Page 22 of Wolf's Vow

You really think it’s her?Axel asked dubiously.

“You don’t?” I asked him as we slowed our approach to the pack training area, seeing it was already half full.

He shrugged. “We could smell her when she shifted,” he said, and I heard the hint of an apology for noticing. “She isn’t faking her attraction to you.”

I huffed.I don’t doubt my mate would willingly fuck me,I told him bitterly.I doubt that she wouldn’t stab me through the heart while she did it.

“Goddess,” Axel murmured as he heard the brutal truth in my words. “I hope that we’re both mistaken,” he added sincerely. “I like her.”

I looked at him in surprise, not expecting it. None of my men had seemed to warm to her. “She thought you were Cody,” I reminded him.

Axel shrugged. “She was hammered. We all say stupid things when we’re drunk.”

“It pissed you off.” Why was I trying to remind him he didn’t like her? Was it so I could feel validated that I didn’t trust her?

“A few weeks with Killian will help,” Axel said with conviction I didn’t have.

Brand walked over to us, shirtless and in black training pants. His light brown skin glistened in the late afternoon sunshine. He grinned at me.

Perfectly played,he congratulated me.

I nodded.You did well.

“This is going to be fun,” he said with a smile. “Ezra showed me the route Malric used to run.” He whistled in appreciation. “I hadn’t even seen that path on the ridge. I can’t wait to run it.”

Axel chuckled. “We don’t want to kill them, Brand,” he chided.

Brand shrugged. “One way to sort the chaff from the wheat.”

“Okay, you both need to take a step back,” I warned them. “We are still fighting a territory takeover here.”

“Micromanagermay be the best description I’ve heard of you yet,” Axel said with a wink Brand’s way.

“Fuck off,” I muttered, walking away from them. “Both of you.” Their laughter followed me, and for the first time in days, I felt a lightness as I looked over my pack.

It had been an elaborate gamble, but it had paid off. I knew—well, I’d suspected—that the shifters of this Hollow,someof them, would finally speak out about how behind they were. I hadn’t wanted that anger atthemselvesto come as a result of the death of a friend. I hadn’t planned for the attack or the death of a packmate.

What Ihadplanned for, and anticipated, was the fallout within their own ranks. What once had been a fiercely protected territory was now more reliant on iron and ash markers. I didn’t blame the druid; the markings and tokens had been in place when the Hollow was a dangerous territory to enter, and they’d just forgotten that along the way.

The younger ones in the pack didn’t know any better. The older ones chose to look away as they focused on the upcoming death of their alpha and an uncertain future.

Well, their future wasn’t uncertain anymore. They had an alpha and they had a fated pair leading their pack; they just needed to adjust.

The attacks on the pack were a reflection of their past weakness, and I was determined to make it their reason for theirnewstrength.

It had been Brand’s idea to send Rowen away. It wasn’t one I’d welcomed, but I could see the validity of it. The coded messages, the knowledge of the pack trails, the patrol changes, the discord that still rumbled between the packs, all pointed to one of Malric’s advisors…or his daughter.

I didn’t want to believe it was my mate, but the evidence was incriminating. Until she stood next to me today and told the hall that we were one pack. I’d sensed her sincerity. Rowen wanted this to succeed; she just didn’t want to lose the Hollow’s identity as we did it.

Ezra’s words and actions hadn’t been scripted by us, but he’d said nothing we hadn’t said to each other. Another validation that we weren’t the only ones to see flaws in the Hollow’s way.

Now all I had to do was convince the druid I wasn’t going to burn the Heartwood to ash, and I’d be a step closer to finding the traitor amongst us.

Because therewasa traitor.

I knew it in my bones. In my soul. And when I found them, I would destroy them.

“What’s your plan?” I asked Brand as the three of us watched the shifters training.