Chapter 35
Wolfe
Consciousness slammed back into me like a fist.
Not a gentle awakening.
Not a sluggish drift.
A violent, jarring snap.
My wolf had roared inside my skull, furious and confused, and it took me a full second to realize I was flat on my back in the dirt with Killian sprawled beside me and Diesel face-down as if a tree had fallen on him.
“What—”
Killian shot upright, eyes wide and murderous. “Rowen,” he hissed.
My head throbbed, and my limbs felt heavy—too heavy, as if something had pressed me into the ground and kept me there. Not something.
Someone.
“The druid,” Diesel snarled, pushing himself upright like a man resurrected and already ready to kill again. “They dosed us. I felt it hit right before I—” His eyes snapped to mine. Realization hit him like lightning. “Oh hell no,” Diesel growled. “They didn’t.”
But they had.
Rowen’s scent was fresh. Her trail was recent and led away from us. My pulse raced. I sprang to my feet so quickly the world blurred. “Where are they?”
Cody skidded down the slope toward us, breathless. “Gone. All three. Rowen. Thalia. Adair. They shifted and left fast.”
A sound tore from my throat—not a roar, not a howl—something low, deadly, and barely human. “They hunted him,” I said.
Killian nodded grimly. “Axel.”
Of course it was Axel. Rowen knew what we would’ve done. She knew exactly how far we were willing to go, and she stopped us in the only way she could.
“Druid.” Diesel spat on the ground. “I’m going to skin that robe-wearing menace alive.”
“After,” I growled. “After we get to Rowen and the others.”
I shifted mid-stride, and my wolf hit the forest floor running, rage blazing through me in a straight, deadly line.
Rowen’s scent cut through the trees—sharp, determined, furious.
The other two trailed beside her. They hadn’t tried to hide it; they’d been so focused on tracking him that they left themselves exposed.
What if he’d circled them, come up behind them unawares? I ran faster.
We ran for hours, their scents like neon arrows guiding us. I didn’t really pay attention to where we were, just that we were closing in on them. Then I heard the snarls and sounds of a fight in the distance. Beneath that, I caught a scent I knew too well—blood.
I pushed even harder. Branches cracked beneath my paws. My breath burst out of me. The forest blurred past in streaks of shadow and moonlight.
We slowed as we approached.
“On my command,” I told them softly.
They were in a small pocket of woodland and stone. Thalia and Adair were shifting back and forth, healing.
I shifted without thinking, landing in human form as I watched them. And behind them—Axel.
Dead.
His body was torn open in a dozen places, blood soaking the earth, throat ripped clean out. A kill done fast, efficiently, by wolves who didn’t hesitate.
I heard them debating what to do with his body, my wife, the voice of reason. I almost snorted out loud. Then I heard Thalia make a joke. A fucking joke. I felt the males around me, sensed their emotions—relieved but furious, just like I was.
But my attention remained on Rowen, her hand rubbing her thigh, unaware that she was still bleeding, probably.
I stepped out and confronted them. “And what’s your excuse, princess?”
Rowen turned, eyes wide, standing there naked and unapologetic, blood on her body, breath sharp, eyes blazing. Thalia and Adair flanked her, chests heaving as if they hadn’t fully processed what they’d done.
Diesel and Killian walked out from behind me, both still in wolf form, stopping on either side of me.
I took a long hard look at the scene—the corpse, the blood, and the three she-wolves standing like a wall between me and revenge—and I let out a low murderous breath.
“Alright then,” I said, voice rough. “Someone want to explain why I woke up after being drugged unconscious?”
Rowen lifted her chin, defiant even streaked in Axel’s blood.
Thalia muttered, “We…handled it.”
Adair nodded. “Handled it very well, actually.”
I stared at the three of them. Too furious to speak. Rowen stared right back.
My jaw flexed. “Rowen?”
Her eyes didn’t waver. Not for a breath.
Not for a heartbeat. She walked toward me, slow and deliberate, the moon catching the blood on her skin.
“My excuse,” she said quietly, “is that you’d have broken something good inside you to get to him.
” She stopped in front of me. Close. Solid.
Unafraid. “And I wasn’t losing you,” she finished. “Not for him.”
Cody had circled the area and walked up behind his wife; she didn’t even realize he was there. He tapped her on the shoulder, and Thalia spun around with a cry, then stepped back when she saw how furious he was.
“Cody…”
“You drugged me?” he said, stepping closer.
He delivered a vicious kick to Axel’s body as he passed.
“You ran for miles, you haven’t eaten, you haven’t drunk anything, you’re pregnant with our child, and then you take on him—not even at full strength?
