Page 22 of Fetch Me A Mate (Shifter Mates of Hollow Oak #1)

ROWAN

T he north shore of Moonmirror Lake stretched out like black glass under the afternoon sun. Rowan arrived first, positioning himself with his back to the water and clear sight lines to the tree line. Old habits. When you'd spent years as an alpha, you never stopped thinking tactically.

They emerged from the woods like shadows given form. Kael, Max, and Danarius, moving with the predatory confidence of wolves who'd never learned to doubt their place in the world's hierarchy.

"Punctual as always," Danarius said, his voice carrying across the water. "I was beginning to worry you'd developed bad habits."

"Cut the crap. What do you want?"

"Same thing we've wanted for three years." Danarius stopped just outside striking distance, a careful calculation. "For you to come back home and fix what you broke."

"I didn't break anything."

"Didn't you?" Kael stepped to Danarius's left, flanking maneuver disguised as casual positioning. "Walk me through it again, brother. The night you decided pack law didn't apply to you."

Rowan's wolf stirred beneath his skin, memories rising like bile. "That's ancient history."

"Not to Sarah's family. Not to the pack that trusted you to make the hard choices."

Hearing her name hit him hard. Sarah Trident, nineteen years old, eyes bright with rebellion and a smile that could light up rooms. Sarah, who'd fallen in love with a human boy and thought love could conquer pack law.

"She broke the rules," Rowan said quietly. "Not me."

"You were alpha." Max spoke for the first time, his voice a low rumble of violence. "Your job was to enforce those rules. Instead, you helped her run."

"She was pregnant."

"With a human's child." Danarius's tone carried the weight of absolute judgment. "An abomination that would have weakened our bloodline for generations."

"She was nineteen and terrified. I wasn't going to let you hunt her down like an animal."

"So you let her escape. Helped her disappear into the human world with our pack secrets and a belly full of mixed blood." Kael's smile was sharp as broken glass. "Very noble. Very stupid."

Rowan remembered that night three years ago. Sarah's desperate phone call, the way she'd begged him not to let them take her baby. The choice between pack law and basic humanity.

He'd made his choice. Helped her reach the safe house network, given her enough money to disappear completely. By morning, the pack council had voted him out and Danarius in.

"She's safe," he said. "That's all that matters."

"Is she?" Danarius grabbed his phone, scrolling through messages with theatrical casualness. "Because I've got some interesting updates on our runaway. Seems she's been living in Portland. Had her little mongrel child. Even got married to her human."

Rowan's wolf pressed against his ribs, reading the threat in Danarius's tone.

"You leave her alone."

"That depends entirely on you." Danarius pocketed the phone. "Come home, Rowan. You can take over the position as beta. Help us handle the... complications... that arose from your previous choices."

"What complications?"

"The human boy she ran with? Turns out he's been talking.

Told his family about the monsters his girlfriend was running from.

Some very specific details about pack structure, territorial boundaries, transformation cycles.

" Max cracked his knuckles, the sound echoing across the water. "Loose lips sink ships, as they say."

"You're talking about exposure."

"I'm talking about a human who knows too much and thinks he can use that knowledge for leverage." Danarius began walking along the shoreline, forcing Rowan to turn to keep him in sight. "He wants money. Protection. Guarantees that we won't come after his precious family."

"So give him what he wants."

"We did. For a while. But his demands keep escalating. Now he's threatening to go public with everything he knows about our kind." Danarius stopped, fixing Rowan with pale eyes that reflected no mercy. "The Council wants him handled. Permanently."

Rowan's wolf snarled fiercely, recognizing the trap closing around them.

"You want me to kill him."

"I want you to clean up the ridiculous mess you made. The boy dies, Sarah and the child disappear for good, and we can all pretend this unfortunate chapter never happened."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then we handle it ourselves. But first, we eliminate any other potential complications." Danarius's gaze drifted toward the town beyond the trees. "That pretty little innkeeper, for instance. Seems to know an awful lot about your daily routine. Where you work, where you live, who you care about."

"She doesn't know anything about pack business."

"Doesn't she? Because from where I stood this morning, it looked like she knows you very well indeed. Intimately, one might say."

Kael laughed, the sound cold as winter wind. "Got yourself a human girlfriend, Rowan? How deliciously ironic."

"Leave Diana out of this."

"Can't do that. See, we've learned not to trust your judgment when it comes to humans and their safety." Max stepped closer. "Last time you tried to protect a human, it created the situation we're dealing with now."

"Diana's not Sarah."

"No," Danarius agreed. "She's worse. She's a weakness you can't afford. A vulnerability we can exploit every time you step out of line."

The threat was clear. Crystal clear. Come back to the pack, help them murder an innocent man and the mother of his child, or watch Diana become a target in their war.

"How long do I have to decide?"

"Long enough to say your goodbyes, tie up loose ends." Danarius began walking back toward the tree line. "When we call, meet us at the old border stone. Come alone, come willingly, or we start making good on our promises."

"And if I run? Take Diana and disappear?"

"Then we hunt you both. And we make sure everyone in that cozy little town understands exactly what kind of monster they've been harboring." Kael's smile widened.

They melted back into the woods as silently as they'd come, leaving Rowan alone by the dark water. His reflection stared back at him, distorted by ripples that turned his face into something monstrous.

He knew it wouldn’t be long before he got the call. For him to choose between his past and his future, between the woman he loved and the innocent people his choices had put in danger.

His wolf howled inside his chest, claws scraping against ribs as it demanded blood, demanded protection for their mate, demanded an end to the threats that circled her like vultures.

But what could he offer her? A life on the run?

The constant fear of pack retaliation? The knowledge that loving him had painted a target on her back?

Or he could go back. Resume his place in the hierarchy, help them silence the witnesses to Sarah's escape, pretend Diana had been nothing more than a pleasant distraction. Keep her safe by removing himself from her life completely.

The choice should have been simple. One life against many. His happiness against Diana's safety.

It wasn't simple at all.

Rowan stripped off his clothes and let the shift take him, bones cracking and reshaping, human thoughts dissolving into wolf instinct. He ran into the deep woods, pushing his transformed body until muscles screamed and lungs burned, trying to outrun the impossible choice that waited for him.

But no matter how far or fast he ran, the truth followed: there was no good choice here. Only degrees of disaster, only ways of losing everything that mattered.

His wolf wanted to run back to the inn, to Diana's warm embrace and the future they'd planned together. Wanted to fight for what was his, consequences be damned.

The man knew better. The man understood that sometimes loving someone meant walking away, even when every instinct screamed against it.