My wolf snarled at that thought, clawing at my insides with renewed fury. The beast had been in agony since I’d walked out of her apartment, and speaking those formal rejection words had only made it worse. Every step away from her felt wrong on a cellular level, but I kept running.
The Moon Goddess made a fucking mistake. That’s what this was. A cosmic joke at my expense. A human mate? Humanscouldn’t handle the mate bond. Their bodies weren’t built for the intensity of it, the way it rewired everything inside you. I’d heard the stories. Human mates who died during the claiming, their hearts giving out from the strain. Others who survived only to go insane from the overwhelming connection.
And even if by some miracle Lina survived the claiming, what then? I’d be dragging her into my world. A world where my own parents treated pack members as chess pieces to be moved and sacrificed. Where challenges to my leadership came monthly now that I’d shown weakness by letting Blake die.
My brother’s face flashed through my mind and I stumbled, catching myself against a tree. Two years. It had been two years since that night, and the wound felt as fresh as ever.
I forced myself to keep moving, the lake finally coming into view through the trees. The afternoon sun glinted off the water, peaceful and serene in a way that mocked my internal chaos. I shifted at the water’s edge, letting my wolf take over for the final sprint into the cool water.
The shock of cold against my overheated fur made me gasp, but I dove deeper, trying to wash away her scent. Trying to forget the way she’d felt in my arms, the way she’d called me mate with such trust in her voice. The way she’d given me everything, and I’d thrown it back in her face.
But the water couldn’t wash away what was already branded into my soul. The mate bond pulsed with every heartbeat, weakened but not broken. My wolf whined pathetically as we swam, already feeling the strain of the rejection. Even this run, which should have been simple joy, felt wrong. Every movement tookmore effort than it should, as if I was dragging myself through mud instead of water.
I shifted back to human form in the shallows, standing naked at the lake’s edge as water dripped from my hair. The forest was quiet around me, just the gentle lap of waves and the distant call of birds. Peaceful. Normal. Everything I’d never be able to give her.
That’s when Noah’s scent reached me, carried on the afternoon breeze. Pine and earth with that undertone of shared blood that marked him as family. As my brother.
My only brother now.
“You look like shit,” Noah said from the tree line.
I didn’t turn. Couldn’t. It had been two years since Blake died, and I still couldn’t look my surviving brother in the eye without seeing accusation there. Without wondering if he blamed me as much as I blamed myself. The twins had been inseparable their whole lives, and now Noah was alone.
“Thought you’d be satisfied,” Noah continued, his footsteps crunching through the undergrowth as he emerged from the woods. “Mission successful. Rogues eliminated. Town saved. The great Alpha Knox Raven, defender of humans.”
The sarcasm in his voice cut deep. Deeper than any physical wound.
“Don’t,” I warned, but my voice lacked any real authority.
“That was her, the woman at the hotel. Your mate.”
His voice had gone carefully neutral now, the way it did when he was trying not to say what he really thought. The way it had been since Blake’s funeral.
“The whole hotel reeked of a fresh mate bond,” he continued when I didn’t answer. “She smelled like you. Had claiming marks all over her. And then you...”
He didn’t finish. Didn’t need to.
“She’s human,” I said finally, the words tasting of ash.
“I noticed. So?”
“So she’d die.” I grabbed my clothes from where I’d left them, pulling them on with rough movements. “The bond would kill her, or my world would. Either way, she’s better off without me.”
Noah moved closer, and I caught his reflection in the lake’s surface. Green eyes so much like Blake’s it physically hurt to see them. Same messy dark hair. Same stubborn set to his jaw when he thought I was being an idiot. Which was often these days.
“That’s Dad talking,” Noah said quietly. “Not every human who bonds with a wolf dies. There are cases-”
“I’m not gambling with her life!” The words came out as a snarl, Alpha authority rippling through my voice despite my exhaustion.
Noah didn’t even flinch. We’d grown up together. He’d seen me at my worst long before I had any real power.
“And even if she survived,” I continued, pulling my shirt on with more force than necessary, “what then? Bring her here? Present her to our parents? You know what they’d do.”
Marcus and Serena Raven hadn’t held power for thirty years by being soft. They’d see a human Luna as weakness at best, a tool to manipulate at worst. They’d test her, push her, break her down until she either became like them or shattered completely.
“The Raven line has never been weak,” my mother had said at Blake’s funeral, ice in every word. “We’ll have to ensure this... lapse... doesn’t repeat.”
The same way they’d tried to shape their sons.
