He huffed a laugh. “Fair.”
The closer we got to the pack hall, the more wolves gathered—some curious, some wary, all silent. The air hummed with a tension that crawled down my spine.
Wolfe’s hand tightened around mine. “It’ll be alright,” he assured me.
It wasn’t exactly comforting. But it felt like the truth.
“Yes,” I breathed, looking around as my pack stepped forward to help others. Whatever was happening today—whatever Emberfell brought with them—it was only the beginning.
And we all knew it.
Chapter 24
Wolfe
I ledJaxson and one of his betas to the pack hall.
The pack hall wasn’t grand, it wasn’t ostentatious, but it was sturdy—thick beams, stone foundation, long tables with benches worn smooth by years of elbows and arguments. The kind of room meant for a pack community and for making decisions, not standing on ceremony.
It was pretty perfect in my opinion.
Jaxson sat across from me, hands clasped loosely, shoulders straight. A man who’d lost too much too fast, trying very hard not to show it. Another male, I’d already forgotten his name, a beta for sure, sat beside him, tense and watchful.
Rowen was at my right, Killian beside her. Diesel stood somewhere behind us, listening to everything but watchful. Always watchful and pissed off. Which was good. I wanted him irritated. Diesel was sharper when he was annoyed.
“So,” I said, resting my forearms on the table. “Let’s start with the truth. All of it. No polished versions. No diplomatic phrasing. You left your packlands and came here—what’s the real reason?”
His throat worked once, then he exhaled. “The first attacks happened three months ago,” he began. “At first, we thought they were isolated. Rogues drawn by winter hunger. But they kept coming. Organized. Methodical.”
Killian’s jaw tightened. “Sounds familiar.”
“We thought…” Jaxson paused. “I thought my father was being…excitable.” He flushed guiltily. “My father was stepping down, we all knew it, no need for a challenge from me. He wanted this, my pack wanted this, and I thought?—”
“He was holding on for holding on’s sake,” Rowen said quietly. She saw my look and smiled softly. “It was something my father spoke of when I was younger. That fear that you let your pride in leading blind you to the needs of those you lead.”
I didn’t say anything about what I suspected was the reason her father was so desperate to hold on until he had no choice; that fight could come later.
Jaxson seemed pleased that Rowen had understood. “I was blind to what was happening,” he admitted. “And these rogues weren’t interested in territory. They aimed for our elders first.”
Rowen inhaled sharply beside me. “For ease?” she asked. “Because they wouldn’t be able to fight back or for what they knew? Their histories.”
Jaxson nodded. “The latter, I believe. Looking back now, it was their strategy to erase our history first, so by the time I saw the pattern, the ones I could ask questions of were already gone.”
“Clever,” Killian murmured.
“Cold,” I said. “Calculated.” I turned to look for Diesel, and he came closer. “Thoughts?”
Diesel sniffed. “They wanted them quiet.” He sucked his teeth. “They came for the young next?”
Jaxson met his stare and didn’t look away. Brave idiot. “Yes.”
“Did they succeed?” I asked, voice lower.
Jaxson hesitated. When he spoke, he didn’t meet any of our gazes. “They took two.”
It was as if the room grew colder as the atmosphere tightened. Rowen’s wolf snarled through the bond. Mine did too.
“Alive?” she asked, her breath catching on the question.
