Chapter 1
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Lina
The cramped office at the back of my Pine Valley shop smelled exactly the way I remembered from childhood.
Coffee grounds, old paper, and the faint vanilla scent from whatever cleaning spray Vivi insisted on using.
I shifted in the worn leather chair, trying to find a position that didn’t make my back scream at me.
Seven months pregnant and I felt every single day of it.
My phone buzzed on the desk. Knox’s name flashed across the screen with a text that made my stomach clench.
Rogue spotted near the eastern border. Taking Cole and Hunt. Be back soon.
I stared at the message longer than I should have. Rogues, always rogues. My fingers moved over the keyboard without thinking.
Be careful.
His response came immediately. Always am. Love you.
The familiar ache settled in my chest. Not the mate bond pulling at me, though that was there too.
This was older, deeper. The memory of teeth and blood and my parents’ screams as they shoved me toward the trees.
I’d been fifteen and terrified, convinced the camping trip would be safe.
Instead I’d learned that monsters were real and they had very big teeth.
That had been my first encounter with rogues, but not my last. There’d been the ones who attacked when I first met Knox six years ago.
The one who’d tried to grab Thea outside the shop last year.
Each encounter left scars I couldn’t see but felt every time someone mentioned rogue activity.
If I never saw another rogue in my life, it would be too soon.
“Lina!”
I jerked my head up. Mika stood in the doorway, one purple-streaked eyebrow raised in that judgmental way she’d perfected over the years. Her leather jacket had more zippers than any piece of clothing should reasonably possess, and the multiple piercings in her ears caught the overhead light.
“You good?” she asked.
“Peachy.”
“You’re doing that thing where you stare at nothing and look constipated.”
I flipped her off. “I’m pregnant. Everything makes me look constipated.”
“Fair point.” She jerked her thumb toward the front. “We’ve got a line out the door and Vivi just pulled a fresh batch of those raspberry cream cupcakes from the oven. The ones you’ve been whining about for three weeks.”
My mouth watered instantly. Traitor body. For months I couldn’t keep anything down without wanting to die. Now that I’d finally found my appetite again, I was basically a walking garbage disposal with ankles that had disappeared sometime in my second trimester.
I pushed myself up from the chair with all the grace of a beached whale. My hand automatically went to my lower back, pressing against the constant ache that had become my new normal.
“You know,” Mika said, leaning against the doorframe, “we told you to stay home today.”
“I wanted cupcakes.”
“We could’ve brought you cupcakes.”
“It’s not the same.”
“You’re impossible.”
“I’m pregnant,” I repeated, waddling past her into the main area of the shop. “Sue me if I drag my sorry self here to eat food I actually want for once and be with my friends.”
The shop buzzed with afternoon energy. Tables were full of locals who’d been coming here since my parents first opened the place.
Old regulars occupied their favorite spots, nursing coffees and catching up on gossip.
A few teenagers from the high school had claimed the corner booth, textbooks spread across the table. Normal, safe.
Vivi’s head popped out from the kitchen, flour dusting her dark hair. “Lina! You’re still here!”
“Where else would I be?”
“Home. In bed. Not waddling around my shop looking miserable.”
“Your shop?” I grabbed the edge of the counter, hauling myself onto one of the stools. “I own this place, thank you very much.”
“Technically Knox owns half of it now that you’re married,” Mika pointed out, sliding a cupcake across the counter toward me.
I grabbed it before she could change her mind. “Community property laws are sexist and outdated.”
“But convenient when your husband is loaded.”
She had a point. Not that I’d ever admit it out loud.
The cupcake was perfect. Moist cake, tangy raspberry filling, cream cheese frosting that made my eyes roll back in my head. I’d missed this. I’d missed feeling human instead of just an incubator with legs.
“This is orgasmic,” I mumbled around a mouthful of frosting.
“Please don’t make sex noises while eating my baking,” Vivi called from the kitchen.
“Can’t help it. Blame the pregnancy hormones.”
Mika snorted while wiping down the espresso machine. “How are the twins handling kindergarten?”
I swallowed another bite, considering the question. “Rowan loves it. He’s already reading at a second-grade level and correcting the teacher’s pronunciation. Pretty sure his teacher both loves and hates him in equal measure.”
