Page 67 of Wolf's Reckoning
The forest beyond the Hollow pulsed with life, crickets and wind and the occasional rustle of something wilder. But it was quiet enough. Dark enough. I could breathe here.
I pressed my palm against a pine trunk, grounding myself. The bark bit into my skin, but I didn’t mind. At least it felt real. So much of tonight had felt like theater—rituals and vows and fire-bright gazes watching my every breath. But this? This solitude? This was mine.
Or it would’ve been…if he hadn’t followed me. I didn’t look back. I felt him.
That wolf-strong energy curling around the edges of my senses, brushing up against my spine like it had a right to be there.
“Didn’t anyone teach you it’s rude to stalk your wife?” I asked, not turning.
Wolfe’s voice came low and sharp behind me. “Didn’t anyone teach you not to run from your husband after a ceremony meant to unify a pack?”
I turned then. Slowly. Deliberately. “You want unity?” I asked. “Then start by letting me breathe.”
He stepped into the clearing, moonlight catching the edges of him—jaw tense, hair wild, chest rising, and his bare skin was far too distracting.
“I gave you two days. You remember that?”
“I remember you used them to maneuver yourself into my pack,” I snapped.
“I used them to give you a choice. You just didn’t like the choices.”
We stared at each other across a few feet of moss and dirt, but it may as well have been an ocean.
“Is this how it’ll be?” I asked, voice low. “Us arguing?”
“I don’t know. I think,” Wolfe said, stepping closer, “that you’re terrified of thismarriagebecause you know it changes everything.”
“I know it changes nothing,” I hissed. “You’re still an outsider who showed up and let everyone believe you’re here to save us.”
His mouth curved. Not a smile. A weapon. “Your father manipulated this to his advantage. I was only here to talk about an alliance between packs.”
That stopped me. Goddess help me—I didn’t know what to believe. “Then why?” I asked, softer now. “Whyagree to this marriage?”
His gaze locked with mine. No softness there. Just iron and fire. “Because if someone’s going to stand beside you, it should be the only one who canactuallystandbeside you. Not some prick who only wants to use you.”
My breath caught, and in the silence that followed, I felt my wolf lean forward. Curious. Unafraid. Not ready to give in. But maybe…ready to listen.
Wolfe stepped back. “I have two packs that will need me going forward,” he said quietly. “Two packs, that I will serve. There are rogues out there, or…something out there, that we need to be ready to fight.” He looked me over. “I have enough fights; do you have to be one of them?”
My throat felt dry as the weight of his honesty settled around us. “No.”
He nodded. “Good. Let’s not make this any harder than it already is.”
Approaching footsteps made both of us turn. I didn’t say anything when Wolfe stepped in front of me, like he wanted to protect me.
Killian looked at him first, and then, with a gentleness I hadn’t seen in him before, he turned to me. “Rowen, come. It’s your father.”
Chapter 17
Rowen
The Hollow was too still.
Not quiet.
Still.
Like the whole mountain was holding its breath, waiting to see if the world would shift without him in it.
