“So you destroyed her first,” Noah said quietly. “Very noble. Exactly what they would do.”
The words hit harder than any physical blow could have. I spun to face him finally, ready to rage, to pull rank, to do anything to make him stop. But the look on his face killed the words in my throat.
Disappointment. Not anger, not accusation. Just bone-deep disappointment.
“Knox-”
“Don’t.” I turned away again, staring across the lake toward Ravenshollow. Toward home. Toward duty. “It’s done. She’ll move on, find someone human, someone safe. Someone who won’t get her killed.”
“Someone who won’t love her the way a mate would.”
“Someone who won’t destroy her life,” I countered.
Noah was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was soft. Sad.
“Blake was always scared you’d turn out just like them.” He shook his head slowly. “You were proving him wrong, you know. Until now.”
Then he walked away, leaving me alone with that parting shot echoing in my head.
Blake was always scared you’d turn out just like them.
The words burrowed under my skin, finding every doubt, every fear I’d been carrying since the night my youngest brother died. Blake, who’d believed in fairy tales despite our parents’ example. Blake, who’d been convinced that love could conquer anything, that mates were sacred, that the Moon Goddess didn’t make mistakes.
Blake, who’d died at twenty-one with his whole life ahead of him.
I dressed mechanically, movements automatic while my mind spun. Blake had died just three months after I’d taken the Alpha title. Three months after our father had stepped down at fifty-five, following centuries of Raven tradition. The powerful led during their prime years, then passed the torch before age weakened them.
I’d barely learned to navigate pack politics when I’d lost my brother. Two years later, I was still failing. Still fighting challenges from wolves who smelled weakness. Still trying toprove I deserved the title when I couldn’t even protect my own family.
How could I protect someone as fragile as Lina?
The image of her in that alley flashed through my mind. Scrambling backward from the rogue, terror in those brown eyes. If I’d been thirty seconds later...
No. This was the right choice. The only choice.
My wolf whined again, weaker this time. The rejected bond was already taking its toll, making me nauseous and shaky in a way that had nothing to do with the run. But I was Alpha. I’d endure. I’d survived Blake’s death. I’d survive this too.
Alone, just as I should have stayed from the beginning.
The walk back to pack territory was agony. Each step felt heavier than the last, as if gravity itself had increased. My wolf had gone quiet, curled into a miserable ball in the back of my mind. The mate bond pulsed with phantom pain, reaching for something that wasn’t there.
By the time I reached the border markers, the sun was starting to set. The guards on duty straightened as they caught my scent, nodding respectfully.
“Alpha,” Marvin greeted, not quite meeting my eyes. “Welcome home.”
Home. Five thousand wolves who looked to me for leadership. A council that questioned every decision. Parents who showed their disappointment in increasingly creative ways.
The guards exchanged glances as I passed, probably wondering why their Alpha looked half-dead. Let them wonder. Let them gossip. As long as none of them knew the truth.
That Knox Raven, Alpha of the Ravenshollow Pack, had found his mate and rejected her. That he was already dying inside from a choice he’d made to keep her safe.
“Better alone than another grave to visit,” I muttered to myself as the pack house came into view.
The words sounded hollow even to my own ears. But I repeated them anyway, a mantra against the pain that was already threatening to bring me to my knees.
The pack house doors loomed before me, and I straightened my spine, shoving the pain down deep where no one would see it. I was Alpha. I would not show weakness.
Even if that weakness was all I had left.
