Fiona shakes her head. “No, it’s more than that. Babies know when they’re wanted.” She bounces Alora on her lap, and the baby coos, untroubled. “I’ve seen a lot of wolves try the single-parent thing. It’s never this easy. And you,” she adds, shifting her gaze to me, “you’re good for both of them.” She glances toward the riverbank, where Caleb is already shifting back, toweling off in a distracting way after a clean win in the ring.
I want to protest, tell her that I don’t belong in this picture, that I’m just a placeholder, but I don’t. I just watch as Maisie gallops through her warm-up, and as Fiona gently tickles Alora’s foot, earning a delighted squawk.
"She really does like you," Fiona says softly. "Even when her dad's around, I can tell. The way she looks at you, the way she settles. It's special."
I look at Alora, and the baby fixes me with a wide, wet-eyed stare, her whole face lighting up when I catch her gaze. I smile despite myself. "I don't know what I'm doing," I confess. "Sometimes I think I'm just making it up as I go."
Fiona laughs, brushing a lock of hair from her own baby's forehead. "That’s all any of us are doing. The difference is, you care enough to worry about it." The words disarm me, and I feel my chest tighten in a way that's both sweet and painful.
I watch Caleb as he lingers at the edge of the ring, clearly enjoying the camaraderie, but glancing over every few seconds to check on Alora. I realize for the first time that he trusts me with her, really trusts me, and the thought is heavier than I expect.
When our eyes lock, I feel everything tilt, and my mouth goes dry. I’ve been trying to ignore the way he looks with his shirt off because I’ll be damned if I’m just another woman whofinds him attractive, but the blush creeps up my neck and dances across my cheeks anyway.
I pull my gaze away and try to focus on what Fiona is saying and watching Maisie's warm-ups as Alora coos happily between us. I want to say this feels happy, or at least comfortable, and it has been easier than I anticipated. But there’s a heaviness lingering that I can’t shift—it’s the quiet rage and lingering pain over my circumstances that I keep pushing down, hoping it will vanish, but suspecting it never will.
Chapter 7 - Caleb
The pack hall is fuller than I’ve ever seen it since I arrived in Silvercreek, wall to wall with bodies and the low tension that comes from so many shifters packed into close quarters. I’ve noticed that pack business, real pack business, is handled like this here. Everyone in the room, no one hiding, all the decisions made public and final. I could list fifty ways this would have gone wrong in my old life, but at Silvercreek, it’s different. Here, everyone expects a little chaos, but they don’t turn on each other over it.
I move Alora’s car seat from one arm to another because it’s standing room only, until one of the older women spots me doing it and passes a small table down the line for me to put her on. I flash her one of my best smiles in thanks and rest the car seat on it, amazed that Alora hasn’t so much as stirred since we arrived, even with all this noise.
I scan the room for Dina but can’t see her through the crowd. My wolf knows she’s here, though. Instead, I find myself wedged near the east wall, shoulder to shoulder with a lineup of wolves I still barely know, even though I’ve been here a while now. Thomas is up front calling the meeting to order, but half the room is still catching up on gossip from the BBQ.
I still can’t stop thinking about the BBQ.
Cheslem had pack events, but never one like this. Silvercreek’s version isn’t about reminders of what you owe or threats disguised as team-building. They’re weirdly wholesome, with kids running wild and adults keeping an eye on them but pretending not to, and the only violence is reserved for the sparring ring. I didn’t expect to enjoy it, but I did. Even when Igot my ass handed to me at the end in front of the whole pack, I enjoyed it.
But what really stuck was Dina. I’d known, sure, that she’d trained with her old man, that she’d survived Cheslem’s worst. But I hadn’t realized exactly how good she was until I watched her work through a perimeter map with Thomas and Bryan, red-lining every flaw in the design instantly.
After the sparring ring emptied out, I’d caught her timing sprints for the kids’ obstacle course. Some little girl, Maisie, I think, was looking up at her like she hung the moon. Dina cheered her through every lap, called out pointers, then jogged right alongside her for the last leg, matching pace. For a moment, I just saw the wolf in her, not just the survivor.
