Chapter 34
Rowen
“I need you,” I told the Hollow. “Will you help me?”
The ground pulsed beneath me, energy flowing up my legs and settling into my bones.
If Wolfe and his betas left this clearing right now—if they caught even a whiff of Axel—there would be no stopping them. No reasoning. No talking. Just teeth, vengeance, and destruction.
I needed to act quickly. I turned my head to see the druid, and one glance told me they understood exactly what I was thinking. I hurried over to them. “We can’t let them go after him like this,” I said quietly.
Their voice was barely a whisper. “Then who stops them?”
I turned toward Thalia, still kneeling in the dirt beside Brand, to Adair who was standing with her hand on Diesel’s arm.
“We will,” I told them, stepping closer. Their head jerked toward me, gaze sharp as a blade. “You feel it, I know you do.” I took a shallow breath; my lungs still didn’t seem able to expand any further. “They won’t come back the same.”
The druid nodded slowly, their robe brushing the ground. “Then we ensure they do not go.”
I almost swayed with relief that they were going to help me. “How?”
The druid pulled a small vial from a pocket at their hip, the liquid inside thick and shimmering with a faint gold. I didn’t recognize it, but I trusted them.
“For all four of them?” I asked quietly, taking the vial from their hand.
The druid glanced across the clearing. “It would take out the entire pack.”
“Even Diesel?” I checked. “I need him and Wolfe out cold.”
The druid made a strangled noise. “The alpha will not be happy.”
“He’ll get over it,” I said. “I’d rather deal with Wolfe furious than Wolfe with blood on his hands he can never wash off.”
The druid surveyed the clearing, their eyes settling on Thalia and Adair. “Don’t do it alone. You have help should you need it.” Their eyes dropped to my stomach. “Remember what you carry, Rowen.”
I gave them a flat look. “As if I’m going to forget,” I told them with an exasperated sigh. “Tell me what to do.”
“Two drops only,” they cautioned.
I nodded. I caught Adair’s attention and motioned her over. “I need four water bottles, no questions.”
She gave me a curious glance but left my side to do as I asked.
A few minutes later, Adair returned with two cups of water, and another of the pack carried two more. Adair saw my expression and rolled her eyes.
“What?” she said with a low huff. “You think I don’t know when you’re plotting, Rowen?” she asked. “Whatever you’re planning, it’s better they fall here than out there, vulnerable.”
The druid’s lips twitched. “This is exactly why your father was always nervous when you two were scheming,” they murmured. “I’ll step away for this,” they said, looking at me. “Two drops each.”
“What’s the plan?” Adair asked quietly.
“I stop them from making a mistake.” I took the vial out of my pocket. “Shield,” I murmured, and the other pack member moved slightly. I looked at her in surprise. She was from Stonefang, and I wasn’t sure of her name.
“My alpha too,” she murmured. “Name’s Darla.”
“Hi.” I looked at the cups and the vial in my hand. “Um…”
“Quickly,” Darla urged. “They’re impatient when they get something in their head.”
“I like you already, Darla,” I said with a grin, carefully dropping two golden drops into the water.
“We’ll take them,” Adair told me. “Your husband knows you well.”
I agreed and walked over to where Wolfe was talking to Cody. They both looked ragged and wild, men breaking under the weight of losing a friend, a brother.
“We need to leave,” Wolfe said. “Now.”
“Hey.” I moved into his side, his arm wrapping around me automatically. “Wolfe—”
“You can’t say anything that will make me change my mind.”
I bit my tongue, holding his stare. “I don’t want you to act rashly,” I told him honestly.
Wolfe pressed his lips to my head. “I am completely clearheaded.”
Mm-hmm. You’re also delusional, I thought to myself.
“Of course.” I slipped my arms around him, hugging him tight. “I just worry.”
“I know.” His kiss was softer this time.
Adair approached with the cup of water. “Drink?” She smiled, her smile weary and shaky, completely believable.
“Thanks,” Wolfe said, taking it from her. “Rowen, here.”
Shit. I hadn’t thought this through. Of course Wolfe would offer it to me.
Adair swallowed, trying not to react.
“Thanks,” I had no choice but to take the cup. I raised it to my lips, wondering if my husband was distracted enough for me to fake it without him noticing it.
Behind us, I heard Diesel shout, “Wolfe! Wolfe, what the hell—”
Then a very distinct thud.
Then Killian’s furious, muffled, “Fuck—Wol—”
Another thud.
Wolfe spun, took it all in with once glance and knocked the cup from my hand. “Rowen?”
