Page 61 of Fetch Me A Mate
"Good. Because I didn't put my name in that ledger just to watch everything fall apart."
"What did you write?"
"That today felt like home."
"Does it? Still feel like home after everything that's happening?"
Diana looked around the lobby, at the work they'd accomplished together, at the community that had embraced her vision. Yesterday's success proved the inn's resilience. Today's challenges would prove her own.
"More than ever," she said simply. "Home isn't about avoiding trouble, Rowan. It's about facing it from a place you're willing to defend."
"Then we're home."
"Yes. We are."
30
ROWAN
Rowan found Callum at the ranger station, bent over topographical maps. The lion shifter looked up when Rowan knocked, amber eyes taking in everything from posture to scent in a single glance.
"You look like hell," Callum said without preamble. "Come in."
The station was exactly what Rowan expected from Callum—functional, organized, no wasted space or unnecessary decoration. Maps covered one wall, radio equipment hummed quietly in the corner, and coffee brewed in a pot that had seen better decades.
"Coffee?"
"Yeah. Thanks."
Callum poured two mugs and settled behind his desk, waiting. He'd always been good at silence, letting other people fill the space with whatever they needed to say.
"I need advice," Rowan said finally. "About security, territory, protecting what matters."
"The inn."
"The inn. Diana. The community. All of it."
"From what?"
Rowan told him everything. Sarah's escape, the pack's ultimatum, Kael's escalating threats. The impossible choice between going back to clean up old mistakes and watching everything Diana had built get destroyed piece by piece.
"Pack politics," Callum said when Rowan finished. "Messiest kind of conflict there is."
"Yeah."
"They know about Diana."
"They know she matters to me."
"How much does she matter?"
Rowan stared into his coffee, seeing Diana's face reflected in the dark surface.
"She's my mate."
"Figured as much. You've got that look."
"What look?"
