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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, Ipad 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.

Chapter 15

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.”