Page 9 of Mate Night Snack
He hadn’t been back here in years.
Not since the night he made the choice that got him exiled.
Not since he walked away from the only family he’d ever known.
His chest tightened, the weight of that night pressing against old ribs like it hadn’t in a while. The screaming. The blood. The silence that followed.
And the judgment that came after.
They called it betrayal.
He called it mercy.
But Hollow Oak had given him a second chance, a place on the outer circle of trust where he was strong enough to defend the town, but never welcome enough to lead again. He’d taken the work the Council offered. Guard. Enforcer. Muscle when they needed it. The kind of job where no one asked you to smile, just show up and bleed if it came to that. And handyman during all other hours.
And he’d made peace with it. Mostly.
Untilsherolled into town with her tangled hair and combat boots and sharp damn tongue. She asked questions like they were weapons. And she wasn’t scared off by silence, which was usually how he kept people away.
She looked at him like he was a puzzle she could solve if she just stared long enough.
But this? This clearing?
It wasn’t for her.
It wasn’t for anyone.
He finally turned and walked the perimeter, boots crunching soft on old pine needles. The sigils on the stones were worn but not dead. Faint symbols of the old pack—Ashwin’s mark carved in the largest stone, half-erased from weather and time. A jagged triangle inside a circle. Blood symbol. Packbound.
He spit into the dirt.
Ashwin had claimed this land as sacred before twisting everything it stood for. Turned brotherhood into brutality.Turned obedience into chains. And Emmett had followed for too long, ignored too much, until that one night made it all impossible.
He hadn’t thought about that night in a long time.
Not in detail. Not with the scent of burnt bone still caught behind his teeth.
The fact thatsheof all people had stumbled into this place felt like a warning. Or a joke from the Veil itself.
You buried it. But not deep enough.
He exhaled through his nose, slow and steady, then brushed the nearest stone with his fingers.
Cold. Still pulsing.
He didn’t know how she found it.
Humans weren’t supposed to. Not unless they were touched by the Veil somehow.
But she had walked right in.
And more than that, she’dfeltsomething. He saw it in the way she paused, hand hovering over the runes. Noticed the tension in her shoulders, like the clearing was whispering things to her it had no business sharing.
She shouldn’t have been able to sense any of that.
Not unless…
His jaw ticked.
