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R owan

Now that I have Alina’s word that I will get to formally meet my son today, I feel more comfortable leaving West Pond.

Even so, my skin prickles with unease as I drive south, deeper into the misty hills of the Appalachians.

I hate the idea of leaving my Mate and my heir behind while Samson Blackburn might be up to something.

Still, it’s broad daylight, and at least I know that Noah will be at school and Alina will be at The Diner.

They’re far enough from the Whiterose-Blackburn border that trouble won’t touch them if something happens to go terribly wrong in my absence.

I just wish my Alpha instincts would listen to that logic. I’m practically crawling out of my skin with each mile that I put between us.

Alina. God…at first, I was so angry with her.

It’s always my gut reaction, that anger.

My father says it’s an Alpha trait, an unfortunate translation of our natural aggression.

Some shifters give in to it, using anger to dictate how their packs function.

Greenbriars are different, though. We work past that innate fire that warms our veins and turn it into something more valuable.

As I pull into the driveway of the cabin I’ve built just barely beyond the limits of Greenbriar territory’s main town, I know that I don’t have any anger left in me where Alina is concerned.

It’s easy enough to put myself in her shoes.

She was rejected by her Mate, who wasn’t just any shifter.

The rejection came from the future leader of the pack, and it wasn’t just any rejection.

It came with a threat—the implication that she, simply by the fateful accident of being my Mate, has the power to ruin someone.

To ruin an entire pack. That’s the sort of thing that hangs over someone for their entire life. It’s inescapable.

Of course she ran away. Of course she wanted to escape that.

I wish I could escape it, too. More than anything, I wish I could have written Kseniya’s prophecy off as nothing more than nonsense. Even now, I’m tempted to stalk over to her quiet cottage tucked into the foothills and demand that she take it back. Or, at the very least, clarify herself.

But just because she’s never been wrong before doesn’t mean that she’s incapable of error. Maybe I can be the first to prove it.

I just can’t believe that Alina would ever be able to ruin me.

I head inside the cabin, hoping to shower and change my clothes after the fitful sleepover I had in Alina’s driveway. With any luck, neither Cal nor my father will notice that I stopped by before heading back to West Pond.

Not that I’m trying to hide anything from them. I’ll tell them about Alina and Noah, eventually. I just need time. I need a chance to get to know my son first. I need to figure out how to convince Alina to bring him back to the Greenbriars.

I need to account for all my past mistakes.

What had gone through Alina’s mind when she discovered she was pregnant? Was she alone? Did she not understand at first? Was she ill? Was she terrified? Did she consider finding someone to help her terminate the pregnancy?

A thousand questions slice through me like thrown daggers.

I know Alina probably won’t want to talk about any of that with me, but I want to understand what she endured because of what I did to her.

It’s what I deserve. I failed her. I stopped looking for her.

I stopped caring about anything other than the title looming over my head.

I stopped hoping that I could ever be happy without a Mate and resigned myself to a life of dull, vaguely unsatisfying contentment.

It was better than being ruined, I suppose.

Lost in thought, I shower quickly and then dig through my closet for something to wear. I’m a practical man, and my wardrobe proves it. Most days, I opt for jeans and a T-shirt. They’re easy to shuck off if I need or want to shift into my wolf form.

But what does one wear to meet his son for the first time?

Not that it really matters. Noah has already seen me. He already knows what I look like. And anyway, he’s a nine-year-old boy. I doubt he’ll care if his father has halfway decent style.

I opt for plain black jeans and a black tee, then grab a neutral gray flannel to cover up against the slight pre-spring chill in the air.

Half an hour later, I’m hopping back into the truck and pulling onto the road back to West Pond. In just a couple of hours, I’ll get to speak to the child I created with the woman that I might have loved, if I’d ever been given the chance to do anything but push her away.

Alina is behind the bar when I step into The Diner. It’s afternoon now, and I’ve managed to kill enough time so that I didn’t go crazy before Noah’s school day ended.

Several heads turn in my direction upon my entrance. I doubt Henry Whiterose will have a problem with me sticking around in his territory, considering who Alina and Noah are to me, but I straighten my spine and stare down anyone who dares to let their gaze linger too long.

“Hey,” I greet Alina as I approach the bar.

She looks unreasonably pretty. Her blonde hair is a tangled mess, gathered on top of her head in a bun from which several golden strands are attempting to escape. It’s cute, especially because the idea of someone with her ferocity being cute is preposterous.

I shake those thoughts from my mind, though.

Alina is wiping down the bar, but she pauses and purses her lips when she hears my voice. It’s a performance. She would have scented me the moment I walked into the building.

“Give me a minute,” she mutters.

No hello, Rowan. No hi, how are you? That’s fine.

My son is already here. He’s sitting in a booth at the back of the space, skinny knees pulled up to his chest while he reads another comic book. I want to go to him, but I also don’t want to startle him. He seems a little…delicate.

Then again, I didn’t really grow into myself until I hit puberty and had my first shift. I just hope the kids at school aren’t teasing him for it like they teased me. Even the thought of it causes irritation to trickle down my spine.

I remain as patient as possible as Alina tosses the rag she was using over her shoulder and then takes her sweet time coming around to the other side of the bar. She stands in front of me, arms crossed, and tosses a glance over her shoulder in Noah’s direction.

“On the ride to school, I asked him if he wanted to know who his father was,” she begins, eyes cold despite the softness in her tone. “He said yes, so I told him. I explained that it was you, and that’s why you came to the house yesterday. And this morning.”

