You shouldn’t let him get to you.Killian walked beside me, the reproach in his tone just enough to raise my hackles even more.
He pisses me off.
“And you let him see that he does,” he reprimanded me. “Do you know who we lost?” he asked, changing the subject.
“Yeah, older shifter. I think he lived out past the last iron marker.” I wanted to hit something. “There might be a wife…”
“Speaking of?—”
“I don’t want to hear it,” I snapped.
“Of course you don’t want to hear it,” Killian said with a scowl. “But youreallyneed to fucking hear it.”
I didn’t need to hear it because I alreadyknew. My wife, mymate, was actively going out of her way to make my life hell. The pack had been attacked by a band of rogues a few weeks prior, and Blueridge Hollow had lost three of their own. They were not prepared, and the attack had brought it home to them how underprepared they were.
I’d enlisted backup from my Stonefang Pack, trusted shifters who were loyal to me and well-trained. It hadn’t gone over well at first, but the twenty or so that showed up were reluctantly accepted, and then, for some fucked-up reason I still hadn’t figured out, therestofStonefang Pack had arrived.
Nearly every single one of them.
Stonefang Pack was known to move around a lot. There was no one place in our territory that we called home, but we still had a territory, and they’dleftit. It had taken days of subtle negotiation, but between Killian and me, we’d sent half of them back. Along with a third of the fighters I’d asked to come here.
While none had said it, I wondered if it was because they felt insecure and unprotected since I wasn’t there, so sending some of the better fighters back had been my solution. I also knew I had to travel between both packs, but Blueridge Hollow was becoming increasingly challenging to manage as the days went on.
Not to mention the challenge mywifepresentedevery single day.
I thought that, during the initial attack and immediately afterward, a truce had formed between us. We shared the samehouse, the same bed, and the same pack. Rowen was difficult at best—stubborn, independent, opinionated—and had a fire in her that rivaled the sun. But when Stonefang arrived unannounced and unexpected, she’d seen it as a move to erase Blueridge Hollow.
How she got to that assumption was beyond me, but Rowen was stubborn, and once the idea was in her head, she took it as a personal attack every time Stonefang did something.
“Are you ignoring me?” Killian demanded, interrupting my thoughts.
“Not that lucky,” I grumbled. “I’ll talk to her again. Okay?”
“I don’t want you talking to her,” he said with more bite than necessary. “I want her fuckinglistening.”
“Killian.”
If you completed your mate bond, you’d have more control over her.His voice rumbled in my head.
I don’t want to control her; she isn’t an animal to be trained.ButI will talk to her. Again. Now shut the fuck up about it.
“You need to check in with the family?” Killian changed the subject. Which I was grateful for.
“Yeah, going now. Go…” I looked at him and grinned, knowing I was being an asshole. “Go speak to the druid about the loss.”
Killian stopped short and growled low. “You’re a prick,” he grouched, turned on his heel, and walked off in the other direction, towards the druid’s tent.
The two of them didn’t blend well. The druid with their ancient ways, and Killian with his very modern outlook on life, they were oil and water, and the chances of them ever co-existing peacefully were getting smaller every day. I wasn’t proud of the fact that I kept sending Killian to the druid in my place, but knowing it was the only way to shut my beta up about his dislike for Rowen, I kept doing it.
The woods were too quiet on the way to the dead shifter’s house.
Not peaceful. Not still. Just…quiet in that wrong kind of way. The kind of quiet that warned you something had moved through and left nothing alive behind.
I didn’t shift. My wolf was pacing just under the surface, claws dragging on the inside of my skin like it wanted to tear something open. I needed to stay sharp, not give in to instinct.
Not tonight.
Not when I already felt like I was losing control.
