Chapter 7
Rowen
I hadn’t beaten Killian.
It really pissed me off. I was fast, but he cheated. I knew he had, I just didn’t know how. But I would find out.
Stonefang Pack was closer than I remembered, but then they were a pack that liked to move around a lot. Their territory was vast, a lot of it uninhabitable even for shifters.
Homes were sturdy timber structures, which Killian told me they had dotted over their territory in small clusters. They were one-or two-room shelters, with stone hearths and elevated sleeping platforms. The pack moved often between sites, and the homes were easily dismantled if needed.
The pack was as close to the boundary with the Hollow as they could get. There were two territories between us, but they had actually found the narrowest point.
Killian and I had shifted just on the border of their territory. I was in my combat pants, boots, and a T-shirt. Killian had turned away when I shifted, and I knew he was being respectful of his alpha, but I wanted to remind him it wasn’t necessary. Nudity was not a big deal, but I bit my tongue.
He’d described the packlands and their homes on our approach, but I’d stopped listening when a door swung open and out stepped a giant of a man.
The man, who made Killian look as young and inexperienced as Henry, walked toward us. I heard Killian scoff as I stepped back, while the man, seemingly wrapped in stone and shadow, approached.
He was huge. Muscular and inked—tribal tattoos snaking down his arms like war marks from another life.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine the pain he must have endured getting that work done.
Shifters rarely had tattoo marks; the shift erased the ink humans used, so ours was laced with ash and magic.
This man was either a lunatic or had a very high pain threshold.
His eyes met mine, and I decided it was both.
His hair was loose, long, and wet-looking even though I could see it was dry, and I knew it wasn’t greasy.
It fell around his face like a curtain of menace.
His piercing blue eyes were unreadable in the way a predator’s are—calculating, silent, patient.
A cigarette hung between his lips as he stopped an arm’s length away from me, and I didn’t know where to look first. The tight black jeans and the black tank top stretched over vast muscles, the cold stare, or the tattoos.
He was dangerous, from the way he moved, the way he looked, and the way he watched me, and all I could think was how the hell is this guy a beta?
If rage, regret, and raw magnetism had a lovechild raised on vengeance and bourbon, it would be this male in front of me.
“Who’s this?” His voice was the sound of gravel falling down the side of the mountain.
“Rowen,” Killian said simply. He stepped forward and they clasped forearms. Killian looked at me as he stepped back. “Rowen, this is Diesel. Wolfe’s beta.”
Diesel? Like the fuel? It made sense. He definitely looked like he needed to come with a warning.
Diesel’s gaze traveled over me slowly, not in a sexual way. I was pretty sure he’d weighed and measured me in one long glance. I was also sure he’d calculated how many parts he could chop me into to feed him and his family over the winter.
“Hi.” I wasn’t sure what else to say.
He didn’t speak. He might have dipped his chin, but his attention was already back on Killian. He took a pull of his cigarette, and then he snubbed it, blew on the head, and tucked it into his back pocket.
There were many females in my pack who would line up to get their hearts broken by Diesel, I was sure of it.
“It’s time?” Diesel asked.
“He says it is.” I saw Killian roll his eyes like he disagreed.
Diesel was looking at me. I had the urge to step closer to Killian.
“His cabin’s empty. Put her there.” He turned and walked away, and I knew I was gaping after him.
“Come on,” Killian murmured. “Wolfe’s is this way.”
I saw one or two of the pack who had come to the Hollow weeks ago, but I knew I had never seen Diesel.
“Um…” I looked over my shoulder. “Where was he when everyone came to Blueridge Hollow?”
Killian glanced at me. “Who? Diesel?” I nodded and he shrugged. “Here?”
“You don’t sound sure,” I said as I followed him into one of the structures.
“He would have been here or in one of the other shelters. Diesel likes to keep moving.”
“He seems…” Well, I couldn’t lie and say friendly.
Killian opened the fridge and peered inside. “You need stocked. I’ll send someone with food.” He straightened. “You don’t need to worry about Diesel; he’s loyal to Wolfe.” Killian headed to the door and hesitated. “Just…don’t piss him off, okay?”
“Why?”
Killian looked out the door and then back at me. “Only Wolfe can calm him down if he loses it, so…don’t be you. Don’t push him, don’t test him. Because I’m not Wolfe, and if D wipes you out, or the territory out, then don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
“Wh-what?”
“I’ll send someone over to you in a bit.” He walked out.
