Chapter 24 - Hunter
The two days that pass after the storm are surprisingly normal.
Even in its absence, the territory smells of wet earth and pine, and some downed branches are being actively cleaned up. The older buildings need proper assessments, and some trails need to be maintained again, but for the most part, Pine Ridge is otherwise still standing.
The morning after the storm, Brooke and the kids eventually made their way home after having breakfast with Dominic and us. They seemed even more receptive to Tessa, and wouldn’t even start eating until she sat with them.
Dominic left not long after them to do a better sweep of the island, likely doubling back to where he last saw the Wraith Peak wolves.
He said a brief goodbye to Tessa first, then gave me a knowing look over her shoulder that seemed to say You’re welcome, and you owe me.
Then he was gone, leaving just the two of us.
With the immediate threat of the storm gone, the thing in my chest that had been changing shape for days finally settled into something I could face without fearing what it might mean for me.
The ground between Tessa and me is different now. It isn’t fully resolved, given how there’s too much history for one conversation to fix it all. Still, it’s steadier, like a misalignment that had been ignored for far too long has finally been corrected.
Tessa knows the extent of what I felt from the bond all those years ago, and she knows why I did what I did instead of dealing with it. She’s still understandably annoyed with me for being avoidant, but now, she isn’t running from that information.
Instead, she’s still here with me in the house, willingly spending the night with me and not pretending that the other night didn’t happen.
Even if I had claimed her fully at the cabin during our retreat, I only deepened it during the storm. Ever since, the beast in me has been sated enough for me to keep my head on straight, even if I still want her every minute of every day.
“Heading out?” I ask her while I’m busy cleaning up the kitchen, catching as Tessa enters the room with a light jacket on.
She nods, looking far more relaxed than she has in a while. “I’m going for a walk before I get started on some work.”
Putting the dishtowel aside, I hum and approach her, letting my eyes sweep over her briefly. Silently appreciating how her leggings cling to her thighs, I reach for her waist and pull her closer.
“You don’t have to work anymore, you know. I can take care of things,” I tell her, leaning in close to keep the space between us as minimal as possible. The end of my nose brushes against her cheek before I press a small kiss to her jaw.
I catch the subtle lift of her pulse and the way Tessa’s breath hitches before she relaxes into it. “I know, but it keeps me busy.”
Understanding that, I move my lips along her neck, moving down while I pull in the intoxicating scent of her. My palm flattens against her lower back while I taste her skin. “I could always keep you busy… and I could keep you here, all to myself. You’d forget about everything else.”
A soft, breathless sound escapes her when my teeth lightly graze her skin, then Tessa huffs with quiet amusement. “Don’t tell me you’re getting possessive now.”
She earns herself a low chuckle from me, and I press another kiss to the faint mark still on her neck. The sight alone stirs more need in me, but I keep it down for now.
“I’ve always been possessive. I’m even more so now,” I tell her, kissing back up her neck slowly and feeling how her body responds so honestly to my attention. My opposite hand moves along her waist, and I give her a gentle squeeze while hovering my lips above hers.
Tessa’s eyes glimmer back at me as a small, good-natured smile settles on her face. “That sounds insufferable.”
“It is,” I agree with a grin of my own before I kiss her slowly and deeply.
She goes more pliant in my arms, returning the gesture. She eventually breaks it just when things start heating up more, and she looks up at me through her lashes. “Doesn’t Cole want to see you?”
I sigh at the reminder, stifling an annoyed groan. “Yes, he does… but he can wait.”
At that, Tessa laughs lightly, but puts distance between us even if she doesn’t truly want to. “You’d better go see him before I start getting blamed.”
I scoff, but my lips pull anyway. “He can try. But fine, I’ll do it if my mate tells me to.”
More interest flickers in her eyes at that, but she schools her expression before it gets out of hand. “Your mate is telling you to.”
With another chuckle, I cut the space long enough to plant another drawn-out kiss against her mouth before finally letting her go.
Tessa walks out on somewhat wobbly legs, cheeks blooming with a light blush that she can’t hide from me.
***
Cole is waiting for me by the community building at ten, and given the look on his face, he has clearly had enough time to organize his thoughts, and there’s a chance I won’t like them.
