He’s our mate,she insists.We can’t leave him.
Watch me.
The boundary marker appears through the trees, a carved stone pillar I’ve passed a hundred times on patrol. Pack symbols are carved into its weathered face to mark the edge of Silvercreek territory. Beyond it, the forest continues unchanged, but the feeling is different. The sense of belonging, of pack, of home… It all stops at that marker.
Once I cross it, I’ll be rogue. Packless.
The thought should terrify me. It doesn’t. Nothing terrifies me more than spending the rest of my life chained to Bryan Dinac, pretending the past doesn’t exist, pretending he didn’t hollow me out and leave me empty.
I’m maybe fifty feet from the marker when a figure steps out from behind a massive oak.
My heart slams against my ribs. I freeze mid-stride with one hand clutched around the strap of my duffel bag while the other drops to the small knife I keep in my jacket pocket. Mywolf launches forward with her hackles raised, ready to fight or flee depending on what happens next.
Then the figure moves, and moonlight catches the angles of a face I know better than my own.
Bryan.
Of course, it’s Bryan.
He looks different in the darkness, bigger somehow. More dangerous.
“Going somewhere?” he asks, like he’s inquiring about the weather instead of catching me fleeing in the middle of the night.
“Get out of my way.”
“Can’t do that.”
I take a step forward with my chin lifted, refusing to let him see how fast my heart is racing. “You don’t have any authority over me. We’re not mated yet, and I’m not going to be here long enough for that to change.”
He doesn’t move. He just stands there, blocking the path to the boundary like he has every right to decide where I can and can’t go.
“Nic wouldn’t be happy with me if I just let you go,” he states.
“Nic can mind his own business. So can you.”
Something migrates across his face, but I’m done reading Bryan Dinac’s expressions. Done trying to figure out what’s going on behind those gray eyes. That way lies madness and heartbreak, and I’ve had enough of both to last a lifetime.
“Skylar, just wait—”
“No.” I cut him off before he could finish whatever useless thing he was about to say. “I’ve waited ten years for an explanation, Bryan. I’ve spent ten years wondering what I did wrong, what I could have done differently, why you just—” My voice cracks, and I hate myself for it. I will not cry in front of him. I will not give him that satisfaction. “Move.”
He reaches for my arm, but I jerk backward before his fingers can make contact.
“Don’t touch me.”
“Just listen to me for one minute—”
“I don’t owe you a goddamn second. Not one minute. Not one second. Not one single breath of explanation or patience or grace. You made your choice ten years ago, and now I’m making mine.”
“The cabin Nic gave me is just north of here. I couldn’t sleep, so I went for a run to clear my head.” He gestures vaguely toward the trees behind him. “I picked up unfamiliar scents near the border. Wolf scents, but not from any pack I recognize. I was tracking them when I caught yours instead.”
“How convenient.”
“I’m not lying to you.”
“I don’t care if you’re lying or telling the truth. I don’t care about strange scents or whatever you think you found on your midnight stroll.” I step around him, and my shoulder brushes his as I push past. The contact sends a jolt through my entire body, and the mate bond screams in recognition. I grit my teeth against the sensation. “Go back to your cabin. Pretend you never saw me.”
“I can’t do that.”
