RUNE HAD GIVEN ME EXACTLY what I needed, if not what I wanted. Because the notion of having him join my pack just in time for me to leave it.... I shivered and squelched the upcoming pain.
Meanwhile, the shifters around us rustled as if a breeze had flowed through them. They smelled uncertain, but for an entirely different reason. Rune wasn’t a pack mate, and what the others had seen of him didn’t shine a positive light.
Still, I was Alpha...for the moment. My clan would come around once they understood my choice.
And I was choosing this, even though the idea carved out my middle until I felt completely hollow. There was no one I’d trust more than Rune to do this for me. No one else I’d want at the head of this pack.
So I knelt to recover the sword that had fallen from Ash’s fingers, u
