All Chapters of The Alpha's Runaway Mate: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

Daniel came by that evening, later than usual, his coat still damp from the rain that had not fully let up since afternoon. He found me sitting behind the counter long after closing, staring at nothing in particular, the shop dim except for a single lamp I had not bothered to put out."You look like you have seen a ghost," he said, setting down the crate he was carrying, some new supply he had picked up on my behalf, the way he always did."Something close to it."He studied my face a moment longer than was comfortable, and whatever he saw there made his easy expression sharpen into something more careful. "Tell me.""A man came into the shop today. An Alpha, from a pack north of here." I kept my eyes on the counter, tracing the grain of the wood with one finger. "I knew him, before I came to Millbrook.""Knew him how?"I had not told Daniel everything about Silver Moon Pack. I had told him enough, over the months, that he understood I had left something painful behind me, but I had n

Adrian stayed in Millbrook another three days, ostensibly to help Daniel trace the last of Hale Holdings' dealings in the region. In truth, most of those three days found some reason to lead him back to Pine Street, to the shop with the crooked green sign, where he would find some small excuse to linger a while longer than any matter of business required.I did not tell him to stop coming. I told myself this was purely practical, that a man with the resources of an entire pack behind him was useful to have on my side while Hale Holdings remained a threat. I told myself this every time the bell above my door rang and my heart lifted, foolishly, before I had even turned around to see who had come in.I was not being entirely honest with myself, and I think some part of me knew it even then.On the third evening, he came by just as I was closing, Ruth already gone for the day, the street outside fading into the soft grey light that comes just before full dark."I leave for Black River to

Back at Black River, Selena had not stopped thinking about the girl in Millbrook since the day Adrian rode south.She told herself, at first, that it did not matter. Adrian had rejected the girl in front of an entire pack. A rejection could not simply be undone because an Alpha felt a flicker of guilt a year later. She had spent that year making herself useful to him, learning the names of his warriors, sitting beside him during council meetings, slowly building the shape of a Luna in everyone's mind until it became easier for the pack to imagine her standing beside him than to imagine anyone else.Then he had ridden south, alone, and come back different. Quieter. His eyes drifting toward the window more often than they used to. A man distracted by something he would not name.Selena did not need him to name it. She already knew.She found Corwin in the training yard one grey morning, overseeing a group of young wolves sparring in the mud, and waited until he had sent them off before

Winter came early to Millbrook that year, the first frost settling over Pine Street in the last week of autumn, turning the window of Rose Haven into a thin sheet of silver each morning until the shop's warmth melted it clear again.Business slowed with the cold, the way it always did, though I had learned enough from my first year to prepare for it properly this time. I had spent the autumn months building up stock for the coming holiday season, small wrapped gifts and warm woven scarves that Ruth had taught me to make, and the shelves of Rose Haven looked fuller now than they ever had before.I should have felt proud of that, and some part of me did. But the fullness of the shop could not quite fill the strange, restless feeling that had settled into my chest since Adrian's last letter, the one that admitted he thought of me often, and had not been followed by another in nearly a month.I told myself the silence meant nothing. Pack business. The cold weather making travel difficult

I told Daniel first, because he deserved to hear it from me directly rather than through Jorah or Finn or the quiet gossip that moved through Millbrook faster than any letter ever could."I am going," I said, finding him at the small table near the back of the tavern where he still kept his ledgers, the same table where he and Adrian had first sat together months before. "Not because he asked me to, not entirely. Because I have spent a year building something I refuse to lose to a man who burns buildings when people tell him no, and if staying here puts Rose Haven and everyone in it at greater risk, then I would rather face that risk somewhere I have at least a chance of understanding what I am facing."Daniel was quiet for a long moment, turning his cup slowly between his hands."That is a good reason," he said finally. "I only hope it is the whole reason.""It is not the whole reason," I admitted, because I had promised him honesty, and I intended to keep that promise even when it c