Page 54 of Fetch Me A Mate
"They say anything else?"
"Just that there might be more work if I kept my ears open. Mentioned something about zoning violations, health code issues. Said they wanted a complete picture of the inn's vulnerabilities."
Rowan stood, his chair scraping against linoleum. "Jerry."
"Yeah?"
"You're done. No more questions, no more reports, no more contact with those men. If they call you again, you tell them you couldn't find anything worth reporting."
"But they paid me?—"
"Consider the money a severance package. And Jerry?" Rowan leaned down, his voice deadly quiet. "If I hear you've caused any more problems for Diana Merrick, I'll come back. And next time, we won't be having this conversation over coffee."
Rowan left Kowalski sitting in his booth and drove back to Hollow Oak with a strange sense of satisfaction. The pack thought they could pressure him through Diana, thought they could manufacture crises and force his hand. But every move they made only proved what he'd started to suspect.
He could handle this. All of it. As long as he wasn't doing it alone.
Back at the inn, Diana was in the kitchen preparing dinner, her hair pulled back in a messy bun and flour dusting her apron. She looked up when he entered, her amber eyes searching his face.
"Find anything useful?"
"Jerry Kowalski's been taking money to spread rumors about the inn's finances. Three men in expensive suits hired him to manufacture problems."
"Your former pack?"
"Most likely." Rowan washed his hands at the sink, watching Diana work. "But here's the thing. They're operating like they think I'm still the same wolf who ran three years ago. Like they think pressure tactics and manufactured crises will break me down."
"And they're wrong?"
"They're wrong." He shifted to face her, certainty settling in his chest like bedrock. "I spent three years running from fights I should have stayed to finish. I'm done running, Diana. From them, from this, from us."
"Us?"
"Yeah. Us." He moved closer, drawn by the warmth in her eyes and the scent of vanilla that always seemed to cling to her skin. "Whatever they throw at us next, we handle it together. No more secrets, no more pushing you away to keep you safe."
Diana smiled, the kind that made his wolf settle contentedly in his chest. "Does this mean you're planning to stick around?"
"I'm planning to stick around as long as you'll have me."
"Good. Because I've been thinking about that reading nook we discussed. And the office upstairs. And maybe converting the attic into proper living space."
"Living space?"
"For the innkeeper and her contractor. Assuming he's interested in permanent employment."
Rowan felt something loosen in his chest, a tension he'd carried for so long he'd forgotten it was there. Home. She was offering him home, partnership, a future built on shared work and mutual choice.
"I'm interested," he said quietly. "Very interested."
Diana stepped into his arms, her hands sliding up his chest to rest against his shoulders. "Then we'd better get to work. This place won't renovate itself."
"No," Rowan agreed, bending to kiss her forehead. "But with both of us working on it, there's nothing we can't handle."
As he held her in the kitchen that had become the heart of their shared space, Rowan realized the pack had made a crucial miscalculation. They thought love made wolves weak, made them vulnerable to manipulation and control.
They were wrong. Love made wolves dangerous. It gave them something worth protecting, worth fighting for, worth staying to defend.
Let them come with their pressure tactics and manufactured crises. He wasn't running anymore.
