Chapter 5: What He Owes Her

The Convergence ended, but Kane found her anyway.

Ivy was standing alone on the balcony outside the great hall, letting the cold night air do what it always did clear her head and remind her exactly who she'd become. She heard his footsteps before he even spoke a word. She'd know that heartbeat anywhere; the bond made absolutely sure of that, whether she wanted it to or not.

"You shouldn't be out here alone with me," she said, not bothering to turn around. "Your fiancée might get the wrong idea."

"She's not my fiancée." Kane stopped a few careful feet away, close enough that the old ache in her collarbone flared to life again. "Not yet, anyway. My father's been pushing hard for the announcement, but I keep finding reasons to delay it whenever I can."

"How noble of you." Ivy finally turned to face him fully. "Delaying the inevitable instead of just breaking her heart the same way you broke mine. At least you're consistent, Kane, I'll give you that much."

He flinched like she'd physically struck him. Good. She wanted him to feel every word of it.

"I was a coward," Kane said quietly. "I let my father convince me that loving you made me weak in front of the council, and I believed him because I was young and terrified of losing my position and everything that came with it. I've spent three years regretting every single word I said to you in that circle."

"Three years is a long time to feel sorry for yourself." Ivy crossed her arms over her chest. "I spent mine becoming someone your father would have been genuinely terrified to reject."

"I know." Something raw crossed his face awe, maybe, tangled up hopelessly with the regret. "You're not the same person I hurt that day. You're........." He stopped himself abruptly, shaking his head. "It doesn't matter what you are now. I don't have the right to say what I actually want to say to you."

"Then don't say it," she said simply.

"Ivy." He stepped closer, and she let him, which surprised them both more than either wanted to admit. "I know I don't deserve a second chance from you. I'm not even asking for one tonight. I just need you to know that rejecting you was the only lie I've ever told with my own mouth, because the bond itself never lied to me. Not once. Not for a single day you were gone."

The wind pulled at her hair, sharp and cold. Somewhere behind them, through the balcony doors, she could hear Selene's voice calling his name, sharp now with unmistakable suspicion.

Ivy looked at him for a long, quiet moment really looked, past the Alpha title, past the fear that had once made him small in front of his father, all the way down to the boy who used to sneak her sweets from the kitchens before either of them understood what a mating bond even meant for two people.

Then she looked past him entirely, toward the doors, where Magnus stood watching with his arms crossed, silently reminding her exactly what she'd built with her own two hands and exactly what she still owed no one alive.

"You don't owe me an apology, Kane." Her voice was quiet, but it carried clearly on the night air. "You owe me everything. My pack. My territory. The three years you took from me while I was busy becoming strong enough that you'd never get the chance to reject me again."

"Then let me pay it back," he said. "However long that takes me."

Selene's voice was closer now, urgent, cutting sharply through the cold night air between them. Kane didn't move an inch. He kept his eyes locked on Ivy, waiting for an answer she wasn't ready to give him yet, maybe wasn't ready to give him for a long time still.

Behind him, the balcony doors opened.

And Ivy realized, with a strange, cold certainty settling into her chest, that the real fight hadn't even started yet.

— End of Part One —