Why the heck was I here? I looked around the cabin, which was smaller than my rooms back at the pack hall.
The kitchen and living space were one room.
There was a door at the back corner, and when I opened it, it revealed a simple shower stall, a washbasin, and a toilet.
A ladder between the bathroom door and the kitchen led up to a hole in the mezzanine floor, where the bed and a trunk were kept.
I could smell the faint scent of Wolfe here: oakmoss, leather, and him.
Gingerly, I climbed the ladder and poked my head into the “bedroom.” The bed was wider than I thought.
There was little room for anything other than the two pieces of furniture.
There was no whimsical decoration, not even on the exposed beams, which were crying out for some fairy lights.
I descended the ladder and then remembered that Killian had my change of clothes. He’d said to wait here. Well…I was the alpha’s mate, and this was technically my pack, too, now.
Maybe not technically. Maybe just my pack too.
I opened the door and wandered outside. There were no obvious signs that said Store, Pack Hall, or School. Blueridge Hollow had a large pack hall, where schooling, meals, and pack events were held.
I knew some packs had stores, more than just food stores. I’d visited a pack once, high in the Canadian mountains, that had an actual school, but their pack had been huge.
This pack wasn’t huge.
I walked up the path, shelters straddling each side, and I counted ten. Where was everyone?
“You lost?”
I turned and met Diesel’s cold stare. “Um…no.” I shoved my hands in my pockets to stop myself from twisting them nervously. “Where is everyone?”
“Training.”
Right. I rocked back on my heels. “Killian has my clothes.” Diesel looked me over, his eyebrow raised. Dear Luna, protect me.
“I don’t think you’re his size.”
“Huh?” I pushed my hair back as I tried to understand what he meant. “Oh…” I tried to laugh, but I sounded like a squeaking mouse. “Um, I mean—”
“I know what you mean.” He walked past me. “You coming?”
Was it rude to say no? I hurried after him. His boots made no noise as he walked, and I was fascinated that a man like him could be so light on his feet.
There was a hidden dip in the hill, and as we reached the crest—something I hadn’t realized I was climbing because it was so shallow—I saw more of the timber shelters in the dip. There was a large square field where the pack was gathered, and I saw they were in fighting stances.
“What are they training for?” I asked Diesel.
His look was inscrutable. “Monday.”
Monday? Once again, I was rushing after Wolfe’s beta, who wasn’t making any allowances for the fact that I was his alpha’s mate.
A shifter I recognized peeled himself away from the training and looked at me curiously as he walked over. “Rowen?”
“Hi, Cody.”
“Is Wolfe here?” He looked confused.
“I came with Killian.”
Cody blinked in surprise. “Why?”
What a fabulous question. It was one I was waiting for the answer to myself, because it was quite clear I wasn’t here to “meet the pack,” and if it was why I was here, this pack had no interest in meeting me. Not one of them had looked my way.
Diesel lit his half-smoked cigarette. “It’s time.”
Cody looked at me, his eyes widening. “Ohhh.”
“Time for what?” I asked them both. I’d been polite, but this was annoying me now. “At the Hollow, Wolfe told Killian to tell Diesel it’s time. Here, Killian tells Diesel it’s time. Now Diesel is telling Cody. When does anyone tell me what it is time for?”
Diesel blew smoke out in a circle. “Fuck me, I hope you fuck better than you look.”
“Excuse me?”
“You look prim and proper. For Wolfe’s sake, I hope you’re an animal between the sheets, because unless your pussy is as close to heaven as possible, listening to your whining voice isn’t worth a shit lay.”
I punched him.
I didn’t hold back, I put my whole weight behind it, and he didn’t so much as twitch. He didn’t even lose hold of the cigarette.
No. He grinned, and I had a sudden urge to run.
I felt a presence behind me, and Killian walked around me, shaking his head.
“Why can’t you just do as you’re told?” he asked with exasperation. “I said, don’t piss him off, so what do you do? You punch him.”
Diesel grinned wider. “You told her not to piss me off?”
“Trust me, she has a knack for it,” Killian muttered.
“Why the fuck am I here?” I snapped, looking at all three of them and the pack that had now decided to take an interest.
“There’s a traitor in your pack,” Diesel said simply. “It’s time to flush them out.”
I suspected a traitor too, but why wouldn’t Wolfe tell me that, unless… I stopped breathing. Me? Wolfe thought it was me? “He thinks it’s me?” I asked. My head turned to look at Killian. “You think it’s me?”
Killian sucked his teeth but said nothing.