Amos studies me for a long moment, then nods. “For now.”
When we leave the clinic, dusk is already settling over the valley, the sky bruised purple and gold. I dismiss the others and take the long way back to the cabin, needing the movement, the solitude. My water magic hums beneath my skin, stronger than it’s ever been, responding to my emotions whether I want it to or not. The river answers when I pass, its current shifting, restless.
But it’s unstable. Volatile. It’s as if the distance between Sophie and me is causing a rift in my powers, a very noticeable disconnect.
Only when Sophie is near does it steady.
That realization hits harder than any blow I took from the demons.
Night has fully fallen by the time I return home. I pause outside the guest bedroom, my hand hovering inches from the door. I can hear her breathing on the other side—soft, uneven, unmistakably awake. She’s hurting. So am I.
I don’t knock.
I won’t corner her. Not again.
Instead, I let my hand fall, turn away, and head to my room with a weight in my chest that no amount of power can lift.
Sophie isn’t just the key to ending this war.
She’s the reason it exists—the demons are here to finish off the last of the Ashclaw lineage, which is her. And I don’t think she’s ready to hear any of that. Not yet, and I only have a weekto get her to agree to be the way we end this war against the demons.
Goddess help me.
Chapter 14 - Sophie
Staying away from Damian is easier when I have the local pack clinic to keep myself distracted. Even after two days, it’s hard to accept what happened the other night.
I’m avoiding him like the plague, but my body doesn’t lie. It responds to him being nearby; it also responds to him being far. When he isn’t at home, or at the clinic, or in the valley, there’s an ache in my heart, like an empty void in my chest that can’t be filled unless he’s close. My hands itch with an intense need to feel his warmth under my palms, the texture of his skin under my fingertips, and the scent of him in my airways.
“Hey, is everything alright?” Dianna asks as she holds out a coffee.
I take the mug from her, clutching it with both hands, but even its warmth isn’t enough to fill the void as I hold it to my chest. I purse my lips, the truth hanging on the tip of my tongue, where I have to bite it to keep it from spilling out.
“You need to stop doing that,” I scoff at Dianna, rolling my eyes.
She frowns at me and shrugs. “Doing what? What am I doing?”
“Always treating me like I’m something fragile, like I’m gonna break or something,” I snicker as we take our coffee outside while the clinic remains quiet. It’s only a matter of time before the next rotation of trainee wolves fills the clinic, battered and bruised and requiring small fixes.
I gulp when I realize how quickly I’d learned the ins and outs of the Red Moon Pack as if I was one of them—a wolfborn to the valley. Mentally rolling my eyes at such an absurd thought, I take a sip of my coffee.
“I don’t think you’re fragile, Sophie. I witnessed what you’re capable of, and I think you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for.”
“I’m not strong, Dianna,” I murmur, trying to resist going back to that night when it reminds me of what happened after.
I’d been driven by adrenaline, hot from seeing Damian defend me in front of his friends, and I wasn’t thinking. I don’t want to think about what any of it means, anyway.
If only things could go back to the way they were…
“You need to stop selling yourself short,” Dianna replies with a sigh. “You can’t run from your destiny.”
“Does that mean I don’t have a choice in any of this?” I shiver as a cold wind passes through me.
“I believe that the choice was made before you were born. Your soul knew what it wanted, but your ego, on the other hand…”
I arch a brow as I turn to her. “Are you blaming my ego for this?”
“Well, it’s not your heart that’s being so stubborn.”
