Chapter 4
Wolfe
The three of us stared at the wall for a moment longer before I heard Rowen’s voice.
“Wolfe? Tell me what’s going on?” she asked, her hand stroking down my arm, and I had almost forgotten she was standing beside me.
“Something’s wrong,” Diesel growled, his voice low. “They wouldn’t call if they didn’t need us.”
Killian was already at the door. “We need to send someone, now.”
“Wait!” We all turned to Rowen, as she stood in the center of our living room, her hands wringing in despair. “If you go,” she said to me, her eyes flicking between Diesel and me, “the seal on the Hollow goes.”
Diesel inhaled sharply, his hand running through his hair in frustration. “Shit.”
I felt the tug in my abdomen again, and my head automatically snapped to the door. “Rowen…”
“I don’t understand,” she whispered. “I thought no one could enter Stonefang when you and Diesel were not there.”
She was right, the seal on Stonefang was the opposite of Blueridge Hollow. Here, we kept everyone out when we were on the land; at Stonefang, we kept everyone out when we weren’t.
“You should have let me go up the mountain,” Diesel muttered, watching Killian’s hand on the door handle. “We need to go.”
“Rowen’s right,” Killian said, turning from the door and almost blocking it from me or Diesel.
“Someone record that, I won’t say it again.
” The small joke did exactly as he intended, helping both Diesel and me relax, and I felt some of the tension leave me.
“You and Diesel cannot go,” Killian said gravely.
“And I won’t get in without you.” He took a deep breath.
“So, instead of a knee-jerk reaction, let’s think this through. ”
“No one could have gotten in while we’ve been gone,” Diesel reasoned, pacing my living room, which for him meant two strides. He was making me dizzy. “I went there with the vulnerable from here,” he said, looking at me. “They’ve been sealed in since.”
“So there’s no harm to come to them?” Rowen asked softly, and I heard the hope in her voice that meant we weren’t planning on leaving.
I blew out a breath. “Unless we locked the threat in with them.” Diesel and Killian had already reached that conclusion; it was for Rowen’s benefit that I was saying it. The door burst open, and Brand stopped short at seeing us all gathered. “We know, we felt it too,” I told him.
He frowned. “Felt what?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “The boy is missing.”
I checked the mindlink for Lake. He was there, on the edge of his awareness. He felt sleepy. “What boy?”
“Fitz.” Brand looked at all of us. “What have you felt?”
“The Grumps,” Killian growled. “What do you mean by missing?”
“I mean, he’s gone. His friends were found at the back of the pack hall, half-drugged, we think. The boy, Fitz, is gone.” He looked at me. “How did they get in?”
“You’re assuming someone took him?” Rowen asked. “He could have wandered off. Fitz likes to wander.”
“He could have wandered right out of the Hollow,” Killian said sharply. “The barrier here keeps those out we don’t trust; it doesn’t keep us in.”
“Should have gone up the mountain.”
I turned to Diesel, temper giving way. “Well, you didn’t, and our Goddess isn’t about taking small boys or messing with the ancients just to piss you off.” I felt the tug one more time. “For fuck’s sake, we need to send someone to Stonefang. Killian, Brand, how ready is this pack to defend itself?”
Brand hesitated. Killian did not. “Not yet.”
Rowen opened her mouth to speak, but I held up a hand, cutting her off. “I cannot leave this land undefended.” I shared a look with my betas. “I can’t leave them unprotected.”
“I could go.”
We all turned to look at Rowen. “Our mate bond? Would it allow me to pass into Stonefang?”
“You don’t like the Grumps,” Killian said in surprise before I could answer. “You called them creepy.”
“They are creepy,” Rowen said, not even caring that Brand and Diesel looked offended.
“But they mean a lot to you”—her gaze flicked to mine—“all of you. If they are calling for you, and someone needs to tell me how that’s possible, then I will go.
I’m being selfish,” she added in a rush.
“I want to help, but I also want my pack’s best defenders here if the fight comes before we expect it. ”
Diesel was looking at my wife, his eyes narrowed. “Creepy?” He sniffed. “Says the woman who has no issue with the mismatched-eyed platinum blond fucking ancient who even now sits in their tent, sipping tea.” He looked at me, eyebrow raised. “You want ancient, ask them how fucking young they are.”
“Not the time,” I murmured. “You can’t go,” I told her instead.
“I don’t know if the bond will allow you to pass, and if it does, if it recognizes my bond with you, then it may unseal the territory, and if they’re waiting to attack…
” I drew a deep breath. “If they’re waiting, we expose the ones who are there to danger, and most of my fighters are here. ”
“Oh.”
