Erec’s throat tightened. His first instinct was to refute what she was saying, but his words tangled on his tongue.
“After everything you’ve done for this pack, for these survivors—for me—there was no way I was going to let you leave here, just to return to that cave. No way.” Astrid paused, her eyes closing. She said nothing for a few breaths.
Then, her shoulders fell, and when she looked at him again, her expression softened. “I knew the risk,” she whispered. “I knew, but look what happened. Now everyone is part of the pack. And so are you.” A faint smile touched her lips. “It was worth it,” she said. “I think so, anyway.”
Radiating warmth spread throughout Erec’s body. He didn’t know what to say. Astrid’s selflessness stunned him. To her, he was worth losing her home and her family for. Sure, Erec had helped the west-side pack find Svanna Rock, but that was because he couldn’t stand to see another pack overrun by Jerrick and his men. And, of course, he had saved Astrid from Claus. It was his fault she had been the scouts’ target in the first place; he had been foolish enough to leave her behind.
He hadn’t done anything to earn such kindness.
Astrid spun around and strode toward the collection of dwellings again. “Come on,” she called to the group. “There’s food and some new clothing for you all this way. I think you’ve waited long enough.”
Henrick and the others continued behind her, but Erec remained locked in place. All he could do was watch in silence as Astrid and the survivors walked off. As the distance between them grew, the weight of everything that had transpired these past few days tumbled down on him. The ambush, the death of Mikel, Jerrick’s scouts, the survivors, the fight with Claus, Svanna Rock...then finally having a pack, having a friend in Henrick, and possibly outliving the curse. This time, instead of snow, his thoughts were burying him.
And Astrid… For the first time in his life, he wasn’t alone anymore. She wanted him to stay with her. Be with her. Even if she wasn’t his mate, Erec couldn’t think of anyone else he’d rather spend his remaining days with than her, here, in the west-side pack, part of a family.
The sound of heavy footsteps approaching captured his attention, and he turned. A sizzling sensation raced over his skin again, and then he felt the push of an alpha wolf’s aura against him. Boden. He must have been returning—maybe to tell him he’d changed his mind. But a few seconds later, the black hair and broad shoulders of Astrid’s brother, Filip, appeared at the top of a snowy knoll.
Erec hesitated. That couldn’t be right.
But the closer Filip got, the stronger the alpha spirit became, reaching out to him and searching for Erec’s wolf, curious. Erec’s animal was dormant because of the daytime, but the alpha power emanating from Filip was strong enough to make its mark. He could see it, too, somehow—shimmering a brilliant gold around Filip’s body. But unlike Boden’s aggressive and commanding essence, Filip’s transmitted acceptance and respect. A leader.
A pack with two alpha wolves? Impossible. There was no such thing.
With Boden’s faltering health, Filip had been forced to take over most of the pack responsibilities, and it looked like his wolf had accepted the role of alpha completely now.
How could a pack have two alphas? Had Boden’s fading mind made him unaware of the great shift in his son?
“I just heard you arrived,” Filip said with a tinge of laughter. “Cutting it a bit close to the three-day mark, don’t you think? I was about to send a search group to find you.”
Erec rubbed the back of his neck. The movement sent a spike of pain through his wounded shoulder, and he winced. “We ran into some trouble.”
Filip’s gaze landed on his bandage, and his face turned serious. “I see.”
“But Astrid is fine. She’s over there, getting the survivors settled in.”
Filip glanced at the figures in the distance. “Were you able to rescue all of them?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“It wasn’t easy to convince my father to let you go. Or to take Ash with you. But I’m glad everything went as planned.” Then he added. “For the most part. I also heard one of Jerrick’s scouts is currently in Father’s tent.”
Erec nodded. “That was one of the reasons for the trouble.”
“There are more of them?” Filip’s thick brows raised in worry. Erec could sense that worry, too, as if it had slithered across the space between them and become his own. He tried to shake it off.
He wasn’t sure he’d ever get used to this strange pack connection that linked them all.
“There were two more scouts,” Erec explained. He was much more comfortable relaying the details to Filip than his father. “They chased Astrid, but she managed to kill one of them during the fight. The other ran off.”
“Ash killed one of Jerrick’s men?” He paused as the information sank in. Then, to Erec’s surprise, he laughed.
Had Erec missed something? Confused, he waited for Filip to speak again.
“Ash always wanted me to let her train with the boys growing up,” he went on, shaking his head and chuckling. “I had thought it was a waste of time. Women don’t need to learn to fight, but she had insisted. I eventually gave in, thinking it was only to keep her from wandering off and that it wouldn’t matter much, but she killed one of Jerrick’s men and chased the other off? I can’t believe she proved me wrong.”
Erec smirked. Why wasn’t he surprised? “She can handle that spear better than most men,” he replied.
“I’m guessing that wound of yours is also from the fight?”