The Summons

Chapter 2

 The Summons

POV: Adelina McKenna

The car ride from Ohio to Aspen felt like falling into someone else’s life.

Everything smelled wrong. Too clean, too sharp, like leather and ozone and money. I sat wrapped in a sleek wool coat someone had left folded on the backseat, probably worth more than my last three paychecks combined. My bare feet rested on hand-stitched carpets. There was bottled spring water in a sterling holder between the seats and a touchscreen I didn’t dare touch.

I should’ve felt important.

Instead, I felt like a stray mutt dressed in borrowed elegance.

The man driving who never gave his name spoke only when absolutely necessary. I asked once if I could call my mother.

“No devices while in transport,” he replied, as if he were reading from a manual. “You’ll have access to secure comms when you arrive at the Lodge.”

I leaned against the window, watching telephone poles blur past, and wondered how everything had changed in twenty-four hours.

One day I was scraping plates in a booth near the interstate, dodging catcalls and dodging rent.

The next, I was apparently being transported across the country because some supernatural council had decided I belonged to an alpha I’d never met.

Correction: an Alpha. Capital A. Leader of the Silver Fang Pack. Multi-billionaire. Ruthless businessman. I’d heard his name before who hadn’t? Daxon Reyes was all over the news whenever he acquired another tech firm, shut down a rival, or made some cryptic power move that sent Wall Street into chaos.

He was the kind of man people wrote headlines about.

And now I was apparently his.

Or at least, his fated mate.

The idea made my skin crawl.

It wasn’t that I objected to the idea of mates. I didn’t know enough about werewolf culture to have strong opinions. But I objected to the way this had been handled.

A letter? A summons like I was being dragged into court?

I hadn’t even known I was a wolf until last night. I hadn’t known I could be anything other than what I was a small-town nobody with a dead-end job and a thousand buried questions about my father. Now I was supposed to walk into a pack of elites and… what? Kneel? Smile? Say, Yes, Alpha, I’m yours?

Screw that.

If fate wanted me to be someone's mate, fate could get in line behind my temper.

The car didn’t stop until the roads narrowed into winding mountain paths and the trees started changing thicker, darker, ancient. I’d never seen trees like this before. They loomed, not just tall, but powerful. Like they had secrets.

Ahead, golden light spilled across the trees from lanterns set along a wrought iron gate, embossed with a silver crescent.

We passed under it, and the world changed again.

Inside the gates, the forest thinned into a private paradise. Roads turned to cobblestone. Every tree was pruned like art. Wildflowers bloomed in impossible symmetry. And ahead like something pulled from a movie set was a massive lodge built into the cliffside, its rooftops sweeping like wings, stone and glass towering above us.

This was Silver Fang territory.

The SUV pulled up to a wide circular driveway where a tall woman in black slacks and a crisp blazer was already waiting. She didn’t smile.

“Adelina McKenna,” she said, her voice smooth as glacier ice. “You’ll come with me.”

She didn’t ask.

She turned on her heel and strode inside. I followed because I didn’t have a better option. My driver nodded once before driving off gone, just like that.

As I stepped inside, the scent of wolf hit me like a physical wall.

Earth. Smoke. Metal. And something else. Spice and cedar and lightning.

My knees almost buckled.

Not because of fear.

Because something inside me the part I didn’t yet know how to control recognized him.

He was here.

Somewhere in this place.

“Your room,” the woman said, holding open a wide oak door. Inside was a space the size of my whole apartment: vaulted ceilings, dark wood floors, a king-sized bed with iron posts and velvet throws. A glass wall opened onto a balcony that overlooked the forest and mountains.

“I’ll return at sunset to escort you to the assembly,” she added.

“Assembly?” I echoed.

“Fated pairings are confirmed during the Pack Gathering. Attendance is required.” Her tone left no room for argument.

“Is he going to be there?” I asked. I hated the way my voice cracked.

She met my gaze for the first time. Her eyes were amber wolf eyes.

“He is the Alpha.”

Then she was gone.

I sat on the edge of the bed, fists balled in the velvet, and tried to breathe.

He was here.

The wolf who apparently owned my soul by blood law. The man whose name had been stamped across my summons like a brand.

I didn’t know what he looked like in person. I didn’t know if he’d want me. If he’d even speak to me. If I’d feel that magnetic pull again or if he’d look at me and see a mistake.

But I wasn’t going to fall apart.

Not here.

Not in front of them.

There was a gown laid out on the armoire. Midnight blue, floor-length, with silver embroidery at the cuffs and collar. It shimmered in the light elegant but clearly ceremonial.

I almost didn’t wear it.

But the instinct to survive kicked in.

If this was a battlefield, I needed armor.

As sunset fell, the woman returned. Her name, she finally told me, was Maren.

“You’ll enter behind the eastern gate. Do not speak unless spoken to. The bond will manifest, or it won’t. If it does, the Alpha will speak

your name. You will wait until acknowledged.”

“And if it doesn’t?” I asked.

She didn’t answer.

I didn’t ask again.