It’s a respectful title for the alpha female, she replies.Like queen.
No pressure there, I think, only to realize that there isn’t any.
Every step I take toward my wolf-self feels like stepping into the peace I’ve been searching for over a year now. Like I’ve been out of rhythm and have finally found the beat again.
“I have to admit,” a voice drawls from my left, “I didn’t expect that from you.”
Stephanie saunters over with the confidence of a woman who’s never tripped a day in her life. She twists a dark strand of hair around her finger, golden eyes sly. Good to know she’s back to her regularly scheduled programming.
“Good job, luna,” she adds, and for her, I’m thinking that’s basically a standing ovation. “I wasn’t sure you had it in you, but congratulations. I’m thrilled to eat my doubt.”
I blink. “Is that your version of an apology?”
“Oh, no.” She smirks, full of wicked delight. “If I apologize, you’ll know. The earth will open, angels will descend, and Cade will pass out. This is just me being pleasantly surprised.”
A startled laugh escapes me, and she winks like we’reco-conspirators in a mischievous plot I was apparently signed up for.
Cade loops an arm around me after being briefly distracted by Elias. “Stephanie.” He nods at her, and her grin only deepens.
They exchange words, but I miss most of them as I’m distracted by the sight of Marius.
He stands at the tree line with his arms folded loosely across his chest, shoulders relaxed, expression open. His brown eyes aren’t clouded with judgment…or regret…or the complicated grief I halfway expected.
Instead, there’s something simpler and stronger.
Love and pride.
It hits me like a physical touch—gentle, bewildering, and strangely painful in the way new hope always is. A small ache spreads beneath my ribs, unfamiliar but not unwelcome.
I never thought I would have this.
A father looking at me like I’m someone to be proud of. Someone heseesnot just as the daughter he had to leave behind, but as the woman I’ve become.
I offer a small smile, tentative but real.
A hope blooms within me that this isn’t the last time I get to see him look at me like that. That there’s time to learn what it’s like to have a father, and not just the idea of one. I loved my mother with everything I was, but something tells me being Marius’s daughter will be nothing like being Jocelyn’s.
I take a step toward him, but he shakes his head once. A quiet, gentle refusal.
Before I can question it, he turns toward the forest. Hisshift is fluid and fast—bones reshaping, fur rippling over skin in waves of dark gray. A heartbeat later, a steadfast wolf stands where the man had been.
He glances back only long enough for our eyes to meet, then he slips into the trees without a sound as if the shadows open themselves just for him.
And I can’t help wondering how many years he’s spent in those woods alone, torturing himself with distance, living with choices that broke him and protected me and Mom in equal measure.
Wolf hums in my mind.He’s a strong alpha. Don’t worry too much about him. He’s not going anywhere now.
Yeah. I feel that, too.
More so, there’s no sense of abandonment watching him go. Instead, I feel supported and seen. Like I’m finally standing in the middle of something bigger than myself—a web of people and wolves—who have chosen me and refuse to let me fall.
A fact that is going to be all I need to cling to in order to make sure I never become what Malrik is searching for.
“Ro.” Cade’s voice is low, warm, a tether pulling me back into the present. His hand slides over mine, thumb brushing a soothing line over my skin. “You okay?”
I blink, realizing the world has gone quiet around me—wolves dispersing, conversations fading, Stephanie strutting away like she owns the place. At some point, I’d drifted so far inside my own head that everything else blurred into background noise.
“I’m good,” I say, though it comes out softer than intended.
