Page 46 of Fetch Me A Mate
"Doesn't she? Because from where I stood this morning, it looked like she knows you very well indeed. Intimately, one might say."
Kael laughed, the sound cold as winter wind. "Got yourself a human girlfriend, Rowan? How deliciously ironic."
"Leave Diana out of this."
"Can't do that. See, we've learned not to trust your judgment when it comes to humans and their safety." Max stepped closer. "Last time you tried to protect a human, it created the situation we're dealing with now."
"Diana's not Sarah."
"No," Danarius agreed. "She's worse. She's a weakness you can't afford. A vulnerability we can exploit every time you step out of line."
The threat was clear. Crystal clear. Come back to the pack, help them murder an innocent man and the mother of his child, or watch Diana become a target in their war.
"How long do I have to decide?"
"Long enough to say your goodbyes, tie up loose ends." Danarius began walking back toward the tree line. "When we call, meet us at the old border stone. Come alone, come willingly, or we start making good on our promises."
"And if I run? Take Diana and disappear?"
"Then we hunt you both. And we make sure everyone in that cozy little town understands exactly what kind of monster they've been harboring." Kael's smile widened.
They melted back into the woods as silently as they'd come, leaving Rowan alone by the dark water. His reflection stared back at him, distorted by ripples that turned his face into something monstrous.
He knew it wouldn’t be long before he got the call. For him to choose between his past and his future, between the woman he loved and the innocent people his choices had put in danger.
His wolf howled inside his chest, claws scraping against ribs as it demanded blood, demanded protection for their mate, demanded an end to the threats that circled her like vultures. But what could he offer her? A life on the run? The constant fear of pack retaliation? The knowledge that loving him had painted a target on her back?
Or he could go back. Resume his place in the hierarchy, help them silence the witnesses to Sarah's escape, pretend Diana had been nothing more than a pleasant distraction. Keep her safe by removing himself from her life completely.
The choice should have been simple. One life against many. His happiness against Diana's safety.
It wasn't simple at all.
Rowan stripped off his clothes and let the shift take him, bones cracking and reshaping, human thoughts dissolving into wolf instinct. He ran into the deep woods, pushing his transformed body until muscles screamed and lungs burned, trying to outrun the impossible choice that waited for him.
But no matter how far or fast he ran, the truth followed: there was no good choice here. Only degrees of disaster, only ways of losing everything that mattered.
His wolf wanted to run back to the inn, to Diana's warm embrace and the future they'd planned together. Wanted to fight for what was his, consequences be damned.
The man knew better. The man understood that sometimes loving someone meant walking away, even when every instinct screamed against it.
23
DIANA
Diana woke with purpose burning in her chest. Whatever was hunting Rowan, whatever had driven him to push her away yesterday morning, she wouldn't face it defenseless. The inn was more than her home now. It was Hollow Oak's heart, and she'd protect it the only way she knew how.
With community. With belonging. With love made manifest in signatures and promises.
The Hollow Oak Book Nook opened at nine. Diana was waiting on the doorstep when Lucien unlocked the front door, his dark hair falling across his forehead as he studied her with sharp green eyes.
"You look like someone with a mission," he said.
"I need help protecting something I love."
"Come in."
The bookstore wrapped around her like a cathedral, all dark wood and leather spines and the hushed reverence of accumulated wisdom. Moira emerged from the back room with tea and the kind of smile that suggested she'd been expecting this conversation.
