[KAEL]The mountains were cold enough to bite through skin tonight.I pushed harder through the forest, my boots hitting packed earth in a rhythm that should have calmed me but didn't. Hours of running, and I still couldn't shake the conversation from earlier. My mother's voice echoed in my head, gentle but insistent, painting pictures of futures I wasn't ready to see."The pack needs stability, Kael. They need to see their Alpha whole again."Whole. Like I was some broken thing that needed fixing with the right woman beside me.'She's not wrong,' Saen muttered, restless beneath my skin.'She's not right either,' I shot back.The fog hung low between the trees, making the world feel smaller, tighter. I welcomed it. Needed it. Out here, I was just a wolf running borders. Not an Alpha carrying the weight of expectations. Not a widower people kept trying to save from his own grief.Lyra's face flickered through my thoughts before I could stop it. Her laugh—bright and infectious. The way
Last Updated : 2025-11-26 Read more