"What's this—finished pouring your heart out and now you can't wait to take her back to your den?"
Kael's eyes went wide, disbelief written across his face.
"You—you saw that?"
"Lyra, let me explain—"
I didn't move. Just stood there, waiting for his explanation.
He fumbled for words, then his head dropped in defeat.
"I'm sorry!"
Sorry. Again with the apologies. Five years of hearing those two words had worn them hollow.
Every time he said them, it was just another reminder that he'd actually betrayed the bond we shared.
I used to be naive enough to believe that if Raven Duskveil just disappeared from our territory, we could go back to how things were.
And what happened?
Raven merely stood there, and our fragile mate bond crumbled to dust.
Because of the two of them, my sire paid with his life.
Because of the two of them, I'd wasted ten years of mine.
It was like the other shoe had finally dropped. My heart had never felt this calm.
"Kael, let's reject the bond."
His head snapped up.
Then came the irritated pinch of his brow. He flicked on the den lights and tossed his jacket carelessly onto the fur-draped settee.
"Lyra, you know I swore a blood oath to your sire that I'd never break our mating bond."
"What happened just now—that was my fault. I shouldn't have gone to see Raven."
"But she went from being a respected pack member to selling wildflowers at the territory border. She's suffered enough."
"I just felt guilty, wanted to give her some compensation. I won't see her again!"
I slowly lifted my gaze to the Alpha standing before me.
We'd spent twenty years side by side, yet his scent felt like a complete stranger's.
"What about me? Haven't I suffered enough? How do you plan to compensate me?"
After my dam passed, my sire took me to serve at a remote mountain outpost far from pack lands.
That's where I met Kael Stormhowl.
His dam had gotten pregnant outside of a proper mating bond, then been abandoned by her lover. She gave birth to him and left him with his elderly grandmother, the pack matriarch.
My sire took a liking to this quiet, hardworking pup.
Then one night, during a terrible storm, Kael knocked on our den door.
His grandmother, Selene Stormhowl, had died. His aunt Vesper Stormhowl wanted to invoke bloodline den-claims on the ancestral home and was casting him out.
Covered in mud, utterly wretched, he knelt on the ground and begged my sire to take him in. Said he'd serve like a low-rank wolf to repay the kindness.
My sire was still hesitating when I stepped forward and took Kael's hand.
"Father, let him stay."
From that day on, Kael became part of our pack.
He was sensible and never idle.
When my sire was busy with pack duties, Kael looked after me—hunting small game, preparing meals, even learning to braid my hair in different styles.
I became his little shadow.
When he trained with the other young wolves, I'd play outside the training grounds, glancing up whenever I wanted to see him.
When he studied pack laws and territory maps, I'd sit quietly beside him, dozing off or folding herbs.
Once, when my sire was away on a territory patrol, I spiked a high fever in the middle of the night.
Still just a young wolf himself, Kael carried me on his back, stumbling through the dark forest all the way to the healer's den in the main settlement.
I came through fine. He ended up with a deep gash on his foot from a sharp rock that kept him off his feet for three whole months.
I was too young to understand things. The first time my heat cycle came, I thought I was dying.
I sobbed like the world was ending. It was Kael, face burning red beneath his tan, who found the elder Omega healers and awkwardly helped me understand what was happening to my body.
Growing up, we were inseparable. Two halves of a whole.
At twenty, he confessed his feelings. His scent had always called to mine—being together felt like the most natural thing in the world.
At our coming-of-age ceremony, he proposed a mating bond.
He asked me to wait three years—just until he'd built enough pack power for a proper mating feast.
I told him I didn't care about rank or territory. He said whatever other she-wolves had, I deserved too.
I waited three years. What I got was him recognizing another's scent.
After his training was complete, Kael chose to build his own pack influence. My sire gave him warriors, resources, and sanctuary—every bit of power he'd accumulated over his lifetime.
Raven Duskveil was a low-rank attendant who'd joined Kael's growing faction.
She'd clawed her way out of the mountain outposts through sheer grit. Kael said looking at her was like looking at his younger self.
