Chapter 2
Wolfe
The messenger hadn’t even cleared the ridge before the murmurs broke.
Not fear. Not entirely.
Anger. Betrayal.
A low, rolling growl that passed through the pack.
I felt every shred of it scraping along my nerves.
I felt their confusion, anxiety, and alarm through the mindlink, their emotions clamoring to reach me.
I could have blocked it off, but I didn’t because I wanted to feel them.
I needed to feel them. Their hurt was mine to heal. Their worries were mine to soothe.
I was their alpha. I would always be their alpha.
“I feel you.”
I looked out over them, knowing each one could hear me through the bond that marked them as my pack.
“You’re scared. You should be.” I met a few sharp looks, causing me to smile.
“You’re angry. Good.” Glares turned to nods, pleased I heard them. Pleased I was listening.
“I will fix this.”
My hand rose when people started to speak. “I don’t know how, but I know I will. Only together will we keep what is ours. Agreed?”
The murmurs that had only sounded moments before became growls of assertion. I nodded in satisfaction. We weren’t settled in with each other yet, but we would be.
We would be.
Rowen stayed beside me until the crowd began to split—wolves heading back to their duties, others heading to train, some moving just so they didn’t stand still long enough to be afraid. Her fingers brushed mine before she stepped away, muttering something to Brand about reinforcing the lower trail.
I watched her walk away for a breath too long.
It wasn’t possessiveness. Not this time. It was the realization that the Council hadn’t just declared war on me—they’d declared war on her. On what she is. On what the Hollow made her. I didn’t even understand what that was yet, but that…that lit something hot under my ribs.
Diesel came and stood beside me, where she’d just stood. “You need to breathe.”
“I am breathing.”
“Uh-huh,” he said, eyeing me. “Want to try again? Because you’re about to shift, and you’re not as in control as you think you are.”
I rolled my shoulders. “I’m fine.”
He clucked his tongue. “Are you? You’re vibrating.”
I gritted my teeth and stalked toward the hall. “I’m fine.”
Killian and Brand followed like they already knew where this was headed. We made it ten steps before a young wolf—barely past his first shift—darted toward me.
“Alpha,” he panted, eyes wide, “what—what happens to us?” Behind him, two more hovered. Young. Scared. Trying to pretend they weren’t. Why were they not with their families?
I stopped walking.
Rowen was still within earshot. She paused at the edge of the trail, turned slightly, listening without looking like she was.
I crouched to look the boy in the eye. “What’s your name?”
“Fitz,” he whispered. Huge brown eyes stared up at me, but nervously flickered to Diesel every five seconds or so.
Fitz’s wolf brushed mine. Small and timid.
“Where are your families?” I asked them.
Killian stepped forward. “These pups are pack boys,” he told me softly. “Parents gone one way or the other,” he added with a meaningful look.
Right. Either they died on patrol or in battle, or they packed their shit and left.
“How many do we have in total?” I asked my betas, not the question I wanted to ask, which was why did I not know we had orphans in the pack? Or had I known and everything else had drowned it out?
“Five,” Brand answered. “These three, a little girl—she’s not shifted yet—and an older boy. He follows Axel around a lot.”
“Fitz?” I extended my hand, and after a long moment, he took it and gave a firm shake. “Boys?” They stepped forward. One was younger than the others, and I doubted he’d had his first shift.
“Billy,” the older of the two spoke. He didn’t offer his hand. “Lake’s dumb.”
“Mute,” Fitz snapped at his friend. “Lake’s mute.”
“Hi, Lake.” I watched him as he stepped closer to Fitz. “Can you hear me, little one?” He jumped as if startled. I smiled at him, and he chewed his fingers nervously. “Can you say something?”
His brow furrowed in confusion, and I thought he was going to run. Instead… “Alpha?” His whole face morphed into one of delight when he saw that I’d heard him. “I can speak?”
“You can speak,” I confirmed, pushing past the lump in my throat. “But only I can hear you.”
He nodded like he knew that and then looked up at me, shyly. Huge brown eyes full of innocence. “What do I sound like?”