“Of course he is.”
“Thea bit another kid yesterday.”
“Well…damn.”
“In her defense, the kid tried to take her snack.” I licked frosting off my thumb. “She’s very food-motivated. Gets it from me.”
“The biting or the food thing?”
“Both.”
Mika’s mouth twitched into what might have been a smile.
The familiar rhythm of the shop flowed around us.
Orders called out, steam hissing, conversations blending into comfortable background noise.
I polished off the cupcake and immediately wanted another one.
Pregnancy was basically just constant hunger interrupted by the occasional need to pee.
Mika must’ve read my mind because she slid a second cupcake toward me without comment.
“I love you,” I told her seriously.
“I know. Remember last month when those tourists showed up? I saw them again yesterday.” She said suddenly. “The ones with the cameras who spent three hours taking pictures of the shop and asking if we had Wi-Fi.”
I snorted. “Welcome to small-town life. We’re so quaint and photogenic.”
“One of them asked if we were Amish.”
“We have electricity.”
“I pointed that out. She seemed disappointed.”
The tourist thing had picked up lately. Ever since Ravenshollow opened its borders six months ago, more people had been exploring the area.
Some found their way to Pine Valley. Most were harmless.
A few were annoying. All of them wanted to know if we’d ever seen the “big wolves” everyone talked about in local legend. If only they knew.
Vivi emerged from the kitchen with a tray of fresh cookies, setting them in the display case with efficiency. “Have you and Knox decided on names yet?”
“We’re narrowing it down.”
“That’s what you said last month.”
“We’re very slowly narrowing it down.”
The truth was Knox and I couldn’t agree on anything name-related.
He wanted a traditional pack name with history and weight behind it.
I wanted a name that didn’t sound ridiculous when you had to yell it across a playground.
We’d been arguing about it for weeks with no end in sight.
The fact that we didn’t know if we were having a boy or a girl made it even more complicated.
We needed neutral options that worked either way, and apparently finding names we both agreed on was harder than negotiating peace treaties.
Marriage was fun.
The afternoon bled into evening while I answered emails, approved new menu items, and tried not to think about Knox out there hunting rogues in the woods.
The mate bond hummed in the back of my mind, present but quiet.
He was fine. I’d know if he wasn’t. That was the thing about being mated to an Alpha. I always knew.
By the time I finally dragged myself to the car, my back was screaming and my feet had swollen to twice their normal size. The drive from Pine Valley back to Ravenshollow took two to three hours on a good day. Today it felt endless.
I’d moved most of my things to Ravenshollow after the wedding.
We’d left Noah’s house, of course, and moved to the pack house, which had become home in a way I never expected.
But Pine Valley still held pieces of my heart.
My parents had opened this shop and I’d inherited it after they died, and every corner held memories I wasn’t ready to leave behind.
The sun had set by the time I finally pulled through the gates of Ravenshollow.
The pack house loomed ahead, all dark wood and stone, nestled into the forest. Lights glowed in the windows.
My entire body ached when I climbed out of the car, one hand pressed against my lower back while the baby kicked hard against my ribs. I grimaced.
“Yeah, yeah, I know. Long day for both of us.”
His scent hit me first and the mate bond flared bright and warm in my chest. Knox. My mate. Pine and earth and wolf, all mixed together in a way that made my hindbrain sit up and pay attention.
Strong arms wrapped around me from behind, careful of my stomach. His lips found the sensitive spot just below my ear and I melted back against him despite my best intentions.
“Missed you,” he murmured against my skin.
“You saw me this morning.”
“Too long.”
I turned in his arms, tilting my head back to look at him. Knox Raven was unfairly attractive even after spending hours in the woods hunting rogues. His gray eyes caught the porch light, studying me with that intense focus that made my stomach flip.
Six years, that’s how long I’d known him.
He’d walked into my Pine Valley shop one day and became a regular.
Every morning, same order, same quiet intensity.
We’d danced around each other before finally giving in.
One perfect night that had ended with him vanishing from my life completely.
And then came the pregnancy and the twins and five years of raising them alone, wondering what I’d done wrong and convincing myself I was better off without him.