I felt him before I saw him.
The forest had gone quiet in the way it only does when something powerful steps into it predators holding their breath, waiting to see who will survive the encounter.
I slowed, hand tightening around my blade.
I didn't run.
If this was the line I had drawn, then this was where it would be tested.
"Show yourself," his voice came from the trees.
Still calm.
Still Alpha.
I stepped into the clearing.
Moonlight caught on steel, scars, and the distance I had carved between us with blood and time. His eyes found me instantly sharp, disbelieving, burning with something that looked too much like relief.
For one breath, neither of us moved.
"You're alive," he said.
I smiled faintly. "You sound surprised."
Him
She stood exactly where I'd imagined her and nothing like I remembered.
Harder.
Colder.
Unbowed.
The bond stirred painfully, no longer a whisper but a restrained scream beneath my skin. It had been there all along. Waiting. Punishing me for my ignorance.
"You should have come back," I said.
The words tasted wrong the moment they left my mouth.
Her laugh was quiet. Sharp. "I was bleeding out in the snow. Come back to what?"
The memory hit me sideways her stumbling at the gate, the way she'd gripped the stone as if it were the only thing holding her upright.
I hadn't asked why.
I hadn't followed.
My jaw tightened. "You should have told me."
Her eyes flashed. "I stood in a room full of wolves who had already decided I didn't matter. And you"
She stepped closer.
" you let them."
Each word landed like a verdict.
Her
Now he saw it.
Not the rumor.
Not the ghost.
The damage.
"I didn't die because I was weak," I said. "I nearly died because you were silent."
The bond flared between us hot, furious, undeniable.
His hand twitched at his side, like he wanted to reach for me and feared what I'd do if he tried.
"I never wanted you gone," he said.
I shook my head slowly. "Intent doesn't erase consequence."
Silence stretched, thick and dangerous.
"I can protect you now," he said finally. "Come back. Let me fix this."
I laughed again this time without humor.
"You don't get to fix what you abandoned," I said. "And I don't belong to your pack anymore."
The forest held its breath.
Him
She was right.
That was the worst part.
"If you stay out here," I said quietly, "you'll be hunted. By my enemies. By those trying to use you to reach me."
Her gaze didn't waver. "Then they'll learn what it costs."
She turned away.
Panic real, unfiltered shot through me.
"If you walk away now," I said, "this won't end."
She paused. Looked back once.
"It already did," she replied. "You just arrived too late to see it."
Then she vanished into the trees silent, deliberate, untouchable.
The bond screamed.
And for the first time since I took the crown, I understood a truth no council had ever taught me.
Some losses don't come from choosing wrong.
They come from choosing too late.