That Didn’t Try

Chapter Thirty Three : The Blood That Didn’t Dry

Selene’s POV

The ground felt colder than ever.

I didn’t even notice the dirt under my knees or the wind brushing my hair across my face. All I saw was blood—his blood—on my shaking hands.

My fingers wouldn’t close. They stayed wide open, frozen in the shape they were when I tried to hold him.

But he was gone.

Gone.

“Ronan…” I whispered, but my lips barely moved. My voice came out like broken glass. “No… please…”

I stared at the empty space where he once stood. I didn’t blink. I didn’t move.

It was like the world had been ripped in half, and I had fallen into the silence between.

I could still feel the heat of his skin on my palm. I could still hear the sound of his voice, that last whisper in my ear.

“Take care of her… take care of our baby…”

I pressed my hand to my stomach. I wanted to scream, but nothing came out. My lungs wouldn’t let me breathe properly. Each inhale hurt. Every breath felt like I was choking on my own heartbeat.

“Selene,” I heard Lucien’s voice. “Selene, please—get up.”

His hands were on my shoulders, but I didn’t move.

“Selene, come on. You need to get up.”

I still didn’t answer. My mouth trembled, but no words came. Instead, tears rolled slowly down my cheeks. Silent. Endless. Hot.

I wasn’t crying loudly.

I was just… broken.

“I… I can’t…” I finally said. “He was just here… he was just here…”

Lucien knelt beside me. “I know. I saw it. I—I don’t know how to explain what happened. He just… vanished.”

I looked at him, eyes full of pain. “He was so tired… so tired. But he still told me to step back. He still fought for us.”

Lucien wiped my tears, but they kept coming. He looked helpless.

And then came the flashbacks.

His arms around me when I was weak from the last fight.

“You’re not alone, Selene.”

The smile on his face when I first told him I was pregnant.

“We made something good. Something strong. This is our hope.”

The way he used to stroke my hair at night, softly, like I was made of glass.

“You deserve peace.”

The way he carried me through the woods when I was too weak to walk.

“I’ll always carry you. Always.”

The tears came harder.

“I didn’t even get to say goodbye,” I whispered.

Lucien placed his forehead to mine. He didn’t speak. Maybe he didn’t know how to.

We just knelt there, broken in the dirt, surrounded by the silence Ronan left behind.

⸻

Evric’s voice cut through the quiet.

“Hmph,” he said. “I guess he ran away like a coward.”

I didn’t move.

But something inside me snapped.

Slowly, with every bone in my body shaking, I turned my head and looked at him. My eyes were full of tears, but they burned.

I didn’t yell.

I didn’t curse.

I just said quietly, “Cowards don’t bleed for what they love.”

Evric looked taken aback. Maybe even ashamed. His mouth opened a little, but no words came.

“He stood alone,” I said again. “He fought for me. For our baby. Until his last breath.”

“You don’t know what cowards are, Evric. But I do. I’ve seen one in the mirror when I ran away from myself… but not him. Never him.”

And then Sasha’s voice came, sharp and full of poison.

“What a waste,” she said, crossing her arms. “All that drama just for him to give up.”

I didn’t even look at her at first. I was still staring at the blood on my hands.

But then I wiped the blood slowly onto the front of my dress, stood up on weak legs, and faced her.

I felt dizzy.

I felt like I was floating.

But I stood anyway.

“You think this is giving up?” I asked her quietly. “He didn’t give up. He gave everything.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Well, he still failed, didn’t he?”

I felt my chest rise and fall painfully.

“You think being Alpha means hurting people and stepping on others,” I said, my voice still soft. “But it doesn’t. Leadership is not cruelty. And power without love is empty.”

Sasha laughed, a cold, sharp sound. “Spare me your fairy tales, Selene. You can’t tell me you want to become an alpha because your father was an alpha even though you were weak, there was a challenge between us and you failed, I won”

“You knew yourself, deep in you that you didn’t win fairly, even though there shouldn’t be any challenge, the position should be mine, I participated in it and you cheated, i didn’t fight” I said, even though my knees were trembling. “I believed people could change. I believed you were better.”

Her smile faded slightly.

“I left you that title not because I was weak… but because I loved peace more than power.”

“And now look,” I added, voice almost a whisper, “you’ve used it to destroy everything.”

She stepped forward like she wanted to say something, but I shook my head.

“One day, Sasha,” I said quietly, “you’ll pay for all of it.”

I looked at her one last time, then turned away.

My legs nearly gave out, but Lucien caught me.

I leaned against him, my whole body heavy with grief. I placed one hand on my stomach.

“He didn’t leave us,” I whispered. “He just… disappeared. But I know Ronan. He said he’ll be back.”

I didn’t know how long I stayed on my knees. The blood had dried on my hands, but I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even feel my legs. My heart felt hollow — like someone had dug it out with their claws and left nothing behind.

Lucien was crouched beside me, his warm hand on my back, whispering my name again and again. But his voice sounded far away, like it was coming from under water.

“Selene,” he said again, firmer this time. “We need to go. You need rest.”

Go?

Where?

There was nowhere left.

But still, I tried to stand. My limbs trembled. My head spun. Lucien caught me before I hit the ground again. I could feel the way his chest rose and fell, anxious, trying to keep it together for my sake.

Then I heard the heavy footsteps behind us. Power radiated from each step, thick and suffocating like smoke. I didn’t have to look to know who it was. Every wolf in the clearing went quiet, their heads bowed in submission.

Evric.

“Where are you taking her?” he asked, his voice as sharp as ice.

Lucien turned, one arm still holding me upright. “She needs rest. I’m taking her home.”

But Evric’s voice cut through the air like a blade. “No. She comes with me. To my house.”

My heart skipped a beat. I knew what that meant. His territory. His rules. No one defied him there.

Lucien’s shoulders stiffened. “Evric, please. She’s not well. Just let me take her back to her room. Just for a night. She needs peace, not more power struggles.”

Evric didn’t flinch. He stared at us like he was weighing our worth on a scale. His golden eyes held no pity.

“My pack is not up for negotiation,” he said. “If she’s to be protected, it will be under my roof. No one touches her there.”

I couldn’t speak. I could barely lift my head. But the tension between them felt like a string pulled too tight, ready to snap.

Lucien glanced down at me, then back at Evric. I saw the muscles in his jaw tighten.

“Then let me stay with her,” Lucien said. “Just until she’s better. She still needs time to heal. I won’t leave her alone.”

For a moment, I thought Evric would say no. His lips thinned, and something flickered behind his eyes — anger? Jealousy? Possession?

But then, he said quietly, “Fine. But only because I know you won’t play games under my nose.”

His words sent a chill down my spine. It wasn’t a warning. It was a fact. A truth carved in stone. In his pack, under his watch, no one would dare defy him — not even a loyal warrior like Lucien.

Lucien nodded slowly. “Thank you.”

Evric turned to me then, his gaze locking with mine. For a second, I saw something there — not warmth, not softness, but something ancient and unreadable. Like he saw through me, like he could hear the heartbeat of my grief.

“Let’s go,” he said.

Lucien lifted me gently into his arms, and I didn’t fight him. I couldn’t. My strength had faded with Ronan. But as we walked away from the clearing, I looked back one last time. The place where Ronan had vanished was still stained with blood. His blood.

I reached down and touched my stomach.

“He didn’t leave us,” I whispered. “He just… disappeared. He’ll come back.”

Lucien held me tighter.

And Evric walked ahead, the King of Shadows, leading us deeper into his territory, where even Alphas bowed their heads and wolves dared not howl.