Page 126 of Wolf's Reckoning
Well, I knew you weren’t getting hot and heavy with the missus… Never seen a woman so cold before.
I lost my smile.Careful, Beta, that’s your alpha’s mate you’re talking about.
Well,Alpha, I need you front and center,he said, all humor lost from his voice.
I sat up slowly, careful not to disturb her.What the fuck is it now?
Stonefang, he said, and I could hear the strain in his voice.
What about them?I was already walking to the front door. I opened it, and my second was waiting for me.
“Killian?”
“Stonefang is here,” he told me. “Allof them.”
Epilogue
Wolfe
Two weeks later
The Hollow was quiet.
For the first time in weeks, no one was arguing. No one was bleeding. And I wasn’t holding Rowen back from tearing someone’s throat out.
It should have felt like peace.
It didn’t.
The moon was high overhead as I stepped out of the house. My head ached from the day’s work, my back from too many hours mediating between two packs still learning how to share a space. Stonefang had arrived in force. They brought strength. Loyalty. And a handful of wolves I didn’t trust as far as I could throw them.
Killian joined me without a word. We stood in silence, side by side, watching the pines shift under a breeze that smelled too still.
“Something’s wrong,” I muttered, walking away from the house.
Killian snorted as he joined me. “Just now noticing?”
I gave him a look. “One of ours intercepted a message,” I said. “Encrypted. Complex enough to not be rogue. Not entirely.”
He straightened. “From the Hollow?”
“From someoneinthe Hollow,” I corrected. “Using an old coding system that I had to search for someone to know it.”
Killian swore under his breath. “What did it say?”
I tried to curb my anger. “Stonefang reinforcements have arrived. Blueridge Hollow is unstable. Wait until the power shifts.”
His jaw tightened. “Unstable? They’re trying to turn the packs against each other?”
“Or against me.” My voice was low. Flat.
“Any idea who?”
I shook my head. “Not yet.”
But I would find them.
Before, they proved Rowen right that a bigger pack didn’t mean abetterpack. We’d been arguing for days, ever since Stonefang Pack had turned up unannounced, and I was tired of it.
