Chapter 9
Wolfe
If I were one for superstition, I’d say the dark clouds hanging over the Hollow were a bad omen.
However, I knew better.
Kind of.
I felt Diesel’s presence as soon as he crossed into Hollow territory.
If Killian was my shield, then Diesel was the hammer.
Killian was my right-hand man, Diesel was the left.
The one you sent to clean house when you didn’t really care if there were survivors.
He was quiet, lethal, and the scalpel I had no problem wielding.
Alpha, I heard his low rumble through the mindlink and grinned. It was amazing that as soon as I accepted that I was really their alpha, the mindlink felt as if it had never not been there.
Good to have you here, I told him honestly, just before his massive form stepped through the bushes. His wolf was possibly bigger than mine, but his was just more intimidating to look at, which pissed me off, but he was on my side, thank Luna, so it was a thing my wolf’s pride could live with.
Diesel dropped the pack from his mouth, shifted, and was soon pulling black jeans on and a T-shirt.
He shook his hair and then grinned at me.
“The power of those boundary spells is lacking some punch,” he told me, stepping forward and clasping my forearm in greeting.
“Good to see you, Alpha. Met the missus.” He gave me a knowing look. “She’s not a fan.”
What did you do? I groaned.
Stopped her shift. Might have had her off the ground when I did it. Feisty though. Good luck with that.
“You had her in a chokehold?” I asked him in surprise. “You couldn’t have met her for more than an hour!”
Diesel shrugged and took a pack of cigarettes from his pack. “She makes an impression.” Not a good one, he added with a speculative look.
“Thank Luna you’re separated,” I muttered. “Come on, the pack’s this way. And I’d better let you insult the druid and get it over with.”
It didn’t help that he laughed at my moment of forecasting trouble.
Too many of the pack stopped to stare at him, and he didn’t look back at any of them. He just walked through the trails, taking stock of everything and giving off his “don’t fuck with me” vibes.
“You could try to blend,” I muttered after a moment.
“Why?” He finished his cigarette, snubbed it out on the back of his hand, and pocketed the stub. “Won’t be here long enough.”
We arrived at the druid’s tent, and I contemplated chickening out. The choice was taken from me when the druid came out of their tent and pulled up short to see me and my beta staring at him.
“Alpha,” the druid greeted me, their eyes on Diesel. “Another ally?”
“This is my beta, Diesel,” I introduced. “He’s just arrived from Stonefang.”
The druid took Diesel in with one glance and then looked at me. “You’ve been keeping secrets, Alpha.” They stepped back to their tent. “We should discuss inside.”
Diesel grunted. “Not walking into that,” he said. “Wolfe and I both go in there, and it’ll collapse. Where’s your shelter?” he asked me.
“Druid, will you walk with us?” I asked.
“I’ll meet you there.” They ducked back into their tent, and I shared a look with Diesel.
Well, that was fun, Diesel said with a snort.
Try not to piss them off, I grumbled. You get to leave; they’re my druid now.
They’ve got a stick up their butt about me being here.
Because they think you’re a magic user. I looked at my beta. I’m still not convinced you aren’t.
Diesel grunted but said nothing as we started to walk away. “They’re in their deerskin right now, making every potion of warding they know.”
Yeah, well, we expected that.
“D!” We both turned to see Axel approach us with a huge smile. “Good to see you. When did you get here?”
“Five minutes, already making friends.” Diesel slapped Axel’s shoulder.
“And he’s already pissed off Rowen,” I added dryly.
“Yeah, she punched me,” Diesel told Axel with a gleam in his eye.
Axel laughed, and Diesel huffed in amusement. I felt my eyes widen at the fact that Rowen had been brought to violence so quickly, but I said nothing. There was little I could do about that now, but I made a mental note to ask Killian what the hell happened in such a short period of time.
“We’re heading to the house. The druid is joining us,” I told Axel, and it was my turn to laugh as he made his excuses and vanished up a path.
Diesel is here, I sent to Brand and felt his acknowledgment through the bond. He wouldn’t rush to meet him. They’d been packmates for a long time and were used to each other’s ways.
Where Brand was a beta to Lars, Diesel was just…Diesel. When I picked my betas, Brand wasn’t happy that I chose someone as wild and volatile as Diesel; he preferred shifters who were more stoic and steady. Diesel was neither.
