Chapter 17
Wolfe
We were halfway through a nasty thicket of trees and gnarly ground when Killian suddenly stopped dead.
One second, he was ahead of us, scanning the trail. The next, he froze—every muscle locked, nostrils flaring, eyes gone sharp with a fear I hadn’t seen in him since the rogues.
Rowen’s wolf stumbled into my back as I halted.
“What is it?” she asked me.
Killian turned, his wolf looking at mine. “Can you smell it?”
I inhaled. Wind. Pine. Stone. And underneath—smoke. Not from a campfire, nor a hearth fire.
Burning wood. Burning sap.
And under the smell of burning, death.
I broke into a run, leaving the others behind, Rowen’s voice whispering in my head.
“No, no, no.”
I knew she was behind me, and catching up fast. I couldn’t let her get in front of me.
“Killian, Diesel, guard her.”
I felt them moving to flank her, and I knew from Diesel’s low growl that she was trying to outrun them. I trusted them to catch her, and I ran at full speed to the Hollow.
The scent grew stronger—smoke, ash, fear. Something worse tinged the air: blood. Lots of it.
“Brand!”
Through the mindlink, I felt his relief that I was close, and I felt my own relief that he was unharmed.
“They came through the night,” he told me. “They’re bleeding, but we are too.”
“Who is they?”
I could feel the pack as I got closer, and I let them know I was coming as I raced ahead of the others. I felt it now, barbed and sharp like thorns digging into my spine. The land felt like it was screaming.
I burst into a clearing, paws skidding on torn earth. One of the younger shifters stumbled toward me, half-shifted, blood dripping down his side.
“Alpha—” he choked, falling to his knees. “They came—while you were gone—soldiers—marked with sigils—got past the lower ridge—set fire to the western line—”
“Shift”, I told him, watching him as he did, his wounds less. “Shift again.” He was back in his human form, the wounds closing. “Shift again.”
I turned, and Killian was coming around the corner. “One more shift for him.”
I was already running. A dark presence appeared at my side, Diesel. Fury and fire wrapped in midnight, the brace that had carried Omar was gone, and I knew from experience how quickly Diesel could remove the harness.
“They attacked when we weren’t here,” he growled. “Cowards.”
I didn’t say that’s why he should have been here, because we’d needed him at the Pack Council, and like me, even Diesel couldn’t be in two places at once.
I heard a cry and my instinct was to turn back to my mate, but a shifter I didn’t know leapt out at me, and I flung myself to meet it. Teeth and claws bit and dug. It was no match for my strength, and I tossed the dead body from me.
Diesel’s snarl was wild as he lunged at the next one, and soon, he, Killian, and I were tearing our way through the rear flank of our attackers.
“Tell Killian I need him on the southern ridge,” Brand told me. “Diesel on the eastern. I’m bleeding patrols, Alpha. I need the strongest.”
“Killian, go south, Diesel, east. Let’s finish this.”
I turned to check on Rowen and saw her mid-shift, just as she slammed into the ground. Her scream made me rush forward, already changing to my human form.
“Rowen, are you hurt?” I demanded, hands running over her skin.
Her body curled inward. “The pain,” she sobbed. “The Heartwood,” she gasped, clutching her ribs. “Wolfe—it’s hurting—”
I caught her to me, lifting her from the dirt. Her skin burned against my hands, like she too was on fire, pulsing with something savage and ancient.
Another of the shifters who had come with us had the young male who had healed in his arms. “Tell us what’s happening!”
“Gone,” the boy wheezed. “They came in the night, they said to…send a message. To show they could. They wanted you to know”—he coughed hard, spitting blood—“you can’t protect both lands.”
A cold, murderous calm slid through me. “One more shift,” I told him. “You three,” I indicated to the three nearest. “South, Killian will need help.” I looked at the other three. “To the east, where Diesel is.”
Rowen trembled against me, teeth clenched, nails digging into my arms. “They set it on fire,” she whispered. I lifted my head toward the burning scent rolling down the valley. “They burned my land.”
“And I’ll bring you their heads,” I vowed. “Can you stand?”
She stood slowly, jaw clenched so tight it shook. “Wolfe…”
“I know,” I said, standing close in case she needed me. “This was our mistake.”
The smoke thickened. The earth groaned under our feet. The mate bond burned hot enough to blister. Rowen pressed her forehead to my chest. “I need to get to the Heartwood.”
