Chapter 7: Exile Worn Like A Smile

The summons came at dawn.

Riven Kaelthorne was already awake, standing at the window of his quarters, watching Highcrest bleed from night into morning. Sirens faded. Drones shifted routes. The city breathed uneasy, alert.

The chime at his door was sharp. Official. He didn’t need to read the message to know why.

The Council chamber felt colder than usual. Or maybe that was just him.

Elder Thane stood at the center, hands folded, eyes unreadable. Two others flanked her, their presence heavy with expectation.

“We are here to discuss your unauthorized response,” Thane said, wasting no time.

Riven inclined his head. “The patrol flagged a disturbance.”

“A minor one,” another Elder cut in. “Already resolved by the time you arrived.”

Riven said nothing.

Thane’s gaze sharpened. “It was in Ari Lorne’s district.”

The name echoed in the chamber, subtle but deliberate.

Riven kept his face smooth. His Alpha stirred, restless, angry but he locked it down.

“You redirected an elite unit,” Thane continued. “You abandoned your assigned sector. Your reaction was… disproportionate.”

“I ensured stability,” Riven replied evenly.

“You endangered it,” Thane corrected. “Your presence escalated tension. Your bond denied or not compromised judgment.”

Silence followed.

Then Thane spoke again, calm and final. “You will be reassigned.”

Riven looked up.

“External operations,” she said. “Border enforcement and rogue suppression beyond city limits.

Duration: one month.” Distance, wrapped in authority.

“To ensure,” Thane added, “that personal entanglements do not interfere with civic duty.”

Riven felt it then a sharp, instinctive flare of something dangerously close to relief.

He smiled. It was sharp. Polite. Empty.

“Accepted,” he said without hesitation.

The Elders exchanged glances, surprise and satisfaction flickering briefly across their faces.

Cassian, standing just behind him, went still.

“You will depart within the hour,” Thane concluded. “Commander Cassian Vale will accompany you.”

Cassian’s brows lifted slightly, surprise flashing before he masked it.

Riven didn’t turn. “Understood.”

As they left the chamber, Cassian fell into step beside him. “You look pleased.”

Riven’s smile hadn’t faded. “I am.”

Cassian studied him sideways. “You’re lying.”

Riven didn’t answer.

They left Highcrest under a sky the color of bruised steel. The city shrank behind them, towers dissolving into haze as transport carried them beyond the perimeter. Riven watched until it vanished entirely.

He told himself the tightness in his chest was anticipation.

The first week was bearable. Riven threw himself into operations with surgical precision. Rogue dens dismantled. Supply lines severed. Threats neutralized before they could metastasize. He worked harder, faster, colder.

Too cold.

Sleep came in fragments. His dreams were restless emotion without image. Anxiety pressed against his ribs without cause. Sudden flashes of anger burned through him at nothing at all.

Cassian noticed everything.

“You’re pacing,” he said one night, watching Riven stalk the perimeter of their temporary base.

“I’m thinking.”

“You’ve walked that line twelve times.”

Riven stopped. “I don’t need monitoring.”

Cassian held up his hands. “Just saying. You’re wound tight.”

Riven turned away.

The second week was worse. Ari’s emotions hit without warning fear, sharp and sudden, leaving Riven breathless mid briefing. Loneliness followed, quiet and aching, settling in his chest like a weight.

Riven snapped at a lieutenant for misaligning a map. The room fell silent.

From that moment on, the squad learned. They spoke only when necessary. Avoided eye contact when Riven’s jaw tightened. Gave him space when his Wolf pressed close to the surface, coiled and dangerous.

Orders were followed instantly. Jokes died on lips. No one wanted to be the spark.

Cassian pulled Riven aside after a near miss during a drill. “You almost took his head off.”

“He hesitated,” Riven growled.

“He’s twenty,” Cassian replied. “And terrified of you.”

Good, Riven thought and hated himself for it.

The third week broke whatever fragile balance remained. A surge of emotion hit Riven in the middle of the night panic so intense it dragged him from sleep with a snarl. He woke sweating, heart pounding, his Wolf roaring for blood.

Ari.

Riven paced the narrow room, fists clenching and unclenching, anger bleeding into helplessness. He couldn’t reach him. He couldn’t go to him.

He flipped his desk table trying to ease his anger and emotions.

Cassian knocked once, then entered without waiting. “You felt his emotions again, didn’t you?”

Riven didn’t deny it.

“His really hurting, I can feel his raw emotions, my Wolf is beyond restless.” Riven snapped.

Cassian closed the door quietly. “You can’t keep doing this.”

Riven laughed short, bitter. “Doing what? Following orders?”

“No,” Cassian said gently. “Tearing yourself apart.”

Riven dragged a hand down his face. “This assignment was supposed to help.”

Cassian met his gaze. “And did it?”

Riven looked away.

The answer was written in his clenched shoulders, his raw temper, the way his Riven snarled at shadows. The change in the color of his eyes.

Distance hadn’t dulled the bond. It had sharpened it into something relentless.

By the fourth week, Riven was a storm waiting for a reason.

He snapped at delays.

At inefficiency.

At silence.

The squad moved around him like careful animals, anticipating his moods, redirecting tasks before his temper could ignite.

Cassian stayed close always close. He intercepted arguments. Took the brunt of Riven’s sharp words without flinching. Pulled him away when his Wolf threatened to break loose.

“You don’t have to do this alone,” Cassian said one evening as Riven stared out at the wasteland beyond their camp.

“I am alone,” Riven replied flatly.

Cassian shook his head. “No. You’re just pretending distance is strength.”

Riven’s hands tightened on the railing. “If I go back…”

“You’ll have to choose,” Cassian finished quietly.

Riven exhaled slowly.

The month crawled by.

When the recall finally came, Riven read the message once and closed his eyes.

Highcrest awaited.

So did Ari.

And Riven knew now with a clarity that left no room for denial.

The Council hadn’t sent him away to weaken the bond. They’d sent him away to prove how impossible it was to escape it.

And when he returned, something would have to break.

Either the bond.

Or the rules that tried to cage it.