Chapter 46 - More Alike Than We Thought
1043 Words
The others had long since left Thorne's office.
Rafe had gone to prepare for the challenge, while Kaia muttered something about getting word out to the pack before disappearing down the corridor.
Silence filled the room.
Elara remained where she was, struggling to process everything that had unfolded.
Marina's tears still echoed through her mind.
The woman had genuinely believed she was helping her pack. Elara could respect that much. The way Marina had gone about it was wrong, but she understood the desperation behind it. Years of war had pushed people into making decisions they never would have considered otherwise.
She glanced at Thorne.
He still stood near his desk, staring at the closed door everyone had exited through.
The office smelled faintly of whiskey, old paper, and cedarwood. Sunlight filtered through the windows, casting long shadows across the floor.
Awkwardness crept over her shoulders.
"Well," Elara said, breaking the silence. "That was intense."
Thorne turned toward her.
His expression remained unreadable, but through the bond she caught fragments of what sat beneath it.
Disappointment.
Frustration.
Betrayal.
Underneath it all lingered a trace of shame.
She shifted uncomfortably.
The bond forced them to tolerate each other and remain civil, but their history remained tangled. The truth about Draven still hadn't been uncovered, and comforting Thorne was never going to be her responsibility.
"When I started looking for the spy," Thorne said, shaking his head, "Marina was the last person I expected."
"Why?"
The question slipped out before she could stop it.
"Because of your history with her?"
The moment the words left her mouth, she pressed her lips together.
Thorne didn't react.
"My history with Marina was never that."
His tone made it clear he had no interest in discussing it.
"But it was for her," Elara pointed out.
His jaw tightened.
"If you hadn't given her hope of becoming your Luna, maybe she wouldn't have shared information with the council. Maybe we wouldn't have been forced into this bond."
Her voice grew quieter toward the end.
The truth lingered awkwardly between them.
Thorne pushed away from the desk and took a step closer.
"Maybe," he admitted.
The answer surprised her.
"But I was also tired of losing wolves, Elara. Every resource we had was going into that war. Every patrol, every supply run, every family that lost someone became another reminder that I was failing to stop it."
His gaze held hers.
"When the council proposed the bond, it looked like the fastest way to end the bloodshed."
Elara rolled her eyes.
His eyes narrowed immediately.
She ignored it.
"Maybe you're right," she said. "I just find it strange that after becoming Alpha, you never tried to uncover the truth. You kept fighting Valamere. Even the wolves sitting in your prison cells weren't released after the treaty."
The room grew quiet again.
Thorne stared at her for several seconds, long enough for her wolf to stir uneasily beneath her skin.
"I was planning to let them go eventually," he said with a sigh.
"Eventually?"
The word came out harsher than intended.
He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck.
"I just never got around to it."
Anger flared through Elara.
The casualness of it rubbed against every raw nerve she possessed.
Those wolves weren't paperwork or forgotten responsibilities shoved to the bottom of a pile. They were people. Pack members. Families waiting for them to come home.
She clenched her jaw.
"So what now?" she asked. "The spy has been exposed. How are we dealing with the council?"
Thorne crossed the room toward a smaller cabinet.
Glass clinked softly as he poured another whiskey.
The strong scent immediately reached her.
He took three long swallows before turning back around.
"First, I deal with my pack."
His voice was steady again.
"Then I deal with the council."
His eyes came to rest on her.
The look in them made her shift slightly.
"Elara."
She frowned.
"What?"
His gaze remained fixed on her.
"Why did you agree to the bond?"
Her eyes widened.
The question caught her completely off guard.
"Because..." She hesitated. "Because I was tired of losing wolves too."
It wasn't entirely a lie.
The war needed to end.
Her people deserved peace.
There had also been another reason.
A selfish one.
She believed the man standing in front of her had murdered her brother or played a role in his death.
Accepting the bond had placed her closer to the answers she desperately wanted.
She couldn't tell him that.
The bond shifted uneasily between them.
Thorne's eyes narrowed slightly.
He knew there was more.
Stupid bond.
"Okay," he said slowly. "If that's what you're going with."
Elara scowled.
He glanced at the clock before looking back at her.
"Whatever your reasons were, you're here now."
She folded her arms.
"Unfortunately."
One corner of his mouth twitched.
"Unfortunately," he echoed.
The response caught her off guard.
His expression turned serious again.
"We need to work together, Elara. The pack. The council. Whatever comes next."
His voice lowered slightly.
"If we're going to get both packs through this, we can't keep looking for reasons to be enemies."
Elara looked away first.
The bond shifted again, carrying emotions she refused to examine too closely.
Understanding.
Respect.
Something far more dangerous than anger.
Thorne studied her for a moment.
"Maybe we're more alike than either of us wants to admit."
The words hung heavily between them.
Elara hated how quickly examples came to mind.
Their duty, their responsibilities, and most of all, their sacrifice. The willingness to put their packs above themselves.
She hated it because part of her knew he wasn't entirely wrong.
Neither of them spoke.
The silence that followed felt different from before. Comfort and trust remained out of reach, yet something between them had changed.
And somehow, that felt like progress.
Finding the truth about Draven still mattered more than anything else.
Protecting her pack still came first.
The bond stirred with complicated feelings she had no intention of examining today.
For now, working with Thorne was simply the most practical path forward.
When the truth finally came to light, she would decide what came next.
Until then, she would keep moving forward, one answer at a time.
- Writer
