Page 21 of The Alpha’s Runaway Mate (Evermore Hollow #1)

SEVENTEEN

NOLAN

Xander’s place smells like coffee, rain, and faint traces of blood. Declan’s blood. It’s weaker now, just a whisper beneath the scent of soap and clean clothes, but it still clings to the air like a warning.

It’s been a week and a half since Declan came back. I’ve been here to see him every other day, checking in making sure he’s not going rogue. Making sure he’s okay.

He’s awake this time, sitting on the couch with a mug cupped between his hands. His eyes are clear and alert and the bruises along his jaw are gone, thanks to our shifter healing. But he seems haunted, older than he used to. It kills me seeing him like this.

Kolt leans against the far wall, arms crossed, shoulders tense. Xander sits opposite in the worn armchair, boots braced on the floor, quiet and watchful.

I take the spot across from Declan, elbows on my knees. “You’re starting to look better, more like yourself.”

A faint, tired smile touches his mouth. “You should’ve seen me a week ago.”

“Want to tell us what happened?” I ask.

He hesitates, fingers tightening around the mug.

Then he nods, gaze dropping to the floor.

“It started near the state line. Routine patrol. I picked up a scent that was all wrong, twisted. I thought it might’ve been an injured shifter or something.

I was wrong. There were four rogues. Only they weren’t just rogues, there was something not right about them.

Like they were half feral half on a mission to destroy. ”

Kolt mutters a curse under his breath.

“They came out of nowhere,” Declan goes on. “I didn’t have time to shift. I was about to take one down, then something hit me from behind, and everything went dark.”

He pauses, the faint tremor in his hands betraying how fresh it still feels. “When I woke up, I wasn’t in our world anymore. The air smelled different, like iron and rain. I realized I was in the Fae realm.”

That gets everyone’s attention.

Xander straightens slowly. “You’re sure?”

Declan nods once. “I’m sure. The forest glowed at night. The ground… it breathed. And they were there, Fae. At least five of them. They found me half-dead and carried me to their village. Said something dark had been moving through their borders and that I’d been caught in it.”

“Did they help you?” I ask.

“They tried.” His voice dips low, rough around the edges. “One of them, a female named Ryn, she was different. Kind. Strong. She looked at me like she could see everything I was hiding. She healed most of my wounds, but whatever the rogues left behind, it fought back. It spread through me.”

He pushes up his sleeve. Black veins, faint as ink, thread beneath his skin and pulse once before fading again.

“She said it was a curse,” he continues.

“Something ancient. She tried to hold it back with her magic. We spent days, weeks, maybe, fighting it. Somewhere in the middle of all that, we… connected. I thought she could be my mate but I could never be sure, I was too fucked up from whatever is still inside me.”

Kolt’s brows shoot up. “A Fae?”

Declan nods, jaw tightening. “I wasn’t sure. I could feel the pull, but the darkness inside me made it hard to tell what was real. Everything blurred, pain, magic, her voice. Then one night the rogues came back.”

He sets the mug down carefully, as if afraid it might slip from his hands.

“They attacked the fae village. There was fire everywhere. Screaming. Ryn tried to protect me, but before I could reach her, she was gone. All of them had just vanished. One second there, the next, nothing. I searched for her, for any of them, but the forest was empty. It was like they’d been erased. ”

Xander’s voice is low, careful. “You think they’re dead?”

“I don’t know.” Declan’s throat works as he swallows. “But I know I was alone. I wandered for days, maybe longer. Time doesn’t move the same there. The curse kept spreading through me. I couldn’t shift without losing control. I started to forget who I was, where home even was.”

He drags a hand over his face, eyes hollow. “That’s when I saw you two. You found me, but I wasn’t myself. I didn’t even recognize you at first. All I could feel was the hunger. The rage.”

Kolt’s expression hardens. “Yeah. We could tell.”

Declan huffs a humorless laugh. “Figures. I remember flashes, your voices, the fight, then pain. Next thing I knew, I had ended up here at Xander’s.”

Silence settles like dust. The only sound is the steady tick of Xander’s old wall clock.

“So whatever this darkness is,” I say finally, “it followed you back.”

Declan nods, slow and grim. “It’s here. I can feel it sometimes, at the edges of my mind. Like it’s waiting for something.”

A muscle jumps in my jaw. “And if it’s what wiped out the Fae that saved you, we’re dealing with more than rogue shifters.”

Kolt pushes off the wall and starts pacing, boots scuffing the floor. “We’ve had plenty of bad over the years, but Fae curses and disappearing villages? That’s new.”