I didn’t hesitate; I shifted back to my wolf, and she did the same, staggering under the weight of the pain that slammed into her.
“We run, stay close to me.”
I ran away from the fighting to take my mate to the Heartwood to ease her pain. Every instinct in my body wanted to turn around and tear into the flesh of the ones who would attack my pack. But I could feel the need, the importance of getting Rowen to the heart of the Hollow.
I stopped twice to fight stragglers who were either running or hanging back to report the results.
They died quickly. Too quickly. My rage was not sated as they fell dead at my feet.
As I approached the Heartwood, I felt the Hollow’s pain.
It almost made me stumble. Rowen leaned into me, and with care, I guided her to the base of the tree.
A white wolf, with a streak of burnished yellow, leapt toward me from the side of the tree. I barely avoided the druid’s claws.
“It’s me!”
The wolf skidded to the side, shifted, and was pulling on their robes before Rowen looked up. She shifted and didn’t balk when a gray robe was flung her way.
“Where the fuck have you been?” the druid snarled. They grabbed Rowen’s arm, hissing at the heat. “You need to do this now.”
Had we not been in the middle of an attack, I’d have had something to say about the druid’s language. As it was, they waved me away. “Go. Kill them all, the Hollow wants their blood.”
“Rowen—"
“Is safe now. I’ve got this, Alpha.”
I almost lingered, but a pulse of fury from the ground surged up my hind legs.
I turned and ran back to the fight. I didn’t know where it was, so I followed the sounds of screaming.
It was loud all around me. Pack, trees, and land were crying out.
I saw Brand at the edge of the pack hall.
He was in his wolf form, head down, teeth bared, slowly backing up as four shifters circled him.
They thought they had him cornered.
Not today.
I sliced through the first one like a chainsaw through wood.
The second one’s throat was torn out before the first one hit the ground.
Brand launched himself at the third, and my claws raked down the side of the fourth.
When it was dead, I looked at my beta, who nodded his head once and turned and ran, leading me to the fight.
“You’re bleeding,” I told him.
“We’re all bleeding.”
“How did they get so close?”
He growled, and I knew he was pissed off I’d asked. “Patrols crossed, like they always do, through the night, but they knew our signals. Knew our routes, knew everything.”
The rogues. The rogue packs we’d been fighting for months. They were never rogues, I realized.
“They’re going to be dead soon.”
On that we agreed.
I recognized Cody’s wolf ahead. Killian had joined him along with a handful of others. Brand and I joined the fight, and it was over not long after. Cody’s head hung down once and then lifted.
“Good to see you. We need to go north.”
He was exhausted, they all were. “Stay here, help the wounded.”
“Killian!”
“North?”
We left the others behind. Brand needed more than a growl to stay with Cody, and Killian ran to meet Diesel.
It began to rain, and I looked up at the sky, which had been clear only moments before.
I didn’t want to know what the druid had done for this.
I could feel Rowen through the bond, still in pain but stronger.
Diesel was a wolf named Death. He was slaughtering anyone in his path, and from the howl that erupted from his throat when Killian and I joined him, he was enjoying it.
“We need one alive,” I reminded him.
“You better keep that one then,” he told me almost jovially. “Everyone else is dead.”
Goddess help me.
The last one fell. My teeth were around the throat of the last living one, which really pissed me off that Killian and Diesel got to clean up, while I had to babysit this one.
Stepping back, I shifted to my human form. Killian and Diesel did the same.
“Brand?”
“I think we’re clear,” he confirmed. “Patrols are checking in. I just need Axel.”
“Axel?” I called through the bond.
I heard the surprise as he answered. “Wolfe? You have Diesel?”
“You heard the wild howl and thought it a coincidence?” I joked. “Are you okay?”
“Tired, Alpha. Tell Brand my phone got smashed. My patrol only lost one.”
I relayed the message to Brand and then turned my attention back to the shifter on the ground. “Shift.”
Killian stepped back in confusion. “How…”
His uncle looked back up at us, spitting to the side. “Kill me now, I won’t give you a thing.”
“Jericho.” I didn’t take my eyes off him.
“How are you disguising your scent?” Diesel asked, crouching down and sniffing. “Can you smell it, Alpha?”
I inhaled deeply. I’d known this wolf for years, hunted with him. He was known to me. My pack. I sniffed again. “Cut him.”
Diesel sliced along his leg before Jericho even had a chance to jerk away. His blood spilled on the grass, and we all breathed in.
