Page 125 of A Wolfe in the Woods

Up, high on the eastern rise, by the old utility road, were silhouettes half-lit by a burning sky. One in particular.

Our gazes locked.

Fang. He knew where Erik—where Blanche—was.

He smiled, just enough to show he was pleased. Amused. That this had been a game to him.

He wasn’t even trying to hide. He stood like he belonged here, like the Hollow was already his territory.Theirterritory. His posture was calm, controlled, his hands loose at his sides as if he’d simply wandered out to admire the view. Cabins eight, nine, ten, and eleven were now burning behind me, smoke clawing at the night sky.

Behind Fang…two, maybe three others, broader than most men, stood with the quiet stillness of predators. Spaced far enough apart to feel intentional. Standing in formation. A pack.

They hadn’t tracked me. They’d let me come to them.

My hands curled into fists so tight my nails cut into my palms.

The message was clear. They could burn my cabins. They could destroy my father’s land…destroy what I’d built. What I was trying to rebuild.

In the blaze, I saw the ghosts of all the hours I’d spent repairing these places, sanding boards, sealing windows, rebuilding what time had rotted away. I saw my father’s hands doing the same long before me, stubborn, relentless, believing this place was worth the work.

Erik could burn every structure on this land down to ash, and it still would be the Hollow. The land wasn’t wood and nails. Thelegacy wasn’t a booking calendar. The legacy was blood and bone and duty.

The land was alive. And Blanchette—Blanchette was alive.

For now.

That was all that mattered.

I stared at Fang through the heated simmer, through the firelight, and something in me went very quiet.

It was a decision.

He wanted to corner me and force me to choose between saving what I’d built and saving the girl he’d stolen. To make me scramble like prey. But the moment he’d lit those fires…he’d made something else clear. There was no going back.

No deal. No rules. Erik had my leverage. My weakness. He thought that meant he had me.

He didn’t.

I dragged in one more breath of smoke and let it burn a path down into my lungs.

Then I looked back at the tree line, toward Fang, and I let him see it on my face, clear as a snarl.

I wasn’t the man who’d walked away from Blanchette at the fountain. I wasn’t the man who’d spent years running from what this land demanded of me. I’d made my choice. And if Erik wanted a Black Wolf…he was about to learn what it meant to call one out of the woods.

The greenhouse behind me collapsed inward with a violent roar, sparks bursting up into the night like a swarm of angry stars.

Fang didn’t flinch. Neither did I. Firelight flickered across the sharp angles of his face before he lifted his head toward the horizon.

“He’s waiting for you on the mountain,” he called. Then, he turned and vanished into the trees, followed by his henchman.

Blanchette’s face rose in my mind. The way I’d left her standing at the fountain. The way she had looked when I’d walked away and abandoned her. I should’ve stayed, dammit! Should’ve said…something. Should have made a different choice. If I had, Erik would’ve never gotten to her in the first place. Instead, she was out here somewhere in the dark, trapped by my decision.

It struck me then how strange it was. I was further from Blanchette than ever, yet never felt closer to her than right now. Every step I was about to take was for her…for us.

If Fang was bait, then Erik was the hook. And standing here, hesitating, meant losing her.

I wouldn’t walk away this time.

CHAPTER 36