MasukShe didn’t know what she was apologizing for. For leaving her alone in this hospital bed. For not being able to protect her from the mate bond breaking. For surviving something that had destroyed her. For coming back changed in ways she didn’t fully understand yet.For everything.Her whole body was shaking now. Every muscle vibrating with the force of the tears she was finally allowing herself to cry. Three months of holding it together. Three months of surviving. Three months of moving through each day without breaking.And now, sitting beside her mother’s unconscious form, she finally broke completely.She wept into their joined hands, her whole frame wracked with sobs. The machines beeped steadily around her, indifferent to her pain. The hospital sounds continued outside the room....distant voices, the hum of equipment, the ordinary noise of people dealing with medical crisis.And Gwen sat there and cried like her heart was breaking. Because it was. Because she’d survived somethin
The car reached the gates.Rolled through them smoothly.Disappeared around the curve in the drive that would eventually lead to Greywatch territory.And all three brothers felt the mate bond stretch one final time....a desperate, anguished pull that made them all inhale sharply as if they’d been struck.Then it settled into a dull, constant ache. A presence that would live in their chests forever. A reminder of what they’d found and what they’d had to release.Cassian stopped pacing."Why did we let her go?" His voice sounded broken. Raw. Like the question was being torn from somewhere deep inside him."Because we had to," Killian said. He didn’t turn from the window. Didn’t watch Cassian. Just kept his eyes fixed on the empty drive where the car had been. "Because keeping her would have made us monsters. And because..."He paused."Because she’s our mate," he said quietly. "And mates deserve the choice to stay. Not to be trapped. Not to be forced. She deserves to choose us. And righ
The morning came too quickly.Gwen woke before dawn, her eyes opening to darkness that was just beginning to soften at the edges. For a moment, she lay there in her bed, listening to the silence of the estate as it slept. Then it hit her, the realization that this was her last morning in this room. Her last morning in this place.She felt a flutter of nervousness mixed with anticipation.Then someone knocked at the door."Come in," Gwen called.The door opened.Nessa appeared with a tray of breakfast, real breakfast, not the sparse offerings from the early days. Fruit, bread with honey, tea. Behind her came Agnes with Gwen’s original clothes folded neatly over her arm."Good morning," Agnes said. Her weathered face held something like approval. "The car is being prepared. You’ll leave within the hour."Gwen nodded.She wasn’t surprised. Had known it was coming."Thank you," Gwen said.Nessa set the breakfast down with a small smile. "You’re happy," she observed."I’m going to see my m
"I’m not asking," Killian said quietly. "I’m telling you. Tomorrow, we let her go. We escort her to the gates of Greywatch if she wants us to. We watch her walk away. And we don’t follow. We don’t try to change her mind. We don’t break the contract. We let her choose her own life."Barrett turned from the window, and his expression was haunted."And the bond?" he asked. "When she’s gone and we’re still feeling it pulling at us, still feeling her through the connection even though she’s miles away...what do we tell ourselves then?""We tell ourselves that we did the right thing," Killian replied. His voice was steady, but his hands were shaking again. He clasped them together to hide it. "We tell ourselves that we loved her enough to let her go."The words hung in the air, heavy with a truth that none of them wanted to accept.Cassian moved to the desk and placed his palms flat on the surface, leaning across until he was face to face with Killian."That’s the most painful thing I’ve ev
"You can’t be serious," Cassian said. He moved toward the desk, his movements sharp and agitated. "You can FEEL what’s happening, Killian. You can feel the bond. She’s our mate. We can’t just let her leave.""We can," Killian said, finally looking up from his desk. His silver eyes were cold, controlled, but there was a flicker of something else underneath....pain, perhaps. Or regret. "And we will.""Why?" Cassian demanded. The question came out like a curse. "Give me one reason why we would find our mate and then let her go?"Killian set down his pen with deliberate care. When he spoke, his voice was measured, but every word landed like a hammer."Because," he said slowly, "she didn’t choose this. She didn’t choose us. She was brought here under false pretenses and traumatized in ways we are still trying to understand. And forcing a mate bond on her, forcing her to stay, would be the cruelest thing we could possibly do.""It would be survival," Cassian shot back. "Do you have any idea
Something flickered across his face at that. Something that looked almost like regret."Right," he said quietly. "You’re leaving soon."The words hung between them. Two more days until the weekend. Forty-eight hours until she went back to Greywatch, back to her mother, back to her life. Back to never seeing him again."Yes," Gwen said, the word smaller than she intended. "Two more days."Cassian turned away from her. His jaw was working, like he was trying to decide whether to say something. Behind him, she could see the defined muscles of his back, the dark stain of sweat on his skin, the way his shoulders were held rigid with tension.When he turned back, his expression was controlled again. The raw intensity was locked away behind a wall of discipline."Don’t come out here alone again," he said, his voice formal now, the alpha in him asserting itself. "The training grounds can be dangerous. You could get hurt.""I was careful," Gwen said."I know," Cassian replied. And there was so







