Chapter 22 #2
He wasn’t unconscious. He was just empty. His Will had drained him dry. Around us, the Hollow began to stir. Quiet murmurs beyond us. A quick glance showed me we were still alone.
Killian moved fast, crouching beside us, his face pale. “You brought him back.”
“No,” I said, brushing Wolfe’s sweat-damp hair back from his face, pressing a kiss to his temple. “He brought himself back. I only reminded him who he is.”
Right now, he was mine. I felt the Hollow exhale around us, and the druid walked out of the trees.
“If you can help me move him,” they murmured. “Let’s not have too many see this.”
Killian and Diesel moved as one, and Wolfe was taken from me. Then, they walked with him, and had I not just seen him fall, I would have said there was nothing wrong with him.
Killian saw my confusion and gave me a guilty grin. “Been drunk one too many times. We have a system.”
The druid tutted their disapproval, but I merely picked up my dad’s papers and followed them as they walked my alpha home.
The druid kept pace beside me, their eyes watchful, their lips silent. In the house, Brand was waiting, pacing back and forth, and between the three of them, they had Wolfe in our bed, boots off, and out cold.
When they came out of the room, it was I who was pacing, as the druid sat quietly in an armchair.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded of no one and all of them.
“His Will,” Diesel grunted as he took a seat and blew out a breath.
“I have never seen that,” I said to him, my hands on my hips. “That is not Will, what was it?”
“The beta is correct,” the druid said solemnly. “Wolfe is alpha to two packs, two packs who have not yet knit—”
“I swear to Luna, you blame this on my mate bond, and I will throw you out of this house,” I snarled.
The druid tilted their head slightly. “Interesting, you have joined but have not yet completed…”
“Druid!”
They weren’t bothered by my anger. “I was going to say that when an alpha opens themselves to their Will, they find from an early time in their alpha power how to work with it.” They cast a hand in the direction of the bedroom door.
“But for a reason I don’t yet know, Wolfe does not embrace his Will. ”
“You don’t know because it isn’t your business,” Brand growled.
The druid pulled a face as if he expected such an answer. “Power builds. Untapped power builds very high. Over a long period of time, it builds much like pressure inside a volcano.”
“He erupted?” I asked stupidly.
The druid nodded. “Basically. He shies away from his power, and then when he used a great amount of it, he dipped into the well and drank deep.”
“Is he a well or a volcano?” Diesel asked dryly. “Too many metaphors.” He took a drink from a bottle of whisky that I didn’t know we had. He passed it to Killian, who almost downed half the bottle.
“Are you okay?” I asked Killian. “Do you need to shift?”
He waved away my concern. “Barely felt it,” he said, offering me the bottle, but when I shook my head, he passed it to Brand.
I turned back to the druid. “So Wolfe’s alpha power was…pent up?” I guessed, ignoring Diesel’s snort, as the druid nodded. “And then when he used it, on the pack, shouldn’t that have, I dunno, depleted it?”
The druid smiled. “No. Because as Wolfe and his man here told us, the Goddess blessed them.” They steepled their fingers in front of them as they thought about it.
“Between a territory boundary spell, a Goddess’s gift, and his own untapped potential…
” They shot a look toward the bedroom door, and I exchanged a look with Killian because that look looked a lot like hunger.
Hunger for power. “I’m impressed he held onto it as he did. ”
“He was overloaded,” Diesel said roughly, his attention also on the druid. “Which is why I asked you if he slept,” he said, looking over at me.
“He did,” I confirmed. “Not long, a few hours, but he did.”
“Well, he needs a shitload more,” Diesel grunted, finishing the bottle. “You got more?”
I looked at him in exasperation. “I didn’t even know we had that,” I scolded him. “I’m going to check on him.”
I left them talking quietly, speculating how Wolfe would feel when he woke up.
I opened the bedroom door, and then with no hesitation, I kicked off my boots, took off my jacket, and climbed into bed beside him, curling up onto my side, my head on his chest, listening to the steady beat of his heart. I closed my eyes and let the morning’s events spin around my head.
Galvin. Traitors within the pack. Wolfe practically imploding under the weight of his own power.
Where did I even begin to fix it? I lay there as I struggled with everything, taking silent comfort in the fact that he was beside me.
Wolfe hadn’t moved in nearly an hour.
He lay stretched out on the bed, chest rising and falling slowly, eyes closed but not quite asleep. The lines around his mouth were softer now, but the tightness in his jaw remained. Whatever battle he’d fought inside himself, he hadn’t won it yet.
I’d moved off the bed when the druid had opened the door and frowned at me lying next to him.
I got up when they closed the door, and had moved to a chair and sat beside him, legs curled beneath me, a folded blanket draped over his hips.
Not because he needed the warmth—but because I needed to do something.
Something gentle.
Something that didn’t involve war or betrayal or bleeding out on the dirt.
His hand lay open between us. Palm up. Almost like he was waiting. I hadn’t taken it yet. Not because I didn’t want to. Because I wasn’t sure what it meant now.
When I’d reached through the bond back there, I hadn’t done it with hesitation. I hadn’t flinched. I’d claimed him. Staked everything I had on my ability to reach him through the chaos.
It worked.
But I could still feel the aftershocks—his guilt, his shame, the weight of every secret he hadn’t seen coming. The wolves he’d trusted. The ones he hadn’t.
And maybe…me. The thought scraped at my ribs.
“You’re still thinking too loud.” The voice was rough. Dry. But familiar.
I looked down. Wolfe’s eyes were open now—just barely. Silver mostly gone. Blue again, but one hell of a storm was coming by the looks of the dark shadows in his eyes. He looked exhausted but present.
I managed a small smile. “You’re still breathing. I call that a win.”
His brow twitched. “Well, that was fucked up.”
“Are you okay?”
“I didn’t know they were inside the Hollow,” he rasped. “I missed it.”
“You didn’t miss it,” I said quietly. “You put your faith in a pack that swore themselves to you.”
Silence.
“Then that was my first mistake,” he said, his voice tight with anger.
“No,” I said, firm now. “The mistake was thinking you had to do all of this alone.”
His throat worked around something unsaid. I reached over and slid my hand into his, lacing our fingers together.
“We didn’t know how deep it ran, but we do now.”
His fingers closed around mine—not weak, firm and sure. “I felt you,” he whispered. “Through the bond.” His eyes held mine. “I heard you.”
I swallowed, but I didn’t shy away from it. “I meant every word.”
A long pause, then he gave me a soft smile. “I know.”