The druid appeared behind him, a cloth in hand, and clamped it over Wolfe’s mouth and nose. I leaped forward to help press my hand against theirs, both of us guiding Wolfe to the ground.
The druid’s calm voice was loud in the stunned silence. “Sleep well, mighty wolves.”
“Adair? Thalia?” I said gently. “Are you ready to run?”
Thalia looked up from where Cody lay on the ground, her teary eyes becoming clear. “I’m ready.”
“Druid?” I turned to them.
“We’ll move them. The Hollow will protect us.”
Adair, Thalia, and I all shifted simultaneously. My wolf burst forward, driven by fear and resolve and the fierce certainty that if we didn’t act immediately, I’d lose the man I loved to a darkness he couldn’t escape.
We ran from the Hollow, and I didn’t look back. We sprinted into the forest, three wolves on a desperate mission to prevent the ones we cared about from turning into monsters like the one they hunted. Save them from their own grief.
Just had to stop Axel long enough to condemn him properly.
I pushed harder, the Hollow clearing before me as if urging me on, and with every step, one truth drove through me—fierce and feral—if anyone was going to end Axel, it was going to be us.
The forest swallowed us whole.
Three wolves, running hard, our paws pounding the earth in a rhythm that matched the pounding of my pulse.
We ran for hours, following his trail, tracking him over the ridge.
The air reeked of fear, blood, and desperation—his desperation.
There was more than simple tracking at work here; even far outside the reach of the Hollow, I knew it was still helping us.
Axel was running, but he wasn’t running aimlessly. He was running like a man who had one last place he wanted to crawl to before he died.
He was running to Stonefang.
Coward.
I pushed faster. I had hunted with my pack before, without my alpha—a pack that knew how to communicate without words. Thalia brushed my side, pressing to the left.
I veered instantly, the forest narrowing into a steep, jagged descent. Whoever built these paths never considered pregnant wolves or battle-worn shifters, but adrenaline didn’t care.
The trail was fresh—broken branches, disturbed soil, the sour scent of sweat. He was nearby. Adair pushed ahead, her wolf smaller but quicker, weaving around boulders with reckless speed. I could sense her panic simmering beneath her determination.
I pushed forward to catch her, nipping at her side to get her to slow down.
Adair’s wolf snapped its jaws, but she slowed down. A branch cracked somewhere ahead, causing the three of us to slow. Three wolves crouched now, low and silent, as the forest held its breath along with us.
I shifted first, dropping behind a wide pine trunk. Thalia and Adair shifted beside me, panting slightly, eyes burning.
“There,” Adair whispered, pointing.
Axel’s wolf staggered into view. No longer the clean, controlled fighter he once was. Mud clung to his limbs. Blood—his, someone else’s, impossible to tell—matted his fur. He was panting heavily, leaning against a tree as if it were the only thing keeping him upright.
His wolf moved, flinching and snapping at his ribs, a whimper of agony echoed. He shifted to his human form.
His head lifted, and his eyes…his eyes still held that vicious cunning—the kind that had let him betray us all. Remembering how he looked standing before the Grumps, I felt bile rise in my throat.
Thalia’s breath shuddered. “He looks half-dead already.”
“That doesn’t mean we won’t finish the job,” Adair said quietly, her gaze burning with hatred.
“We’ll do this right,” I reminded her.
Axel suddenly lifted his head, nostrils flaring. He smelled us. “Step out,” he rasped. “I know you’re there.”
I met Thalia’s and Adair’s gazes. We nodded in unison. We stepped into the clearing. Axel blinked, confusion cutting through the stern set of his mouth. “Rowen?” he croaked.
“Yes,” I said coldly. “Surprised it’s not Wolfe?”
His gaze landed on Adair, and he laughed—a wet, broken sound. “Was hoping for him, actually. Would’ve been cleaner.”
Adair’s jaw locked. “You’re not getting a clean anything.”
His gaze flicked over us, trying to piece it together. “Where are they?”
“Not here,” I said simply.
His eyes widened. “You stopped them?”
“No,” I said. He didn’t need to know.
He snorted, leaning harder on the tree as his knees buckled. “They’re going to come anyway.”
“No,” I repeated, stepping forward. “Not until I say so.”
Thalia stepped beside me. “Why, Axel? Why betray us? Why Brand?”
His expression twisted—shame, bitterness, and terror all mixed together. “You wouldn’t understand,” he muttered.
“You’re right,” Adair said, voice tight with fury. “I don’t need to be told why; you already told me when you tortured me.”
I glanced at her, eyes wide. Maybe there was another wolf I should have left behind. I saw Thalia’s worried glance reflecting mine.