“I’m here,” I say instead.
He exhaled once, slow, like that’s all he needed. “Stay by me.”
“Always.” I stood at his side, our arms touching, our wolves pressing against the bond. The Hollow felt alive under us, awareness coiling through the soil, through the roots, through the old stone beneath the hall. Was I the only one feeling it? Is this what Wolfe felt as alpha?
The Council messenger stepped forward with careful precision. He was an older man, graying at the temples, shoulders straight in the way of men who believe in rules more than in people.
“Alpha Wolfe of the Stonefang Pack,” he called out, voice carrying easily across the yard. “Rowen of the Blueridge Hollow Pack.”
Notalpha’s mate. Just my name. A deliberate reminder that the Pack Council didn’t believe it.
“This is Blueridge Hollow,” Wolfe answered. His voice was calm. Dangerous. “You stand on its soil. Iamthe alpha, and this is mymate. Mind your tongue.”
The shifter’s gaze flicked to me, then to the wolves arrayed behind us. There were more than there used to be—Stonefang and Hollow mixed together now, shoulder to shoulder. The messenger didn’t look impressed at the number of shifters in front of him. Was this what the Pack Council didn’t want to happen?
“I come on behalf of the Pack Council,” the messenger said. “In accordance with our laws and with the authority vested in us by the united packs.”
The Hollow throbbed in response, and my wolf bared its teeth.
Wolfe tilted his head. “Then speak. My pack has things to do besides listen to pretentiousness.”
A murmur ran through the crowd. I heard Diesel snort behind us. Killian wasn’t even bothering to hide his smirk.
A tic appeared in the messenger’s jaw, but he said nothing as he reached into his cloak and pulled out a scroll sealed with dark red wax. My throat felt like it was closing. I’d seen summons before. Warnings. Edicts.
This felt worse.
“The Pack Council has convened and rendered judgment regarding the territory known as Blueridge Hollow,” he intoned.
Rendered. Past tense. I was certain I felt the land flinch.
“The Council finds that Alpha Wolfe of the Stonefang Pack has assumed control over two territories in a manner that destabilizes the established order and threatens the balance of power among the packs.”
Wolfe didn’t move. He could be carved from stone.
“Furthermore,” the man continued, “the Council questions the legitimacy of the claimed mate bond between Alpha Wolfe and Rowen of Blueridge Hollow.”
The ripple of outrage through the shifters around us felt like a shockwave. There were more than a few growls, more than a few snarls. My wolf lunged within me at the insult, hackles up, and it took everything in me not to show my reaction. The bond between Wolfe and me pulsed hard in my chest, hot and furious.
“Careful,” Wolfe said softly.
I didn’t know if he was talking to me or the messenger. I listened to him nonetheless; the messenger did not heed the same warning.
He cracked the wax and unrolled the parchment. Sunlight seemed to catch the gloss on the Council’s sigil stamped at the top, and somewhere under my feet, the Hollow rippled like wind through dead leaves.
“In light of these concerns,” the messenger read, “and in accordance with our right to intervene where stability is at risk, the Pack Council decrees the following.” He looked at us over his glasses. “The pack of Blueridge Hollow is to be dissolved.”
Everything inside me stopped.
For a second, the world narrowed to the sound of my own heartbeat, thudding hard and wrong against my ribs.
Dissolved.
Like we were…nothing. As if generations of wolves and blood and sacrifice could be erased with ink and an arrogant hand. My father’s pack,mypack, was to be erased.
My fingers dug into my palms. I tasted copper on my tongue and wondered whether I’d bitten my lip or cheek to keep the scream of rage from escaping.
“The land will be placed under temporary Council stewardship,” the messenger carried on, as if he hadn’t just announced the death of my home. “All shifters currently sworn to Blueridge Hollow are to be redistributed to neighboring territories as deemed appropriate. Alpha Wolfe’s dominion over this land is revoked, pending formal hearing.”