” Thalia moved to protest, but he spoke over her.
“You are not at full strength, you are weak from hunger, lack of food and sleeplessness, and all you have to say to me is ‘Cody.’ Cody? Like I’m the one who’s made a mistake here? Are you fucking serious, Thalia?”
Rowen glanced at me, worry in her eyes.
My hard stare made her eyes widen even more. “What he said.”
“We did stop,” Adair said. Four wolves stared at her, and she wisely shut up.
“You’re bleeding,” I told Rowen, my voice cold. “All of you are, shift and heal.” I turned away, but her hand caught my arm, trying to pull me around; I didn’t budge.
“Wolfe—”
“I said, shift and heal.” I didn’t look at any of them. “It’s a long run back to the Hollow. There is still an enemy out there, or have you forgotten that too?”
Silence was my answer.
“Have you seen him?” Diesel asked.
I had. “And they said we would lose ourselves.”
“I’m not carrying him,” Killian told me. “I don’t want to touch him.”
“I’ll do it.” I didn’t wait for a response. I grabbed Axel’s hind leg—what was left of it—and started dragging.
His body scraped over roots and rock, leaving a ragged smear behind us. Branches tore at what little flesh he still had.
Which pleased me. He didn’t deserve a body left to mourn.
The three women shifted back and followed behind me silently.
Diesel stalked at my side, a dark shadow with his ears flattened—equal parts furious and impressed.
Cody, similar, on my left, and Killian trailed last, eyes cold and watchful, making damn sure nothing tried to take Axel’s corpse from me before we were ready to show it.
No one spoke.
Every step back toward Blueridge Hollow hammered the truth deeper into my bones. They had done what I wouldn’t have done. They had done what I should have done. Rowen had stopped me from becoming the kind of alpha you don’t come back from.
By the time we reached the Hollow, he was barely a shape. Barely a wolf. Barely anything at all.
The Hollow wolves stepped back as they saw me dragging him. Some flinched, others nodded, and a few bared their teeth in quiet, vicious satisfaction.
Not a single one looked away.
I dropped Axel’s ruined corpse at the druid’s feet. “Prepare him,” I said, voice flat and cold. “His bones will be scattered on Stonefang.”
The druid bowed once, expression unreadable.
I didn’t move.
Not until they lifted their head again.
“You ever drug me again,” I said softly, dangerously, “and we’ll have a problem. Understood?”
The druid blanched, inclining their head. “Alpha.”
I turned away, jaw clenched, pulse still spiking with leftover rage and fear.
Behind me, I sensed Rowen approaching—calm, steady, unafraid.
I didn’t look at her. Not yet. I wasn’t ready.
The fear that something had happened to her—to any of them—still rode my shoulders like a weight I hadn’t put down.
I needed a breath. I needed a moment. I needed to believe she and our child were truly safe before I could even look her in the eye.
I didn’t get five steps into the house before she spoke. “Wolfe.”
Just my name. Simple but with the power to drag my attention whether I wanted to give it or not. I stopped but didn’t turn. I waited for the front door to close. My hands curled into fists at my sides. “You disobeyed me.”
Her footsteps approached—slow, deliberate—until her scent wrapped around me. Vanilla. Orchid. Blood that wasn’t hers. “I saved you,” she said.
I spun so fast she barely had time to react. “You drugged me,” I snapped.
Rowen’s chin lifted. “Yes.”
“You risked yourself,” I growled.
“Yes.”
“You killed Axel without backup.”
“Not true, I had Thalia and Adair.”
My teeth clenched so hard I thought my jaw might break. She stood there—calm, composed, blood still on her skin—looking at me with those steady eyes that refused to leave mine. She didn’t back down. Didn’t apologize. Didn’t even blink.
My wolf snarled in my chest.
I moved in close, invading her space, rage still blazing enough to consume. “I could have lost you.”
Her voice softened—but not weakly, dangerously. “You could have lost yourself.” I froze, but she kept going. “You were about to cross a line you wouldn’t come back from,” she said. “I wasn’t letting Axel be the thing that ruined you.”
Rage and relief collided in my chest, violent and disorienting. “You think I needed protecting?” I demanded.
Rowen took one single step closer. Our bodies almost touched. “I think you’re not the only one allowed to do the protecting around here.”
My breath hitched. Just once. Enough that she noticed. She reached up, fingers grazing my jaw—and I grabbed her wrist, gripping it hard enough she sucked in a sharp breath.
“You think I’m angry because you fought?” I ground out.
She met my stare, a flicker of confusion in her eyes. “Aren’t you?”