Chapter 9: The Man Who Came Too Late
1157 Words
They made camp after dark in a narrow valley wrapped by cliffs and pine.
Defensible.
Hidden.
Cold enough to make breath visible.
Royal guards moved with practiced speed, setting lanterns low and fires lower. Horses were watered. Perimeters marked. Watches assigned.
Destiny stood beside the carriage, wrapped in a heavy cloak Kael had handed her without comment.
It smelled faintly like him.
This was irritating.
“You’re frowning at fabric,” Old Nora observed, appearing with two cups of tea.
“I’m evaluating manipulation.”
“Ah.” Nora sipped calmly. “And how is the cloak winning?”
Destiny glared into the distance.
“Deeply.”
Nora laughed and passed her a cup.
“You look frightened.”
“I am.”
“Good.”
“Why does everyone keep saying that like it’s useful?”
“Because fear means something matters.” Nora bumped her shoulder gently. “Just don’t let it choose for you.”
Before Destiny could reply, the outer watch horn sounded once.
Not alarm.
Arrival.
The camp sharpened instantly.
Guards turned toward the valley entrance.
Hands moved to weapons.
Kael emerged from the command tent already composed, as if he had expected the moment down to the breath.
A rider approached through torchlight.
Then several more.
Twelve wolves.
Dust-covered.
Tense.
At their front—
Adrian Blackthorn.
Destiny’s stomach dropped despite everything.
He dismounted before the horse fully stopped.
Travel-worn and furious, hair disordered, jaw dark with stubble. Less polished than she had ever seen him.
More human.
Unfortunately still handsome.
“How tragic,” Nora muttered. “He improved.”
Kael’s captain stepped forward.
“Halt there.”
Adrian’s gaze had already found Destiny.
Of course it had.
He looked at her as if the entire journey existed only to reach this point.
“I came to speak with her.”
Kael stepped into view.
“No.”
Simple.
Absolute.
Adrian’s shoulders tightened.
“This is between pack members.”
Kael’s expression did not change.
“She is under royal protection.”
“She is from my territory.”
Destiny felt anger spark hot and clean.
There it was again.
My territory.
My pack.
Never her own person.
She stepped forward before caution could stop her.
“I’m right here.”
Every male in sight turned.
Good.
Let them practice.
Adrian exhaled sharply.
“Destiny.”
He said her name differently than before.
Carefully.
As if handling something breakable now that he had already shattered it.
“What do you want?” she asked.
“To talk privately.”
“No.”
He blinked.
Possibly because women usually cushioned refusals for men like him.
“You don’t mean that.”
“I very much do.”
A few guards looked suddenly interested in the sky.
Kael said nothing.
Which somehow felt like support.
Adrian took a step closer.
“I was angry.”
“At me?” Destiny asked.
“At the bond. At the timing. At being forced.”
She almost laughed.
“How noble.”
His jaw flexed.
“I made the wrong choice.”
“No,” she said softly. “You made the honest one.”
Silence spread.
Even the horses seemed to listen.
He looked stung.
Good.
But pain did not satisfy the way she expected.
It only made everything sadder.
“I came to take you home,” Adrian said.
Kael moved slightly.
Just enough to remind the world distance was a privilege.
Destiny lifted a hand.
He stopped.
The trust in that tiny gesture startled her more than anyone else.
She looked back at Adrian.
“Home?”
“Yes.”
“The room beside the furnace?”
His face tightened.
“The kitchen where I ate scraps?”
“Destiny—”
“The halls where everyone laughed while you rejected me?”
“I was wrong.”
“You were cruel.”
The words struck harder.
Because they were quieter.
Adrian’s voice lowered.
“I can fix this.”
Something in her chest, long wounded, finally settled.
Not healed.
Settled.
“No,” she said. “You can regret it. That’s different.”
He stared at her like he had never seen her clearly before.
Maybe he hadn’t.
---
Tension snapped when one of Adrian’s accompanying wolves muttered under his breath.
“This is madness. Over an omega.”
Every royal guard moved.
Steel hissed from scabbards.
Kael’s gaze landed on the speaker.
The man went white.
Destiny was suddenly very tired of being defended as an exception.
She stepped toward the rider.
“Say it louder.”
He froze.
She did not.
“I was an omega when you ignored me. I was an omega when he rejected me. I was an omega when your pack used me.”
Her voice carried through the valley.
“I did not become valuable because a king noticed.”
No one spoke.
Wind moved through the pines.
Even Kael’s silver eyes sharpened.
Destiny looked around at all of them.
“You became blind before then.”
Nora openly sobbed into her tea.
“That’s my girl.”
Adrian looked wrecked.
The rider looked ashamed.
Good.
Let shame do some labor for once.
---
Kael finally spoke.
“You have your answer.”
Adrian didn’t move.
His gaze stayed on Destiny.
“If I leave now,” he said quietly, “is there any chance?”
The question hurt more than arrogance had.
Because it sounded real.
Destiny answered with equal honesty.
“You should have asked that before you rejected me.”
He closed his eyes once.
When they opened, something had aged inside them.
He bowed his head—not to Kael.
To her.
Then turned.
His men followed in silence.
No one spoke until the last hoofbeats faded into the dark.
Destiny stood still, breath shaking.
Nora handed her the tea again.
“It’s cold now.”
“So am I.”
“Excellent progress.”
Despite herself, Destiny laughed weakly.
Then her knees buckled.
Kael caught her before she fell.
Again.
This was becoming embarrassing.
“I’m fine,” she murmured.
“No,” he said, voice rougher than usual. “You’re brave after injury. Different condition.”
She looked up at him.
Too close.
Too warm.
Too steady.
“You always have an answer?”
“Usually.”
“And when you don’t?”
He held her gaze.
“I get protective.”
The valley suddenly felt smaller.
She stepped back carefully.
“Dangerous trait.”
“For others,” he said.
---
Later, alone in the carriage, Destiny touched the place in her chest where the old bond had broken.
It still hurt.
But no longer like an open wound.
More like weather passing.
Outside, guards changed watch.
Nora snored nearby.
Somewhere beyond the camp, Adrian rode back toward the life he chose.
And Destiny—
For the first time—
Did not wish she were riding with him.
- Writer
