Iris Montgomery's POV
I pull my hands away from both of them.
My grandmother immediately starts arguing. She uses every reason she can think of to keep me at the cabin. She talks about protection. About preparation. About needing time to understand what Aldric is and what he wants from me.
But I'm done listening to reasons.
"I understand that you're scared," I tell her, and I try to keep my voice gentle. "I understand that you've spent your whole life protecting me. But I'm not staying in that protection anymore."
Aldric steps back, giving me space. I can see the effort it costs him. His entire body is tense like every muscle is fighting not to grab me again. Like it's taking everything he has to respect my need to make this choice on my own.
"I spent my entire life hiding who I am," I continue, looking at my grandmother. "You kept me small and powerless and hidden. You gave me herbs to suppress what I could become. And I understand why now. I understand that you were trying to keep me alive."
My grandmother's face crumples.
"But I'm done hiding," I say. "Now that I'm finally waking up to what I can be, I'm not going back into a cage. Even a cage made of love."
I turn to Aldric and I walk toward him. My grandmother reaches for me but doesn't grab. She's finally understanding that she can't force me to stay.
"I will go with you," I tell Aldric. "But I have a condition."
His eyes focus on me like I'm the only thing in the entire world that matters.
"I want answers," I say. "I want to know what you are. Why I felt that connection to you. What it means that you've been waiting for me. I want to know everything."
He agrees immediately. Like I could ask for anything and he would give it without hesitation.
"Anything you want to know, I will tell you," he says, and his voice is gentle in a way I didn't expect from someone so ancient and powerful. "I have three hundred years of things to explain. But first, we leave. We get you somewhere safe."
Luna suddenly steps forward.
"I'm coming with you," she says, and her voice is hard. Determined. "I'm not leaving Iris alone with someone we don't know."
My grandmother looks at Luna like she's about to argue but then something shifts in her expression. She reaches out and pulls Luna aside. They talk quietly for several minutes. I can't hear what my grandmother is saying but I can see Luna's face getting paler and paler.
Whatever my grandmother is telling her is bad.
When Luna returns, she's shaking slightly. But she nods at me.
"I'm coming," she confirms. "Your grandmother told me some things about what Aldric is. About what it means that he's here for you. And she's right. You shouldn't be alone."
My grandmother walks over to me and pulls me into a hug so tight it hurts.
"Come back to me," she whispers. "No matter what happens, come back to me."
"I will," I promise, though I have no idea if it's true.
She releases me and steps back. She looks at Aldric and her voice becomes sharp.
"If you hurt her in any way, I will find you," she says. "And I will make three hundred years of darkness look like a blessing."
Aldric nods like he understands that this threat is real and he respects her for making it.
"I would expect nothing less from her grandmother," he responds.
Then he takes my hand and we start walking deeper into the forest.
Luna follows close behind us. She still has her knife drawn but she's not using it as a threat anymore. She's just making sure we're safe.
As we walk, I feel the sun setting. The world is getting darker. The Blood Moon is rising higher in the sky, growing brighter and redder with each passing moment.
And somewhere in the distance, I hear something that makes my stomach drop.
Wolves howling.
Pack members. Probably at Kael's command. They're searching for me. Their voices echo through the forest like they're tracking something. Like they think they can find me if they just search hard enough.
But I don't feel pulled toward them anymore.
That connection is gone. Broken and dead and replaced by something so much stronger that it makes the old rejection feel insignificant.
I feel pulled forward instead.
Forward toward the darkness with this man who's been dreaming of me for three hundred years.
"Are they hunting us?" I ask Aldric as we walk.
"Yes," he says simply. "But they won't find us. The forest recognizes me. The old magic knows who I am and it will hide us if we ask."
He says something in that old language that sounds like starlight. And suddenly the trees around us feel different. Like they're actively hiding us. Like the very ground is shifting to cover our tracks.
We walk for what feels like hours.
Luna keeps up with us even though it's not easy. She's tough. Loyal. Absolutely committed to making sure nothing happens to me.
Finally, Aldric stops.
"We're here," he says quietly.
I look around and at first I don't see anything. Just trees and darkness. But then I feel it. A presence. Multiple presences. All ancient. All powerful.
They step out of the shadows.
Dozens of them. Maybe more. All ancient beings with eyes that have seen centuries pass. All looking at Aldric like he's a god coming back from the dead.
They're not regular people.
That much is immediately obvious. There's something about them that exists outside normal time. Like they've been waiting so long that normal aging doesn't apply to them anymore.
They all fall to their knees when Aldric walks into the clearing.
Every single one of them drops to the ground and bows.
One of them steps forward. A man who appears middle-aged but who I instinctively know is ancient. Far older than he looks. Tears are streaming down his face as he approaches Aldric.
"My King," he says, and his voice breaks with emotion. "We thought you were lost forever. We thought the curse would never break. We thought we'd spend eternity waiting for something that would never happen."
Aldric looks at me first before answering.
"I was lost," he says. "But I'm found now."
The old man's eyes move to me.
He studies me like he's seeing something far beyond what I can see in myself. And then he bows. Not the bow he gave Aldric. A different bow. Deeper. More respectful.
All the other beings in the clearing see his bow and they bow as well.
Everyone falls to their knees.
And I'm standing in the middle of a circle of ancient, powerful beings who are all bowing to me like I'm something important.
I look at Aldric and he's watching me with an expression that looks like love.
Luna grabs my hand and squeezes it once.
I realize in that moment that I've just walked into something so much bigger than I ever imagined. Something that spans centuries. Something that's been waiting for me before I was even born.
There's no going back now.
I'm not Iris the weak pack member anymore.
I'm something else entirely.
And these ancient beings know exactly what I am.