My breath caught. Fuck. Holy Luna, I was going to bawl like a baby. "A little bit squeaky,” I teased him, and he grinned. “You’ll grow into it.” I held my hand out and he took it, and I pulled him a little bit closer.
I looked at the three of them. “What happens to you?” I asked them, and they all nodded. “The Council can say whatever they want on a piece of parchment,” I told them. “You’re part of my pack. Part of Blueridge Hollow. This land knows you. I know you. Nothing they say changes that.”
Billy’s throat bobbed. He looked at the two younger boys and back at me. “But…they said dissolved.”
I felt Killian’s attention sharpen behind me. Brand shifted closer.
“They want us scared,” I told them quietly. “That’s all they have right now—words and fear. Until you’re standing on the border, with their soldiers breathing down your neck, you belong exactly where you are.”
Billy exhaled shakily, nodded, and moved a little closer to Fitz. His friend didn’t notice, but I did, he was protective of them. He looked like he wanted to take Lake away from my side too. “Okay.” He licked his lips, looking at my betas. “You’ll give us enough warning to run, if we have to?”
Dear Goddess. Rowen brushed up against me through the bond—soft, warm, steady.
I straightened, picking Lake up in my arms. “If you have to run,” I told Billy and Fitz, settling Lake into my hold, “you run to me, or any of the betas. Yeah?”
“But…”
“There is no but,” Diesel told him. “If the alpha calls to you, you run to me, or him, or Killian here. Understand?”
“And me,” Brand murmured. His attention was on the bush.
“Ciara,” he called out, like he’d done this before.
A little blonde girl peeked out from behind a bush.
“Did I not tell you not to snoop?” Brand asked her gently, and she giggled.
He looked at me and Killian, who were staring at him. “She’s a snoop,” he muttered.
That wasn’t why we were staring, and he knew it.
“Are you seeing this?” Killian asked as we watched the young girl edge forward and then run the last few steps, throwing herself at Brand’s legs. He scooped her up and swung her onto his shoulders.
Brand met my gaze and shrugged. “What? You got one, I got this one.” He reached out and tugged the older boy, Billy, closer. “Come on, you lot, it’s time for food.”
Fitz looked between Ciara and Brand’s shoulders, and Lake in my arms, and rolled his eyes. “Attention seekers,” he muttered as he turned to walk behind Brand. Killian grabbed him and flung him onto his back, laughing at his giggles.
Diesel snorted. “Did they just get domesticated by strays?” he asked me.
I grinned at Lake. “Yes, we did,” I confirmed as I started to follow the others to the pack hall.
“Billy said you’re really scary,” Lake told me.
“Did he?” I felt Rowen watching, and I turned to look back at her. “Can you get him to tell my wife?”
Lake’s body shook with laughter. “I don’t think you’re scary either,” he told me smugly.
“Good.”
Rowen’s warm voice came through the mindlink. “You look like you’re ready to adopt him?”
Lake’s head was on my chest, eyes open, watching everything, perfectly at ease. “I think I might be.”
A surge of love came through the bond. “Every day you surprise me, mate. I like it.”
She walked away to check the trails, and I walked in silence while Lake chattered in my head, so excited to be heard and telling me everything he’d ever wanted to say. It was enough to almost, almost erase this morning’s message from the Council.
“Still with me?” Diesel asked me once we were in the pack hall, and the four young ones were at a table with Brand ensuring they were eating.
“Always,” I answered him, finding it hard to take my attention off the young ones. “What were we talking about?”
He gave me a flat stare. “Goddess, you’re going to be one of those dads…” He sighed, but I saw the playful smirk. “I was talking about the part where we pretend you didn’t almost pop like an overfilled balloon? Or the part where we start planning a counterstrike?”
“Ah,” I muttered. “Reality.”
He snorted. “Yeah, the reality of preparing to fight the Pack Council,” he said with a dry tone.
Inside, the hall was already buzzing with tension. Pack stood around the long table, waiting. Some argued quietly. Some paced. Some stared at the doorway, as if the moment I arrived would magically give them answers.
“You got them, Brand?”
