“I never knew she was my mate.” I licked my lips. “No one was more surprised than me, trust me.” I considered them as I spoke. “Alpha Malric named me heir. Named me alpha of the pack.”
“Did he not know you were already an alpha of this pack?” someone demanded at the back.
Good question, and only the truth would do. “He did.” Iheard their whisper of discontentment. “Me being alpha to Blueridge Hollow does not mean I am any less your alpha.” A few shuffled their feet. “I am alpha of two territories,onepack.”
“You haven’t been home for a while, Alpha. How can we believe you?” Cody asked.
Was I surprised it came from one in my most trusted inner circle? No. I knew why he asked, because he was the only one brave enough to ask it for the rest of them. That saddened me.
“I have been absent,” I acknowledged. “The Hollow was being attacked, and shifters who rely on me as you do needed me.” I shrugged. “I’m trying to understand what it all means, just like you. It’s been…hectic.”
“Chaos, you mean,” Cody murmured.
I nodded. “It has. Attacks, dissension. Lies. And betrayals that hurt more than they should.” I looked at the three shelters. “We gave them shelter from the chaos, and they tried to take the most precious of shifters from us.” A rumble of agreement from the pack followed. “That’s on me,” I told them. “I trusted the wrong voices. Solana’s husband was a bastard; I believed his wife was innocent. That’s my error for thinking she had suffered enough and not pushing for more.”
“And you’ll make her suffer now?” Darla asked me. She didn’t look away from me, usually so mild-mannered and quiet; her eyes shone with anger. “We let them into our homes, let them sit at our hearths, let their children play with ours.”
I listened. “I will use my Will on them all,” I spoke quietly. “Including the children.”
A ripple of surprise ran through them.
“And where do we stand with the upset from the Pack Council?” an older shifter to the back asked.
“You stand with your alpha, and he stands with the Hollow,” I said simply.
Another murmur rippled through half the pack. The other half stiffened, uncertain. Reminding me of something Lars told me a long time ago.
Loyalty wasn’t a switch you flipped. It was a line you held.
Cody moved to my side. “Now, Wolfe.”
I resented him for pushing. But I knew he was right. I nodded. “Bring out the Blueridge Hollow shifters.”
When they were in front of me, I looked them over—older wolves, middle-aged, children. My heart hurt that I had to do this. Not just to them. To them all.
Unlike the others who had been at the border, I never gave them a warning. My Will slid outward—slow, methodical, a coiled presence pressing against the shifters around me. Not to break. Not to dominate. Just to feel.
Toknow.
Some of them knelt instantly. Some hesitated, unsure as to what they were feeling. One or two, their pride resisted before dropping with a snarl. That was expected.
What wasn’t expected was the whisper of something old brushing against the edge of my senses, like a fingertip dragging through smoke. I stiffened, snapping my head toward the path leading to the shelters from the border, expecting something.
Nothing came. Nothing moved. Not a leaf. Not a shadow. Not a wolf.
But I felt it.
A presence. Watching me. Measuringme.
The Grumps said the Hollow remembered. But this wasn’t the Hollow. This felt older than my pack. Older than the Pack Council. Older than the land beneath my feet.
Something druidic…but not the druid I knew.
A shiver rippled down my spine.
Cody growled beside me. “What isthat?”
“You feel it?”I asked him.
