Page 44 of Wolf's Vow

I nodded in agreement. “And you’re more willing to listen.”

I heard her thinking. “Maybe…maybe we should both try to be better when I come home. We are married after all.” She tsked softly. “Mates, I mean. We are mates.”

“We are. And it’s a long time to live together without trying,” I said quietly.

“Yeah.” Silence stretched. “I think…I think it might be good for us to try to be better.”

My wolf fell quiet as I listened. “I think so too.”

“I wanted to kill you when I realized I couldn’t leave. I was so angry with you.”

I nodded, Killian had told me, and I’d expected it from her. “And now?”

“Still kind of pissed, and I won’t say I understand why, because I think we needed to have this conversationthen, but what’s done is done.”

“So you’re still pissed?” I asked with a grin.

“Shut up.”

Definitely still upset about it, but I heard the warmth in the rebuke, and it gave me hope.

“Oh.”

“What is it?” I asked, sitting up in alarm at the surprise in her voice. “Are you okay?”

“The phone made a beeping noise. What did I do?”

Thalia. Only Thalia would sneak my mate a phone and not check the battery level.

“It likely needs to be charged,” I explained to Rowen. “You need to sleep anyway, it’s late.”

“You don’t need to sleep?”

“I’m on patrol soon.” I heard the beep in the silence that followed. “The phone will cut out; I’d better go.”

“Wolfe?”

“Yeah?”

“You’ll be careful?”

I smiled at the genuineness of her voice, and the bond pulsed slightly with concern. “Always am, princess.”

I left the house shortly after, and I had a surprisingly quick and enjoyable patrol. The pack I patrolled with was quiet, efficient, and I think my good mood rubbed off on them. By the time I went to bed, I was hoping that Rowen would call me again soon.

The firein the hearth had burned low, but I didn’t mind the cold as I sat in Malric’s old office and looked around.

It was quiet, for once. Not silent—Hollow quiet. The kind of stillness that clung to the stones of the den and made you wonder what was waiting just outside it.

I rolled my shoulders, feeling the pull in the muscles from having sat still for too long. Diesel was nearby; he’d moved through the pack like a wraith, gathering what he needed to know. Leaving and coming back. I’d let him be. I knew he had already made his way into at least two of the pack’s beds, but I said nothing, knowing Rowen would say enough for both of us when she heard.

My thoughts drifted back to last night’s call with my mate.

It had started off unsure, hesitant, but we’d said some things, skirted around others, and overall, I think we’d actually made progress.

“You’ll be careful.”

She hadn’t meant it to sound like affection, but my wolf heard it anyway. And the bond…it didn’t burn this time. It pulsed. Quiet. Present.