Kael didn’t return on horseback.
He didn’t return in glory.
He came alone, on foot, cloak dusted with snow and fury—each step carving a deeper line across the miles between who he’d been and what he’d lost.
The moment he crossed SilverCrest’s border, he felt it.
The change.
The way the land recognized her name now—not his.
The trees didn’t whisper his title anymore. They didn’t need to.
She had replaced him.
And it wasn’t a whisper that told him what she’d done.
It was a roar.
“You didn’t tell me,” he growled as he stormed into the southern watchtower, where Zara had been tending a patrol roster.
She didn’t flinch. “She didn’t owe you that.”
“She’s carrying my child.”
Zara’s eyes narrowed. “And you’re the one who left her alone to carry it.”
The words hit like claws across his chest.
He turned away, shaking, breath ragged. “She fought in the circle.”
“She won.”
“She could’ve died.”
“But she didn’t.”
Zara stepped forward, voice low and cutting.
“She stood her ground. Calder challenged her. The pack watched. And when she walked out of that circle, she wasn’t ‘Kael’s rejected mate.’ She was Alpha Aria Vale.”
He stumbled into the cold after that, numb and wordless.
The idea that she had claimed a circle meant for warriors—with his blood in her belly—seared through his mind like acid. It wasn’t just rage.
It was guilt.
Grief.
Something like mourning.
He hadn’t been there.
He hadn’t protected her.
And the one thing Kael had sworn never to become—his father, who had stood idle while his own mate bled out from pack betrayal—was now a shadow he wore on his back.
By the time he reached the inner courtyard, the sun had set behind the winter hills.
But the torches were still lit.
And she was still there.
Aria stood with her shoulders back, head high, the wind pushing strands of golden hair across her cheek. Her belly was more visible now, the curve of it round and undeniable.
She turned before he said a word. Of course she did.
She always knew when he was near.
That was the curse of what they used to share.
“I heard what you did,” he said.
“I’m surprised it took this long,” she replied, voice even.
“You fought. While pregnant.”
“I survived.”
He took a step closer. “You risked everything. You didn’t think of—”
“I thought of everything.”
The silence snapped taut between them.
Kael’s hands curled at his sides. “You could’ve died.”
“But I didn’t,” she said softly. “Because I refused to be erased.”
She walked toward him slowly, not afraid. Not even angry.
Just clear.
“When you broke our bond in front of the council,” she said, “you didn’t just reject me. You rejected what we were building. You rejected the future already growing inside me.”
“I didn’t know,” he said, the words thick. “I swear—Aria, if I’d known—”
“You wouldn’t have left?” she interrupted. “You would’ve stayed and buried me with flowers instead of silence?”
He flinched.
“You broke me in public. You did it with no warning. No goodbye.”
“I thought I was protecting you.”
“By tearing me in half?”
Kael looked down.
His voice, when it came, was hoarse. “I thought you’d be safer if you weren’t mine anymore.”
Aria stared at him, wind brushing the edge of her tunic.
“Then you’re a coward,” she said. “Because I was never yours to protect. I was your equal. You just didn’t want to see it.”
He stepped closer again. “You were more than equal.”
“But not enough to fight for,” she whispered.
And that broke him more than any duel ever could.
“You’re stronger than I ever was,” he said finally, voice cracking. “The things I did to shield this pack… I never had to bear them alone. You did.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Aria replied. “You made sure of that.”
He nodded, slowly. The regret in his bones was ancient now. Deep. Unshakable.
“Do you hate me?”
She paused.
“No.”
His heart stuttered.
“I pity you,” she continued.
And somehow, that was worse.
For a long moment, there was only the fire crackling and the low, distant call of a wolf in the woods.
Kael swallowed. “You’re going to raise her without me?”
“She doesn’t need a man who chooses silence when things get hard.”
“I’m not that man anymore.”
“You’re still not the one she needs.”
He turned away, pain pouring off him like steam from fresh wounds.
And as he walked back into the cold night, something inside him shattered.
Not because she rejected him.
But because she no longer needed to.
And the Alpha who once commanded armies…
Had been bested by a woman with nothing left to lose.