“I hope you also told him that the reason I haven’t been a part of his life yet is because I didn’t know he existed.”

Alina looks as if she’d like to slam my skull into the oak bar top.

“Yes,” she grinds out. “And then I asked him if he’d be interested in meeting you. He told me that he wanted to take the day to think about it first.”

I swallow hard. “I see.”

For some reason, it didn’t occur to me that my son wouldn’t want to get to know me. I knew that Alina didn’t want us to meet, but I figured any child would leap at the chance to know their father.

I guess I forgot that Noah is just as much Alina’s child as he is mine, and she’s stubborn as hell.

Alina shrugs. “When the bus dropped him off about fifteen minutes ago, he informed me that he would, in fact, like to meet you.”

Relief rushes through me. “That’s—okay. Great.”

She frowns up at me, almost like she wants to start a new argument. I brace myself, prepared to weather it like any other storm, but then she blows out a long exhale and rolls her shoulders, as if she’s pushing off the force of some terrible current.

“I guess I’ll just…let’s go.” She turns on her heel abruptly and starts walking over to Noah’s booth.

Nearly every eye in The Diner is glued to us, but at least the attention doesn’t feel malicious. This is probably the most exciting thing that’s happened in Whiterose territory in recent years, other than the new trouble with the Blackburns. They’re curious.

Still, I really wish all of this didn’t have to happen in public.

Nerves flutter in the pit of my stomach as we come to stand beside the booth.

“Noah, honey,” Alina murmurs.

Noah twitches in surprise, then looks up.

His blue-eyed gaze—a mirror to mine—goes first to his mother, then flicks over to me.

His eyes widen, and he stiffens. Then, with impressive composure for a child, he sets down his comic on the table and twists on the bench to let his legs dangle beneath the table.

“Noah,” Alina repeats, her tone soft and gentle in a way that I’ve never heard before. Even when we were younger, she never spoke so tenderly. “This is your father. His name is Rowan Greenbriar.”

He continues to stare at me, eyes flitting left and right and up and down as he takes in my full presence. Can he feel it already? Does he know that he’s an Alpha’s son? Can he sense the honorable future that waits for him?

Or am I scaring the shit out of him?

“And Rowan,” Alina continues, her tone hardening as she turns to address me. “This is…your son.”

“Hi, Noah,” I say to him, trying to sound as unthreatening as possible. “It’s nice to meet you.”

“Hi,” he breathes.

“Do you mind if I sit down here with you?”

He shakes his head.

Alina watches like a hawk as I take a seat on the other side of the booth. Then, her voice dripping with sarcasm, she asks me, “Can I get you anything? ”

I lock eyes with her. She really despises me. Honestly, it pisses me off that she can’t even give me the benefit of doubt, but I also can’t fault her for that. She believes that I rejected her and then abandoned her when she disappeared.

She doesn’t know the full truth, but now is not the time to tell it. It probably wouldn’t do any good.

“I’m fine,” I tell her. “Thank you.”

“Mom, can I have some chocolate milk?” Noah chimes in.

“Of course, sweetheart.”

With one last glare tossed in my direction, Alina drifts away to finish her shift.

Noah is still staring at me like he’s waiting for me to growl or bark at him. I haven’t exactly made the best first impression on him. As far as he knows, I’m the man who never gave a damn about his mother, then showed up out of the blue yesterday to chase them down.

In an effort to befriend my own son, I gesture to the comic he set down. It’s an old Marvel issue. One of the Black Panther books.

“So, you like comics.”

Noah nods wordlessly.

“Just superheroes or…?”

He shrugs.

“I really liked Captain America when I was a kid.”

Victory races through me when Noah offers me a slight smile. “Really?”

“Yep. I used to wish they’d put me in the Vita-Ray Chamber, too. I was small for my age, but I wanted to become huge and strong like Steve.”

Noah blinks. “But you are huge and strong.”

A chuckle escapes me. “Well, now I am.”

He glances thoughtfully down at himself, as if taking stock of his scrawny limbs. “Will I grow to be as big as you? Since you’re my dad?”

Dad. I haven’t dared imagine what it might feel like to hear someone use that word for me.

“I think it’s highly likely,” I assure him.

“But what if I don’t? What if I stay small forever?”

I offer him a smile. “It’s okay to be small. It doesn’t mean you’re any less powerful. You’re an Alpha’s son, Noah. You were born strong, no matter what size you are.”

Noah grins. “You’re really nice. I don’t know why my mom doesn’t like you.”

I almost laugh, but manage to choke it down. Before I can respond to that, however, Alina reappears with Noah’s chocolate milk.

“Noah, it’s not that I don’t like him,” she corrects him lightly, clearly having overheard the tail end of our conversation. “Your father and I are just very different people.”

“Not really,” our son counters matter-of-factly. “You’re Mates, aren’t you? That means you’re not different at all. That’s what my friend Ryan told me today at recess.”

Alina sighs. “We can talk about this later, okay?”

Noah makes a gesture that communicates something like sure, whatever, Mom, and I have to hold back another laugh. This kid is funny. Smart, too. I have a feeling Kseniya would say he has an old soul.

The pack would love him. And I think he’d love them back.

He belongs with the Greenbriars, and so does Alina. If they don’t come home, they’re going to be in danger. In fact, they’re already in danger, given the Blackburn scent that I detected yesterday.

I’ll play nice with Alina for now and follow her so-called rules. But if it comes down to it, I’ll do whatever it takes to ensure their safety.