Chapter 18: An Alpha who chose to wait
798 Words
(Liam’s POV)
The night felt different after I left her.
Not lighter, truer.
I walked the long corridor back toward my quarters alone, boots echoing softly against stone that had known the weight of countless Alphas before me. Men who ruled by dominance, by certainty, by taking before asking.
Men who would have claimed Aria the moment the pack bowed.
My hand curled slowly at my side.
I hadn’t.
The bond pulsed faintly in my chest, warm and present, but no longer restless. For the first time since it had formed, it felt… settled. Not complete but acknowledged.
That mattered more than I understood how to explain.
I stepped out onto the upper balcony overlooking the sleeping pack. Fires burned low. Patrols moved with quiet efficiency. Wolves rested in ways they hadn’t for weeks.
Stability.
Not because I ordered it.
Because she existed within it.
The truth of that humbled me.
I had always believed leadership meant certainty swift decisions, visible strength, unshakable resolve. But standing there, listening to the subtle rhythm of a pack at peace, I realized how close I’d come to destroying something precious by mistaking tradition for wisdom.
Aria had never demanded.
Never pushed.
And yet she had changed everything.
The council’s judgment replayed in my mind Selena’s fall, the pack’s instinctive shift, the way Aria stood without lowering her gaze. Not challenging me.
Not submitting.
Simply existing as herself.
Power like that didn’t need permission.
I exhaled slowly.
An Alpha who failed to recognize it did not deserve to rule.
I left the balcony and returned to my desk, rolling out the territory maps covered in markings I’d neglected for too long. Borders, patrol gaps, old alliance lines that needed reinforcing now that the pack had been shaken.
Exile created ripples.
Selena’s absence would be felt beyond our lands sooner than most realized. Wolves like her did not vanish quietly.
I marked the southern boundary twice.
“She won’t come back alone,” I murmured.
And if she did,
We would be ready.
By dawn, the elders would expect direction. Not reaction.
Guidance.
I drafted orders carefully doubling border scouts, reestablishing neutral trade routes, instructing patrol leaders to observe without provoking. A pack recovering from internal fracture did not need war.
It needed confidence.
And honesty.
When I finally sat back, the room felt too still.
My thoughts returned, unbidden, to silver-grey eyes and the way Aria had looked at me when she said we’re choosing deliberately.
The bond shifted.
Not demanding.
Reminding.
“I won’t claim you,” I had said.
And meant it more deeply than any oath I’d sworn before.
Claiming had always been easy.
Choice was harder.
That was why it mattered.
A knock sounded at the door.
I straightened instinctively. “Enter.”
Elder Rohen stepped inside, leaning slightly heavier on his staff than earlier that day.
“You didn’t sleep,” he observed.
“Neither did you.”
He smiled thinly. “No.”
Silence stretched between us, companionable rather than tense.
“The pack senses change,” he said finally. “They are… wary. But hopeful.”
“As they should be.”
Rohen studied me carefully. “You stood beside her today.”
“Yes.”
“Not behind her.”
“No.”
“Not in front of her.”
“No.”
The corner of his mouth lifted. “Good.”
He turned to leave, then paused. “Some will question why you haven’t made her Luna.”
“I know.”
“And when they do?” he asked.
I didn’t hesitate. “I’ll tell them the truth.”
Rohen nodded once, satisfied, and left.
Alone again, I leaned back and closed my eyes briefly.
I had loved before, as a younger man loves fiercely, possessively, without understanding consequence. That love had burned quickly and left empty spaces where trust used to live.
What I felt now was different.
Calmer.
Stronger.
Dangerous in ways fire never was.
Aria did not need me to choose her publicly.
She needed me to respect her strength privately.
And in doing so, she had somehow made mine sharper.
As dawn approached, I returned to the balcony once more.
The horizon softened.
A new day without secrets.
For the first time since the bond awakened, I felt no urgency to resolve it.
The pack was steady.
The borders were guarded.
The woman bound to my soul was choosing me just as carefully as I was choosing her.
Some bonds were forged in fire.
Others, like ours, were shaped by restraint.
And I knew with a certainty deeper than instinct —
That when the day came for me to claim her, it would not be because the pack expected it.
It would be because we both said yes.
- Writer
