DANTE’S POV
The gates closed behind them with a sound that echoed far louder than it should have. Steel on stone. Final. Unforgiving.
I stood there long after Selene disappeared beyond the tree line, my guards waiting for orders I did not give, my pack watching from a distance with wide, uneasy eyes. The wind carried the faintest trace of her scent away from me, and when it finally vanished, something in my chest hollowed out in a way I refused to acknowledge.
I did not chase her.
That fact alone felt like a declaration of strength or at least I told myself it was.
I turned on my heel and walked back toward the pack house, spine straight, expression carved from stone. An Alpha did not unravel in front of his wolves. An Alpha did not beg. An Alpha did not cling to a mate who had just c
