Chapter 2

LILA'S POV

Ethan stepped into the house and closed the door behind him, his eyes never leaving mine.

He looked exactly the same. Same sharp jawline, same grey eyes that used to make my heart race. Same confident stance that said he owned everything and everyone around him.

I hated that my heart still skipped a beat when I looked at him.

"Lila," Ethan said, his voice cold and controlled. "I heard you were at the gates. I didn't believe it."

"And yet, here I am," I said, keeping my voice just as cold.

Ethan moved closer, and I forced myself not to step back. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction of seeing me retreat.

"Why are you here?" he asked, stopping a few feet away from me.

"I already told your brothers," I said. "I'm here because we have unfinished business."

"We have nothing," Ethan said flatly. "We rejected you three years ago. That was the end of it."

"Was it?" I asked. "Because I don't remember accepting that rejection."

Something flashed in Ethan's eyes. Anger or maybe fear. I couldn't tell.

"What are you talking about?" he demanded.

"The rejection doesn't work unless both parties accept it," I said, watching his face carefully. "You rejected me, but I never accepted which means the bond is still there."

"That's impossible," Ethan said, but I could hear the doubt in his voice. "You should be dead. Bond severance kills wolves who don't accept it."

"Maybe I did die," I said softly. "Maybe the girl you rejected died that night in the woods but something else survived."

I let just a fraction of my power leak out, just enough for all three of them to feel it.

The air in the room seemed to thicken, and I watched all three of them tense.

Marcus's eyes widened. Callum took a step back. And Ethan's face went completely blank, which meant he was more shaken than he wanted to show.

"What are you?" Ethan asked quietly.

"I'm what you made me," I said. "You threw me away because you thought I was weak. You said I wasn't strong enough to be your mate."

I took a step toward him, and for the first time in my life, I saw Ethan Black take a step back.

"Do I feel weak to you now?" I asked.

The bond between us was screaming, pulled taut after three years of absence. I could feel it in my chest, that broken, jagged thing that connected me to all four of them.

And I knew they could feel it too.

"This is wrong," Marcus said, his voice tight. "Whatever you've become, it's not natural."

"Natural?" I laughed, but there was no humor in it. "You want to talk about what's natural? It's natural for mates to accept each other. It's natural for Alphas to protect their mate, not throw her out to die but you did it anyway."

"We had our reasons," Ethan said, his control slipping slightly.

"I don't care about your reasons anymore," I said. "I didn't come here for apologies or explanations."

"Then why did you come?" Callum asked, his voice gentle in a way that made my chest ache.

I turned to look at him, at the one who had almost stopped it. The one whose guilt was written all over his face.

"I came here to tell you that rejecting me was the biggest mistake you'll ever make," I said.

"Is that a threat?" Marcus growled, moving forward.

Before I could answer, the air in the room shifted.

It was another presence, this one was powerful and quiet.

I turned and saw Davian standing in the doorway that led to the kitchen. I hadn't even heard him come in.

Of course I hadn't. Davian had always been the quietest of the four, the one who watched and calculated while his brothers acted.

"Davian," I said, my voice steadier than I felt.

He looked at me with those same unreadable grey eyes, and for a long moment, he said nothing.

"You survived," Davian finally said. It wasn't a question.

"I survived," I confirmed.

"The bond severance should have killed you," Davian continued, moving into the room slowly. "Especially an omega. The rejection alone should have been enough."

"Maybe I'm not an omega anymore," I said.

Davian's eyes narrowed slightly. "What are you?"

"I don't know," I admitted. "All I know is that the rejection didn't kill me. It changed me."

"Into what?" Ethan demanded.

I looked at all four of them, at the men who had destroyed me and remade me into something they couldn't understand.

"Into someone you should have kept," I said.

The bond pulsed between us, and I saw all four of them react to it. Marcus rubbed his chest like it hurt. Callum closed his eyes briefly. Ethan's jaw clenched. And Davian's hands curled into fists at his sides.

Good. Let them feel it. Let them feel what I've felt every day for three years.

"The bond is unstable," Davian said, his analytical mind already working. "You, not accepting the rejection, broke it but didn't sever it. It's been pulling at all of us."

"I know," I said. "I've felt every second of it."

"You did this on purpose," Marcus accused. "You refused to accept the rejection just to torture us."

"Yes," I said simply, not bothering to deny it. "You tortured me for three years. I thought it was only fair to return the favor."

"Lila," Callum started, stepping toward me.

"Don't," I said, holding up my hand to stop him. "Don't try to apologize. Don't try to make this better because you can't."

"Then what do you want?" Ethan asked, his voice hard. "You came back for a reason. What is it?"

I looked at him, at the man who had spoken the words that shattered my world.

"I want you to know that you made a mistake," I said. "I want you to see what I've become and know that you could have had this. You could have had a mate who was strong enough to stand beside you. But you threw that away."

"We did what we had to do," Ethan said coldly.

"Did you?" I asked. "Or did you do what was easiest? It's easier to reject someone than to fight for them, isn't it?"

Before Ethan could respond, I felt it.

A shift in the air. A presence at the edge of the territory that made my skin prickle with warning.

All four of them felt it too. I could see them tense, their Alpha instincts kicking in.

"What is that?" Callum asked, moving toward the window.

I knew what it was. I'd felt that same presence three years ago, the night everything changed.

"Trouble," I said quietly.

Marcus was already at the window, looking out into the darkness. "There are wolves at the border. A lot of them."

Ethan pulled out his phone and dialed quickly. "Report," he barked into it.

I couldn't hear what was being said on the other end, but I watched Ethan's face go hard.

"How many?" he asked. Then, after a pause, "Keep them at the border. We're on our way."

He hung up and looked at his brothers. "We have a problem. There are at least fifty wolves at the northern border, and they're asking for Lila."

All four of them turned to look at me.

"Who are they?" Marcus demanded.

I took a deep breath, knowing this was about to get complicated.

"They're with me," I said.

The room exploded with questions and accusations, but I ignored all of them.

Because standing at the border with fifty wolves behind me was exactly what I'd needed them

to see.

I wasn't the weak omega they'd rejected anymore.

I was the woman who'd built an army and they were about to find out exactly what that meant.