“Yes.”
“Don’t react,” I warned him. “Focus on it. If it moves away, follow.”
I turned to my pack on their knees. I couldn’t rush this. I couldn’t shirk this duty; that’s what led to traitors moving amongst my pack.
I bent my pack to my Will, and I hated every moment of it. When I was done, the weight of exhaustion felt heavy. Two of the Blueridge Hollow still stood. Solana and a male I didn’t know.
“What now?” she asked me, hate in her eyes.
“Darla,” I called. “Take her children inside.”
She never hesitated. Solana started to cry. Her children didn’t look back as Darla ushered them into a shelter.
“I hope they make you suf?—”
Their bodies fell. Gasps from the pack echoed in my ears. I didn’t falter. “It’s done. Justice for the crime against our pack has been delivered.”
“You didn’t ask us…” Cale said in surprise, looking between the dead and me. “You didn’t…”
“Because I am your alpha, and this is not a democracy,” I told them wearily. “No one else in my pack will die because I wasn’t strong enough to protect you fromourselves. When the Pack Council comes, and they are coming, trust me, they won’t hesitate. If you don’t want to spill blood, leave.” I met every stare. “I am your alpha. Stonefang, the Hollow, they’re my land to protect. You are my pack to protect. I show no mercy to those who mean you harm.”
Cody tilted his head back and howled. Some of the pack shifted and joined his howl, while others stayed in their human form, but their voices joined the pack.
Their howling felt right, and my own wolf settled.
I nodded in satisfaction. It wasn’t just the Hollow that held onto their wildness and heritage. The roots of Stonefang were as deep as the mountain rose high.
I turned to look at the path.
Still nothing. But the air tasted different. Old. Metallic. Humming with memory that I didn’t recognize.
I swallowed hard because the truth was simple and terrifying—something or someone was here that wasn’t supposed to be. Someone who had no business crossing into Stonefang.
Movement at the window in the Grumps’ shelter made me look. Grandmother looked back at me. She raised her brow in question, and I nodded back in response.
There was someone here, someone who the land didn’t reject.
It was time to hunt.
Chapter 11
Rowen
The Hollow had never feltquiet to me.
But now? Now it felt like it was whispering to me. Had it always been like this, and I just hadn’t understood what it meant? The land had alwaysbeen there—but only now did it feel like a steady pulse at the edge of my awareness, a weight under my feet that felt like belonging.
And the more I listened, the more it hummed. I wasn’t sure whether it was trying to warn me or welcome me. I really hoped it was the latter. I didn’t need any more dire warnings.
I stood at the ridge overlooking the valley where the wind always skimmed first. It felt familiar. Comforting. This was one of my favorite places in the Hollow. The air was sharp, too cold for early evening, like the Hollow had pulled its breath tight.
I heard footsteps behind me, and I had a pretty good idea of who my stalker was. He’d been at my side since Wolfe left. Diesel strolled out from behind me, boots crunching over stones.
“You too,” he said.
I crossed my arms. “Me too, what?”
“Having a fondness for perching at the edge of mountain ridges.”
