Chapter 24
Wolfe
The Pack Council had moved since I was last there.
It was no surprise—their whole governance model was based on the idea that they moved with the land, just as we did. No territory was truly theirs, because all territories were. That’s how they liked to say it, anyway. Poetic. Unanchored. Above it all.
Or something equally wordy and loftier sounding.
It had taken me two days to get here. I’d headed straight north, cutting through human towns, weaving around cities. The three-day summons felt more like a calculated slap once I realized how far they were from the Hollow. Like they wanted to see if I’d obey. If I’d dance for them.
But I’d made it. There were fewer tents pitched this time, and the large sprawling marquee somehow managed to look both intimidating and inviting as I approached.
The terrain had changed the deeper I went—greener, thicker, quieter. This part of the national forest was dense with age and shadow. Ancient trees tangled together overhead, light filtering down like smoke through stained glass.
They’d chosen a spot that was deep in a national forest, a wide stretch of green, knotted with paths, and in the middle—tucked beneath old trees that had grown there naturally—stood the marquee.
Canvas stretched tight over wood, weatherproofed, anchored with purpose. No banners. No guards. No scent of dominance in the air.
It looked like it was supposed to. Temporary.
But nothing about the Pack Council ever really moved. They just made you feel like you could be replaced.
I stepped through the grass, boots nearly silent, my pack over my shoulder. I didn’t need to brace myself or prepare myself for this encounter; I was ready. My heart was steady and my eyes were clear.
The few shifters I passed…stepped aside. They didn’t speak, they just watched. Some were alphas of other territories, some I knew, some I’d met long ago when Lars had been more mobile.
I passed a few other wolves—some alphas, a few betas, all of them watching. A couple I recognized. I gave them a nod, nothing more. I wasn’t here for small talk.
The air shifted as I stepped into the marquee—thicker somehow. The faint scent of sage and smoke clung to the entrance, a half-assed attempt at cleansing. I knew just by that that the eccentric shaman I had met previously wasn’t here.
I wasn’t sure that was a good thing.
Through the flaps that led to the chamber, I saw them sitting. Chairs in a half-circle. Half-empty, like the last time I’d been here. One look and I knew I was right; the shaman wasn’t here.
A few I knew by name. Two I knew by reputation. They all looked at me as I walked into the chamber.
“Pack Council is adjourned for today,” the one in the center said. “Everyone out. Alpha Wolfe, you stay.”
I wasn’t surprised. I walked forward as everyone else left. The shifter in the center watched me, dark eyes that were unreadable, as I approached.
“I am Alpha Deryn.” He looked me over like the druid had the crow the other day, as if he was wondering how to dissect me.
He was a pale man with a face lined with age, but eyes as sharp and clear as glass.
“Alpha Wolfe,” he said, voice smooth but shallow.
“You’ve been summoned in accordance with Council Law. Do you acknowledge this call?”
I didn’t sit. Didn’t lower my gaze. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
“Will you submit to inquiry?”
“You wouldn’t have summoned me if you thought I’d say no.”
That earned a flicker of something behind Deryn’s eyes. Not amusement. Approval, maybe. “Let the record show the alpha of Blueridge Hollow and Stonefang territories presents himself freely,” Deryn said.
“For now,” I muttered.
He heard it. So did the others. I saw the twitch in his mouth, the way his fingers tapped once against the table.
I stood before them as they began. Soft questions, at first.
“Were the rites met?” Deryn asked me.
“They were.”
“And you found your true mate?”
I looked back at him, unflinching. “I did.”
One of the others sniffed the air. “Your bond is not yet complete.”
I was so glad Rowen wasn’t here. “My mate has not had her heat yet.” A lie. A small one, but a lie nonetheless.
“The daughter of the Hollow was here before,” another of them spoke. “She was looking for a husband.”
I held my hands out in front of me. “She found one.”
“She was looking for someone to…manipulate,” they added slyly.
“She was looking for stability for her pack,” I corrected them. “With her father dying, she was convinced, by your Council, may I add, that the best thing for her would be to find a husband as pack leader.”
“You are no pack leader,” Deryn said as he took a sip of whatever was in his mug.
