She heard me.
She doesn’t move at first, wariness making her hesitate. A reaction I’ve more than earned. I have given her every reason to doubt me. Every reason to think this could be another crueltwist. Another spectacle pulled at her expense. Her legs look locked in place, those haunting eyes flicking from my hand to my face, like she is weighing whether the risk of stepping forward is worth it.
“Please, baby.”
It’s Siggy and Seren who save me, both of them giving Noa a soft, but reassuring, nudge in my direction. Whatever Seren whispers in her ear before she lets go of her has Noa inhaling a breath that looks like it hurts before her—sock covered?—foot lifts.
Noa moves toward me, her steps stiff, unsure, like her body doesn’t yet trust what her heart is insisting. She weaves through the sea of guests while every eye tracks her. The lodge, which moments ago felt like it might tear itself in half from the tension, now holds still as if afraid to breathe and break the moment.
When she nears the foot of the stage, I don’t make her climb to me. Keeping my hand extended, I descend the two steps and meet her at the bottom. Up close, I see the tremor in her fingers, the way her breath catches as she looks up at me. Her throat works like all of this has become too large for her to swallow.
She hesitates again, a single breath held too long, before she accepts my offering. Noa’s skin is cool against my palm as I curl my fingers around hers, careful, like I’ve been trusted with something breakable, and guide us back up the steps.
Side by side.
Exactly where we should’ve been all along.
Her fingers still shake in mine, and I can’t help myself. I lift our joined hands, and press my lips to her knuckles. Just one kiss that’s a promise in its own right.
There’s no longer a reason to shield it from their eyes. I forced them to show me where their allegiances stand, now I’ll show them where mine will always stay.
She stares up at me, brows pulled together beneath the shorter hair of her bangs, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. She flicks a quick glance toward the crowd, sees the wall of eyes staring back, and the color drains a shade further from her face.
“Ren…” she breathes, and my name on her tongue sounds like a question and a plea all at once.
“It’s okay,” I murmur. “I’ve got you. I promise, Noa.”
I don’t let go of her hand. My thumb moves in slow, steady passes over her skin as I turn back to face the room.
“This woman,” I tell them, and inside my wolf stiffens, ready to lunge if I so much as speak her name wrong. He’s waiting for the slightest misstep, ready to tear through me if I ever dare think to cross his mate again. He remembers the last time I stood before a group like this with Noa—still wears the scars from having to crawl from the wreckage of my error. “Is the one I was always destined for. Theonlyone. And I almost lost her—that’s a mistake that will haunt me till my grave. One I won’t make again.”
The room is so quiet it feels like even the walls are listening.
“Noa Alderwood is your rightful Luna,” I tell them, my voice carrying the truth like a brand of absolution. “She’s the only one meant to wear that title, the only one built to lead beside me. Any future this pack has worth fighting for includes her, or it’s not a future I’ll claim. You’d be lucky to have even a piece of her heart guiding you. Lucky to stand under the kind of strength and mercy she carries. Having her stand beside me will make me a better Alpha because she’s already made me a better man.”
Noa’s breath hitches beside me and her fingers twitch in mine. I give them a quick, reassuring squeeze, letting her know I’m still with her up here. That I’m not letting go. Ever.
“I broke what was sacred,” I admit, and there is no disguising the fracture in my voice. “I hurt her in ways a man should neverhurt what’s his. In ways I’ll never forgive myself for. And maybe it’s too late for me to fix us. Maybe I’ll never be worthy of the calm compassion that’s woven into the fibers of her soul—the kind that makes broken things feel safe enough to grow again. But I’ll spend every day I have left proving I can be better than the man who broke her.”
Her hand still captured in mind, I turn to face Noa.
The crack of my knees meeting the stage cuts through the silence, loud enough to feel like something holy. It isn’t defeat. It’s an offering. The sound of a man choosing to kneel.
Most wolves will live and die without ever seeing a pack Alpha voluntarily submit. What I’m doing now—this act of surrender, this choice—they’ll call it weakness.I don’t care. Not about the optics. Not about my pride.
My chin tilts, and before everyone, I bare my throat to my mate.
“You are my everything,” I tell her, but I make sure they hear me too. “My heart beats for yours. It doesn’t know how to do anything else. Not anymore.”
Noa’s hand trembles in mine, my name on her lips little more than a breathless exhale. “Ren…”
I keep going.
“All that I have and am, is yours. My name, my heart, my soul. Do you want the same leash that once kept me chained? I’ll hand it to you myself. Wrap it around your fist, pull it tight until it hurts, baby. I’ll follow wherever it leads, because there is no life where I walk away from you again.”
That day in the clearing plays behind my eyes like punishment—the moment I let them take her limp body away while I stood there. Then the sound of my boots turning away from her. Guilt rises like bile, but I don’t let it win. I keep my gaze on her. My anchor and reckoning wrapped into one.
“I know what I did,” I tell her, the words trembling against the still air. “I know how deep the wound goes, how much of you I broke when I should’ve protected you. I don’t deserve your forgiveness or your trust, but I’m here on my knees, sweet Noa,begging you to believe in me anyway.”
