The heavy gates of the Redwood Pack closed with a hollow echo as Ethan rode through them, head bowed beneath the shadow of his cloak.
The guards didn’t speak.
They had seen him leave days ago with fire in his eyes and purpose in his stance.
Now, he returned in silence, his posture wilted by a truth that no longer needed to be spoken.
Sophia was gone.
Not just from his arms—but from the path his future once imagined.
He slid off the horse easily and gave the reins to a stable boy who bowed but did not say a thing. Like a ghost with a painful name, failure stayed with Ethan everywhere he went.
As he entered the manor, the air was stifling. Rooms that once felt like power now echoed with hollowness. Banners, thrones, accolades—none of it mattered now.
Because the one thing he truly wa
