his touch never leaving mine.
I can’t help but continually glance up at him.
I couldn’t feel the bond before, not with any sort of intensity, but whatever Malrik brought out in me, it also unlocked more of my shifter side.
At least I assume so because the connection between us is alive and well now.
The thoughts and feelings that had been growing within me while we were apart are amplified now. I want to hold him and kiss him and tell him everything. I want to make sure he knows I’ll never go without a fight again, that he matters to me more than I could understand before.
But we’re not safe yet, and there’s still too much to worry about, so I force myself to keep my emotions in check. I’ll carve out a moment to sort through these changes just as soon as we’re safe back at NightShade and to tell him how I feel.
Though, is safe even possible at this point?
Malrik was there. He intervened at every chance, and I doubt he’s done just because he lost his plaything.
And his lack of presence is more than bothersome.
The more time that passes, the more twisted my thoughts become when I think of him.
Malrik should’ve caught up to us by now. He should’ve been tearing through the mountain, ripping through his wards, or forcing The Keep after me like a wrathful storm king.
But there’s nothing.
No tremor.
No whisper of his magic.
Not even a thread of the fury I felt when I unmade his spell.
Which means he’s waiting.
And that’s worse.
Wolf rumbles darkly inside me. He’ll move when it benefits him most.
Yeah. That’s what I’m worried about.
I tense slightly when Archie’s nails scratch at my collarbone. He’s been silent since we got close to the pack house. I expected him to remain on guard like the rest of them, but it’s nice to see him normal-sized again, and snuggled around my neck.
Even if he’s holding on like this is the last time he might see me, and remaining quieter than normal.
The hall narrows, torchlight flickering against Cade’s profile. My fingers brush his arm—just lightly—and relief shudders through me when our bond flares warm and sure in response. The ache of being separated from him for so long isn’t going to be dulled for long.
But Cade isn’t the only thing drawing my eye.
Ahead of us, Marius walks with a careful, measured gait—glancing my way every minute or so as if he’s afraid he’ll turn a corner and I’ll vanish. His eyes linger like he’s memorizing me all over again.
And I don’t know what to do with that.
I want to ask him a thousand questions about my mother, about their past, about how he handled losing both of us.
But Liz comes first.
Cade refused to tell me any details of what Elias shared with him about her condition, and that worries me most. My imagination is hopefully far worse than the reality.
“How much further until we’re there?” I ask when we get down to a basement level, turning more corners.
“She’s right up—” Thane is cut off by a screech.
“If you think you’re going to poke me with that, you’d better hope you can run faster than me.”
Liz.
She’s okay.
At least she sounds that way.
I rush forward, holding Archie in place with one hand as I hurry. Cade stays with me, moving slightly ahead to open the door first. He blocks my way through, likely checking the room before he lets me enter, but I don’t give him long.
I shove past him and stop dead in my tracks.
Liz is sitting on the examination table—hair a wrecked, tangly curtain, face pale as polished marble, one leg still halfway encased in a thawing block of ice—and has her fangs on full display. She’s definitely not holding back with her threats today.
“I said I don’t need another temperature check! I’m a vampire, not one of you furballs. My core isn’t supposed to be fiery. Just give me the heat gun, and I’ll handle melting the rest of this ice before I start gnawing—” Her attention finally snaps toward me. “Rowan! You’re alive.”
“And so are you.” My smile is unavoidable as I walk toward her. “Maybe try to keep everyone else that way, too.”
“They started it.” She sneers at the poor shifter who had the misfortune of being assigned to care for her.
“There’s a heat gun on the counter,” the female shifter says to me, voice dry. “I’m sure one of you can figure it out.”
With that, she departs the room, bowing only to her beta.
“Your friend was a solid block of ice when she was brought to us,” Thane explains, causing my gaze to cut to Cade.
“A block of ice?” I don’t hold back my snarl.
He merely shrugs. “You didn’t need anything else to worry about. Elias had it handled.”
Some things clearly haven’t changed. Like his gruff personality.
Liz reaches out and jerks me into a tight hug, her hold so intense I can’t even hug her back. I worry for Archie briefly, but he adjusts his position and manages to stay put.
“Rowan Prescott,” Liz starts in on me, “if you ever vanish into a hell castle again while I’m freezing into a decorative yard ornament on a mountainside, I’m going to wring your neck, and probably more. Depends on my mood. Today, though, I’ll settle for cutting off your air supply.”