“What is that?” I asked Diesel. “It’s…peppery?”
Killian huffed in disgust. “It’s pepper root.” He shook his head and fixed his gaze on the tree line. The smoke was still churning, but the smell of fire was fading. “Grandmother used to tell me that it set the blood on fire for those who wanted to be the best hunters. But it burned.”
“Burned your blood,” Diesel said, looking down at the traitor in front of us. “Burned your blood, burned your eyes and burned the goodness out.”
“You’ve been taking it for a long time,” I realized. “It’s been years since I went on the hunt with you.”
“You betrayed them again,” Killian said quietly. He looked over at me, his eyes hard. “Kill him, Alpha. He won’t tell you anything.”
“I’ll use my Will.” I kept eye contact with Jericho and saw his satisfied smirk.
“You’re not my alpha. I don’t bend to your Will.”
I looked at my two betas. “Go,” I told them. “Tell the others to start counting the dead. Any survivors of theirs, I want them separated and ready for questioning.”
“Alpha—”
“Killian.” My voice was soft. “Go. I got this. He’s a traitor, but he’s still blood. Go be where I need you. I don’t need you here.”
He hesitated, just for a moment, and then he spat on the ground to the left of his uncle. “Make it hurt, Alpha.”
Diesel raised an eyebrow. “You can fuck off if you think I’m leaving.”
I almost argued. Instead, I pointed behind me. “Just go over there.”
“Anything you say, Alpha.”
I didn’t snap ”Really?” at him, but Luna knows I wanted to…
I turned back to Jericho. “I am not your alpha,” I agreed with his earlier statement. “I am an alpha, though,” I said with a slight smile that held no warmth. “And you have no idea how much power I hold right now.”
I let my Will free, and Jericho’s scream echoed through the trees so that even our ancestors would hear it.
“Now talk.”
I was not proud of the pain that he suffered. I did not relish his screams. I did not delight in the cracks of his bones. In fact, all of it saddened me. But I was not a weak alpha. It’s why Stonefang and the Hollow accepted me.
It’s why I was the alpha I was.
“Not pretty,” Diesel said from behind me when I was done.
“No, it was not.” I wiped my hands on some moss.
“You get everything you needed?” he asked conversationally as if I hadn’t just tortured another shifter.
“I did.” I turned from the body. “For someone who had nothing to say, he was quite eager to share.”
Diesel didn’t smile; his look was one of understanding. “I’m sorry you had to do it,” he said simply.
I nodded. “Yeah, me too.” I searched the horizon. “How many are burning their insides, so desperate to betray us?”
Diesel sighed. “While you were busy, I thought about it. He wasn’t here when you tested the pack.
I figured he’d gone back to Stonefang, always was one for slipping away unnoticed.
Was he there when you went?” I shook my head in response, and Diesel tapped his top teeth.
“I think he already defected.” He turned to look at the ridge.
“It’s likely that everyone here is true, as are the ones you tested back home. This one simply slipped past us.”
“We let him in,” I mused.
“For me.”
We both turned, and I felt guilty as I looked upon Killian.
“I told you to go clean up.”
“I did.” He pointed at his jeans. “See, I have clothes.”
“Why come back here?” Diesel asked him gruffly.
“I don’t want him burned here,” he said, his eyes on the broken body on the ground. “I don’t want him spoiling this land any more than he has. I wish there were a river we could just drop him in.”
Diesel looked at me speculatively. “There’s a big drop off the side of the ridge. Who’s carrying him up?”
They decided they both would. I hesitated. I felt I should go with them, but there was a thrumming in my chest, and I knew I needed to check on my mate.
“Don’t spoil this for me,” Killian said under his breath. “Go find Rowen. D and I can do this.”
“Spoil it?” I asked him curiously.
“Yeah.” He looked up at me and grinned. “Before I kick his sorry carcass over the side, I’m going to piss on his dead body.”
Diesel laughed, and I let out a grunt of surprised laughter. “No, you won’t,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. “You’re better than that.” I walked away, shaking my head in amusement.
“I’m really not,” I heard him whisper to Diesel.
“I know,” the deviant whispered back.
Dear Luna…
I almost went back and stopped them both, but in the end, I left them to it. The truth was, Killian’s piss was too good for his uncle, but I wasn’t the kind of alpha who didn’t let his pack heal the way they needed to.
I headed towards my mate.