Page 25

R owan

“It’s time to go back, Alina.”

She swallows hard, staring at our entwined fingers. There’s no time to waste, and yet here we are, stalled on the front porch because my Mate can’t seem to put one foot in front of the other.

There’s fear and fury running in equal measure through her bloodstream, turning her scent bitter and smoky. I breathe it in, allowing it to strengthen me.

“I can’t,” she breathes. “I can’t go back.”

Zahra has already left the scene, having shifted back into a wolf to run off and meet up with the half of the Whiterose pack that’s still loyal to Henry.

They have their own infighting to deal with now, and it’s none of my business.

It’s none of Alina’s business, either. I can see the realization in her eyes.

She needs to return to Greenbriar territory.

I squeeze her hand. “You have to.”

“Rowan—”

“Not for me,” I continue. “And not even for yourself. You need to do this for Noah.”

At the sound of our son’s name, Alina’s spine straightens. She exhales shakily, steeling herself before my eyes. In a matter of seconds, she becomes a queen on the warpath.

I pull her along beside me. We jump into my truck. My blood rushes loudly in my ears as I perform a vicious U-turn in Alina’s front yard, tearing up her grass in the process—and then we’re on the road headed back to Greenbriar territory.

Keeping one hand resting firmly on her leg, I try to keep the wolf within me tamed enough that I don’t lose control and shift suddenly behind the wheel. Alina is a live wire, tense and coiled with synapses firing.

She hasn’t been home in ten years. Now, she has no choice but to return.

“I wish this could have happened differently,” I tell her as I swing the truck onto the main route connecting the domains of the Whiterose and Greenbriar packs. “I wish I could have brought you back there with me on your own terms, Alina, with Noah by our side. I wanted that for you.”

She’s quiet for a moment, so stiff that I have to glance over at her a few times just to confirm that she hasn’t turned to stone.

“It doesn’t matter,” she says through gritted teeth. “It is what it is. I’ll do whatever it takes. But, Rowan…”

“Yeah?”

“What if they shun me? What if this is the moment Kseniya warned about? What if this is the catalyst for how I ruin you?”

I squeeze her thigh with reassurance. “I couldn’t give less of a shit about that prophecy right now. I never should have cared about it.”

Alina doesn’t say anything. Instead, she stares fiercely out of the windshield with her jaw clenched tightly.

I haven’t had the chance to tell her what happened with my parents at Kseniya’s cottage.

“Bring her home. Tell her that she has always been one of us.”

That’s what my mother said. It was encouraging, to say the least, to know that the current Greenbriar Luna will welcome Alina back home with open arms. But I left before my father finished meeting with Kseniya inside, so I still don’t know what came from the scrying bones.

For all I know, my father will take one look at Alina and command her to stay away.

But, no…he wouldn’t do that. He’s too reasonable of a man. Too honorable of a leader. He’s also too determined to ensure that I become Alpha next, and he wouldn’t do anything to hurt me by hurting my Mate.

“Everything is going to be okay,” I tell Alina.

I’m trying to convince myself of that just as much as I’m trying to assure her.

Still, she says nothing.

The only source of comfort to me for the remainder of the drive to Greenbriar land is that Samson Blackburn won’t be stupid enough to kill Noah.

It’s not that he’s above murdering children, but more so that the son of an Alpha is not very useful if he’s dead.

He’ll keep my son alive to taunt me, to try to ensnare Alina.

I barely register when the aroma in the air shifts, marking the passage into Greenbriar territory.

Alina notices it immediately, though. I can tell by the way her body somehow grows even more tense, and yet there’s a release in her shoulders that tells me she’s instinctively settling back into her rightful place even as the human side of her tries to resist it.

Ten minutes later, I’m speeding right into the middle of the main town square, right outside my father’s house.

The Alpha himself is outside, along with several of his Betas. I also spot Cal, who whips his head around and stares wide-eyed at my truck as it growls to a halt in the driveway. Heads turn in my direction as I throw myself out of the cab and leap across the hood to yank open Alina’s door.

I hold out my hand for hers. Her breath catches as dozens of gazes fall upon her. It’s been ten years since any of these people would have seen her, but she has the sort of beauty that’s hard to forget. That golden hair and those dark caramel eyes.

Not to mention her scent. It’s the feminine twin to mine, sweet and thrumming with power, while mine is a rumble of thunder.

Alina inhales sharply and then places her hand into my waiting palm .

She slips out of the truck.

The silence in the town square is unnatural. Even my father, watching with a cool and unreadable expression from the top of the steps of his house, doesn’t say anything.

Taking her hand, I lead her up to the Greenbriar Alpha. The crowd parts for us.

My mother, standing just behind my father, smiles at us. Alina’s breath stutters so quietly that I’m certain I’m the only one who hears it. But it is my father who must be given respect in this moment. Both of us know that. Alina has run from the pack, and I have clearly been keeping a huge secret.

In unison, we bow our heads to my father.

“Father,” I murmur. “I would like to introduce you to my Mate.”

He ignores me, addressing Alina directly.

“Why have you come back, young wolf?”