Emotion punches out of me in a broken laugh as I struggle to speak. “I missed you, too. And I’m glad you’re okay.”
“I’m magnificent,” she says, then finally loosens her hold so I can back up as she rages on about her frozen leg.
“Broke the damn thing climbing down a ravine I couldn’t see because the snow was doing that stupid sideways-spinning thing.
Froze me solid before my healing could kick in.
Elias had to chisel me out.” She gestures at him dramatically.
“And he panicked like a little bitch the whole time.” She shrugs.
“Yes, I’m also cranky. I need food, and they don’t have what I need here. ”
“I did not panic,” Elias mutters behind us.
“You literally cradled me like a damsel in distress,” Liz fires back. “I have never been damsel in my entire life.”
“You were frozen solid,” Elias says dryly. “You weighed twice as much as normal. It was either carry you with both arms or start chucking you down the hill, one shove at a time.”
“That’s not the point!”
I press a hand to my chest, grounding myself before I melt into a puddle of relief. She’s snarky. She’s irritated. She’s full of inappropriate threats.
She’s fine.
We all are.
Cade’s hand slides into mine, giving it a subtle squeeze.
Marius exhales beside me, the sound small but sincere as Liz and Elias continue to banter.
“She’s not the same as I remember,” Marius whispers, “but I believe she was friends with your mother.”
I nod. “One and the same. She’s been at NightShade all this time with Iris.”
He bristles at the mention of my grandmother, but I don’t get to ask why.
Liz points at me with a half-melted icicle like she’s wielding a dagger. “And you. We’re talking later. All of us nearly died, and you come strolling back with a father, a glow-up, new powers, and trauma cheekbones like you’re gearing up for a dramatic photoshoot—”
“Trauma cheekbones?” I choke on a snort. Heat prickles at my face. Cade must have caught Elias up, who then relayed things to Liz. Still, there will be plenty to talk about later.
She crosses her arms with a huff. “Oh, you know exactly what I mean.”
A laugh cracks out of me—thin, frayed at the edges, but real. The sound vibrates in my chest like a bird just learning how to fly. For the first time since the battle, since The Keep, and the moment I realized Malrik had taken me…the world stops shaking. Just for a breath.
“Can we go home now?” I ask, looking up at Cade while my free hand buries into Archie’s thick fur. His warmth anchors me, his steady rumbles a reminder I’m not alone anymore.
It’s a question I never thought I’d be able to ask again. Not from a place of hope. Not with so many secrets pressing against my ribs, bruising me from the inside out. I killed someone. Malrik molded something inside of me I don’t fully understand. And I left—no explanations, no goodbyes, no trust.
Part of me expects Cade to hesitate or to pull away.
But he doesn’t.
“Soon,” he promises, placing a kiss on the back of my hand that he still clings to.
Elias holds up the heat gun like a weapon of vengeance, adding dryly, “Right after I fry a vampire.”
Liz kicks him hard enough to have the shifter stumbling a few steps as she snarls. “I heard that.”
Oh, these two are going to be a nightmare, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
“How are we getting back?” I ask no one in particular.
“Liz, Elias, and I drove before, but Iris is sending a helicopter for us now,” Cade says as if that’s completely normal.
I blink several times. “My grandmother owns a helicopter?” This shouldn’t surprise me, but…
He nods, clearly not impressed. “Or she at least has immediate access to one.”
“When did you even talk to her?” I’m growing more confused by the second. I haven’t seen him on a phone once since he entered the cave, and he hasn’t left my side.
Cade taps the side of his head. “My alpha connection to the pack. I can communicate with those still at NightShade. It’s not something I took advantage of before, but…” He glances at Elias, then back at me. “We’ll talk about it more when we’re back.”
Right. While his tone is calm, steady, and sure, a knot pulls tight in my chest.
Thane mentions something about feeding those that he can, which I take to mean they aren’t willing to bring Liz a cup of blood. But I can’t tear my gaze away from Cade even while the others talk around us.
He’s clearly changed as well. Not in a bad way. Just in one that tells me he’s been through a storm during my absence, and he’s carried more than his share of the weight to get to this moment.
Guilt floods me, trickling into places I’ve kept sealed. Did I force Cade back into a role he never wanted? Did my disappearance shove him into a leadership position he isn’t ready for or even wants?
He was born to be alpha, Wolf murmurs. He would have found his way eventually.
Maybe.
But that doesn’t make the worry any lighter on my heart.