Thalia had moved closer, her eyes widening as I spoke. “What’s happening?”
My gaze flicked to the shelter where the Grumps were. Grandmother was gone from the window. “It’s watching me.”
“Seems to be,”Grandfather murmured, sounding distracted.
I felt the jerk on the bond, and I shifted to my wolf, racing forward, not hearing anything other than the pulse of the bond as my mate’s fear echoed through the connection.
The presence wasn’t probing my territory lines. It wasn’tassessing Stonefang. It was assessingme. It was assessingher. And that, I would not stand for.
I ran towards where it lingered, across the ground my pack called home, I ran north, away from the Hollow, away from the Grumps, and towards an unknown that Iwouldhunt, find, and kill if I had to.
I ran for hours.
The soil turned dry first—powder-fine dust that rose up in pale clouds each time my claws struck it. Then the ground began to tilt, sloping upward into a broken spine of stone where nothing rooted deep enough to survive.
Stonefang’s lands weren’t just barren; they were scarred. Massive slabs of rock jutted out of the earth like broken bones piercing the skin. Jagged ridges cut across the terrain in snarling waves, sharp enough to injure a wolf’s paw if you misstep. Ridges of blackened rock rose and fell across the land like the ribs of some ancient, long-dead beast.
This is why much of my land was uninhabitable. No grass. No brush. No soil soft enough to grow anything or even bury the dead. Just wind howling through narrow cracks in the stone, and shadows that weren’t truly shadows but just the absence of light in places the sun couldn’t reach. Most wolves avoided this part of my territory unless they had no choice.
Stone and fangs, that’s all that survived here.
This wasn’t land meant for living. It was land meant for warning, and whatever I was following had chosen to wait right in the heart of it. The land here didn’t look dead. It looked undisturbed—as if nothing had dared touch it in centuries.
Here was Stonefang before wolves. Stonefang before packs. Stonefang before names.
Ancient.
Untamed.
Unowned.
The presence fit here, like it belonged, and it made my skin crawl. The presence had come here by choice, and so had I.
I slowed to a trot, then a casual walk. My wolf was big and strong, and I wasn’t afraid. I looked around and then shifted back to my human form, not giving a fuck I was naked.
I took another step, my voice dropping into a growl. “Show yourself.” Nothing. “I said, show yourself.”
The land remained quiet. Still.
The presence…mocking.
My wolf snarled, pacing inside me, desperate to tear into anything that dared come this deep into my land—challenging me to run from it. A faint whisper brushed past my ear, and I stilled. Not a voice. Not breath. Just…attention.
The presence moved closer again, a few meters to the left, weightless but purposeful. It wasn’t advancing or retreating. It was circling. But it wasn’t threatening, and that surprised me. Nor was it scared.
Worse than that…it was curious. Curiosity meant intelligence, and under the innocence of that lay cleverness, cunning…purpose.
Something brushed across my senses again—softly gliding over the bond between me and my land. Old. Rooted. Druidic.
Not the one I knew.
I stepped forward again, bare-handed, bare-chested, daring it. “You picked the wrong shifter to fuck with,” I said softly.
The presence paused. Then—it pushed back. Not physically, not magically. Just…pressed its awareness against mine. Testing. Prodding. Seeing what I would do.
My wolf lunged forward, snarling low in its chest, and for a moment—just a heartbeat—I felt the Hollow behind me like a tidal wave, its ancient pulse pounding through my veins. The presence staggered. Not literally. Not visibly. But I felt it shudder, pulling back an inch, giving ground as if something had just hissed in its ear.
The Hollow could sense my son. It could sense Rowen. It could sense my fury, and it despised whatever this was as much as I did. I felt the unknown presence soften and yield, and I finally understood what it was doing.
