I nodded. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I just…” I licked my lips and looked over my shoulder at Cody. I didn’t want others to know about Rowen yet.
“She’s my wife. Carrying my child. The Pack Council wants to eradicate us. But it’s been too long since I’ve sat with you both… and I missed you,” I told them honestly.
Grandmother chuckled. “Go on, then. Go take justice against those that would strike at your pack,” she told me, watching me, ancient wisdom and power in her gaze. “Go be an alpha of this pack, while pretending you’re not terrified that you’re part of something much bigger than you.”
“I’m not terrified,” I muttered.
“Liar,” she said sweetly, and Grandfather laughed out loud.
I left before she could be proven right again.
The Stonefang shelters were arranged in straight rows, small wooden structures that could be easily dismantled should we choose to move location. Stonefang territory was vast but mostly barren. Much of it was uninhabitable. But it was ours.
Ours.
I stopped and turned, looking at the land of which I called myself alpha. I was barefoot, and I stood andlistened. The land hummed gently underneath me, and as I focused on the feeling, I let out a sigh.
Had I said this wasn’t my home? I’d been wrong. This was my home as much as the Hollow was.Thisis what the Pack Council feared. The land itself recognized me as its alpha.
It had nothing to do with my pack sizes or the geography of the territory. It was the nature of the land.
“You see it now.”Grandmother’s voice was smug in my head. “Now you understand and believe it.”
“I do.”
“Slow but not unteachable,”Grandfather chuckled.
“You’re both as bad as each other,”I scolded them.
I turned back to the shelters where the Hollow shifters were being held. Stonefang pack guarded the doors. Some looked pleased to see me, and some watched like they were waiting to see who I’d become.
As much as I hated Cody being right, this was exactly why I had needed to enforce my Will separately here.
“Where is Solana?” I asked, and Cale stepped forward.
“She’s in that one.” He pointed across from us. His head tipped to the shelter nearest us. “Her children are in here.”
“Confined?” I asked, not masking my surprise.
“All Blueridge Hollow shifters are in these three shelters,” he told me without hesitation. “We took no chances.”
Another of the pack stepped forward. “No more attacks. No scouts from the Pack Council. But we are watching, Alpha. We did not invite trouble.”
Meaning I had?
He continued. “There are pack here with family in the Hollow—they’re uneasy. Waiting for you to tell them what we do next.”
Meaning, they were waiting to know whether I’d ask them to leave Stonefang.
“Everyone gather around,” I called out. When they were around me, I thought about how to phrase it, then decided I wasn’t known for inspiring speeches. I was someone who spoke the truth as I saw it, straightforward and more oftenthan not, blunt. Why change who I was? That wasn’t whoIwas.
“The pack has been split,” I told them. “I won’t apologize for that.” I turned as I spoke so I could see them all. “As you know, I met my mate. When I left here, all those moons ago, to make my way to the Pack Council to inform them of Alpha Lars’s successor, I did not know my mate was in Blueridge Hollow,” I told them honestly. “I did not know that their alpha was dying. I did not know his daughter was to be offered in political marriage.” I shrugged. “What I did know was that Blueridge Hollow was the pack that accepted me when I was a young child with no family,” I said simply. “What I knew was that the girl who I loved as a teenager was being offered in a game of marriage, and the Hollow was the prize.”
“Not the bride?” someone asked curiously.
“You’ve obviously not met my wife,” I told them with a chuckle. “She’s not exactly the prize you want to win if she doesn’t want to play the game.” I met Cale’s gaze. “And she doesn’t play games.”
His eyebrows shot up at my statement, and I could hear Cody sigh in disappointment that I wasn’t letting it go, but damn, I just couldn’t. So I was a jealous and possessive man—pretty sure my mate already knew.
