Chapter 5
1666 Words
Lila stood on the other side of the door, staring at the wooden latch as Kael's voice came again from outside. Her hand hovered above it, but she didn't move.
“Lila, open the door.”
She could hear the impatience in his voice now, and something about that made her angry. He had rejected her in front of everyone, refused to explain himself, and then appeared at her cottage in the middle of the night as if she were still someone who would drop everything the moment he called her name.
“What do you want?”
There was a pause.
“I want to talk.”
Lila let out a quiet laugh. “Now?”
“Yes.”
“You had plenty of chances.”
“I know.”
That answer caught her off guard.
For a moment, she said nothing.
Kael spoke again, his voice quieter this time. “Please open the door.”
Lila's fingers finally closed around the latch.
She didn't open it.
Instead, she rested her forehead against the wood and closed her eyes. She could sense him through the bond, close enough that her wolf had already risen from its exhausted state.
Let him in.
“No.”
He's our Mate.
“He rejected us.”
He came back.
Lila clenched her jaw.
“He came because he doesn't want to lose control of the situation.”
Her wolf went silent.
Lila knew she was guessing, but she needed to believe it.
“I'm not opening the door, Kael.”
His breathing changed on the other side.
“You can't avoid me forever.”
“Watch me.”
She stepped away from the door.
For several seconds, there was no sound.
Then Kael said, “You deserve an explanation.”
Lila's chest tightened.
“Then give me one.”
Silence.
She waited.
Nothing came.
A bitter smile touched her lips.
“That's what I thought.”
She heard his footsteps move away.
Only after they disappeared did Lila realize she had been holding her breath.
She leaned against the table, pressing a hand against her chest as the bond pulsed painfully.
Her wolf was restless.
Why did he leave?
“Because he didn't have anything to say.”
You don't believe that.
Lila didn't answer.
She couldn't.
The room suddenly felt too small.
The walls seemed to close around her, and the air inside the cottage became difficult to breathe. She grabbed her coat and stepped outside without thinking.
The night was cold.
Lila walked.
She didn't know where she was going at first. Her feet carried her away from the center of the pack, past the river path, past the training grounds, and toward the forest that bordered the territory.
The deeper she went, the quieter everything became.
No voices.
No curious eyes.
No whispers about the rejected Mate.
Just trees, darkness, and the sound of her own breathing.
Lila finally stopped beneath a tall pine.
Her hands were shaking.
She looked back toward the distant pack lights.
Kael was somewhere behind her.
For years, that thought had made her feel safe.
Tonight, it made her want to run farther.
Her wolf suddenly pushed forward.
Shift.
Lila froze.
“No.”
Shift.
“I said no.”
The wolf scratched at the inside of her mind, agitated and furious.
The rejection had damaged the bond, but it hadn't erased it. Kael's presence still pulled at her instincts, and every time she tried to push those instincts down, her wolf fought harder.
Lila staggered backward.
“Stop.”
Her body heated.
Her heartbeat accelerated.
The muscles along her spine tightened.
She dropped to one knee, gripping the ground as the first wave of shifting pain tore through her.
“No, no…”
Her wolf broke loose.
Lila cried out as claws pushed against her fingertips, her bones shifting beneath her skin. She had shifted hundreds of times before, but never like this.
There was no control.
No gradual change.
Only pain and rage.
Her wolf surged through her consciousness, wild after being forced into silence for too long.
He hurt us.
“I know.”
He rejected us.
“I know!”
Then why are we still here?
Lila's breath caught.
She didn't have an answer.
Her body twisted forward, and seconds later a silver-gray wolf stood where she had fallen.
She was breathing hard, her paws digging into the soil.
The forest smelled different in wolf form.
Sharper.
Cleaner.
Every scent came at once.
Water.
Pine.
Distant smoke from the pack.
And Kael.
Lila's ears flattened.
Her wolf turned toward the pack territory.
Go back.
“No.”
Find him.
“No.”
Make him understand.
Lila growled.
Then she ran.
She didn't run toward Kael.
She ran away from him.