“I got them,” he assured me, watching over them.
I ruffled Lake’s hair, telling him to stick close to Brand. I walked straight to the center of the pack hall. The room stilled. “I know you have questions,” I said. “But mine first—and maybe the only question that matters—who here knew the Pack Council would move this fast?”
Silence.
Then a voice from the back spoke up. “We knew they were angry. We didn’t know they’d…” They trailed off, unable to say dissolve.
Diesel stepped forward. “We didn’t know,” he confirmed. “But after the attacks this pack has endured recently, we should’ve expected it. Two packs unified under one alpha? They can’t stomach it.”
“And they don’t want anyone else thinking it’s possible,” Killian added. “They strike now before other alphas get ideas.”
Brand leaned his elbows on the table, looking just as stoic and fierce as always despite the blonde-haired child in his lap. “They’ll enforce the decree if they can. With force.”
Rowen slipped in then, taking her place beside me without a word. Calm. Collected. She pressed close against me, her words as sharp as her claws.
“They’ve been testing the borders,” she said loud enough to be heard. “Next, they’ll strike harder than they have. See if we stand down or call their bluff.”
“They won’t like our answer,” Diesel muttered, and a few wolves huffed their agreement.
My betas moved through those gathered, and I looked at Rowen. “You felt it?”
She nodded once. “I did. The land is angry.”
My jaw tightened. “Good.” So was I.
Killian circled back and cleared his throat. “We’re going to need more information. Fast. Before they decide to ride in here with a dozen alphas at their back.” There was a murmur of discontent through the room.
“They can’t get in with the alpha and me here,” Diesel reminded everyone. “Our Goddess is on our side in this, remember that. She created the seal.”
I saw the worry ease from many, and I hoped to Luna that he was right and we weren’t standing here like sitting ducks waiting to be wiped out.
Brand frowned. “I’d like to handle internal security?”
I nodded. “You and Killian,” I told them. I gave them a look that told them, right now, I trusted only my betas.
Diesel’s grin was lethal. “I’ll take Cody and sweep the territory? If there’s a spy left, they’ll give themselves away scrambling from the decree.”
Rowen exhaled slowly. “We can’t let panic spread. The young wolves…they’re frightened. They’re not the only ones.”
“Then we reassure them with certainty,” I said, my voice rising, not hiding my intent from my pack. “We stand. We prepare. And when the Pack Council tries to force this decree onto our soil, we show them what happens when they challenge the wrong pack.”
No one argued. Not even the older wolves.
Rowen reached for a chair but didn’t sit. Instead, she braced her hands on the back of it, expression hardening into something that made my wolf bare its teeth in approval. “Wolfe and I will attend the hearing,” she said. “Together. As one. And the pack needs to know that. Today.”
I nodded. “Diesel—start the sweep near the western ridge. Anyone with divided allegiance will show their hand now.” He nodded and left immediately.
“Killian,” I continued, “you’re with me.
We reinforce the border and go through who’s at Stonefang.
If we’re going to stand, then we all need to be ready. ”
Killian went to the kitchen counter and grabbed two bread rolls filled with meat, eating quickly.
Rowen didn’t move from her spot. Turning to me, she said quietly, “They’ll come for you first.”
“And they’ll fail.”
I reached for her hand, pulling her closer until her forehead rested against mine. The bond hummed between us—warm, fierce, alive. “You’re trembling,” I murmured. “Nervous?”
“I’m furious,” she corrected. “There’s a difference.”
I breathed her in. The Hollow whispered outside, wind threading through the trees like a warning. “They picked this fight,” I said. “We finish it.”
She lifted her head. “We will. I’ll go to the druid. I don’t know why I’m feeling the land like this now. I need to know what it means.”
I took her hand, and we walked out of the hall together. We stepped out into the light, into the wind coming down from the mountain ridge.
“I’m scared,” she admitted softly. “Angry but scared.”
“Don’t be,” I assured her, pulling her close. “We didn’t start this. They did when they spilled this pack’s blood on Blueridge Hollow. But hear me, mate. Blood is how it will end. For them.”