Page 106 of Wolf's Reckoning
“You’re in heat, Rowen. You come with me, I either bend you over a dining room table or kill every male in the room who so much as looks at you. What would you prefer?” I pulled on a clean shirt.
She looked resigned when she spoke. “I’ll stay here.”
I nodded curtly. “Good girl.” I walked out of the room. “Three of my pack are outside. Don’t try to get past them; they have orders to chain you to the bed if they have to.”
“You’ve changed so much I no longer recognize you,” she whispered as I started to close the door.
“I didn’t change, Rowen,” I told her. “I grew up.”
I walked to the pack hall alone. I passed few of the pack along the way, and I hoped that was because they were already gathering in the pack hall. I stepped into the clearing just as the sun dipped low, the last rays slicing through the pines and casting long shadows across the space. The pack hall was already cast in shadow, and I had a fleeting thought about how fitting that was.
When I walked into the hall, the pack was waiting. They always were. Watching. Weighing. They stood clustered in loose groups—guards, hunters, elders. Some curious. Some tense. Some suspicious.
It was good they were here. They deserved answers.
I didn’t raise my voice.
“Let’s get this over with,” I said, stepping into the center. “You’ve got questions. So here’s the truth.”
The silence that followed was so tense it felt sharp enough to cut skin. Killian moved to the back of the hall, and I knew it was so I could see him and so he could seeeverything.
“I didn’t lie to you,” I said. “But I didn’t offer the whole truth either. When I returned to Blueridge Hollow, I didn’t want to come as the alpha ofmypack. There are those of you who know me from when I called this pack home. I wasn’t sure what reception I would get when I came back, and I knew Malric was dying. So I came here as a representative of my pack. Not as someone looking to become alpha of yours.”
A few confused murmurs rose. I lifted a hand to stop the whispering.
“Alphas are born, we don’t get to make the choice.” I saw a few of the elders, those who knew me when I was young, exchange looks. “An alpha’s power comes later. Are there signs I was one? I don’t know; I never even thought it was possible. Malric was kind enough to let me stay in this pack during my younger years. Everyone here who knew me back then knows I wasn’t groomed for the title. When circumstances”—I almost choked on the term—“made it that it was time to move on, I did. I left this pack when I was eighteen. Not an adult yet. I found a new pack. Alpha Lars of Stonefang Pack was a good alpha. He saw something in me, and when I hit the age of change, he trained me and recognized the changes when I didn’t. He knew I was an alpha, and he led me through it. Guided me. So that when he passed, he had already named me the successor to StonefangPack. There was no real fight for it, the pack accepted. I was challenged, but they weren’t serious.”
“Is the challenger dead?” someone asked, and I didn’t need to look to know it was one of Kirk’s kin.
“No,” Killian spoke before I could. “There were three challengers in all. One is still telling the tale of how his alpha landed him flat on his ass with one punch, another sits on Alpha Wolfe’s council, and the third is here, as his beta.”
“You?” a female to the back asked.
“Brand,” Killian said easily. “He is currently guarding your alpha’s wife during her heat.”
Lewis looked at me. “You let someone who challenged you for your position become a beta?”
“Brand was always a beta,” I explained easily. “He’s got a good head on his shoulders, calm and capable. I didn’t want to lose that just because he wanted to test my commitment to my pack.” I shrugged. “Pretty much like when I asked you to be an advisor for here, I don’t believe in letting knowledge and wisdom go to waste.”
“The point is,” Killian said. “Wolfe helped lead the Stonefang Pack without being the alpha for years. He did the damn job without needing the rank. Alpha Lars didn’t hide from us that Wolfe was his successor. His sons weren’t born alphas, but they still serve in our pack alongside Wolfe, like they served their father before him.”
I let that settle. Some of them shifted uneasily.
“I didn’t hide it from Malric. He knew.” I let out a small smile. “Well, I tried to hide it from him,” I admitted, “but he was too clever for me, even at the end.” I heard a few chuckles in the crowd. “The druid knew too. When your alpha named me his successor, I didn’t take it lightly.” Iturned slowly, meeting eyes. Letting them feel the weight of it. “I never intended to rule two packs. I didn’t come here for this.”
“But you accepted it,” Elder Murrow said, sharp-eyed.
“I accepted it,” I echoed. “Because your alpha asked. Because this Hollow matters. Because I saw the threats gathering on your borders, and I knew what it would mean if you fell.”
“And the mating?” someone asked. “The daughter of the alpha? Our Rowen?”
That tic in my jaw was back.
“That was not part of any plan,” I said. “But if you’re worried about manipulation, stop. Rowen chose her path long before I returned. You think she bends to anyone?” That got a few huffs. A few grudging smirks.
Someone stood up, someone I didn’t know, and they looked at me with nervousness. “I heard you, heard both of you while you argued earlier.” She swallowed. “She is your bonded mate?”
The noise level rose as people clamored to be heard over each other, some in outrage, some with joy.