“New and dangerous,” Xander adds. “If it spreads through our ranks, we’re screwed.”

Declan’s voice drops to a whisper. “Ryn said something before she vanished, ‘the veil is thinning.’ I didn’t understand it then. But I think whatever’s infecting me came through that break. And it’s not done.”

No one speaks for a long moment. The air feels heavy, charged, like the storm outside is pressing against the walls.

Finally, I stand. “Get some rest. You’re safe here, for now. We’ll figure this out before it gets anywhere near the ridge.”

Declan nods once, shoulders sagging. “Thanks, Nolan.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” I glance at my brothers. “Double patrols until further notice. Nobody is alone. If this thing wants a fight, it’s gonna get one.”

We head for the door. Xander grabs his jacket, Kolt snatches his keys from the counter, and together we step out into the fading light.

The rain’s just starting, thin, cold drops tapping against the porch roof. The wind carries the scent of pine and something sharper underneath, metallic, almost like iron.

Kolt blows out a breath. “You believe him?”

I keep my gaze on the treeline. “I do. Every damned word.”

He huffs a quiet curse. “Then we’ve got a problem bigger than anything we’ve ever seen.”

Xander locks the door behind us, jaw tight. “Great. Fae magic, rogue shifters, and curses. What the hell kind of year is this turning into?”

“The kind we survive,” I answer.

He snorts, but there’s no humor in it. We start down the steps, boots thudding against wet wood.

The forest hums in the distance, dark shapes moving between the trees as the wind picks up. I can feel it, the wrongness Declan described. A weight in the air, too still, too cold.

Kolt falls into step beside me. “If the veil really is thinning… what does that even mean for us?”

“It means the boundaries between our world and theirs are cracking,” Xander says before I can. “And if that’s true, whatever was trapped on the other side might not be anymore.”

He’s right. I don’t say it out loud, but the thought crawls down my spine like ice. We reach our trucks. Xander slides behind the wheel of his, Kolt lingers beside mine.

“You think Declan brought it back with him?” he asks quietly.

“Not on purpose.” I rub a hand over my face. “But yeah. It came through him. That curse, it’s not just a mark. It’s a link.”

“To what?”

I look toward the ridge, where storm clouds are crawling over the peaks. “Whatever’s waiting on the other side.”

Kolt swears under his breath, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets. “Hell of a thought.”

“Yeah.” I open the door, pausing with one hand on the frame. “Keep the mind link open tonight. If anything feels off, reach out. Don’t try to play the hero.”

He smirks faintly. “That’s your job.”

“Damn right it is.”

The smirk fades as quickly as it came. “Be careful, Nolan.”

I nod once, climb in, and start the engine. The truck rumbles to life, headlights cutting through the mist.

As I pull onto the gravel road, lightning flashes somewhere beyond the ridge, lighting up the world in harsh silver for half a heartbeat. In that brief flicker, the trees seem to shift, taller, wrong, like they’re bending toward something unseen.

Then the light’s gone, leaving only darkness and rain.

The wipers squeak across the windshield, steady as a heartbeat. I tighten my grip on the wheel, the echo of Declan’s words replaying in my head.

The veil is thinning.

I don’t know what’s waiting on the other side, but one thing’s clear. Whatever it is, it’s coming.

And this time, it’s not just Declan’s darkness we’ll have to face.

It’s everything trying to crawl through with it.

By the time I get home, my mind’s still reeling.

Declan’s story keeps looping in my head.

His voice and the look in his eyes when he said the Fae were gone, when he showed us that black mark crawling under his skin.

If he’s right, if the veil really is thinning, that darkness isn’t done.

And I don’t know what that means for the pack, for Evermore Hollow…

or for her. The thought of Jessica anywhere near it makes my chest tight.

Thunder cracks low over the ridge, rain whispering through the trees like a warning.

Her truck’s not in the drive, but I tell myself not to overreact, she said she’d be working today, but my bear doesn’t care.

He’s pacing under my skin, restless, teeth bared at the thought of her out there without me.

She’s fine. I know she’s fine. She has to be, but the emptiness of the cabin hits like a punch to the chest. Her scent still lingers, warm, sweet, familiar, but it’s not enough.

I move from window to window, restless, every sound outside dragging my attention. The storm. The trees. The steady roll of thunder. My senses stretch toward the road, waiting for the familiar rumble of her truck. When I finally hear it, my body moves before my brain catches up.