Seriously, There Are Werewolves?

Chapter 6

*Rowan

The second I opened the door and saw her, I knew she was going to be a problem.

She stood there like the forest was something she could out-stare. Shoulders squared, chin tilted, defiant and unimpressed despite the long flight, the shock, the grief.

Harper.

Moira had warned me and called ahead, said she was bringing her niece and that the girl was “louder than she is ready,” whatever that meant. I expected someone lost. Quiet. Fragile.

But this one? No. She was a smart arse with fire in her eyes and a storm wrapped in sarcasm.

And something else.

Something I couldn’t put my finger on.

She talked too much.

During the introductions, I counted the number of times she nearly insulted someone outright..five I think. Another two if you included the time she questioned our sanity and called our pack structure “supernatural summer camp.”

Her voice was quick, sharp, always covering something up. Humour as armour. It worked..some of the lower-ranked wolves liked her already. Laughed when Alec did.

Jackson didn’t. Mira didn’t.

But I watched her.

The way she looked at people, really looked, like she was sizing them up. She wasn’t scared, not the way outsiders usually were. She wasn’t oblivious either.

Just... observant. And fast.

She noticed the wolves on the edges of the square. Watched the Enforcers without flinching. When Kai offered her help, she deflected with humour, but her hands shook slightly. Almost invisible.

She didn’t want anyone to see that part.

But I did.

“Is she going to follow the rules?” Jackson had asked, his voice flat.

She cut in before I could answer. “Do I look like a rules person?”

That earned her a few raised brows. And an internal groan from me.

But there it was again. That spark. Not just rebellion. Challenge.

And not the reckless kind. The kind that came from someone who’d had to fight for every bit of control she had left.

I could feel Alec grinning behind me. Moira was silent. Of course.

“Harper will follow the rules,” I said, letting the weight in my voice settle over the square like fog.

She blinked, swallowed, then nodded. “Sure. Fine. Rules. Love 'em.”

Lie. Obvious lie. I don't understand this girl's humour.. what that sarcasm?

But she said it anyway.

She knew how to survive.

Alec played the fool as usual, and Harper fed right into it. Their banter was almost exhausting. If it weren’t for the context, I might have left them both in the square just to give my brain a break.

But instead, I led the walk through the town.

I don’t know why I did that.

I never take newcomers through town. That’s Mira’s job, or one of the younger Enforcers. I don’t have time for hand-holding.

But something about her made it hard to look away. And I wanted.. no needed to see how she responded to this place.

To us.

She covered her nerves with quips. Called our houses Pinterest cottages, asked if we lived off grid or ordered groceries through enchanted trees. Alec ate it up.

I didn’t.

I watched her eyes.

She looked at everything. Noticed details. Noticed people. But it wasn’t fear in her expression. It was calculation.

Harper wasn’t just trying to survive here. She was trying to figure out if she could run.

At the edge of the square, I stopped.

I don’t know what made me say what I said. Maybe the way she kept trying to laugh off her discomfort. Maybe the way she hadn’t once acknowledged how heavy this place was, even though I could feel it weighing on her.

“You need to understand something,” I said. “These people, my pack, they’re my responsibility. My family. I will not let anything happen to them. That includes you.”

Her face faltered for a second. Just a flicker.

“Thanks? I guess?” she said, voice soft.

She didn’t know what to do with genuine care. It landed weird. Foreign.

Like no one had told her in a long time that she mattered.

I could feel Alec’s tension shift, and he changed the subject immediately, trying to defuse whatever was happening. “Shall we return her to her minder..?” he said. Moira had walked off to talk to others she knows, possibly they need some potions or one of her spells. They will be at her cottage.

I nodded and turned away.

It was too much. She was too much.

And yet I didn’t want to walk away.

I didn’t say goodbye.

I never do. Not unless I have to.

But as I stepped into the trees, I glanced back once. She was on the porch with Moira, slouched like she’d just survived a warzone. Her sarcasm was slipping, just slightly.

She looked tired.

Not just physically.

I should’ve walked faster.

Later that night, I stood on the edge of the eastern ridge, looking out over the woods. The wind was sharp. The trees below shimmered in shadow.

I felt the land. I always do.

It speaks in stillness. In subtle shifts. In the quiet we’re trained to hear.

And something had changed.

It wasn’t a threat. Not yet.

But it was awake.

“Are you going to talk to me about her?” Moira’s voice came from behind me.

She never announces herself.

I didn’t turn. “About who?”

She gave a dry little laugh. “Don’t play coy, Rowan. You haven’t taken your eyes off her since she arrived.”

“She’s reckless.”

“She’s grieving.”

“She talks back.”

“She listens too. Even if she pretends not to.”

I didn’t respond.

“She’s not like the others, I’ll give you that,” Moira said, stepping beside me. “But she’s stronger than she looks. Smarter too. You see it, don’t you?”

I let the wind answer for a few moments. Let it cut through the silence between us.

“She’s... disruptive.”

“She’s seventeen.”

“She’s dangerous.”

Moira’s eyes narrowed. “Not because of what she is. Because of what she’ll make you face.”

I turned to her then. “You think I’m afraid of her?”

She didn’t smile. “No. I think you’re afraid of what she means.”

"What are you talking about?"

She raised her eyebrow and had some weird 'knowing' look on her face. The she just turned around and walked back towards her house.

I couldn’t sleep.

That never happens.

I shifted into my wolf form and ran, hoping the forest would clear my mind. It didn’t.

I kept hearing her voice. Sharp. Funny. Too loud in quiet places.

And under all of it, a question I hadn’t voiced:

Why does she feel like something I’ve been waiting for?