Chapter 2

Cora's POV:

The forest releases me reluctantly.

My paws slow near the edge of the pack lands, breath coming hard and satisfied, chest still humming with the echo of my run. The night clings to me, reluctant to let go, and for a moment I just stand there—ears twitching, heart steady and strong—memorizing the way freedom feels in this body.

Soon, my wolf murmurs, content and warm.

The shift back hurts more than the first time did.

My bones protest as they draw inward, muscles burning as fur melts away into skin. I bite down on the sound clawing up my throat and brace my hands against the side of the pack house until the world steadies. When it’s over, I’m shaking, bare feet planted against cool stone, lungs dragging in air like I’ve forgotten how to breathe any other way.

I slip inside through the back entrance, careful, quiet. The house smells different now—richer, layered with dozens of familiar pack scents, but beneath them all is something new. Something electric.

The welcome-back party has already started.

Voices drift up from downstairs.

Laughter. Music. Celebration.

I take the stairs two at a time, skin still buzzing, my wolf pacing just beneath the surface. My room feels too small after the forest, but I move quickly, pulling on clothes with clumsy fingers. Every sound feels loud. Every second feels stretched tight.

I pause at the mirror.

My eyes are brighter. Sharper. Alive in a way they never were before.

So this is who I am now.

The noise downstairs swells as I step into the hallway, the scent growing stronger with every step I take down the stairs. My wolf stirs, curious and alert, but calm—until—

I smelled him before I saw him, and everything inside me went still.

The scent wasn’t sharp or aggressive—it was warm, steady, like rain soaking into sun-warmed earth. It slid into my lungs and settled there, filling a hollow I hadn’t known existed. My breath hitched, chest tightening as if my body had recognized something my mind couldn’t yet understand. My wolf stirred, not frantic or demanding, but achingly calm.

Certain.

Mine.

The realization unfurled slowly, spreading through my veins like heat. My heartbeat stumbled, then found a new rhythm, one that matched the pull in my chest. I felt anchored and weightless all at once, as if I’d finally reached the end of a long journey without ever knowing I’d been walking.

When I looked at him, the world seemed to soften around the edges, sounds dulling, colors fading until there was only him and the quiet, terrifying truth settling into my bones.

I took a step forward without thinking. Then another. My body leaned toward him like it had always belonged there. This was what home felt like—not a place, but a presence. My wolf pressed closer to the surface, not to claim, not to fight, just to exist nearer to him. To be seen.

His eyes met mine.

Cain.

For one breathless moment, I thought he felt it too. Something flickered across his face—recognition, maybe, or regret. My hope bloomed fast and fragile in my chest.

Then he stepped back.

The movement was small, deliberate, and it shattered everything.

“I can’t,” he said quietly, his voice steady even as my world tipped. He didn’t look angry. He didn’t look cruel. That somehow hurt more. “I know what you are to me. But I won’t accept it.”

The words didn’t roar. They sank.

My wolf whimpered, confusion rippling through me as the bond I’d just discovered pulled tight, unanswered. The scent was still there—warm, familiar, devastating—but now it burned. I stayed where I was, heart breaking in slow, careful pieces, as he turned away from me like fate was something he could simply refuse.

And maybe for him, it was.

For me, it would always be there—etched into my lungs, my blood, my bones.

I couldn’t let him walk away. Not like that.

I bolted after him, heart hammering, wolf surging just beneath my skin, urging me faster, insisting he couldn’t leave.

“Cain! Wait!” I called, my voice trembling.

He didn’t turn. His pace was steady, deliberate, like he could outrun me if he needed to.

“Please… talk to me,” I gasped, catching up, reaching out. “Don’t just… don’t just walk away.”

The hallway suddenly felt smaller, suffocating, and then I realized we weren’t alone.

Eyes. Everyone’s eyes.

Members of the pack were stepping back from the stairs and the doorway, their conversations gone quiet, replaced by tension so thick it made my chest ache.

My parents froze mid-step, my father’s jaw tightening, my mother’s hand rising to her mouth.

And then Aurora appeared at the top of the stairs, her eyes sharp, immediately sensing the electricity between us.

“Wait… what is going on here?” she demanded, stepping closer.

I froze, breath caught in my throat, wolf growling low and confused in my chest. Cain glanced at her, and I could see the flash of annoyance—and fear—cross his face.

“Nothing,” he said quickly, too quickly, but I shook my head.

“It’s not nothing,” I whispered, letting the bond pulse subtly between us, and instantly the pack noticed. Heads turned, whispers rising as the connection sparked, warm and undeniable. My wolf howled softly in my chest, urgent and raw, and the room seemed to contract around us.

Aurora’s eyes widened. “Wait… you’re bonded?”

Cain’s shoulders tensed, the lie dying before he even tried. My wolf screamed inside me, excruciating, ripping at my chest like fire, and I stumbled forward, pressing my hands there, gasping for control.

“Yes,” I said, voice trembling. “We… we are.”

The room was silent for a moment, then murmurs swelled into shocked whispers. My parents were frozen, caught between disbelief and worry. Aurora’s hand flew to her mouth.

“Cain,” she said sharply, her voice steady now, demanding. “You have to choose. Now.”

His eyes met mine—pain, regret, and something fierce—but his decision was clear.

“I… I can’t,” he said. The words were soft but final. “I can’t accept this. I’m sorry.”

The moment hit me like a physical blow.

My wolf’s howl erupted inside me, pure and unfiltered, and pain shot through my chest, deep into my bones. The bond screamed, pulling tight, desperate, punishing. My vision blurred as if the world itself had narrowed to the agony between us.

“Why?” I croaked, voice breaking, my wolf pacing violently beneath my skin. “Why?”

He looked away, jaw tight, unwilling to meet my eyes.

“I’m protecting you,” he said. “You deserve someone who… won’t destroy you just by being near you.You're too weak to be my Luna.”

Too weak? My hands clenched at my chest as the bond flared, stabbing pain and heartbreak tangled together. My wolf whimpered, the agony echoing every pulse of his refusal.

Aurora stepped closer, hesitant now, her eyes flicking between us. “Cain… you can’t just—”

“I’ve made my choice,” he interrupted.

“It’s not yours.”

The room felt suffocating. Whispers and glances ricocheted off the walls, my parents’ faces pale and anxious, my sister’s expression tight with frustration and worry, and all I could feel was the searing bond—mine claimed, yet denied, burning hotter than anything I’d ever known.

I dropped to my knees, hands clutching my chest as the wolf screamed inside me, pain radiating in every direction, and all I could think was… he left me with this. This bond, this connection, this… ache that would never let me forget him.

The pack was watching, Aurora’s voice fading into murmurs of confusion and questions, but I couldn’t hear any of it. All I could hear was him, and the pain, and the fact that what I had finally found—the thing I had waited twenty years for—was gone.

And yet… I knew it would never really leave me.