She lifts her head, meeting the Alpha’s eyes with just the right balance of strength and respect.

“I have something I’d like to share with the pack. Something that I—that we, me and my Mate—need your help with.”

Deep down, I worry that my father might silence her. Perhaps he’ll pull her inside the house and chastise her for thinking she can march right back in here and demand his help.

But I know the man my father is. I know he is good.

So, when he lets out a long exhale and gestures for her to speak freely, I am not surprised, but I am relieved.

Not even the wind dares to move as Alina turns to face the crowd gathered before my father’s house, their numbers growing with each passing second as word spreads among the Greenbriars that one of their own has returned.

I stand just behind her, heart thudding with every breath, watching as the sunlight traps her in a brilliant halo. She's not trembling, not afraid.

She’s not hiding anymore. She’s claiming this moment, just as we have claimed each other.

Alina lifts her chin and begins to speak.

“My name is Alina Sinclair, and I am the daughter of the Elder Sinclairs, who gave their lives in service of the Greenbriar pack fifteen years ago.” Her voice is clear and vibrant, like a perfectly strung violin.

“I know most of you think you know who I am. I know the danger that you think I represent.”

Murmurs ripple across the crowd, but no one interrupts. Not with their Alpha watching them all with a keen expression on his weathered face.

She takes a breath, then another. “Ten years ago, I found out I was Rowan Greenbriar’s Mate.”

The words land like a stone at her feet.

I lock eyes with Cal, who is standing at the front edge of the crowd. His arms are crossed, and he’s taken on a stance that suggests he’s ready to jump into a fight, but it’s in sharp contrast to the surprise on his face. He’s looking at Alina in amazement. In awe.

And he’s not the only one.

Alina goes on. “I didn’t tell anyone, because I knew what that meant. The prophecy said that I would ruin him, and that I would bring ruination to the pack as a result of that. I knew that I destined to destroy my own people, so I left.”

There’s a shift in the crowd. A flicker of tension, old wounds tearing themselves open.

I can feel the weight of it bearing down on her, and I’m desperate to reach for her, but Alina doesn’t need to be seen clinging on to me for support right now.

She deserves to be able to stand on her own right now and claim her rightful place here.

“I thought I was doing the right thing when I ran,” she continues, voice loud and clear. “I thought I was protecting him—protecting all of you. But I didn’t know who I was running with.”

My chest constricts.

She turns to look at me, just for a second. Our eyes meet, and it’s like the rest of the world goes still.

“I found out I was pregnant about six weeks later.”

A ripple of tension tears through the crowd.

“I had a son. Rowan and I have a son. He is nine, and his name is Noah.”

When I glance over at Cal again, I swear I see tears in my Beta’s eyes. Again, he’s not alone .

I can barely breathe as I drink in the sight before me.

So many gathered Greenbriars, hanging on to every word falling from Alina’s mouth.

Not a single one of them looks angry or defensive, or like they might not believe her.

They can taste the truth in what she says, can scent her conviction on the breeze.

Alina takes another deep breath. “He is exactly why I have returned to you today. Noah was taken today. By the Blackburns. I’m sure you know that they’ve been more active lately, and they’ve recently been able to infiltrate the Whiterose pack, where I have been all these years.

That is why I need your help. Samson Blackburn has taken your future Alpha. ”

A growl rips through the crowd at that name, low and dangerous.

This isn’t just shifter politics. This is about blood. There are few Greenbriars who haven’t felt the pain of grief thanks to the Blackburns over the years.

Alina doesn’t stop speaking yet, though. “I know what you all might think of me. I know what I did when I chose to leave this pack. But right now, none of that matters. What matters is Noah. He’s one of you. One of—one of us. He’s a Greenbriar, and we need to bring him home.”

One of us. The profoundness of that statement is staggering. I’m surprised that I managed to keep my knees from trembling at the sound of Alina stating aloud at last that she is, truly and unequivocally, a member of the Greenbriar pack.

The silence after her words is suffocating.

Then, my father steps forward.

“You have heard my son’s Mate—your future Luna—speak her truth, and so there is only one answer we can offer. We rally. Tonight. Our strongest warriors will answer their summons, and we’ll go to the borderlands by moonrise. The Blackburns want war, and so war is what they’ll get.”

A human howl bursts from the crowd. First one, then another, until the air is alive with it. A hundred voices rising into the night sky, teeth bared and ready to lengthen into canines, claws itching to burst free.

I look to Alina again, stunned by the sight of her with her shoulders squared, hair loose and wild, and eyes full of both a mother’s rage and a warrior’s courage. She meets my gaze, and for the first time in years, there’s no fear between us. No guilt. Only fire. Only truth.

Only us.

The howling reaches a fever pitch, and my father begins issuing orders. The pack moves as one, fast and fluid, with no hesitation. No one questions Alina. No one looks at her like a threat.

They look at her like the prophecy was never spoken.

And that’s when I see Kseniya standing on the far edge of the organized chaos.

There is a wide smile on her wrinkled face and undeniable wisdom in her eyes.

Even from this distance, I swear I can understand what the old wise woman is trying to tell me.

She made a mistake. There is a first time for everything.