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FORTY FIVE
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2026-02-03 12:30:00ROWAN
I didn’t trust agreements that came too easily. Kael’s proposal had been clean on the surface. No demands for territory. No pressure for immediate action. Everything laid out like a courtesy, cooperation dressed as practicality. The kind of thing lesser alphas accepted because it looked reasonable and because refusing it would make them seem paranoid. I had learned long ago that reasonable was often just another word for patient.
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Rejected, Not Broken FORTY FIVE
ROWAN I didn’t trust agreements that came too easily. Kael’s proposal had been clean on the surface. No demands for territory. No pressure for immediate action. Everything laid out like a courtesy, cooperation dressed as practicality. The kind of thing lesser alphas accepted because it looked reasonable and because refusing it would make them seem paranoid. I had learned long ago that reasonable was often just another word for patient. Ash was restless as I sat at the long table in the council room, parchment spread before me, ink untouched. He paced beneath my skin, not agitated, but alert in the way that meant he was watching for a trap that hadn’t sprung yet. ‘He is orderly,’ Ash said. ‘Too orderly.’ ‘I know,’ I replied silently. ‘That makes him dangerous.’ The elders filtered in one by one, Ilyra last, her gaze sharp as she took in the documents already prepared. Avery sat
Rejected, Not Broken FORTY FOUR
AVERY I woke to the shift before the sound. Not Ember, she was now sleeping through the night more often than not, tucked safely in her own nursery down the hall, her presence a soft, steady warmth at the back of my awareness instead of the sharp, constant vigilance of those first weeks. This was different. Sharper. Like the air itself had pulled tight. Rowan was already sitting up beside me, muscles rigid, eyes unfocused in the way that meant his attention had turned inward. He hadn’t made a sound, but his breathing had changed, deeper, more controlled, like he was bracing against something. “Rowan,” I murmured. His jaw tightened. A heartbeat passed, then another, before his focus snapped back to the room. “Beta just linked me,” he said quietly. That alone sent a ripple of unease through me. Linking at this hour meant urgency, not inconvenience. “What’s wrong,” I asked, pushing myself upright, sheets pooling around my waist. “There’s an alpha at the eastern boundary
Rejected, Not Broken FORTY THREE
ROWANFour months had changed the shape of our days.Not the center, that held firm, but the rhythm. Ember had opinions now, loud ones, and a laugh that felt like a reward every time we earned it. Avery moved through the pack with an ease that still caught me off guard sometimes, Luna in truth rather than title, mother and anchor both. And somehow, between patrol rotations and integration meetings and the constant, low hum of responsibility, we had found our way back to each other.Not stolen moments anymore.Chosen ones.That night, the packhouse had settled early. Ember had finally surrendered to sleep after a long evening of stubborn wakefulness, her small body warm and heavy in Avery’s arms before being eased gently into her crib. I closed the door quietly and turned back to find Avery leaning against the wall, watching me with an expression that made my pulse shift immediately.“You’re thinking loudly,” she said.“I
Rejected, Not Broken FORTY TWO
AVERY Ember was four months old, and already deeply unimpressed by wedding planning.She lay on her stomach on the blanket near the window, fists clenched beneath her shoulders, dark eyes tracking everything with intense suspicion. Every few minutes she kicked hard enough to scoot herself forward an inch, then froze, like she was offended by her own progress.“You’re not invited to make decisions,” I told her gently. “You’re here for moral support.”She answered by grunting and shoving her face into the blanket.Lila stirred, amused.‘She has opinions.’Of course she did.The packhouse felt different lately. Not tense, not celebratory, just busy in a quiet, intentional way. Integration schedules were posted. Wolves moved in pairs that would have looked strange months ago and now felt normal. Emberfall was stretching, not straining.And somehow, in the middle of all that, we were planning a wedding.
Rejected, Not Broken FORTY ONE
ROWAN The first real test of the integration did not come with violence.It came with a sixteen year old boy who shifted for the first time at dawn and did not know where to stand afterward.I felt it ripple through Emberfall before anyone came to find me. That sharp, uneven surge of new wolf energy, raw and untrained, the kind that made older wolves lift their heads without meaning to. Ash stirred immediately, awareness snapping into focus.‘New wolf,’ he said. ‘Unsteady.’‘I know,’ I answered.By the time I reached the lower clearing, the boy stood barefoot in the dirt, chest heaving, skin flushed and eyes wide with the aftermath of his first shift. His clothes lay abandoned behind him. His wolf had already retreated, leaving him exposed in a way that had nothing to do with nudity and everything to do with suddenly being seen.Stoneveil.The scent clung to him, faint but unmistakable.A small group o
Rejected, Not Broken FORTY
AVERY Time didn’t move the way I expected it to after that.It didn’t rush forward in milestones or stall out in fragile pauses. Instead, it widened, stretched itself thin enough to hold everything at once. Days layered gently, feeding schedules and patrol rotations and quiet conversations stacking without crushing each other. Somewhere between Ember’s third nap of the day and a late afternoon walk through the grounds, I realized something that stopped me cold.I wasn’t bracing anymore.Ember lay on a thick blanket near the hearth, arms flung wide like she had already claimed the space by right. Her eyes were open, dark and unblinking, tracking movement with a seriousness that felt far too aware for someone who still startled at her own fingers. She made a small sound of offense when the light shifted across her face.Rowan adjusted the curtain immediately, not even looking at me.“You’re training her well,” I murmured.
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