Page 26 of Fetch Me A Mate (Shifter Mates of Hollow Oak #1)

ROWAN

T hree days passed without a word from the pack. Three days of normal work schedules and shared meals and Diana humming while she planned winter events. Rowan began to think maybe they'd given up, moved on to easier targets. Maybe choosing to stay and fight had been the right call after all.

He should have known better.

The first sign something was actually up came Tuesday morning when Tom Harwick's lumber delivery failed to arrive. Diana found Rowan installing crown molding in the parlor, his phone pressed to his ear.

"What do you mean misplaced?" Rowan's voice carried an edge that made Diana pause in the doorway. "I placed that order two weeks ago. Confirmed delivery yesterday."

Diana set down her clipboard and listened as Rowan's conversation grew increasingly heated.

"Fine. I'll find another supplier." He hung up and turned to find Diana watching. "Lumber order got 'lost in the system.' Third supplier this week."

"That's odd."

"Yeah. Odd." Rowan set down his nail gun and faced her directly as he thought about the ‘coincidence’. "Diana, has anyone been asking questions about the inn's finances? Strange calls, unexpected visits?"

"Why would you ask that?"

"Because someone's been making inquiries. Official-sounding requests for financial information, credit reports, tax documentation."

Diana's face went pale. "Gerald Finch stopped by yesterday while you were at the hardware store. Said he needed updated budget projections for his quarterly report."

"What did you tell him?"

"Nothing confidential. Just general revenue forecasts, occupancy rates for the gathering." Diana pulled out her phone. "But he seemed unusually interested in our operating costs. Asked specific questions about contractor expenses."

Rowan felt his wolf stir beneath his skin, recognizing a hunting pattern. "They're building a case."

"Who's building a case?"

"People who want to make trouble for you." Rowan began packing his tools with mechanical precision. "I need to make some calls."

"Rowan."

"Yeah?"

"Whatever this is about, we handle it together. Like we agreed."

He looked at her standing there with her clipboard and her determined expression, and felt something shift inside his chest. Not the mate bond, though that was still there, thrumming beneath his ribs like a second heartbeat. This was deeper. Quieter.

"Together," he agreed. "But first, I need to track down who's spreading lies about your finances."

Two hours later, Rowan found his answer in the back booth of Mickey's Diner, twenty minutes outside Hollow Oak. Jerry Kowalski sat hunched over coffee and pie, his council aide badge making him look official and his sweaty palms making him look guilty.

"Afternoon, Jerry."

Kowalski jumped like he'd been shot. "Rowan. Didn't expect to see you here."

"Bet you didn't." Rowan slid into the opposite seat without invitation. "Heard you've been asking questions about the Hearth & Hollow Inn. Spreading concerns about financial irregularities."

"Just doing my job. Council oversight, you know."

"Whose job? You work for the Parks Department, Jerry. Since when do you handle business licensing?"

Kowalski's coffee cup rattled against the saucer as he set it down. "Got a call from someone concerned about potential fraud. Had to follow up."

"What someone?"

"Anonymous tip line."

"Bullshit." Rowan leaned forward, letting his wolf rise close enough to the surface that his eyes flashed silver. "Someone's paying you to manufacture problems for Diana Merrick. Who?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Jerry." Rowan's voice dropped to a low growl. "You've got ten seconds to tell me who hired you before I start making phone calls to your supervisor about harassment and corruption charges."

"I can't." Kowalski was sweating now, beads of moisture dotting his forehead. "They said if I talked, they'd make sure I lost my job."

"And if you don't talk, I'll make sure you lose more than that."

Kowalski stared at Rowan's silver eyes and came to a decision.

"Three guys in expensive suits. Said they were investigating irregularities in local business licensing. Paid me five hundred to ask around, file some concerns about the inn's financial stability as well as some misplacings on orders."

"Names?"

"Didn't give any. But one of them, the one who did most of the talking, he had eyes like yours. That silver color. And when he smiled..." Kowalski shuddered. "Like looking at a shark."

Danarius. It had to be.

"They say anything else?"

"Just that there might be more work if I kept my ears open. Mentioned something about zoning violations, health code issues. Said they wanted a complete picture of the inn's vulnerabilities."

Rowan stood, his chair scraping against linoleum. "Jerry."

"Yeah?"

"You're done. No more questions, no more reports, no more contact with those men. If they call you again, you tell them you couldn't find anything worth reporting."

"But they paid me?—"

"Consider the money a severance package. And Jerry?" Rowan leaned down, his voice deadly quiet. "If I hear you've caused any more problems for Diana Merrick, I'll come back. And next time, we won't be having this conversation over coffee."

Rowan left Kowalski sitting in his booth and drove back to Hollow Oak with a strange sense of satisfaction. The pack thought they could pressure him through Diana, thought they could manufacture crises and force his hand. But every move they made only proved what he'd started to suspect.

He could handle this. All of it. As long as he wasn't doing it alone.

Back at the inn, Diana was in the kitchen preparing dinner, her hair pulled back in a messy bun and flour dusting her apron. She looked up when he entered, her amber eyes searching his face.

"Find anything useful?"

"Jerry Kowalski's been taking money to spread rumors about the inn's finances. Three men in expensive suits hired him to manufacture problems."

"Your former pack?"

"Most likely." Rowan washed his hands at the sink, watching Diana work. "But here's the thing. They're operating like they think I'm still the same wolf who ran three years ago. Like they think pressure tactics and manufactured crises will break me down."

"And they're wrong?"

"They're wrong." He shifted to face her, certainty settling in his chest like bedrock. "I spent three years running from fights I should have stayed to finish. I'm done running, Diana. From them, from this, from us."

"Us?"

"Yeah. Us." He moved closer, drawn by the warmth in her eyes and the scent of vanilla that always seemed to cling to her skin. "Whatever they throw at us next, we handle it together. No more secrets, no more pushing you away to keep you safe."

Diana smiled, the kind that made his wolf settle contentedly in his chest. "Does this mean you're planning to stick around?"

"I'm planning to stick around as long as you'll have me."

"Good. Because I've been thinking about that reading nook we discussed. And the office upstairs. And maybe converting the attic into proper living space."

"Living space?"

"For the innkeeper and her contractor. Assuming he's interested in permanent employment."

Rowan felt something loosen in his chest, a tension he'd carried for so long he'd forgotten it was there. Home. She was offering him home, partnership, a future built on shared work and mutual choice.

"I'm interested," he said quietly. "Very interested."

Diana stepped into his arms, her hands sliding up his chest to rest against his shoulders. "Then we'd better get to work. This place won't renovate itself."

"No," Rowan agreed, bending to kiss her forehead. "But with both of us working on it, there's nothing we can't handle."

As he held her in the kitchen that had become the heart of their shared space, Rowan realized the pack had made a crucial miscalculation. They thought love made wolves weak, made them vulnerable to manipulation and control.

They were wrong. Love made wolves dangerous. It gave them something worth protecting, worth fighting for, worth staying to defend.

Let them come with their pressure tactics and manufactured crises. He wasn't running anymore.

He was home.