“Hey.” I moved into his side, his arm wrapping around me automatically. “Wolfe?—”
“You can’t say anything that will make me change my mind.”
I bit my tongue, holding his stare. “I don’t want you to act rashly,” I told him honestly.
Wolfe pressed his lips to my head. “I am completely clearheaded.”
Mm-hmm. You’re also delusional,I thought to myself.
“Of course.” I slipped my arms around him, hugging him tight. “I just worry.”
“I know.” His kiss was softer this time.
Adair approached with the cup of water. “Drink?” She smiled, her smile weary and shaky, completely believable.
“Thanks,” Wolfe said, taking it from her. “Rowen, here.”
Shit. I hadn’t thought this through. Of course Wolfe would offer it to me.
Adair swallowed, trying not to react.
“Thanks,” I had no choice but to take the cup. I raised it to my lips, wondering if my husband was distracted enough for me to fake it without him noticing it.
Behind us, I heard Diesel shout, “Wolfe! Wolfe, what the hell?—”
Then a very distinct thud.
Then Killian’s furious, muffled, “Fuck—Wol?—”
Another thud.
Wolfe spun, took it all in with once glance and knocked the cup from my hand. “Rowen?”
The druid appeared behind him, a cloth in hand, and clamped it over Wolfe’s mouth and nose. I leaped forward to help press my hand against theirs, both of us guiding Wolfe to the ground.
The druid’s calm voice was loud in the stunned silence. “Sleep well, mighty wolves.”
“Adair? Thalia?” I said gently. “Are you ready to run?”
Thalia looked up from where Cody lay on the ground, her teary eyes becoming clear. “I’m ready.”
“Druid?” I turned to them.
“We’ll move them. The Hollow will protect us.”
Adair, Thalia, and I all shifted simultaneously. My wolf burst forward, driven by fear and resolve and the fierce certainty that if we didn’t act immediately, I’d lose the man I loved to a darkness he couldn’t escape.
We ran from the Hollow, and I didn’t look back. We sprinted into the forest, three wolves on a desperate mission to prevent the ones we cared about from turning into monsters like the one they hunted. Save them from their own grief.
Just had to stop Axel long enough to condemn him properly.
I pushed harder, the Hollow clearing before me as if urging me on, and with every step, one truth drove through me—fierce and feral—if anyone was going to end Axel,it was going to be us.
The forest swallowed us whole.
Three wolves, running hard, our paws pounding the earth in a rhythm that matched the pounding of my pulse. We ran for hours, following his trail, tracking him over the ridge. The air reeked of fear, blood, and desperation—his desperation. There was more than simple tracking at work here; even far outside the reach of the Hollow, I knew it was still helping us.
Axel was running, but he wasn’t running aimlessly. Hewas running like a man who had one last place he wanted to crawl to before he died.
