All Chapters of Son Of The Betrayed-A Wolf Shifter Romance: Chapter 21 - Chapter 30

Takoda’s truck descended the winding road from campus into town, passing brick storefronts with darkened windows and old streetlamps flickering through the mist. A banner stretched across Main Street, snapping in the wind: Black Hollow Winter Lights Festival Coming Soon. The cheerful blue letters looked ridiculous against the storm.I stared up at the wet fabric as we drove beneath. “Does every small-town festival here secretly cover up bloodline trauma, or is that just a Founder’s Festival thing?”Takoda glanced at me, the muscles in his chest tightening. A real laugh almost made it out of him. Almost. The sound caught somewhere low in his throat before he swallowed it. “Not every festival,” he said, his voice a low rumble over the sound of the engine.“Oh, good,” I muttered, resting my chin against my hand. “That’s comforting.”“The Christmas parade is usually safe.” He shifted gears seamlessly, the transmission giving a faint whine.I cut my eyes toward him skeptically. “Usually?”

Nobody spoke after that. The kitchen just sat there holding all of us inside it while rain battered the windows and the old clock above the stove ticked loud enough to scrape against my nerves.My mother stared down into her tea like the answers might somehow rise out of the steam if she waited long enough. Elias stood near the hallway entrance with his arms folded loosely across his chest, calm and unreadable beneath the dim kitchen light.Takoda looked ready to crawl out of his own skin. It wasn't visible, most people probably wouldn’t have noticed anything beyond the tension in his shoulders, but I noticed. His jaw kept flexing. His fingers curled once at his sides. His eyes tracked every reaction I had like he was bracing for impact.And honestly? That made two of us.I leaned both palms against the kitchen counter. “Okay,” I muttered, shaking my head once. “No. We are not doing the mysterious silence thing again.”Mom inhaled slowly through her nose. “Analiese...”“No.” My voice

The storm eased sometime after midnight, but the house still felt too awake afterward. Every creak sounded louder. Every passing set of headlights sliding across the living room walls made my pulse jump for half a second before logic caught up.Mom tried pretending things were normal. That lasted maybe twelve minutes. She made tea nobody drank, folded a dish towel six separate times, and then started wiping down already-clean counters while Elias stood near the back windows watching the tree line like he expected Carter to stroll back out of the woods holding another emotionally devastating conversation.Takoda stayed quieter than everybody else, which honestly felt impressive considering the competition. He stood near the hallway entrance with his shoulders braced against the wall, dark eyes following every movement in the house while exhaustion slowly settled harder across his face. It was not physical exhaustion, but control exhaustion—like every instinct in him had been clenched t

“You already know,” Grandma repeated, her voice smooth and unbothered as she reached for the handle of the metal kettle.The room fell dead silent again. Because, apparently, everyone in the house except me understood exactly what she meant. Trin looked between all of us wildly, throwing her hands up in the air.Grandma carried the heavy kettle toward the stove while Elias moved slowly farther into the kitchen, his broad shoulders noticeably tense beneath his flannel jacket. Takoda stayed entirely anchored near the hallway entrance. He was still watching me. And now that Trin had so loudly pointed it out? Everybody else in the room was noticing it, too.Fantastic. Absolutely fantastic for my rapidly deteriorating emotional stability.I shoved the heavy fleece blanket tighter around my shoulders before finally blurting out, “Can somebody please explain what exactly everyone thinks they already know?”Grandma struck a match beneath the black stove burner before answering calmly, “The mo

Black Hollow after a football win always turned loud. Truck horns echoed through town while students poured out of the stadium bundled in black and red, the music already starting up across the tailgate lots before the fourth-quarter crowd had even cleared the chain-link exits. Somewhere down near Miller’s Lake, somebody was probably already dragging wooden pallets toward a roaring bonfire pit, because that’s exactly what this town did after home wins. It had been that way for as long as I could remember. Friday night football wasn’t just a school event here; it was town religion.Cold November air bit at my cheeks as Harmony and I got swept along the concrete sidewalk with the rest of the packed crowd leaving the stadium.“Well,” Harmony announced loudly over the noise, adjusting the strap of her purse on her shoulder, “I learned something tonight.”I adjusted my heavy hoodie sleeves down over my freezing hands. “I’m genuinely afraid to ask.”“I learned that Takoda Blackwell might a