Which was exactly why I asked him. Killian was solid and dependable and my last line of defense for my pack. Brand was clever and quick. He knew how pack politics worked, and his advice was well thought out in advance. Diesel was precise, not loud, not flashy; he just was.
Axel and Cody were the yin to each other’s yang.
Two sides of the same coin, and it was one of the reasons I had separated them.
Cody and Killian would prepare the pack at Stonefang to be ready to go the moment I needed them.
Axel and Brand would teach the shifters here and train them as much as they could in a short time.
And Diesel…Diesel was going hunting for traitors.
I led him into the house and told him to take a seat. He sniffed the air and raised an eyebrow.
“No mated shifters in here,” he said, dropping onto the couch, and I heard it creak in protest.
“We are mates, we just both need time to come to terms with the realization.”
“Bullshit.” He pulled out another cigarette, and I leaned over and removed it from his hand.
“Not in the house.”
He snatched it back off me and put it back in the pack and then looked around. “It’s small. I thought there were rooms and more…”
“That was the pack hall. Too close to the pack if you know what I mean.”
Diesel grinned. “Not want to hear their princess getting railed by her mate?”
I heaved a sigh. “And other reasons, Diesel.”
“I’ll ward it when your druid has been and left again.” He folded his legs in front of him and got comfy. “It could be a while before they get here.” He saw my look and studied me. “You letting that shit fly?”
“It’s complicated.”
Diesel grunted. “Only if you allow it.”
Diesel wasn’t wrong about the length of time it took the druid to arrive, and my patience was wearing very thin when they finally swept through the door like they owned my house.
“You make me wait this long again, Druid, and it won’t be Diesel you need to ward yourself against.” I didn’t break their stare until they dropped their head in a small nod.
“You show your alpha respect,” Diesel growled as he unfolded from the seat. “Sage, ash, iron, and”—he sniffed once—“blood of a foal? Really?” He shook his head in disgust. “Parlor trick crap. It won’t ward you against me.”
“You can detect the spell?” the druid asked, moving forward, their eyes alight with curiosity. “What are you?”
Diesel gave them a flat look and then pointedly ignored them.
Luna, grant me patience, I asked as I positioned myself between them. “Shall we start?” When neither said anything, I decided that was good enough for me. “Diesel is my enforcer,” I told the druid easily, ignoring their assessing look as I continued. “He’s here for one reason only—”
“To hunt,” the druid said, shifting their gaze to my beta. “You’re a tracker?”
Diesel snorted. “All shifters are trackers,” he said with a rumble. “Your wards are lacking any potency,” he continued. “Barely felt a twinge as I stepped into the renowned Hollow.” His lip curled up in a sneer. “Your Heartwood lacks attention.”
The druid’s eyes blazed with fury. “You dared enter the sacred grove uninvited?” they seethed.
“Who’s it sacred to? You?” Diesel looked at them with insolence. “I thought it was for the packs of the Hollow?”
“You do not belong to a pack of the Hollow.”
Diesel leaned forward, his eyes alight with glee. “I am my alpha’s beta. If this is his pack, then this is my pack.”
The druid was as enraged as he was fascinated with him, and I could see the wheels in their head spinning. Calculating. I stepped in before this got out of hand.
“Can you two come back to this later?” I asked, my voice as dry as possible, bringing both of their attention to me. “While I might enjoy you two duking it out, I have two packs to look after.”
Diesel shrugged, sitting back down. “I need to go into the house of the female who left. I need to know her patterns within the pack, and I need access to the four other shifters on patrol that night.”
I nodded. “I’ve done it all, but you have my permission to ask whatever you need. I’ll let the pack know…” I hesitated. “You could take Cale with you.”
Diesel watched me, and I knew he was fighting his smirk. Pissing you off?
He hangs around Rowen a lot, I admitted. And I just don’t like him, I confessed grumpily.
“Why not allow one of the Blueridge Hollow to accompany him?” the druid asked casually as they took the empty chair and sat down slowly. “Show the pack, packs, that we are as one. Isn’t that what you keep telling them?”
“I don’t trust anyone in the Blueridge Hollow pack right now,” I told the druid bluntly. “I have my reservations about Stonefang too. No one is beyond my suspicion.” I glanced at Diesel. “I trust Diesel, and only Diesel, to get this done.”
It still feels strange to hear you say that to others, Diesel rumbled in my head.