“No. Indeed, I am not.” I bared my teeth in a smile that held no friendship, wishing I could bare my fangs instead.
“Since you have become alpha of the Hollow, you have neglected Stonefang.”
My gaze shifted from Deryn to the alpha who spoke; he might have been even older than Deryn.
“Neglected?” I shook my head. “Stonefang is well, and most of my pack is with me in Blueridge Hollow.” I looked at them all.
“As you know.” I held each stare as they looked back at me.
“Packs are often left alone. How do your own packs fare while you sit here? Do you feel that they are neglected?”
Silence met my question.
“Is this why you summoned me?” I asked blandly. “Or is it because Blueridge Hollow has endured a few attacks that killed pack members from rogues? Attacks I warned you about when I was here last.”
“And what have you done about these alleged…attacks?” another asked, and I bit my lip to stop from shouting.
As I ran through my actions, I saw the way their eyes narrowed. Saw a lip twitch in reaction to my mention of targeted attacks. Saw a frown on a brow when I told them that I had used my Will on all of my pack to discover treachery. Heard a throat clear when I let them know I had prisoners.
“Why have you not brought them here?” Deryn asked. “You say you hold them for the Pack Council to judge. Where are they?”
Goddess, this was a frustrating waste of my time.
“Because you gave me three days to answer your summons, and in case I didn’t already stress it loud enough, my pack is under attack!”
“How do we know you aren’t lying?”
The question came from behind me, and I turned to see another of the Pack Council sitting behind me. He hadn’t been there when I entered.
“Who are you?”
“Who I am isn’t important. Who are you, Wolfe?” The way they said my name gave me pause.
I looked between them and the males in front of me. “Why am I here?” I asked them. “Really? Why bring me here? What is it that you want?”
“Alpha Wolfe,” Deryn said, not even hiding the condescension, “some in this chamber have raised concerns that your…forceful methods reflect a dangerous precedent. That your merging of packs across territories, your reliance on raw power, even your choice of mate—all of it—strays dangerously close to personal ambition, not pack stability.”
“Some?” I asked. “You mean you.” Murmurs answered me. “And I did not choose my mate; Luna did.” My eyes swept the chamber. “As every one of you knows, the true mate of an alpha is the Goddess’s Will, not mine.”
“You mistake us,” the oldest member who had spoken to me before said, and he sounded tired. So very tired. “Our concern is not a personal slight on you, boy, it’s procedural.”
Alpha Deryn shifted the line of inquiry, and I felt the trap snap into place. “This…Corrin and Galvin,” he said, tapping his fingers against the desk. “Former elders. Advisors to your predecessor. You claim they’re complicit in organizing rogue movements?”
“No,” I said coolly, my temper climbing. “I’ve proven it. He fed information to someone outside of Blueridge Hollow. Our border patrols were compromised. Shifters died.”
“And yet you’ve kept them alive,” another one said—one of the quieter Council members until now. His voice was polished, almost bored. “Why?”
“Because I want answers. Don’t you?” I bit back my sigh. “And I know he didn’t do it alone.”
“Your predecessor,” another began carefully, “ran Blueridge Hollow with the support of pack elders. With stability. Since you became alpha, there has been…unrest. Might we suggest that the instability stems not from this Galvin’s or Corrin’s so-called betrayal, but from your…
disbanding of Blueridge Hollow’s traditional power structures? ”
I would have laughed, but they were serious.
“You think the problem is that I upset the system?” I took a slow step forward. “There is something broken, but it is not me, and it is not my pack.”
“Which pack?”
I turned back to the one who sat behind me.
“Which pack do you mean…Stonefang or Blueridge Hollow?” they asked me.
“Is that what this is?” I asked slowly. “That I hold two territories?”
“Should your question not be, should I be allowed to?” Deryn asked me, his eyes watchful as he looked at me.
“Who told you my pack was being attacked?” I asked instead. “How did you know?” I waited for an answer, and when one wasn’t forthcoming, I nodded slowly. “You’re watching. Am I right?”
“That is not what we asked you,” Deryn reminded me.
“No, it isn’t,” I conceded. “But it’s what I am asking you. You know of the attacks, the deaths, all of it. Either one of my pack told you or you’re watching and your spies told you.”
