LUCIAN
The forest was too quiet.
I stood still, my gaze sweeping the darkness, every sense sharpened, every instinct alert.
Where could she have gone?
The question lingered, unwanted.
Unnecessary.
She wasn't my responsibility.
I had already done more than enough.
I turned slightly, scanning the ground again, the surrounding trees, the broken undergrowth. There were signs of movement...faint, scattered, but not entirely gone.
She had run.
Of course she had.
My jaw tightened.
"She should have stayed where I left her," I muttered under my breath.
It would have been easier.
Safer.
For her.
For me.
My wolf stirred restlessly beneath the surface.
You asked her to leave now find her.
The command wasn't calm. It wasn't patient.
It was sharp. Insistent.
I ignored it.
"She could go to hell for all I care" I said coldly, my voice low, controlled.
Silence followed. But it wasn't empty.
My wolf didn't retreat.
If anything, it grew more agitated.
I exhaled slowly, forcing my body into stillness.
Control.
That was what separated me from the rest.
I crouched slightly, brushing my fingers against the ground. The scent was faint now, diluted by time, by movement, by the forest itself.
But it was there.
Soft.
Subtle.
Wildflowers.
And beneath it, something deeper.
My hand stilled. My expression hardened.
Mate.
The word echoed again, unwanted.
I rose immediately, dismissing it.
No.
That bond had been rejected.
Broken.
It should not still exist.
And yet…
My wolf surged again.
Find her.
I moved.
Not because I chose to, but because standing still had become difficult.
My steps were controlled, deliberate as I followed the faint trail through the trees. Branches bent where she had passed. Leaves disturbed.
She had not moved like a trained wolf.
Her path was uneven.
Unsteady.
She had been struggling.
A flicker of irritation crossed my mind.
Weak.
Predictable.
My gaze shifted upward as something caught my attention.
A piece of fabric, caught on a low branch.
I stepped closer.
A thin strap torn from her dress.
My fingers reached out, pulling it free slowly. The fabric was soft, worn. It still carried her scent.
Faint.
But present.
I stared at it for a moment.
Then let it drop.
"She didn't get far," I said flatly.
The forest around me remained silent.
No blood.
No clear signs of struggle.
But that meant nothing.
Predators didn't always leave traces. Especially not in territory like this.
My expression didn't change.
"If she's been taken, then she's already dead."
The words were calm.
Cold.
A simple conclusion.
It was the logical outcome.
Her alone in the forest at this hour of the night. Weak. Untrained. Unprotected.
Surrounded by wolves. By rogues. By things far worse.
Survival wasn't likely.
My wolf reacted instantly.
A low, furious growl echoed inside me.
No.
The denial was sharp. Violent. Unacceptable.
I straightened slowly, my shoulders tightening.
"She is nothing," I said firmly. "A mistake. One that has already been corrected."
The bond had been rejected.
That should have been the end of it.
There should be nothing left.
No pull.
No instinct.
No connection.
And yet…
My chest felt tight. Unnaturally so.
My wolf paced relentlessly, restless and unyielding.
She lives.
The certainty in that voice was irritating.
I turned away.
Enough.
This was a waste of time.
If she was alive, she would find her way at surviving.
If she wasn't...
Then it changed nothing.
I had made the right decision.
I began to walk.
Slow.
Measured.
Each step taking me further from where I had found her trail.
Further from the disturbance.
Further from the unnecessary complication she represented.
But then...
I stopped. My body went still. The air shifted subtly. Almost unnoticeable, but not to me.
Not to my wolf.
My head tilted slightly as I inhaled again, slower this time.
Deeper.
There.
Faint.
But unmistakable.
Her scent was stronger now.
Not scattered.
Not fading.
Focused.
Directional.
My eyes narrowed slightly.
The trail hadn't ended.
It had changed.
My body turned before I consciously decided to.
Toward the scent.
Toward the pull.
My wolf surged forward immediately.
She's there.
I didn't respond. Didn't acknowledge it.
But I moved faster this time.
My steps cut through the forest with precision, my senses locking onto the trail as it grew clearer with every second.
Something was different.
The scent carried something else now.
Not just her.
Not just that strange underlying power.
Something sharp and unnatural.
My jaw tightened.
Poison.
The realization came instantly.
My pace quickened.
The trees began to thin ahead till the sound of water reached me faintly.
A stream.
The border.
My expression darkened.
Reckless.
Foolish.
My thoughts cut off the moment I reached the clearing.
My body stopped completely.
The stream stretched across the land, its surface reflecting the moonlight in shifting patterns.
Calm.
Quiet.
Deceptively still.
And there...
My eyes locked onto it immediately.
A form.
Floating.
My chest tightened sharply.
For a fraction of a second, everything went silent.
My mind processed it slowly. Too slowly.
Dark hair drifting in the water. Pale skin beneath the moonlight.
A body carried by the current.
Unmoving.
Unresponsive.
Her.
Lyra.
My wolf exploded forward inside me.
Mine.
The word wasn't calm.
It wasn't controlled.
It was raw.
Furious.
Possessive.
My jaw clenched hard.
"She's not mine," I said coldly, though my voice sounded lower than usual.
One step closer to the water.
Then another.
My gaze sharpened, tracking the slow movement of her body as the current carried her further away.
Unconscious.
Or worse.
My hands clenched tightly at my sides, nails biting into my palms, but there was no force in this world that would make me step into that water.
My expression remained unchanged.
Cold.
Controlled.
Unreadable.
But my eyes never left her.
I stood at the edge of the frozen bank, watching the dark current drag her body farther away with every passing second. The river moved fast beneath the cracked sheets of ice, swallowing her little by little as though it had been waiting for her.
The water pulled her beyond my reach.
With all the chaos she had brought since the bond revealed itself… this was how she was going to die.
A bitter thought settled in my chest.
At least it would spare the pack from whatever destruction she might have brought to my territory if she remained alive.
The words should have satisfied me.
But they didn't.
Inside me, my wolf let out a low, wounded whimper.
The sound scraped through my mind.
He wanted to lunge forward. I could feel it, his desperation, his rage, his instinct screaming at me to go after her.
Save her.
But even he knew the truth.
Water was our greatest enemy.
The only thing that had ever made me helpless.
The only thing that had ever reduced me to a frightened boy clawing at ice while death waited below.
My jaw tightened.
The memory came without warning.
White snow. Shattered ice.
My small hands slipping beneath freezing water.
My mother's voice shouting my name.
Then her arms around me, forcing me upward while the frozen surface cracked wider beneath us.
I remembered her pushing me toward safety.
I remembered her smile...thin, trembling, brave.
I remembered the river taking her before I could hold on.
The cold.
The screaming.
The silence after.
My chest burned with an old fury I thought long buried.
Even now, years later, the scent of icy water could drag that weakness back into me.
I took one slow step backward from the edge.
Then another.
The current carried Lyra farther downstream.
My wolf snarled in grief.
I crushed the sound beneath iron control.
"There was nothing more we could do," I said quietly, my voice as hard as the winter air.
The lie tasted bitter.
I stared at the dark water one final moment.
"At least we tried saving the little runt."
My wolf went silent.