Every word is true, I reminded him. I felt the swell of love and loyalty come through the bond, and it filled me with a peace I hadn’t felt for a few days.
“Why are you telling me your plans if you don’t trust anyone?” the druid asked calmly.
“Because you are my druid, the druid of the packs and the druid of the Hollow. And…it’s possible that you’ve sensed something, even without knowing it. Diesel would like to ask you a few questions.”
The atmosphere in the house got tenser as the druid regarded me with their mismatched gaze, the amber eye almost golden, as the pale iris of the other shone. “You want him to question me?”
“Relax,” Diesel said as he stood. “It’ll only hurt if you want it to.”
Not helping, I scolded him through the bond.
“Wolfe, I would like to talk to you alone.” The druid looked ready to remove my head from my shoulders, and I gave a slight nod to Diesel, who snorted as he walked out the door, closing it softly behind him.
“You are walking on dangerous ground here, Alpha,” the druid warned. I watched them bring out a pouch, and within a few moments, I felt the sense of magic in the air.
“A privacy spell?”
They ignored my question as they resumed talking. “He is more than a shifter,” the druid said. “You are bringing in an outsider—”
“He’s not an outsider to me.”
“He is an outsider to this pack,” the druid corrected sharply. “They are already frightened and uneasy—”
“Then they should welcome the fact that they have someone here who wants to protect them.” I looked towards our bedroom door.
It hadn’t been easy sleeping the last few nights without her.
“I will not lose one more of my pack to an ambush or from cowardly fuckers who hide and can’t come and face me or challenge me outright. ”
The druid blew out a breath. “He is not the right way to do it.”
“He is the only way to do it right now.” I pushed my hair back.
“Druid, you have been a part of this Hollow for I don’t know how many years, and you will continue to be part of the Hollow, I suspect, long after I am gone, but…
” I met their gaze. “It is not my intention to keep you out of things going forward. I know you have this pack’s best interests at heart, but right now, I need to rely on the ones who I know would give their life for me, not just their loyalty.
Diesel, Killian, Brand—they’re who I need. They’re who I trust.”
“Why don’t you use your Will and find your traitor?”
I shook my head. “No. I will not use my Will on my pack. An alpha’s Will should not be misused nor used as a weapon against their own.”
“What are you afraid of?” the druid asked softly. “You are not a tyrant, Wolfe. Your heart is good.” They cast an ugly look towards the door. “Unlike others in your company.”
“Diesel’s heart is as pure as they come, Druid,” I said softly. “You insult your own intelligence with such petty remarks.”
The druid almost looked chastised. “What do you want of me, Alpha?”
“I want your support.” I sat down slowly. “I want your active support. The warding spells on the boundary are not as strong as they could be.” I raised my hand to stop them. “I didn’t need Diesel to tell me that; I felt nothing the day that I returned to the Hollow.”
“Why would you?” the druid countered. “You are of the Hollow.”
“Am I?” I asked them, and saw the answer when they wouldn’t meet my eye. “I was pack once, but I left, and this land did not hold sorrow to see me go.”
“Because it knew you would return,” the druid told me calmly. “The Hollow knows their own.”
I nodded because their own logic had made them face what I already knew. “You see it now?” I asked, my voice low but sure. “The Hollow recognizes their own, so tell me, Druid…who the fuck is rising against me?”
They sat back, not at all surprised when the door opened and Diesel stepped back into the house.
“We good?” my beta asked with a glance at the druid.
“We have an understanding,” I conceded.
The druid stood. “My wards are strong,” he told Diesel firmly.
“Which means you are either a druid, a shaman, or something much older, which I do not know.” They squinted.
“But you are none of those things,” they said.
“Just a beta with a little bit of knowledge and an impressive talent to wield it so well. You will come with me, and we will walk the wards.” They moved towards the door.
“And we will kneel at the Heartwood and pay tribute to the Goddess for your insolence at attending it alone.”
Diesel sniffed. “And then you will give me the list of the ones I need, and I’ll be on my way.”
The two of them watched each other, the uneasy truce so fragile beside them that I dared not breathe in case the reminder that I was in the room broke it.
“Done.” The druid looked at me. “And when you find our traitors, our alpha will take their heads.”
“And leave us their hearts,” Diesel added, and the two of them looked at each other, and I swear it was with approval.
I felt a trickle of sorrow for the ones who fought me. Only a trickle though, because I would be taking their heads.