We walk, since Cole thinks better when he’s walking, and the storm debris on the path gives both of us somewhere to look that isn’t directly at each other.
“Word has been going around,” he says, after we’ve covered enough ground to establish a typical rhythm. “About what happened to that family.”
“I expected as much.”
“And what Tessa did by getting between those children and Hayes’ wolves. People are talking about it.”
I glance at him. “As they should be. She did more than most would have.”
“I won’t deny that,” he says, hands folded behind his back. “Some opinions are shifting gradually. Not all, but some. The outer families, in particular those closer to Brooke, have been talking amongst themselves. That means something.”
“It does. I’m glad they’re recognizing what she has done.”
We walk in silence for a moment, then Cole sighs.
“But…”
“There’s always something.”
He gives me a more grim expression, and he nods his understanding of my frustration.
“There are still some members who aren’t keen on the idea of a Collins being our luna.
” He pauses and takes another breath before looking at me squarely.
“There’s talk about whether the claim was made out of desperation, and whether you were thinking clearly when it was done. ”
Immediately, my expression drops, and I turn to face him. I keep my voice even since my frustration isn’t aimed at him, but these supposed others who still doubt both of us.
“I’m only going to say this one more time, then I’m not going to say it again.
Tessa is my mate. It’s not up for debate and not subject to a pack consensus.
Regardless of what they might think, I’m not interested in sitting in a room while people who have spent years treating her like she owed them something for existing weigh in on whether my bond is legitimate. ”
Cole is quiet for a moment, and he nods, understanding the weight of pack opinion better than anyone.
“I’m not debating about her. Not with you, not with the pack elders, and not anyone else,” I tell him firmly, refusing to cave to that pressure.
“I’m not debating it either,” he says, and his tone has shifted to something more careful.
“I don’t doubt the bond. I’ve watched you avoid it since you were a teenager, and I know what it looks like when a man is running from something that enormous.
What I’m telling you is that the work isn’t done.
The pack needs to come to terms with this, and that takes time.
In the meantime, you’re going to need to hold the line without letting it make you reactive. ”
I look at him, eyes narrowing slightly. “You think I don’t know that?”
“I think you know it and feel it. I also think it’s worth knowing that more people than you realize are watching how this goes and are prepared to follow your lead.
Not because they’ve resolved their feelings about her family’s history, but because you’re their alpha and you’ve earned the benefit of the doubt.
” He gives me that same look he always has whenever offering me important advice.
“Give them something to work with. They need evidence, not arguments.”
This is Cole’s version of support, and I recognize it for what it is. Despite being a bit gruff or unyielding, even to me, I know he means well.
“I hear you,” I say. “But if they can’t see Tessa’s selflessness in how she helped Brooke’s family the other night, then I’m not sure there’s much else I can give them.”
He nods once, considering that for a moment. Then, he absently rubs at his stubble. “Even so, Hayes is still the more pressing issue.”
“He is.”
“Then what’s your plan?”
We start walking again, and I tell him about all the escalations the others have informed me of.
We talk through it the way we’ve talked through difficult things for a decade.
Cole asks the right questions, and I answer them, and by the time we’ve made it around the full loop of the path, I have a clearer operational picture than I had when we started.
Still, underneath the topic is a frequency the conversation doesn’t touch, and the very thing Cole can’t feel.
I close my eyes for a moment when Cole pauses to examine the damage to the perimeter fence on the east side, and I reach along the bond the way I’ve been learning to.
I can feel Tessa still within the pack grounds, warm, moving, and occupied by the woods around her.
A moment later, something comes back through the bond in my direction. It’s faint, and more of a sensation and an acknowledgment than a statement.
She felt me reach and didn’t close off from it.
The instincts that are always ready to kick into high gear settle in my chest.
All of my existing problems are still there, between Hayes looking for weak points, some of the pack’s unresolved grievances, Cole’s careful warnings about taking things slow, and the work ahead of me that I should’ve been building years ago.
None of it has simplified, and none of it is going away, but I know what’s expected of me.
I’ve been relatively alone in the middle of this alpha role ever since I returned. I’ve been alone in the final decisions, in the weight of it, but I don’t have to be anymore.
Tessa is on the other end of the line connecting the two of us, and regardless of whatever comes next, I have that.