Chapter 8

Chapter

Eight

Rowan

S he was here.

Evelyn Berry hid amongst the trees, her scent slicing through the pack meeting like a beacon. My wolf clawed at the surface, nearly going feral at the scent of her.

I closed my hands into fists, pacing behind Mara and Tori as they talked and clenching my jaw with such force, I thought my teeth might crack.

This was insane. I'd run twenty kilometers to tire him out, and still, this was happening? I wanted to hit something. Scream. Anything to keep from sprinting across the clearing and slamming her up against a tree and?—

"Rowan?"

I turned, panting.

Tori blinked at me, her brow furrowed. "You ready to start?"

I swallowed hard, my pulse jumping in my throat. "Is everyone here?" My voice was raw, and she nodded warily. I gave my ascent, though she didn't need it. She was the regional alpha, and while I appreciated her taking each alpha's opinion into account, this was a situation where I was happy to be ignored.

Tori climbed onto a stump we'd dragged to the top of the clearing, and heads lifted all around us. The forest, cloaked in night's embrace, hushed. I spotted my wolves to my right. A respectable showing. It seemed everyone was there besides a few she-wolves and pups.

Tori lifted her voice, beginning with what we all knew. The missing wolves. The questions we all had about whether these were still rogue attacks or whether there was some other threat bubbling under the surface.

"Unity is not a request. It's a necessity," she continued, her voice echoing off the trees. Mara, her eyes like steel traps, nodded in agreement beside her. "We cannot let old feuds blind us to the danger at our doors."

A growl rumbled through the crowd as I scanned the faces of my counterparts. The Kitimat Pack huddled together, visibly apart from the rest, their expressions grim and guarded. Nathan's absence was like a gaping wound among them—he was up north with the other alphas who'd suffered losses. Briefly, compassion flickered within me, but it was swiftly drowned by a surge of bitterness.

"How can we trust the Kitimat?" someone spat from the crowd. Murmurs of agreement rustled like leaves in the wind.

"Every loss to one is a loss to all," someone shot back.

I couldn't focus on any of it. My wolf was singularly trained on her, though I still couldn't make out her form. She was in the shadows, and she was on the move.

The undercurrent of dissent still echoed around me as I struggled to rein in my wolf, his instincts honed on Evelyn's scent. Her presence tugged at something primal within me, binding and bewildering all at once. The certainty that had always anchored me now wavered like a flame in the wind.

I didn't realize I'd started to move until Jasper's hands clamped over my shoulders. "Rowan!" Jasper hissed, slicing through the fog of my thoughts as he yanked me aside into the shadows where the moonlight barely reached. Beside him stood Will, his expression grim. They were my friends, my brothers-in-arms, yet I surged forward, crushing them both to the trunk of a redwood.

"Does this mean you owe me ten bucks?" Will grunted, struggling against my forearm pressed against his shoulder.

My eyes locked onto Jasper. "What the hell is he talking about?"

Jasper threw his head forward, striking my temple. I reeled back, dropping them. Before I could react, he grabbed my arm and threw me back into the tree I'd had him pinned against seconds before. "Breathe, Rowan. Trust me, and breathe."

Breathing was the last thing I wanted to do. I wanted to kick the shit out of him. But something in his voice made me hesitate. This was Jasper. This was my friend. What was I doing fighting with him at the pack meeting?

"Yep, just like that. Another one. In and out." Jasper held me tight, and I did as he said. Three breaths later, he released me. My field of vision cleared, and I saw Will standing next to us. The din in the clearing had subsided somewhat. Tori must've found some way to douse the uprising.

"Brutal, isn't it." Will ran a hand through his hair.

I frowned, still working to fill my lungs.

He shook his head. "It was exactly like that for me. You need to get a handle on it before you start a war instead of stopping one."

"What are you jabbering about?" I snapped.

Jasper chuckled. "Rowan, for being such a smart-ass, you're a little slow on the uptake with this one."

I looked between the two of them. Will looked like he'd just survived a blood trial. Jasper's smile was a little too smug.

"Fated," Will finally said. "You found your mate." He turned and pointed behind him. "I was standing there when I saw you tearing a track in the forest floor. When it looked like you were about to bury half the wolves in the clearing to get to her, I forced Jasper to step in."

The trees started to spin. Fated? The past twenty-four hours snapped into surprising clarity. Evelyn's scent. The way I couldn't get her out of my head. My wolf hyper-attuned to her, trying to force himself through my ribcage when I caught a hint of her presence.

"Shit." I turned and pressed my forehead against the rough bark of the tree and instantly regretted it. It was still bruised from where Jasper had knocked me.

Jasper clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Bud, I'm having a hard time understanding why you're not over the moon about this right now. Isn't this what you wan?—"

"You don't get it." I spun, nearly taking his head off with my elbow. "Sorry," I muttered.

Jasper stepped back, his knees still bent into a slight crouch. He didn't trust me. Hell, I didn't trust me at that moment.

"What don't I get?" he asked, more politely than I deserved.

I cleared my throat. "She can't—this isn't a mating bond I can accept. It isn't something she'll accept."

"Who is it?" Will's eyes were like cereal bowls.

I debated keeping it to myself but saw no point in hiding it from them. "Evelyn Berry."

Jasper frowned. "Evelyn…"

"Kitimat. Word is she went sigma a couple of years ago."

Jasper looked up, and that's when I knew he understood. He'd heard the rumors just like I had. Nathan choosing her at the blood moon. Her showing up in town with a black eye and bloody lip, swearing it was an accident. Her disappearing and Nathan threatening everyone in his pack, trying to get a lead on where she went.

Jasper growled. "Well shit, buddy."

My thoughts exactly.