I nod.
Then I leave.
The walk back to Ragon's house takes twenty minutes.
I spend it thinking about everything he said.
About the thesis, and what I told him. How he looked at me when I said it and didn't flinch.
Arden is good. He's always been good. He saw the best version of me when I was twenty years old in a library and he's never stopped seeing it even when I can't find it myself.
That's why I have to go.
Because he deserves that version. The one who wrote the thesis. The one who kept the promise. The one who never wavered.
Not this. Not what I’ve become.
I lied to him.
Not in words he can point to. He didn't ask directly if I was staying and I didn't say I was. But I let his certainty land on me and I nodded. I let his mouth on mine mean what it always means, and I did not tell him the truth.
I'm still going to leave.
I reach Ragon's house as the sun is setting.
Eli is in the kitchen. He looks up when I come in.
"How'd it go?" he asks.
I sit at the table and drop my head into my hands.
"That good, huh?"
"I told him I'm leaving the pack. When this is over."
Eli is quiet. "What did he say?"
"He told me I wasn't."
"And?"
I look up. "And I agreed. To make him stop."
Eli holds my gaze for a long moment. "You're still going to leave."
"Yes."
He doesn't argue. He knows me well enough not to.
The kitchen settles into quiet, shadows stretching as the last light fades outside.
"Jasper," he says finally.
"Yeah."
"You know this is punishment, not principle or sacrifice." He says it carefully. "This is you deciding you don't get to have what you want because you made a mistake."
I look at him.
