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Chapter 79

Author: Charisma
last update publish date: 2026-04-29 21:56:01

Rowan POV

It happens too fast for silence to hold.

One second the clearing is steady, contained, the figure already fading back into the forest where only Lyra and I have seen it, and the next—

Someone gasps.

It is sharp. Loud enough to cut through the noise of the gathering like a blade.

Then another.

And another.

The reaction spreads before I can stop it, rippling outward through the pack like a sudden crack in glass. Conversations falter mid-sentence, laughter dies too quickly, and heads b
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  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 79

    Rowan POV It happens too fast for silence to hold.One second the clearing is steady, contained, the figure already fading back into the forest where only Lyra and I have seen it, and the next—Someone gasps.It is sharp. Loud enough to cut through the noise of the gathering like a blade.Then another.And another.The reaction spreads before I can stop it, rippling outward through the pack like a sudden crack in glass. Conversations falter mid-sentence, laughter dies too quickly, and heads begin to turn toward the same direction.The edge of the clearing.The forest.My jaw tightens immediately.Too late.They saw something.Not the figure clearly, not the way Lyra and I did, but enough. A movement. A shadow. Something out of place where nothing should have been.Fear doesn’t take much to grow.“Did you see that?”“I thought—”“Something moved—”The murmurs rise, overlapping, uncertain but building, and that uncertainty is what makes it dangerous. Fear feeds faster when it doesn’t

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 78

    Rowan POV I feel it before I see it.The shift is subtle, almost impossible to catch if you are not paying attention, but I am. I have been since the moment Lyra walked back into the village carrying something she refuses to name. My senses have not relaxed since, and now they tighten instantly, every instinct sharpening at once.Something is wrong.The gathering continues around me as if nothing has changed. Laughter still moves through the clearing, voices overlap in easy conversation, and the fires burn steady and warm. To everyone else, this is still a night of peace.But the air has changed.It is slight, just enough to unsettle the edges of awareness, like a thread pulled too tight.I stop mid-step, my gaze shifting slowly toward the darker edge of the clearing.The forest.There.At first, I see nothing. Just shadows layered between trees, the natural darkness that always presses in around the light of the fires. But I do not look away. I let my focus settle, let my eyes adju

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 77

    Rowan POV The gathering is supposed to feel normal.That’s the intention behind it. After weeks of steady rebuilding and careful balance, the elders suggested it would help the pack to come together again in a way that wasn’t centered on duty or recovery. Something simple. Something familiar. A reminder that we are more than survival.And on the surface, it works.The clearing is lit with low fires, their glow casting warm light across the faces gathered around them. Voices carry easily through the night, laughter rising and falling without hesitation. There is food, shared without tension, and movement that feels natural instead of measured.To anyone else, this would look like peace.To me—It feels like something just beneath the surface is waiting.I stand near the edge of the clearing again, not hidden, but not in the center either. It gives me a clear view of everything without being pulled too deeply into it. My attention moves over the pack automatically, checking, assessing,

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 76

    Rowan POV Something is wrong.I don’t need her to say it. I don’t need evidence laid out in clear words or visible signs that anyone else could point to. I feel it the moment she steps back into the village, the moment her presence settles into the space we share through the bond.It’s subtle.But it’s there.And once I notice it, I can’t ignore it.Lyra has always been controlled, especially after everything she went through. Even when she was breaking, even when grief hollowed her out from the inside, there was a kind of stillness to her that felt… consistent. Predictable in its weight.This isn’t that.This feels sharper.Unsteady in a way that doesn’t match anything I’ve seen from her before.When she tells me she went for a walk, I let her say it. I don’t interrupt. I don’t call it out immediately for what it is.A partial truth.Because she’s not lying.But she’s not telling me everything either.I can see it in the way her eyes hold mine just a fraction too long, like she’s me

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 75

    Lyra POV I don’t tell anyone what happened in the forest.Not Rowan. Not the elders. Not even the warriors who would normally be alerted immediately if anything unusual crossed our borders. I keep it buried inside me, locked behind calm expressions and controlled breathing, like it never happened at all.Because if I say it out loud, it becomes real in a different way.And I am not ready for that yet.When I return to the village, nothing looks different. Life continues the way it always does, steady and unaware of the storm that just passed through the forest. Wolves move between tasks, children run through the open spaces, and the scent of cooked food drifts through the air like any ordinary evening.But I am not the same.I feel it in every step I take.I stop at the edge of the main path, forcing myself to slow down before anyone notices something is wrong. My face has to stay neutral. My body has to stay steady. I cannot afford questions right now.Not when I do not have answer

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 74

    Lyra POV It hits me all at once, without warning or mercy. One moment I am standing there trying to make sense of what I just felt, trying to hold onto logic and everything I know to be true, and the next moment I cannot breathe. My chest tightens so suddenly it feels like something invisible has wrapped around my lungs and squeezed. The air comes in shallow, uneven pulls that do not feel like enough, like no matter how much I inhale it will never reach where it needs to.My heart is racing too fast, too loud, pounding so hard it drowns out everything else. I press my hand against my chest as if that might steady it, as if I can force my body to slow down, but it does nothing. If anything, it makes me more aware of how out of control I am.Kael’s name crashes through my mind again, sharper this time, dragging everything else with it. I smelled him. I know I did. That was not memory, and it was not grief twisting reality into something it is not. It felt real. It was real.But it cann

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 33

    Rowan POV Grief changed the way a place sounded.It wasn’t just quieter.It was… restrained.Like every voice had learned to soften itself, to step carefully around something fragile that could break again if disturbed too harshly.Silver Ridge felt like that now.Held together.I moved through th

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 27

    Rowan POV No one moved. Not for a long time.The clearing stayed frozen in that heavy, unbearable silence, every eye fixed on Lyra as if waiting for something to shift—something to break.But it didn’t. Not at first.She stood exactly where she had been when the words were spoken. Shoulders strai

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 25

    Lyra POV The morning felt wrong.There was no other way to describe it.Not quieter.Just… off.I stood by the window in the Alpha house, fingers resting lightly against the wooden frame as I looked out over the village. The sky was pale, almost colorless, and the usual early movement felt strain

  • The Man I Buried    Chapter 23

    Rowan POV War always changed the rhythm of a pack.Not just on the battlefield—but here, in the spaces left behind.I saw it the moment I stepped into the village again.The noise was different.Quieter. Controlled.Where there should have been laughter, there were hushed conversations. Where warr

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