The Hollow pulsed one last time—stronger, steadier—wrapping around us like a vow sealed in the soil.
The druid lifted their hands from the earth. The glow diminished. The ground grew still.
But the Hollow… The Hollow remained awake.
“Rise,” the druid whispered.
Wolfe stood up first, pulling me along with him, his hand never leaving mine.
I felt different. Not stronger or weaker, but connected. To Wolfe, to the Hollow, to the tiny life inside me that had responded to the land as if he already knew he was home.
The druid straightened, exhaustion flickering across their face for just a moment. “You are bound to this land. And it is bound to you. No declaration, no ritual, no threat can break that now. Only death.”
Wolfe exhaled, jaw clenched, eyes wild with something intense and unspoken.
“And our son?” I asked softly.
The druid’s gaze softened. “The Hollow will rise for him…just as it rises for you.”
Wolfe’s fingers slipped to my stomach before he could stop himself—gentle, reverent, protective. My eyes burned because this wasn’t just a ritual. It was a claim.
A promise.
A warning.
The Hollow had chosen its guardians, picked who would fight for it, and now…now it would fight for us too.
Chapter 27
Wolfe
When I was toldby Lars all those years ago that I was an alpha, I never expected that to mean I’d be kneeling at the base of a tree while the landcame aliveunder my touch.
The first surge of power hit like cold air punching into hot lungs. My wolf snarled—not in warning, but in recognition. The land’s pulse synced with mine, growing stronger, steadier, like it had been waiting for this moment longer than I had existed.
When I realized it wasn’t just me and Rowen the land was reaching for, I thought my heart would stop. My chest locked and my wolf shoved forward with a growl that was half awe, half terror. The land wasn’t just touching us, it was touching my unborn child.
The soil beneath my palm flared with a faint glow—redder, hotter—responding to him for the first time. Roots brushed my skin, curling around my fingers, alive with a pulse of power and magic more than I ever knew.
It had all been very surreal, weirdly ethereal, and completely outside my comfort zone. When I stood, my hand had reached for Rowen’s belly before I’d formed conscious thought to do so. I needed to know he was okay in there. She leaned into me, her head falling to my chest as we embraced and tried to digest the magnitude of everything that had just happened. I could feel Rowen trembling and I tightened my hold on her.
The druid’s head snapped up. “Someone feels this.”
My wolf bared his teeth. “Who?”
“An old one,” the druid whispered. “Someone…watching from afar.”
The shaman? Of course it was the shaman. “The shaman,” I murmured. The ground beneath us settled, but I had no doubt that he was watching. “He’s on our side.”
The druid lost all of their otherworldly aura and looked at me in a way I was much more used to. Disappointment. “And you trust this, do you?” they snapped.
“I do.” I smirked at their eye roll. “And so does the Hollow,” I said smugly. “It’s letting him watch, so…”
The druid’s eyes narrowed. “I’m going to go and have some tea. I need my energy for what’s coming.” They swept away and I watched them go as Rowen stifled her laughter.
“You have to stop provoking them,” she said cheerfully. Her fingers caressed her belly. “I felt him,” she told me, eyes shining with love.
My hand covered hers. “I did too.” I kissed her softly. “A privilege to do so, but…”
