Page 1 of Sasha's Wounded Wolf

Chapter One

~ Rowan ~

I left behind the cabin we were staying in and walked toward the edge of the woods that surrounded the log refuge. The sky was alive with stars while the moon fast approached a fullness that called to my wolf. We’d both craved the open air since I’d awoken from a medically induced coma. The medical team taking care of me kept me under for nine months. The hope had been that my wolf would be able to heal me given enough time, but there was some damage even my animal side couldn’t walk away from. Instead, I’d woken to the fact two of my closest friends had burned to death while doing their best to cover me and protect me from the flames eating at us. They’d achieved their goal, destroying themselves in the process.

“Rowan.”

I glanced over and noted Easton had followed me outside. Both he and Lincoln had been my constant shadows since I’d awoken. I got it. They’d almost lost me, and they weren’t taking any more chances with their alpha. Both men were like brothers to me. Always had been. From our first breath to our last. That was our creed. One that hit even deeper now that I’d faced the flames.

“I’m good,” I told him, but I knew he didn’t believe me. This wasn’t the first night I’d been unable to sleep. When I managed to tumble off, nightmares of burning flames brought me awake, panting for breath while I used my hands to put out a fire that only burned in my mind.

“Maybe, it’s time we go home.”

Easton had said the same thing for the last two weeks. He’d been mentioning it since I’d saved a fellow wolf from a trap and sent her to my sister and her mate.

“Where would that be?” I snapped. “The Rigton pack no longer exists.”

“Of course, we do,” Easton snapped back.

“No. They were absorbed into the James Pack two years after I died in the explosion. In the last eighteen months, they’ve cleaned house. Something I should have done when I was alpha. They’re better off without me. Bastion is the leader I knew he was, and my sister is the safest she’s ever been. Ivy’s found her mate, and he’ll protect her and little Jasmine. They deserve that. The whole pack does. What they don’t deserve is me bringing my shit back to them and having more of them caught in the crossfire of an enemy I still can’t locate.”

But we both knew I wasn’t only trying to track down the unknown enemy.

“That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard you say.”

Easton paced away, body shaking with anger.

“Someone tried to kill you. If not for Josh and Patrick’s quick thinking, they would have succeeded. Not a word, Rowan,” he warned when I would have interrupted. “Patrick and Josh made their choice and saved your life. Any one of us would have done the same. Gladly. With no remorse.”

“Knowing it doesn’t make it any easier to accept.”

I turned my head, pinching the bridge of my nose as I squeezed my eyes shut and remembered the two men I’d thought of as brothers. God, the five of us had been inseparable. It was only natural they rose with me when I became alpha. My brothers. My most trusted pack members. Two of whom were dead.

“How long are you going to hunt, Ro?” Easton’s voice was low and filled with a sorrow I wouldn’t let myself feel. Not yet.

“Until I find her.”

“Lincoln told you about the attack. She was killed. You’ve got to accept that.”

The same day the truck I’d been in had flipped and caught fire, Sasha had been attacked. I still didn’t have all the details. There were too many conflicting stories, but they all ended the same way. Sasha Volkov was presumed dead. She’d gone over the falls, and it was assumed her body had washed away.

“They never found her body.”

Plus, I truly believed I’d know if Sasha were gone. She was my mate. I’d been ready to introduce her to the pack, had called my sister home to let Raina meet her first. Then fire had rained down on me, and I’d woken in hell. No pack. No mate. And a body seared by flames so hot even my wolf hadn’t been able to fully heal the blistered skin.

“You expect me to believe Nico disappeared after his sister’s death?” I questioned Easton.

Sasha’s brother hadn’t been there when she was attacked. Many believed he’d gone off to grieve his sister in the aftermath, but I knew better. If Sasha were dead, Nico would burn down the world to avenge his twin. The fact no one knew where he was said all I needed to know. He’d taken her somewhere to protect her, thinking I’d been killed and probably fearing she’d be next.

For over three years now.

Whoever was behind what had happened to me and the attack on Sasha had robbed my mate and me of three and half years. Years we could have been loving one another, building a family together, making a life together. Some days, I worried she wouldn’t want to be with me when I found her. My face had been untouched by the flames, but my body hadn’t been so lucky. I’d suffered such severe burns over my chest, back, and arms that the medical team I’d been taken to had forced me into a coma to try to help me heal. My back and right side bore the worst of the scars.

“If he took her away to protect her, we may never find him.”

I knew Easton was correct, but I wouldn’t accept that. I couldn’t. He didn’t understand what it was to be mated. None of the nine wolves who’d stuck by my side did. They were all carefree and single, but my heart was no longer my own. It was Sasha’s. I craved her the same way I needed air to breathe. She’d been my first thought when I awoke, and she’d remained at the forefront of my mind every day since.

“I’m worried about you, Ro.”

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