Chapter 13 - A Dead Connection

The air near the lake exhaled a familiar scent.

Still I stayed low, heart pounding against my ribs from the encounter with Menelik. His heat still hovered at my jaw, a smoldering ember in the freezing night air that refused to die out pulsing with a strange, magnetic frequency I couldn't explain.

 But as the sound of measured, heavy footsteps crunched through the underbrush, that warmth turned to ice.

I didn’t need to see him to know the gait.

Cedar and old leather.

The scent of a man who’d spent decades carrying the burden of our pack on his shoulders.

From the darkened shadows, he appeared, tall, broad-shouldered, moving with that slow grace only a seasoned Beta could muster.

My father.

The Beta of Eclipse Star. His presence was familiar, yet tonight, it carried a different force. His shoulders were slumped, the usual military stiffness gone, replaced by a weariness that sank deep into his bones. His eyes, sharp and calculating, swept the perimeter with practiced ease before finally settling on me.

                “You’re out here,” he said gravelly. “I knew I’d find you near the neutral zone, Amani. You always did have a habit of walking the edge when things got loud.”

I straightened, stepping out into the open. My trembling fingers brushed over the fabric of my shirt, trying to pull some semblance of the Luna back into place, masking the raw, wild girl who had just been inches from a stranger’s touch.

“I needed space, Father. The packhouse feels like a tomb lately. Or a circus. I can’t decide which is worse.”

He moved closer, eyes searching mine as if trying to read the cracks I desperately wanted to hide, his gaze resting on the flush at my throat.

“Vance is making a fool of himself,” he muttered, jaw tight. “He’s smitten, blinded by the novelty of a rogue in his net. Thinks he’s found some wild, untamed treasure. But he’s forgotten what true value looks like. He knows what you’re worth, what this territory is worth, but he needs to be reminded that a pack isn't built on lust.”

A bitter laugh escaped me.

“Is that what you’re here for? To tell me to wait for him to come to his senses? To play the patient mate while he plays house with a criminal?”

“I’m telling you to hold your ground,” he said, his voice rising just enough to be a warning. “This rogue girl, Zebub… she’s a rogue for a reason. They don’t live by the rules. They don’t have the discipline for the long game. She’ll snap, or steal, or show her true colors, and the pack will devour her. You just have to be there to pick up the pieces.”

I looked away, staring into the dark line of trees where Menelik had vanished.

“Vance is already past tense, Father. His betrayal didn’t just hurt, it severed the last shred of respect I had for him. I have no intention of picking up what he’s dropped. I’m done. I'm not a janitor for his mistakes.”

My father stopped pacing, boots grinding into the dry leaves.

“Then what are you planning, Amani? You’re smarter than this. You have exactly one week before the Council’s mandate expires. If we find nothing on her, no evidence of a plot, no ties to the border raids, Vance is going to release her. And once she’s free to roam the halls, she won’t stop until she’s taken your position. She'll gut the Eclipse Star from the inside out.”

“I’m planning my survival,” I said cold and hard. “But I have his mark on my neck. It’s a tether I can’t just cut with a knife, and we both know it.”

The moment went on, heavy and suffocating.

His face softened, the rigid Beta mask slipping away, revealing the parent beneath, the one who’d once held me close, whispering promises of safety and strength. He looked at me with a mixture of pity and regret. Long, heavy sighs seemed to deflate him, making him look older than his years.

“There’s something you don’t understand about the fated bond, Amani,” he finally whispered as if the trees themselves might carry his words to Vance. “If Zebub is truly his fated, and she marks him… the bond Vance has with you doesn’t just disappear. It doesn’t vanish because he’s found someone new.”

My brow furrowed.

A prickling sensation crawled up the back of my neck.

“Then what happens? Does it just stay there? A dead connection?”