“You sound delusional,” the one behind me muttered.
I turned to them. “Do I? Or do I sound like an alpha?” I leaned forward and sniffed. “Which you are not. Are you?”
Deryn called my attention back to him. “Wolfe…”
“Send your spies into Blueridge Hollow, have them and a group of my pack take Corrin, Galvin, and the others to you, and interview them. Hear the truth you won’t hear from me.”
Silence. Not one of them agreed, and I knew in that moment that they wouldn’t. Because someone up here was already protecting them.
Covering for them.
“You didn’t summon me to investigate unrest. You summoned me because of the size of my pack.”
“We summoned you,” Deryn said carefully, “to ensure that both packs remain intact.”
“No,” I said. “You summoned me to see if you could pin blood on my hands and call the rest a coincidence.”
One of them shifted in their seat, and another dropped their gaze when I caught their eye. Guilty. Or worse—complicit.
I looked at all of them now, faces impassive, carefully hiding their agenda.
“You can call it a hearing,” I said, “but this was never about the attacks, it was about me.”
Deryn didn’t deny it.
“I am no threat to you or any other pack,” I stated as calmly as I could. “But my pack is being attacked, there are shifters dying, there is a conspiracy in Blueridge Hollow I need help with…” I held Deryn’s stare. “Will you help me?”
He didn’t answer, none of them did. I fought the urge to rail against their impassivity. “Then I guess we’re done here.”
I walked out of the marquee before they could say another word.
I was halfway along the walk back to the woods that led here when I felt someone approach. Turning, I saw an older alpha who had sat on the chair behind the semi-circle table, one who had barely spoken.
“What do you want?” I demanded.
“Your anger burns so bright,” they murmured as they approached. “It is blinding.”
“Alphas who waste my time piss me off,” I growled.
They looked pleased at my anger. “There is a way to save both territories,” they told me. “Without further bloodshed.”
I wasn’t aware I was in danger of losing any of my territories. I didn’t say that. Instead, I waited, and when they didn’t speak, I fought the urge to snap their neck. “What is it?”
“If you go on like this, you will lose the Hollow.”
My wolf snarled beneath my skin. Was that a threat? “What?”
“War will come for you,” they said. “Give Blueridge Hollow up, return to Stonefang, and you will keep your mate.”
Keep my mate? What did that mean?
“You’re threatening Rowen?” I took a step towards them, my wolf ready to rip out their throat.
“Not me, young one. But two territories? Unchallenged? You are a dangerous alpha, Wolfe. The Pack Council does not take kindly to a power play so bold. Lose her, you lose the Hollow anyway. Stonefang will welcome you back.”
I leaned over them, fighting the urge to give in to my violence, and they looked up at me, unafraid. “You tell them, they come for her, they all die.”
I turned and shifted before I went back into that marquee and killed them all anyway. Bringing me here? This had been nothing but a ploy. They wanted me away from my pack.
Why?
I knew it in my gut that it was because, with me gone, my pack was unprotected.
My mate was unprotected.
I ran and prayed to the Goddess that I made it in time.
The forest swallowed me whole—trees blurring past in streaks of shadow and light, earth kicking up beneath my paws, the taste of iron in the back of my throat. The wind roared against my ears, carrying no scent of blood, not yet—but the silence beneath it was worse. Still. Anticipating.
Clouds thickened above the canopy, casting everything in a greenish-gray pallor, like the world was holding its breath. Moss clung to the rocks, damp underfoot, and branches clawed at my fur as I vaulted over fallen logs and tangled roots, heedless of the scrapes, the sting.
The pull in my chest—the thread of the bond—stretched thinner with every mile, and I swore I felt it tremble.
Hold on, I begged silently. Just hold on, Rowen.
Cities I had navigated on the way here passed me in a blur as I ran. Not taking the time to shift and blend like I should.
The further south I ran, the trees began to change as I neared Blueridge Hollow territory—older, gnarled, familiar. My breath was ragged, but I didn’t stop.
Because something was wrong, and the earth itself seemed to know it.
Birdsong had gone silent. The wind stilled. Not peace.
Omen.
The Hollow was close, and I was almost too late.