Branches whipped against her fur as she tore through the forest, faster than she had ever moved during training. The ground blurred beneath her paws, and the pain in her chest became something almost useful.
Every stride pushed the anger deeper.
Every breath reminded her that she was still alive.
She didn't know how long she ran.
When she finally slowed, she had reached a part of the forest she had never explored before.
The trees were thicker there, their branches blocking most of the moonlight. A narrow stream cut through the ground, and Lila stopped beside it, panting.
Her wolf paced inside her.
Again.
Lila lowered her head.
“You're not taking over.”
We need to run.
“I know.”
We need to leave.
Lila stared at the water.
That word stayed with her.
Leave.
She had never seriously considered it before.
The Silver Moon Pack was her home. Her entire life was here. Her childhood, her friends, her memories with Kael—all of it belonged to this place.
But what did staying mean now?
Every morning would bring whispers.
Every gathering would remind her of the night she had been rejected.
Every time she smelled Kael, the bond would hurt.
And every time she saw him with another woman, she would wonder what she had done wrong.
Lila closed her eyes.
“No.”
Her wolf looked up.
“We're not doing this.”
She shifted back, dropping to the ground with a gasp. Her clothes were torn from the run, and scratches covered her arms, but she barely noticed them.
She pushed herself upright and wiped the dirt from her knees.
“I spent my whole life trying to become someone he'd choose.”
Her voice shook.
“I trained harder because I thought I wasn't strong enough. I stayed quiet because I thought he preferred calm girls. I waited because I thought one day he'd look at me and realize I was the person he'd been searching for.”
The words sounded ridiculous now.
Lila laughed bitterly.
“He didn't ask me to do any of that.”
Her wolf lowered its head.
“He never promised me anything.”
She looked toward the dark trees.
“I did it because I loved him.”
The confession hurt.
But this time, she didn't take it back.
“I loved him so much that I forgot to ask whether he deserved all of me.”
The wind moved through the branches.
Lila sat beside the stream and pulled her knees toward her chest.
She didn't cry.
Not yet.
Instead, she thought about the girl she had been yesterday.
That girl had run across the ceremony grounds with a smile because she believed finding her Mate meant finding the person who would finally make her feel complete.
Lila didn't want to be that girl anymore.
She wanted to be able to stand alone.
She wanted to walk into a room without wondering whether Kael was there.
She wanted to hear people say her name without adding his afterward.
Most of all, she wanted her worth to belong to her.
Her wolf shifted closer inside her mind.
Then make it yours.
Lila opened her eyes.
For the first time, she didn't fight the words.
“I will.”
She stood.
The forest no longer felt like a place where she had run to hide.
It felt like the first place where no one could tell her who she was supposed to be.
Lila walked along the stream until she reached a large flat rock beneath the trees. She sat there and watched the moon reflected in the water.
Her chest still hurt.
The Mate bond was still there.
Kael was still somewhere behind her.
None of that had changed.
But something inside her had.
She no longer wanted to return to the cottage and wait for him to decide whether she deserved an explanation.
She no longer wanted to spend another night hoping he would knock again.
If he wanted to speak, he could find her.
If he wanted to explain, he could come prepared to tell the truth.
And if he wanted nothing from her, then she would learn how to live with that.
Lila looked down at her scratched hands.
“I won't be anyone's appendage.”
The words were quiet, but they felt stronger than anything she had said since the rejection.
Her wolf raised its head.
Never again.
“Never again.”
A howl suddenly echoed through the distant forest.
Lila's body stiffened.
It wasn't Kael's howl.
It came from deeper in the territory, low and unfamiliar.
Her wolf immediately became alert.
Someone is here.
Lila stood.
The forest had gone still.
She listened carefully.
Nothing.
Then she heard another sound.
A branch breaking somewhere behind her.
Lila turned sharply.
The darkness between the trees looked empty.
Her wolf growled.
Run.
Lila took one step backward.
A shadow moved.
She spun around and started running toward the stream, but before she could reach it, a powerful scent struck her senses.
Not Kael.
Not any wolf she knew.
Someone else was in the forest.
And they had been following her.
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