Beyond the Border

They didn’t let me heal from the rejection.

At dawn, they dragged me from the dungeon like refuse—weak, shaking, my body still burning from the rejection. Every step felt like broken glass beneath my skin. My wolf was silent now, curled deep inside me, wounded and afraid.

No one met my eyes. Not the guards. Not the pack members who lined the path in uneasy silence.

Not even Elder Rowan. Finn wasn’t there.

That hurt more than the chains biting into my wrists.

The border loomed ahead—marked by ancient stones carved with warnings older than the pack itself. Beyond it lay rogue land. Death. Monsters. Exile without mercy.

“This is as far as we go,” one guard muttered, cutting my restraints. I swayed.

“May the Moon Goddess judge you fairly,” another said, though his voice lacked conviction.

Then they shoved me forward..I stumbled past the border stone and fell hard onto frozen earth.

The pack turned away. Just like that, I ceased to exist. The pain came in waves.

Without the mate bond, my body rebelled violently—heart racing, limbs numb, lungs burning with each shallow breath. Blood soaked the hem of my dress where I had bitten my tongue to keep from screaming. I tried to stand but failed.

The forest swallowed me whole. Branches clawed at my skin, thorns tore through fabric and flesh as I crawled blindly, driven by instinct alone. Somewhere in the distance, wolves howled—not pack wolves.

Rogues. My vision blurred. So this was how it ended. No justice? Not with the truth. But with silence?.

By nightfall, the cold had sunk into my bones.

I collapsed beneath a twisted pine, curling inward as tremors wracked my body. My wolf whimpered faintly inside me.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I tried.”

The moon rose high, silver and indifferent.

I thought of Finn then—not with love, but with something hollow and exhausted. The bond was gone, but the scar remained.

I closed my eyes and a growl cut through the darkness.

Low and dangerous. Growl meant for prey.

My eyes flew open just as glowing eyes pierced the shadows. Gold, red and feral.

An Alpha!.

A massive wolf stepped into the moonlight, black fur streaked with silver, power rolling off him in suffocating waves. He circled me slowly, assessing, calculating. I couldn’t even scream.

He shifted then—bones cracking, fur receding—until a man stood before me.

Tall. Broad. Dazzling. Wrapped in dark leather and authority.

His gaze fell on my throat. Where the mate mark should have been.

His eyes darkened. “Who did this to you?” he asked, voice deep and edged with fury.

I laughed weakly. “My mate.” The word tasted like ash even to me.

Something dangerous flickered across his face.

“What is your name?” he demanded.

I hesitated. Then whispered it.

"Lena?" Recognition struck him like lightning.

“Finn Nightclaw’s mate,” he said slowly.

News spreads fast indeed. But, I shook my head. “Not anymore.” His jaw clenched.

He stepped closer, and the air between us crackled—old magic, ancient and undeniable. My chest burned faintly, not pain this time, but something else. Awakening.

“Then listen to me,” he said, crouching before me, eyes locked onto mine. “You’re not dying tonight.”

He lifted me effortlessly into his arms. “And when the Moon Goddess finishes what she started,” he added grimly, “someone will pay for this.”

As darkness claimed me, I felt it.

A pull. A whisper. A bond not broken—only waiting.

----

Meanhwile...

Delilah never cried when she was alone.

The moment the guards shut the door behind her, the trembling stopped. The sobs vanished. Her shoulders straightened as she wiped her cheeks with deliberate care, smearing away the last trace of weakness.

“You can come out now,” she said sweetly.

The man in hiding obeyed at once.

Beta Delon rose from the shadows, tall and sharp-eyed, his expression carved from calculation rather than grief. The torchlight caught the silver insignia on his chest—the mark of Finn Nightclaw’s second-in-command.

And his future executioner.

“She’s gone,” Delon said. “Banished beyond the border at dawn.”

Delilah smiled. “Of course  i know about that!.”

She crossed the chamber slowly, skirts whispering against the stone floor, and stopped before him. Delon’s hand slid instinctively to her waist, fingers familiar, possessive.

They had shared this room for years. Even when Finn mourned imagined betrayals.

While the pack praised loyalty, honor and while the Moon Goddess watched in silence.

“You see?” Delilah murmured. “Just as I promised. The little healer is no longer in our way.”

Delon’s lips curved, but his eyes remained sharp. “She was never meant to be the obstacle.”

“No,” Delilah agreed. “She was the inconvenience fate threw at us.”

Delon poured wine into two cups and handed her one.

“To patience,” he said.

She clinked her cup against his. “To our grand plan” They drank and giggles.

“Everything would have ended before the mating ceremony,” Delon continued darkly. “If not for that bond.” Delilah’s smile tightened.

It had been his idea—every calculated step of it.