Page 66 of The Wolf's Plus-Size Bride

“Yeah,” Jack says, his tone sympathetic. “She was pretty upset. I think she was hoping you’d come outside and talk to her.”

“I didn’t know,” I say, my voice strained. “I didn’t see her. The only reason I was even there was to keep myself busy. I needed a distraction.”

“I know,” he says, putting a hand on my shoulder. “And I’m not saying this to be a dick, I’m saying it because you need to hear it. You were an idiot. You let her get away.”

I sigh, my shoulders sagging. “I know.”

“You guys need to come see this!” Gael’s voice rings out through the forest.

We rush over to where he’s standing near the road, and I can’t believe what I’m seeing. Footprints, dozens of them, all headed in the direction of Stardust Hollow.

“Fuck,” Rafe hisses, his eyes flashing with anger. “They’re going after the other pack.”

“That’s why they posted up between our territories,” I reason. “They knew we were running this exchange program, and they knew they’d be returning home soon. They were waiting for their chance to strike.”

“We have to warn them,” Gael says, his voice tight. “We have to get to them before the rogues do.”

“I’ll call Ram,” Rafe says, pulling out his phone.

He dials the number, and we wait, our hearts pounding, but there’s no answer.

“Fuck,” Rafe hisses, his voice laced with frustration. “Reiner, try calling Jane.”

I pull out my phone and dial her number, but it goes straight to voicemail.

“Shit,” I mutter, clenching my jaw. “What if they’ve already got them?”

“Oh, man,” Jack mumbles. “This is bad. This is really bad.”

“We have to assume the worst,” Gael states. “We have to assume the rogues have attacked the pack, and we have to prepare for the possibility that we’re going to be walking into a bloodbath.”

“Fuck,” Rafe growls. “We need to let Evan know and wait for his orders. We can’t go charging in there without a plan.”

I throw my hands in the air. “There’s no time for that shit! They could be dying, or worse, already dead while we sit here and debate what to do. We need to go now.”

“You know that’s not how we do things.” Rafe walks over to me, placing his hands on my shoulders and squeezing a bit.

Tears prick my eyes, and I have to blink them away. “But what if they have Jane?”

Chapter 24 - Jane

I sit in the back of the van, staring out the window as the trees blur into a green and brown smudge. My wolf is pacing inside me, restless and angry, as if she’s trying to claw her way out. I’ve tried ignoring her, focusing on the steady hum of the engine and the occasional chatter from Sonya and my aunt in the front seat, but it’s no use. My mind keeps drifting back to him.

Reiner.

The way he looked at me this morning, the hurt in his eyes that mirrored the ache in my chest. It’s been gnawing at me the whole trip, a constant reminder that maybe I’m making a huge mistake. I thought leaving would make things easier, that putting distance between us would help me sort out my feelings. But all it’s done is make everything worse.

I feel like I’m leaving a piece of myself behind.

I shift in my seat, trying to find a more comfortable position, but the leather is hot and sticky against my skin, and nothing feels right. My wolf growls low in my chest, a sound only I can hear, but it echoes in my mind, making my head throb. She doesn’t want to leave. She wants to go back, to run straight to Reiner and demand answers.

What are you doing? she seems to ask, her voice a constant pressure in my head.Why are you leaving him?

I don’t have a good answer. I thought I did. I told myself it was the right thing to do, that it was what we both needed. But now I’m not so sure. All I can think about is how empty I felt when I walked away from him, how cold the air felt the moment I left his side.

And I keep wondering if I made the same mistake twice.

My heart pounds as I recall the last time I let fear guide me—how I walked away without looking back, thinking it was for the best. All it did was leave me with regrets, with a constant “what if” lingering in the back of my mind. I can’t do that again. I can’t walk away without knowing if there’s something real between us, something worth fighting for.

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