4

SABLE’S POV

“Dorian, look at me.”

He still hadn’t moved from the doorway.

“I said look at me.”

He finally looked me in the eyes. The man staring back at me was the same one I married, but his facial expression had closed off.

“Why are you standing there like I’m a stranger?” I asked. “I’m your wife. You held my hand the night before the battle and told me I was the only woman you would ever choose. Do you remember that promise?”

“I remember.”

“Then why does it feel like you’ve forgotten every word of it?”

He dragged a hand down his face. “Sable, it’s not that simple.”

“It is that simple. We built a life together. We had a son. You stood in front of the entire pack and chose me. Where have you been for five years? Why did no one tell me the house changed? Why are my things gone? Why does every servant look at me like I’m a stranger here?”

“Because life kept going,” he said quietly. “The pack needed an Alpha who was present and Finn needed someone who could raise him every single day.”

I stared at him. “Someone. You mean Talia?”

He didn’t deny it.

“Say it,” I pushed. “Say the words. Tell me that Talia has been playing Luna in my place.”

“She has been taking care of the pack,” he answered. “And she has been raising Finn. Everyone believed you weren’t going to wake up. The healers said the chances were almost nothing, we had to keep living.”

“So you replaced me.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“Then what are you saying, Dorian? Because it sounds exactly like you replaced me the moment I couldn’t open my eyes.”

Talia stepped forward before he could answer. “Sable, please. Don’t do this right now. You’re still weak. Your body hasn’t recovered. You only woke up hours ago.”

I turned on her. “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do. I’m talking to my husband.”

“I’m only trying to help,” she said softly. “Dorian never abandoned you, none of us did. We sat by your bed. We prayed. I held your hand more nights than I can count. But five years is a long time and people had to keep living. Finn needed stability. He needed a routine, he needed someone who could be there when he cried at night and when he had bad dreams.”

“But I’m his mother.”

“I know that.”

“Then stop speaking like you have more say over him than I do. Stop standing there like you’ve been the one raising my child this whole time.”

“I have been raising him, Sable. Not because I wanted your place, but because someone had to.”

Finn was still pressed against her side. When I took a step toward him he immediately shifted closer to Talia and gripped her shirt with both hands.

“Mom,” he whispered. “I want to go upstairs. Please.”

I looked at Dorian, waiting for him to correct it. Waiting for him to tell our son that I was standing right here, that I was his mother, that the word belonged to me.

He said nothing.

Talia stroked Finn’s hair. “It’s okay, baby. We’re going to figure everything out. No one is angry at you.”

I couldn’t take my eyes off Dorian. “You didn’t correct him.”

“He’s a child, Sable. He doesn’t understand what’s happening.”

“And whose fault is that? Who let him grow up calling another woman Mom?”

The room went silent.

Later, when the servants had cleared out and Finn had been taken upstairs, I found Dorian alone in the study.

I closed the door behind me harder than I needed to. “I want to talk to you.”

He nodded once but didn’t sit.

“I want our life back,” I said. “I know five years have passed. I know things have changed. But I’m awake now and I’m standing here. We can fix this. We can go back to the way things were before the battle.”

“Sable—”

“Don’t interrupt me Dorian, just listen. I remember every promise we made. I remember the night you chose me in front of the entire pack and told them I was enough. I remember the day Finn was born and you cried into my shoulder because you said you never thought you could love anyone that much. That doesn’t disappear because I was asleep for five years.”

He looked at the floor. “Five years cannot simply be erased. People changed. The pack changed. Finn changed. I changed.”

“Then change back, come back to me.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Why not? I’m still your wife. You’re still my husband and our son is still upstairs. What is so broken that we can’t put it back together?”

He didn’t answer.

I stepped closer. “Do you still love me?”

He opened his mouth, closed it and opened it again. But no words came out. The silence between us became long enough to become an answer of its own.

I felt my throat tightened. “Dorian. Answer me.”

Still nothing.

“Say something. Say yes. Say no. Say anything.”

He looked at me as if the words were stuck in his mouth. Just then the door opened behind me.

Talia stood there, her voice was gentle but firm. “Dorian, Finn is asking for you. He’s upset and he wants you to come upstairs right now.”

Dorian glanced at me one last time, then walked past me toward the door and left with her. While I stood alone in the study, staring at the place where my husband had been.