“Thank you, though,” Brand said cordially. “I’ll go,” he told me. “Once I find the boy.”
“I’ll find the boy,” Killian corrected. “D, you go with Brand. The point we came back from Stonefang, it’s the narrowest point of land between our packlands, so if you run—”
“I can unseal and reseal in minutes,” he nodded thoughtfully.
“We’ll need patrols along the border to ensure there is no breach.
” He dug into his back pocket and pulled out a phone.
“Why didn’t we call someone sooner?” he asked ruefully as he hit dial.
He waited and then grinned when they answered. “Cale, what the fuck’s going on?”
I tried not to bare my teeth. But Brand nudged me, and I knew I’d been caught.
“Who’s looking for Fitz if you’re here?” I asked him quietly.
“Cody and Thalia.” He leaned closer when Diesel shot him a look for being too loud.
“Thalia found Ciara up a tree.” He shuddered.
“She hasn’t even shifted, and she’s up a tree.
She was half-asleep, disoriented. Thalia knew something was wrong.
She asked her where her friends are. Thalia found them in a heap at the back of the pack hall. ”
“Drugged?” Rowen asked, concern setting a deep line between her brows.
“We think so.” Brand looked at Diesel, who had moved into the kitchen. “When we find out what this is, I came to ask if you would search for them, Alpha.”
“I already tried.” I pushed my hands through my hair. “Lake connected with me; the others were too young or not as willing to accept me yet. The mindlink won’t work for them.”
“They’re barely past their first shift,” Rowen said softly. She’d moved closer to me.
“Diesel?” Killian asked, seeing the other beta put his phone back in his pocket. “What is it?”
Diesel looked ready to blow, and I moved myself between him and my wife. Not that he would hurt her, not intentionally. “Diesel. Talk to me.” I kept my voice calm, my tone soothing. Wildness flashed in my friend’s eyes. “Everyone out,” I told them quietly. “Now.”
“Wolfe—”
“Now, Rowen.”
I wasn’t sure if it was Brand or Killian who made her leave; my eyes were on the male in front of me. “Diesel.”
His eyes changed color. It was rare for anyone not an alpha to be able to change their eye color when still in human form, but Diesel’s shifted to black. Pure black. The first time I saw it, I’d almost shit myself. He looked possessed.
“Diesel.” My Will was heavy in my tone. “Tell me. Now.”
Diesel’s head rolled from side to side on his shoulders, his body twitching, almost as if he were fighting the shift, and I really hoped he was, because I’d come to like our new home and didn’t want his wolf destroying it.
“Speak.” My Will forced his head down, but he was watching me with those black eyes, through the curtain of his black hair. His top lip curled upward in a snarl, and he looked ready to pounce. “Speak. Now.”
“They were in the pack,” he answered, his voice guttural. Low. “I took them into the pack from this pack of weaklings.” He took a step forward, his claws coming out of skin, elongating to talons. He slashed a hand through the air, and my couch got ripped open.
Fuck this.
“Stand down,” I ordered, my eyes shining silver, my Will focused on the male in front of me. “Who attacked them? Who is hurt?”
“The woman. Solana.”
No. The female we removed from the pack after we learned her husband was abusing her? I didn’t hide my shock fast enough. Diesel saw it, and the snarl turned into a smile. A smile so sinister that I knew I was going to have to fight him.
“This pack isn’t worth saving.” He straightened, shedding my Will with the shake of his shoulders. “I will kill them all.”
He lunged.
His wolf tried to barrel past me, and I threw myself at it, my arms wrapping around the torso like a defensive end taking down the quarterback.
Diesel’s wolf was massive; my arms barely reached as I grappled with him.
Teeth sharp as razors snapped at me, and I winced as I felt the graze on my shoulder.
“You’re going to pay for that,” I grumbled. “Submit.”
My Will felt heavy as it wrapped around him. His jaws snapped again, his wolf unleashing an inhuman surge of strength as it flipped us both onto our backs. Its hind legs tore down my left leg. I bit back a cry of pain; when he calmed, he was going to regret this.
“For fuck’s sake, D. Submit.”
I wrestled with him on the ground, me in my human form, him in his wolf.
I’d learned not to shift to my wolf form when Diesel lost his sense of humanity; it only made his wolf fight harder and dirtier.
I punched his wolf in the ribs, heard the crack, got a swipe of his left claw across my chest, and felt the blood flow freely.
Rowen was going to lose her shit when she came back in. So much for saving the house.
His wolf bit into my shoulder again, tossed me back and forth like a rag doll, and then flung me toward the kitchen. I landed against the wall with a thud.
Enough was enough.