Luna’s Lost Bond

~Chapter Eighteen~

Chapter Eighteen

The office door slammed before Anaya had even finished stepping through it.

"Sit."

"I'd rather stand."

"Sit down, Anaya."

She didn't. Darian stood behind his desk, both hands braced against the wood, his shoulders rigid beneath a black tunic still dusted from the ride back from the border. His dark eyes carried none of the exhaustion from the morning's chaos — only a hard, focused anger that Anaya had seen directed at plenty of people over the years. She had simply never been the one standing on the receiving end of it.

"You brought an unknown wolf into my training grounds," he said. "A woman with no pack, no history, no confirmed background of any kind. And you didn't think that warranted a conversation with me first?"

"I have full jurisdiction over the pack warriors, Alpha," Anaya said. "You gave me that authority yourself, as Gamma."

"I didn't mean for you to recruit strangers off the road."

"With respect, she's not off the road. She's living in this territory, under your protection, whether either of us fully understands why yet."

"That's exactly the problem." Darian's jaw tightened. "We don't know where she came from. We don't know what pack she belonged to, if any. We don't know what she's capable of."

"Then that should make you curious, Alpha. Not afraid."

"I am not afraid of her."

"Then what is this?" Anaya gestured at the room, at him, at the whole simmering weight of his anger. "Because it looks like fear to me."

Darian's eyes flashed, but he didn't answer that directly. "She's of questionable background, Anaya. You know the law as well as I do. We vet every wolf who enters this pack. Every single one."

"You didn't vet me."

That landed. She watched it land — watched something shift behind his eyes as the memory surfaced, unwelcome. "That was different."

"Was it?"

"We confirmed your former pack within a week. We knew your circumstances. We knew why you'd left, and we knew you weren't a danger to anyone here." He straightened. "Elair is a woman who appeared with no memory, no name anyone recognized, and no wolf we could trace to any bloodline in the region. That is not the same situation."

"Or she's exactly like I was," Anaya said. "A wolf from a pack we haven't identified yet, who lost her memory and has no way of proving where she came from. Should I have been thrown out for that too? Left to fend for myself in the woods until some other pack decided I was worth the risk?"

Darian didn't answer.

"I know what it's like to stand in a place where no one wants you," Anaya said, quieter now. "Where every single person watches you like you're a blade waiting to fall the wrong direction. I lived that for months before this pack decided I'd earned a place here. Elair hasn't had a single day of that chance. I'm giving her one. If she proves to be a danger, I'll be the one to deal with it. I'll take responsibility for her, personally."

Darian studied her for a long moment, the anger in his face cooling into something more measured, more tired. "You're certain about this."

"I am."

"And if you're wrong?"

"Then it's my failure. Not the pack's."

He exhaled slowly through his nose, dragging a hand down his face. "Fine. She trains. But I want updates. Every incident, every concern — I hear about it from you directly, not from Sanael storming into my office."

"Understood."

"And Anaya." His voice dropped, low and serious. "If she hurts someone in this pack, the consequences will fall on both of you."

"I know exactly what I'm risking, Darian." She turned for the door. "I always do."

Outside, near the edge of the training field, Nyara sat with her back against a low stone wall, a water bottle loose in her hand, her mind circling the same worry over and over. Anaya shouldn't have to answer for me. Not to him. Not to anyone.She tipped the bottle back and drank, the cool water doing nothing to loosen the knot behind her ribs.

"You're making things difficult for everyone."

She hadn't heard him approach. Sanael stood a few feet away, arms crossed, his expression as unreadable as ever — though something about the fact that he'd spoken first, that he was still speaking, struck her as strange. In every encounter she'd had with him, Sanael had been a man of few words, careful and clipped. Now the words kept coming.

"Especially for Anaya," he continued. "She's putting her position on the line for you, and she barely knows you."

Nyara set the bottle down slowly. "I know."

"Do you?" His eyes narrowed slightly. "I know about the night you ran off into the forest alone. I haven't told Darian." He took a step closer, his voice still level, still quiet, but carrying a weight she hadn't heard from him before. "I don't understand why Anaya is willing to go this far for you. But if you ever cause harm to anyone in this pack — anyone — I will not simply stand by and let it happen. Keep your head down. Stay out of trouble. If you can manage it, stay away from everyone."

Nyara looked up at him, and something in her expression stayed calm even as her pulse ticked faster beneath her skin. She could see exactly what this was — not cruelty, not the casual disdain most of the other warriors carried when they looked at her. This was a man trying to protect the only thing he'd ever fully committed himself to.

"I appreciate that you haven't told him," she said. "I mean that. And I don't want to cause trouble. I don't want to hurt anyone in this pack." She held his gaze, steady despite the tightness in her chest. "But is it really so unreasonable to ask for a chance to prove myself? Every wolf who's ever joined a new pack has been given that much. An opportunity, before judgment. Why is mine already decided?"

Sanael said nothing. For a long moment he only looked at her — really looked, the way he hadn't allowed himself to before — as though trying to reconcile the calm, steady woman in front of him with whatever picture of her he'd built inside his head. Whatever he found there, he didn't say. He turned and walked back toward the training field without another word, leaving Nyara alone with the echo of her own question still hanging in the air.

The moment Anaya stepped out of Darian's office, Liora stepped in.

"What was that about?" she asked, closing the door behind her. "I saw her storm past. What has Anaya done now?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with," Darian said, already lowering himself back into his chair, a stack of border reports pulled toward him. "I'll handle it."

Liora watched him for a moment, arms folded, her golden hair catching the afternoon light through the window behind him. "Is it true?"

"Is what true?"

"That rogue she-wolf." Her voice sharpened at the edges. "The one everyone's whispering about. Is it true she's joining the pack warriors?" She let out a short laugh, disbelieving. "It has to be a joke. You would never actually allow that."

Darian said nothing. He kept his eyes on the documents in front of him, and that silence alone told her everything.

"Darian."

"It's being handled."

"That's not an answer."

He looked up at her then, and whatever patience he'd had left after the morning's chaos was already worn thin. "Liora, I don't have the energy for this right now."

"You don't have the energy," she repeated, voice rising, "for me? For your future Luna?" She stepped closer to the desk, her hands pressing flat against the wood. "Do you understand what this looks like? A wolf like her — no pack, no history — training among our warriors, and you say nothing, do nothing, while the entire pack watches to see how you'll respond. You don't treat me like your Luna, Darian. You never have. You haven't even spoken about our bonding ceremony in months."

"That isn't what this is about."

"Isn't it?" Her eyes glistened, fast and sudden, the way they always did right before her voice began to break. "Ever since that woman arrived, it's like I don't exist to you. Elair walks through this pack and somehow, without lifting a single finger, she's ruining everything I've spent my whole life building here. And you let her. You stand there and you let her, because the only thing in your mind lately is her."

"That's not true."

"Then why won't you even look at me the way you used to?" Liora's voice cracked, equal parts fury and something colder underneath it, something calculating that flickered and vanished before it could fully surface. "Every day she stays here, the pack watches you a little less. They watch me a little less. And you just let it happen."

Darian opened his mouth to answer.

The door burst open before a single word left him.