I didn't head straight back. Instead, my feet carried me to the pond on the far side of the grounds. It wasn't much just a dark patch of water surrounded by reeds and wild grass but it was quiet, and quiet was all I wanted.
I lowered myself onto the edge, pulling my knees up to my chest. The surface of the pond rippled faintly, catching silver from the moon. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.
Ten years. Ten years since that night.
And stupid me back then, I'd tried again. Once. Twice. Approaching him with that small, stubborn hope that maybe Leonel would at least talk to me as a friend. Just a hello. Just something.
But he never did.
He never gave me more than a glance when our paths crossed. He never answered when I tried to start a conversation. He'd come by my house sometimes pack business with my father and I'd slip out the back before he saw me. At school, at lunch, I sat near him when I had no choice, but I stopped trying. I stopped reaching out.
And eventually, it was like he'd never been my friend at all.
I wrapped my arms tighter around my knees. Twenty-two now, and the ache hadn't really gone anywhere. I just learned how to bury it deeper, under rules and routines and the lie of being Beta.
A sharp shuffle in the bushes across the pond snapped me out of my thoughts.
My spine went stiff. Wolves weren't the only things that moved in the dark, and I wasn't in the mood to deal with anyone stumbling across me like this. I leaned forward, peering through the reeds, trying to catch a glimpse.
At first, all I saw was movement shadows shifting. Then voices. Low. Tense.
Leonel's.
My breath hitched before I could stop it.
He was standing near the treeline, his silver-gray eyes burning even in the dark, one hand fisted tightly in the collar of a stranger's jacket. The stranger wasn't from our pack I'd have recognized him. His hair was stark white, catching the moonlight like frost, his grin all sharp edges and mockery.
"Don't test me," Leonel's voice was a growl, the kind that carried even over the pond. He shoved the stranger back a step. "You're not welcome here."
The white-haired man just laughed under his breath, brushing Leonel's grip off like it was nothing. "Careful, Alpha. You don't want to start something you can't finish."
And just like that, he turned and sauntered off into the trees, the grin still carved into his face.
I should've left right then. I should've looked away. But my eyes stayed locked on Leonel, on the tension coiled in his frame, on the way his chest rose and fell like he was holding back more than words.
And then, his head snapped up.
Straight at me.
Those silver-gray eyes pinned me in place, sharp as a blade.
"You there," his voice cut through the night, harsh and direct. "Got a nice view of the act?"
My heart lurched, slamming against my ribs.