She probably should take up the offer to join the security team, but the thought makes me panic. After weeks with Dina around, the idea of her not looking after Alora makes my chest go weird and tight. Not just because I don’t want to screw up solo with Alora or because the place feels colder when she isn’t there. The truth is, I just like having her around, even if the feeling isn’t mutual. I like that she doesn’t fall for my bullshit.
I know she hates me, or at least, she’s never going to let herself trust me. I don’t blame her. Even if I could walk on water, there’ll always be Cheslem mud on my boots. I could spend a hundred years atoning, and it will still never be enough, not for her. And that’s fair enough, as long as it never impacts Alora. That’s all that matters right now.
A murmur ripples around the room as Elder Amelia makes her way to the front. Her cane is thumping in time with the hush that rolls through the crowd. Her hair is pulled tight, and her eyes have the flat, ageless look that makes you believeshe’s seen a hundred winters and could see a hundred more if she wanted to.
“Thank you for coming.” Her voice slices the noise with surgical precision. “Everyone, old pack and new arrivals, listen closely.”
Nick steps to the side, arms folded, but I catch his eyes flicking from face to face. He’s reading the room, not for trouble, but for who’s already figured out where this is going. I see Ruby and Luna off to one side, heads together, and finally, I spot Dina standing near them, hands tucked in her pockets, eyes on the floor. She’s the only one who isn’t looking around the room, and the longer I watch, the more I see her wolf pacing just behind her skin, restless. I see her survival instincts are in full flow and wonder how well she’s really settling into Silvercreek.
Elder Amelia continues. “The last year’s been about change and recovery. But if we’re to move past that, we need to anchor this generation properly to Silvercreek.” She rests her hand on the cane, and her eyes sweep the crowd, daring anyone to break her gaze. “This means a lottery. Same as before, same as always. But this time, the pool includes all newly integrated wolves. Every survivor, every Cheslem wolf cleared by Security and magic. There will be no exceptions unless they have already found a mate, of course.”
A noise ripples through the crowd, a cross between a groan and whispers of excitement. I feel every muscle in my back tense, and I know I’m not the only one. I glance at Dylan beside me, and he smirks.
“Shit,” he mutters, “that means you’re up, too.”
I can’t tell if he’s needling me or trying to sound encouraging.
Amelia taps her cane lightly on the stage floor to regain the crowd’s attention. “You all know how this works. The lottery will bond you to Silvercreek and formally anchor the wards that keep us safe. It is not just tradition. It’s a necessity. Pairings aren’t forced, but they are encouraged; I’d ask you to trust the magic.”
I stop listening after that. Not because I don’t care, but because my mind has already run two laps around the implications and come to a hard stop at the only one that matters: Dina’s name will be in the draw. Of course it will. She’s a new wolf. She’s unbonded, unattached, and still on the outside edge of the pack’s social swirl, so of course the elders would want to pull her in tight. That’s what this is about. Making sure the next generation is fully Silvercreek and not a stray strand that could fracture the whole thing from the inside.
I find her again in the crowd. She’s not with Luna and Ruby anymore, but wedged between two women I don’t know, one of them talking animatedly at her while the other nods along. Dina doesn’t appear to be listening. I can see it in the way her eyes go flat, in the way her shoulder blades are braced against the wall as if she’s trying to anchor herself. Even from here, my wolf can smell her stress, sharp and bitter, an electrical charge coursing through my veins, and making my teeth hurt.
She’s not going to want this. There’s no fucking way. If she’s told herself that Silvercreek was a safe space where she could take time to settle and recover, then this is the news that will destabilize everything. I watch as she shakes her head at something one of the women says, flashes a smile that’s such a perfect copy of polite amusement that most people would buy it, but I don’t.
For a second, I feel sick. Not for myself. I’d made my peace with the lottery the minute I signed Alora’s name into thepack registry. I want to stay here more than I’ve ever wanted anything, and if that means getting paired off, so be it. Or so I thought, not realizing it would happen quite this soon. But the thought of Dina being forced into something, even if it’s just a formal handshake and a magic signature, makes something old and mean snap inside me. My wolf feels on edge too, not liking this one bit.
