Chapter 14

Chapter

Fourteen

Rowan

I chased after Evelyn through the dense forest. Her wolf was a blur of speed and panic, her scent a wild mix of fear and desperation, and my wolf surged with the need to protect her.

We came on too strong, bud, I chastised. As usual, my wolf didn't understand the definition of the word ‘chill.' I loved him for that. But when he got his mind set on something, keeping him from it was like trying to drag a Great Dane by a length of twine.

I threw my consciousness toward the blur of roan fur flashing through the trees ahead of me. Evelyn, stop.

She stuttered a step, and I silently celebrated. We could talk to her. I'd never spoken with someone outside of my pack in wolf form, but somehow, I knew it would work. I could sense her wolf almost as acutely as I could sense my own. It was disorienting, and yet it filled me with such intense emotion, I thought I'd split at the seams.

Evelyn, please , I tried again, and that time I caught a response.

I can't do this. I need to find Callista. Her voice was fragmented. Chaotic. It reminded me of the first time our adolescents joined us on runs. I pushed harder, my paws digging into the earth as I closed the distance between us.

She was fast, but I knew these woods like the back of my hand. I could sense her inner turmoil, the raw pain and fear that drove her forward. Then color flashed in my mind, and I nearly sideswiped a Lodgepole Pine.

What the hell was that? Another image, this time with a face I recognized. Nathan Black, his eyes dark, stalking toward us.

These were memories. Her memories. Through whatever bond we'd begun to form, I could feel them pressing in on her, the horrific images she was trying so hard to outrun. Her wolf's stride faltered, and I took the chance to close in further, only to have to change course as another wolf appeared at my flank.

Blake. I'd never seen his form before, but by the worry in his eyes and the fact that we were both running the same direction, I had no doubt it was him.

Evelyn slowed. Something was passing between the two of them, and my wolf growled at the realization that Blake had been able to get through to her when we hadn't.

They were old friends. Pack mates. Even if Evelyn was convinced she'd left our world behind, her wolf was proving she wasn't satisfied to stay hidden forever.

Evelyn finally stopped at the creek ahead of us, panting hard. Blake and I stopped next to her. I wanted to shift back so I could hear what they were talking about, but none of us had any clothes. I doubted standing naked in front of each other was going to make this situation any better, though we were going to have to deal with that inconvenience sooner or later. I had extra clothes in my truck, but since she'd insisted on taking Blake's tin can, that wasn't going to help anything.

I'm sorry, I sent to her. For whatever I said or did.

Her head turned toward me, but she didn't speak. When she turned back to Blake, I pawed at the ground.

Evelyn's wolf was trembling, her eyes wide with fear and panic. She focused on Blake and whined softly, her body tense and ready to bolt at any moment. It tore me up inside seeing her like this, but I realized at that moment I didn't know everything I thought I did. She wasn't the same wolf I'd known back when we were kids.

You didn't do anything. Her voice finally sounded in my head, and my shoulders relaxed. I came back to help my friend. This is too much.

Blake moved closer to her, and my wolf understood before I did. He let out a low growl as I was catching up. This was too much. I was too much. She'd come back as a tracker, and here I was telling her we were fated. Even if she felt it like I did, she'd made it clear that she wasn't planning on coming back to her pack—to any pack.

But even as her words echoed in my head, her wolf took a step toward me. I raised my head, and she immediately yielded, lowering her eyes to the ground.

Why was her wolf acting as if I was challenging her? Why was Evelyn acting as if I was a threat?

The images I'd seen earlier clicked into place.

Because her old alpha was a threat.

Her wolf sensed both my alpha energy and the beginnings of our mating bond. One she wanted. The other she did not.

But I couldn't help that I was an alpha. I couldn't help the instinct to be by her side or to protect her at all costs. But what if that was exactly why she couldn't accept this? Couldn't accept me?

Without thinking, I flopped onto the ground, exposing my belly in a show of complete submission. Her wolf's head shot up. Her eyes widened, intensely focused on my soft underbelly.

It felt like torture lying exposed like this, but I needed her wolf to understand. Yes, I was strong. Yes, I was an alpha. But I was not there to force her paw. I would not ask for trust I wasn't willing to give, and I would never?—

Blake says that's embarrassing. Evelyn's wolf took a step toward me.

I kept my eyes fixed on her. Tell Blake he wouldn't know alpha energy if it punched him in the face.

Her eyes narrowed as her wolf did the closest thing she could to a smile. Blake stalked forward, but Evelyn nudged him with her nose.

We should go to the truck , she said.

I rolled over and stood, dwarfing both of them as I rose to my full height. Even though I wanted to lead, I let Evelyn go first. The scent of her nearly sent my wolf into a frenzy. Thankfully, neither she nor Blake looked back to see me staring at her backside.

Evelyn stopped at the edge of the trees and turned her head to Blake. I didn't have to hear their conversation to understand. We needed to shift back to our human forms, but that meant?—

Blake was suddenly standing there next to Evelyn. Butt naked. I let out an amused bark, and Blake flipped me the bird without looking back.

Tell Blake ‘nice ass ,' I sent to Evelyn. She rolled her eyes as I sauntered up next to her and settled onto my haunches.

You can tell him yourself after he sees yours.

A part of me wanted to shift right there. Walk down the hill in front of her and let her ogle the goods, but by the way she was sending sidelong glances, I knew she already was. My wolf was impressive. All alphas were, but I'd always loved the streaks of grey that ran over my shoulders.

Blake trudged back toward us with sweatpants and a t-shirt on. He tossed up two more sets for us, then pointed at me accusingly. "Turn around, Steele. If I catch you looking, I'll run my truck into your pasty thighs."

My thighs aren't pasty , I said.

Evelyn huffed, then turned her back. I did the same, acutely aware of the shuffling sounds behind me as I shifted and dressed. My senses were still heightened from my wolf, and I could hear every inhale, every catch of her breath as she pulled on her shirt and pants.

Sweatpants were not ideal for hiding what her proximity did to me.

Blake's eyes narrowed as I casually clasped my hands in front of my crotch and walked back to the truck. "Pants are a little short." I couldn't help rubbing in the fact that I was bigger than him.

"Asshole," Blake muttered as he rounded the hood.

When the truck finally rolled to a stop at our destination, I was the first to step out.

"A mushroom farm? Really?" Evelyn dropped to the ground next to me, her boots sinking into the mossy earth. She was wearing Blake's clothes, and everything was oversized. It was adorable to see her rolled-up sleeves and pant legs, though by the way she kept fiddling with her shirt, I doubted it felt comfortable.

"Were you expecting some mystical dwelling, maybe a woman living in the hollow of a tree?" I asked. Evelyn barely flicked a glance my way, but her cheeks stained, and the hairs on her arm prickled.

She wanted me. The problem was, her head was telling a different story. But heads were always easier to change than hearts.

"Disappointed?" Blake asked.

"Confused." Evelyn chewed her lower lip. "She's a witch, and she…just runs a business out here?"

"Everyone has to make a living." I started toward the small building. "It's not like we live in a fairytale."

"You're here, so definitely not a fairytale," she shot back, earning a low chuckle from Blake.

The nickname I'd used for her back at the truck almost slipped off my tongue again, but I caught myself. She didn't like it. There was something there that I didn't fully understand, but I was beginning to. A past she didn't want to remember, even if there was plenty of good there. Nathan had poisoned it, spreading decay through even my memories of Black Lake back in the day.

That was fine. I'd give her a new one. "Fighting words, strawberry," I whispered, low enough only she could hear. She looked up at me in surprise, and the pink in her cheeks deepened.

Perfection.