“I know.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“Tell my father. And don’t let anyone else do what I just did.”
“Why can’t you tell your father? Where are you, man?”
“I’m…remember when I asked you to trust me?”
In response, I get a heavy sigh.
“Just give me a few more days, and then I can explain,” I continue.
“Please don’t tell me you’re in Blackburn territory.”
I scoff. “Of course not.”
“So you’re with the Whiteroses again,” Cal guesses. “You’ve been spending a lot of time up there.”
“Like I said, your faith and discretion would be very much appreciated right now.”
Cal knows I’d never command it out of him. Loyalty is earned, not demanded. Still, I can tell I’m pushing the boundaries of what Cal is willing to do behind the primary Alpha’s back. Keeping secrets from my father could ruin his reputation. I’m asking a lot from him, even as the man who will eventually be Alpha.
“Fine,” Cal mutters after a pause. “I’ve got your back, Rowan.”
“Great. Now go to sleep.”
“Likewise.”
I open my mouth to snarl a rebuttal at him, but he ends the call before I get a chance. He’s pissed at me, that much is obvious. Cal doesn’t like being kept out of the loop because it stands in the way of him performing his duties as a Beta.
It’s easy to let those thoughts drift away when I pull into Alina’s driveway, though. The house is quiet and dark, but as I pull up next to her car and kill the engine, I can easily identify two sleeping bodies inside the house. Safe and sound.
With a long exhale, I sink down in the driver’s seat. I close my eyes and try to welcome a few hours of restless dozing, but it’s no use.
The wolf within me is howling.
Go to her. See with your own eyes that your mate is safe. Drag her back to your lands by force, if necessary. Protect, protect, protect.
“Calm down,” I command myself.
It doesn’t work.
With a resigned sigh, I climb out of the truck and remove my clothing again. Shifting into my wolf form under the veil of night, I pad up the porch steps and curl up on the welcome mat outside the front door.
Alina, Alina, Alina. Mate, Mate, Mate.
Her scent is so much stronger when I have these senses. It wraps around me, calling to me like a siren song. My limbs itch to force my way inside, whether by breaking down the door or shattering a window, if only to be close to her.
I wish I could say that it’s only the urge to guard my son that causes my mind to spiral like this, but my Mate is the true axis of my world. My center of gravity.
It is only by pure force of will that I remain outside. I manage to quell the raging wolf instincts within me and rest my head on the smooth wooden boards, prepared to spend the rest of the night as Alina’s slumbering sentinel.
Alina
“He slept on your porch?” Zahra gasps.
“Yep.”
“The whole night?”
“I can only assume so.” I shrug, taking a sip of the herbal tea I prepared for us. “Noah nearly stepped on him when he opened the door to run out to the bus.”
Zahra snorts. “What did he say?”
“Who? Noah?”
“No, Rowan!”
I gaze out the kitchen windows. Now, in the soft golden light of late afternoon, Rowan is nowhere to be seen. I know he’s not parked down the road and patrolling the property either, because otherwise I’d smell him.
“Nothing,” I answer Zahra. “He stayed in his wolf form. Stood right next to Noah like an obedient hound until the bus came. Then he ran off into the woods, and I hopped in the shower. By the time I was done, his truck was gone. Haven’t seen him since.”
“Weird.”
“I know.”
Zahra adjusts in the rickety chair across the table from me. Today, we’re experiencing the extremely rare event where we both have a day off at the same time. And since Noah will be going directly to a friend’s house for a sleepover after school, I don’t have a whole lot going on today, so I invited Zahra over.
Also, I know it’s time to tell her the truth. She helped me through the worst period of my life; I’m sure she’ll have some good advice for me now.
My best friend crosses her arms and observes me quietly for a long moment.
“It doesn’t really sound like the behavior of an Alpha who has rejected his Mate.”
I roll my eyes. “It’s only because Noah exists that he’s even here in the first place. He doesn’t care about me.”
Whatever attraction he feels for me as a result of the Mating bond is on a purely physical level. His desire to get me naked is the result of a biological instinct, not because he loves me. It’s the only thing I can believe.
Because if Rowan really loved me, he’d find a way to overcome his fear of the prophecy.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.