I hesitated just a heartbeat, then looked between him and Rowen. I glanced past both of them to Diesel, who stood tense in the shadows.
“A shaman,” I said quietly. “An old one.”
Rowen’s breath hitched. Killian swore. Diesel went still.
“It didn’t attack,” I added. “It measured. Watched. Moved like it had all the time in the world.”
Rowen’s fingers dug into my arm. “Why?”
I cupped her jaw, forcing her to look at me and keeping my voice steady as my wolf raged inside. “Because they declared war.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “Because the Hollow chose us.” My voice dropped even lower. “And because whoever that thing is, it knows we’re the ones standing between the Pack Council and this land.”
“How did it feel?” Diesel asked, and when I looked at him, he didn’t seem surprised by my answer.
“Curious.”
He exchanged a glance with Rowen, and she nodded. “Anticipatory…” she murmured. Then she looked back at me. “I missed you.”
I kissed her fiercely, grounding both of us. “I missed you,” I echoed against her lips. “I’ll show you how much later,” I promised. I stepped back and looked at Diesel and Killian. “Where are we at?”
Killian began to tell me what I’d missed, which was little, but I was glad the pack hadn’t been inactive. As we walked among the trees, my mate’s hand in mine, my betas nearby, and the Hollow welcoming me back, I felt a faint stirring.
I looked up at the ridge, to the stone where nothing grew—and I felt a shaman smile.
Chapter 13
Rowen
Wolfe had been backthree days, and every day, his temper got shorter.
I knew how he felt. Preparing to leave the Hollow felt like trying to pack up a storm. Every time I thought I had a firm footing under me, the wind inside me changed direction. Every time I tried to breathe, the Hollow breathed with me—too loud, too close, too aware.
I wasn’t used to it, and I wasn’t sure I ever would be.
The Pack Council summons lay on the table beside me. A single sheet of parchment. Crumpled, torn at the corners, just a simple piece of paper. Almost weightless. Yet its contents weighed more than the heaviest burden.
A summons that said my husband and I were required to attend the Pack Council.Required. Like Wolfe belonged to them. Likewebelonged to them.
My fingers reached for it, but I pulled back. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to burn the summons or tear it into enough pieces to choke the entire Pack Council.
Behind me, Wolfe’s pacing scraped against my nerves—long strides, sharp turns, the sound of a male trying very hard not to punch a hole in the wall of my father’s old office. Diesel and Killian had gathered the pack outside the pack hall, trying to keep them calm. The pack sensed the tension between their alpha and me.
The entire Hollow was wound tight, waiting. Staring. Whispering. Because everyone knew two things now. A war was coming, and I was carrying the next alpha.
The thought made my stomach twist—not from fear, but something much deeper, something that I hadn’t named yet because I didn’t know how. He’d barely had time to settle inside me and already the world wanted to rip him from us. I placed a palm on my stomach without thinking.
“Princess.” Wolfe’s voice was low, almost tender.
I turned. He didn’t look tender. He looked like a man barely holding himself together. Eyes too sharp, jaw locked, every muscle pulled tight. The mate bond hummed between us, a low, insistent pull, like it too wanted to bolt the door and barricade us inside the Hollow forever.
“You’re not coming,” he said quietly.
There it was. The fight he didn’t want to have but wouldn’t avoid. “And if I don’t,” I asked softly, “what message does that give them?”
“I don’t give a fuck what message it gives them. It keeps you safe,” he growled.
“It tells them that I’m hiding.”
He flinched. I stepped toward him; this wasn’t a fight to have where we yelled at each other—we’d had enough of those, and I was sure we’d have many more if we survived this. I let my fingers brush across his stomach, reassurance for both of us.
