Page 18 of Wolf's Vow
My dad had often indulged during pack celebrations, but I had restricted myself to two glasses at most.
Why I had thought today was the best time to test my alcohol tolerance by drinking half a bottle of bourbon, and not justanybourbon, shifter bourbon. Meaning it was stronger than the version the humans bought because our metabolism burned through alcohol a lot quicker.
When I woke on the bed, wondering—for a fleeting moment—if I had sex with my mate, I hadn’t been prepared for the overwhelming wave of nausea that soon followed.
I’d shifted there and then, to stop myself from throwing up on our bed. My wolf had not been amused at the sudden shift, and I had shifted two more times to rid my system of the alcohol altogether. Fatigue had plagued me soon after, but by that time, I had sensed something happening in the pack, and with Wolfe.
I hadn’t paid attention to what I had grabbed to wear; I just knew I had to get to where he was before he did something stupid, like try to absolve me of the blame for Simon’s death last night.
I’d been too far from the house before I knew I was wearing his shirt, but I didn’t turn back, because when I shifted in my clothes, they shredded, and in my haste to leave, I hadn’t taken a bra. Wolfe’s shirt was big enough to cover the fact that I was braless. I thought. Until I saw the flare of appreciation in his eyes when he looked at me. I had the sneaking suspicion that my mate knew very well I was wearing no underwear.
I had stood by him, and he had appreciated it, and I hadn’t expected it to mean as much as it did.
“How is Sherry?” Ezra asked me as the pack hall filled with murmured conversation.
“She didn’t really say much,” I admitted, lowering my voice. “I don’t think I was who she wanted to see.”
Ezra grunted. “Well, of course not,” he said without sugarcoating it. “You’re not her husband. The only person she wants to walk through that door is Simon.”
I felt another pang of guilt. “It’s my fault?—”
“Pack patrols are trained,” Ezra cut me off bluntly. “Even the youngest of us, who didn’t knowwhata fucking patrol looked like until a few weeks ago, weren’t on patrol unless they should be.” He gestured towards where Brand stood, glaring at a Stonefang Pack shifter, looking like he was about to shift and lunge at any moment. “That shifter, he’s a hard bastard.” I looked back at Ezra in surprise. “Even when your father was in his prime, he gave us breaks. Him”—he jerked his thumb to Brand—“I bet he doesn’t allow you to so much as take a piss unless it’s on your time. That patrol last night should have known something was wrong as soon as their relief never turned up?—”
“I think that’s har?—”
“No, Rowen, it isn’t,” Ezra said firmly. “We train, we patrol, we are ready for anything, no matter what it is, no matter what’s supposed to happen, because a territory at war is a territoryat war.” Ezra had caught enough attention from others around us that they had quietened to hear him, and I became self-conscious as he continued, unaware of how many were listening to him. “We have shifters in this pack, in thiswholepack, who can patrol our territory lines single-handedly, and we are running about in packs of five like uneducated pups. We are better than this.”
“How would you fix it?” Wolfe asked quietly from across the hall.
Ezra turned to look at him, realizing he had the audience of everyone, and he didn’t quake. “You really want to know?”
Wolfe nodded, his gaze steady. “I do.”
Ezra cast a quick glance at Brand and back to Wolfe. “I can speak freely?”
Wolfe grinned. “I’ve never known you to do anything else; please don’t change for me.”
Ezra let out a grunt and then sighed as he stood up. He glanced over at Brand, then at Killian, and with a hesitant step that grew more confident, he made his way to the center of the pack hall, where Wolfe and I had stood only minutes before.
“The Hollow has some excellent fighters in it,” he began. “It also has some shifters in it who think they are too good for things like patrols. And…well, it’s been allowed to happen.” He didn’t look at me, but I did see Lewis sitting straighter. “We are an old pack that holds onto traditions, and our traditions are important, and we need them—they are our way of life—but…” Ezra turned and looked to the doorway, where the druid lingered, as if he could feel him there. “Our traditions are what are going to get us killed.”
The shifters around me growled and mumbled, but Ezra didn’t care. “Alpha Malric ran a tight ship in his day,” he said as he looked towards me. “You didn’t become such a good fighter because your father was lazy. But…” He inhaled. “But as he got older, as some of the rest of us got older, myself included, we relied too heavily on magic and tricks to secure our borders.” Ezra scanned the whole room. “Our pack patrols are out of shape, lack discipline, and look too much to the heavens for answers instead of their own paws.”
Louder grumblings, and I found myself biting my tongue to voice the same protests as the others. Wolfe had let Ezra speak, and I was curious to see what the alpha would say to Ezra’s statements.
Ezra ignored the rising grumblings and rolled his neck on his shoulders like he was loosening up for the next round. “And then you add in these new shifters,” he said as he turned to face Brand and Killian once again. “Look at them,” he said to no one in particular. “Look at the fucking tanks that they are. Wolfe, Brand, Killian, Axel and the other one, Cody, look at the alpha and betas that are among us, and show me their equivalent in the Hollow pack.”
Silence met him as shifters looked at themselves or each other.
“And look, look at this guy.” Ezra strode forward and put his hand on a Stonefang Pack’s shoulder. “He’s almost as big, and beside him…” Ezra pulled the shifter to his feet, who stood willingly. “I feel inadequate.”
The simple truth sat in the still room.
“I used to be you,” he said to Brand. “Big, brawny,clever,” he added with respect. “You know what this pack needs, and you are not delivering.”
Brand was all those things, and with a slight smile, he peeled himself off the wall where he’d been watching and moved closerto the center, and I realized that he never sought attention; he seemed content to stay on the sidelines and watch.
“I’m not delivering?” Brand asked Ezra. He wasn’t challenging him; he looked more intrigued than anything. “How?”