“I was perfectly fine until you brought Electra here,” Rune ground out, his composure cracking. “Now I’m not.”
Gerri’s laugh was warm and knowing. “Oh, sweetheart. Fine is just another word for existing without living. And that’s no way for an Alpha to spend his life.”
“You don’t understand?—“
“I understand perfectly.” Her voice softened, taking on a maternal quality that made his chest tight. “You’re thirty-eight years old, Rune. You’ve spent twenty years putting duty before everything else, and where has it gotten you? Alone in a cabin, eating sad sandwiches, and patrolling empty roads.”
The accuracy of her assessment stung more than he cared to admit.
“You think settling down makes you weak,” she continued. “But strength isn’t about standing alone—it’s about having something worth fighting for.”
“And what if I lose her?” The words escaped, raw and honest. “What if caring about her makes me weak when my pack needs me strong?”
“Oh, honey.” Gerri’s voice was gentle now, understanding. “Love doesn’t make you weak. It makes you fierce. It gives you something to protect beyond duty and obligation.”
Rune closed his eyes, fighting the truth in her words. The mate bond pulled at him constantly now, a magnetic force that made every moment away from Electra feel wrong. His wolf wanted to claim, to protect—instincts that flew in the face of the careful control he’d built his life around.
“You’ll figure it out, Alpha,” Gerri said, her tone returning to its characteristic mix of warmth and mischief. “Don’t overthink it. Sometimes the best things in life come when we stop trying to control everything.”
The line went dead, leaving Rune staring at his phone with a mixture of frustration and resignation. Gerri Wilder had just confirmed what he’d already known—she’d orchestrated this entire situation with the precision of a master strategist. And now he was caught between his duty as Alpha and the primal need to claim his mate, with Birch’s wolves circling like vultures and Electra completely unaware of the danger she was in.
You can’t run from fate forever.
The truth settled in his chest like a stone. Whether he’d asked for it or not, Electra Calloway was his mate.
The phone call with Gerri had shattered what little composure he’d managed to salvage, leaving him wound tight as a spring. He shoved back from his desk, the chair scraping against the floor.
I can’t just sit here while Electra’s out there alone.
The thought drove him to his feet. He grabbed his keys, ignoring the stack of incident reports that demanded his attention. Paperwork could wait. His mate’s safety couldn’t.
The drive toward Electra’s cabin felt different this time—charged with urgency rather than the careful pretense of his previous visits. As he got closer, his wolf rumbled beneath his skin, alert and agitated, sensing something amiss before his human mind caught up.
That’s when he spotted the unfamiliar truck ahead on the winding mountain road.
Rune’s instincts flared like a match struck in darkness. The truck moved with deliberate slowness, its driver clearly studying the terrain rather than navigating it. This wasn’t someone lost or sightseeing—this was reconnaissance.
Who the hell are you, and what do you want with my territory?
He eased off the accelerator, allowing distance to stretch between the vehicles while keeping the truck in sight. The driver’s behavior set off every alarm bell ringing in his head. The truck would slow at certain points, pause near trail markers, then accelerate again—the methodical pattern of someone mapping the area.
Or hunting.
The truck’s brake lights flashed as it approached the turnoff to Electra’s cabin. Rune’s hands tightened on the wheel, his wolf snarling beneath the surface. The truck didn’t turn down her drive, but it lingered at the intersection long enough for the driver to crane his neck toward her property.
Rune pulled over behind a cluster of pines and reached for his radio, running the license plate through dispatch. The response crackled back within minutes, and his blood ran cold.
“Vehicle registered to a Sarah Mitchell, Hartford, Connecticut. No outstanding warrants.”
A woman’s name, but definitely a man behind the wheel. Rune’s jaw clenched as he processed the implications. Stolenvehicle, borrowed car, or something worse—none of the possibilities were good.
He eased back onto the road, closing the distance between them. Through the rear window, he could make out the driver: brown hair, average build, nothing immediately threatening. But something about the man’s posture, the way he held his shoulders, screamed predator to Rune’s heightened senses.
The truck suddenly jerked forward, engine revving as the driver spotted Rune’s cruiser in his mirrors. Instead of pulling over like any normal citizen would when approached by law enforcement, the car accelerated sharply and took the next curve at dangerous speed.
Running. Guilty of something.
Rune’s protective instincts roared to life, his wolf demanding pursuit and elimination of the threat. But chasing a spooked suspect through mountain curves could end badly for everyone involved. Better to let him run for now—Rune’s presence alone had served as a warning.
