You loved your pack enough to let them go.
The words she’d spoken the previous night still felt true in the light of morning. But they also raised questions she wasn’t sure she wanted to answer. Questions about her own choices, her own inheritance, and her own impossible situation.
Rykan had walked away from his legacy. But could she do the same?
The thought twisted in her chest like a knife. Her father’s face swam before her eyes—aged and kind, with deep lines carved by years of worry and love. He had worked his entire life to grow Duvain Enterprises. Not for wealth or power, but because he believed in what the company could accomplish. Medical research. Terraforming technology. Systems that made new worlds habitable for ordinary people.
He had believed in the work. And he had believed in her, perhaps not in her physical strength but in her intelligence and her abilities.
You have your own kind of strength, little spark. One day you’ll prove it to everyone—including yourself.
How could she abandon his faith in her? How could she walk away from everything he’d trusted her with, everything he’d spent his life creating?
Rykan stirred against her, his arm tightening around her waist as he surfaced from sleep. She felt the moment awareness returned to him in the sudden tension in his muscles, the catch in his breathing, and the way his hand flexed against her hip.
“You’re awake.” His voice was rough with sleep, a low rumble she felt as much as heard.
“For a while now.”
He didn’t release her. If anything, his hold tightened. “You should have woken me.”
“You looked peaceful.” She tilted her head back to look at him, finding his golden eyes already fixed on her face. “I didn’t want to disturb you.”
Something shifted in his expression—something soft and wondering that made her heart clench.
“I never sleep peacefully,” he said quietly. “Not anymore. Not since…”
He didn’t finish, but he didn’t need to. She understood. Six years of sleeping alone in a cabin on a frozen mountain with nothing but bitter memories for company. Of course he didn’t sleep well.
But last night, with her in his arms, he had.
The knowledge warmed her even as it terrified her. Every day she spent here made it harder to imagine leaving. And she would have to leave. Eventually. When the pass cleared, when theweather broke, when the world beyond these mountains came calling again.
Unless I stayed.
The thought ambushed her, taking root before she could stop it. What if she simply… didn’t go back? What if she disappeared into this wilderness with Rykan and let the rest of the universe believe she’d died in the crash? Marina would take control of the company. The search parties would eventually give up. And she could live out her days in peace, free from politics and betrayal and the crushing weight of expectation.
It was tempting. Dangerously, achingly tempting.
But even as she imagined it, she knew it was impossible. Not because she couldn’t survive here—he was teaching her, and she was learning faster than either of them had expected. Not because she feared the isolation—she’d spent her whole life isolated in different ways. But because running away would mean abandoning everyone who depended on Duvain Enterprises. It would mean betraying her father’s memory. And she could not be that person.
Rykan had chosen to leave rather than tear his pack apart with civil war. His choice had preserved something larger than himself. But if she left—if she disappeared into these mountains and let Marina keep control of the company—would anything be preserved? Or would it mean the slow dismantling of everything her father had built?
The realization crystallized in her chest with painful clarity.I can’t walk away.Not from either of them. Not from Rykan or my father’s legacy.But those two things were pulling herin opposite directions. And sooner or later, she would have to choose.
She pulled back slightly, just enough to see Rykan’s face clearly. “I need to ask you something.”
His eyes searched hers. Whatever he saw there made his jaw tighten. “Ask.”
“My escape pod. Where is it?”
The question seemed to surprise him. He propped himself up on one elbow, studying her with an intensity that made her want to squirm.
“Why?”
“I need to see it.”
“It’s destroyed. I told you?—”
