“I’m not who I was when I left,” she adds, looking between Archie and me. “Malrik… He wanted to shape me into something. I don’t know what exactly or even why, but he did teach me plenty. I don’t need to be ushered off like a Hollowborn who can’t take care of herself anymore. I’m also a shifter and the Ashmark, and I know how to control myself now. More than that, I’m not losing any of you again. We stick together.”
Our bond pulses—strong, warm, threaded with something fierce and unshakeable. I can feel her conviction settling into me like heat into cold bones. And even though the protective part of me wants to wrap her up, carry her somewhere safe, and never let anything touch her again…
I can’t deny what’s standing in front of me.
She’s been forged into something sharper. Fierce.
As much as I fucking hate that Malrik laid hands on her at all, I can’t look at her and pretend she’s fragile. The power rolling off her isn’t wild or dangerous any longer. It’s controlled. Claimed as her own.
My only regret is that she had to do so much of this alone.
“We’ll find them all together,” I promise her.
“I could go for you,” Marius offers quietly to Rowan. “It’s easy to see these people are your family. I won’t let you down. Not again.”
She turns toward him, reaching for his hand. “You’re also my family. You’re not going anywhere without me either.”
Where are you, Cade?
Elias’ voice cuts through, urgent and lacking his normal calm, but also taking me by surprise. I haven’t used the pack connection in so long, it feels foreign.
I found Rowan. I leave out the other details since something is clearly wrong.Can’t you follow our trail now?
I assumed he was on his way to us, but I should have checked in sooner. If I’m going to reclaim my title as Alpha, I have to do better. Not just for him, but for all of them.
Before I could make it to you, I found Liz, he says.She’s hurt bad. I’m taking her to the Glacier Crest Pack house. Meet us there. I don’t know if they’ll heal a vampire without you present.
My breath punches out of me. Not for myself, but for Rowan. She doesn’t need bad news right now. Yet, I can’t hide this from her.
Rowan stares at me intently. “What is it?”
“Elias reached out through our pack connection,” I say, dread twisting tightly at my chest. “Liz is injured.”
Rowan swallows hard. “Take me to her.”
And just like that, we’re moving toward the cave’s exit, together just as it always should have been.
I just hope we’re not too late.
Chapter 15
ROWAN
After being not-so-welcomed by some of the Glacier Crest Pack members who found us as soon as we exited Malrik’s forest, we’re promptly taken to the pack house, where Liz is. Apparently, most of them are none too happy that Cade’s been on their land for so long, and they couldn’t find him, but my mate doesn’t seem to care.
Especially as we walk through their hallways and he growls or snarls at anyone who looks at me for too long.
The halls are frigid, but nowhere near as icy as The Keep had seemed at first. Thane, their beta, is filling in for the previous alpha as the pack debates between two others for the official role of alpha. According to Archie’s whispered answers to my apparently insulting questions, Thane can’t be alpha because he doesn’t have the right genes or some wolf nonsense like that.
Still, the beta leads us further into their house, where less and less people are, with his head held high and pride for his home clear as day.
Cade stays by my side, his touch never leaving mine. I can’t help but continually glance up at him. I couldn’t feel the bond before, not with any sort of intensity, but whatever Malrik brought out in me, it also unlocked more of my shifter side. At least I assume so because the connection between us is alive and well now.
The thoughts and feelings that had been growing within me while we were apart are amplified now. I want to hold him and kiss him and tell him everything. I want to make sure he knows I’ll never go without a fight again, that he matters to me more than I could understand before.
But we’re not safe yet, and there’s still too much to worry about, so I force myself to keep my emotions in check. I’ll carve out a moment to sort through these changes just as soon as we’re safe back at NightShade and to tell him how I feel.
Though, issafeeven possible at this point?
