THE ROGUE ALPHA’S FORSAKEN MATE

Chapter 18

I spent the rest of the day preparing to leave.

Mara helped me pack. She didn't ask questions. She didn't try to stop me. She just helped. She moved through the house with quiet purpose, folding clothes, gathering small things I might need. I watched her hands as she worked. They were steady. They had always been steady.

There wasn't much to pack. I had spent my whole life in this house, in this pack, and yet everything I owned fit into a single bag. It was a strange thing to realize. That a life could be compressed so easily.

"You should take the blanket," Mara said, not looking up. "The nights are cold in the forest."

"I know."

"Take it anyway."

I did. It was the blanket she had made for me when I was small, the one with the crooked stitches along the edge because she had never been good at sewing. I had slept under it every winter of my childhood. It smelled like home.

When I asked her if she would come with me, she stopped folding for a moment and looked at me. Her expression didn't change, but something behind her eyes did. Something soft and sad.

"I'll follow later," she said. "I have things to settle first."

"What things?"

"Things that need saying. Things that need doing." She returned to the packing. "Don't worry about me. Worry about yourself."

I wanted to argue. But I knew her well enough to know that arguing would change nothing. Mara had made up her mind. And Mara, once decided, did not bend.

So I nodded. And I let her fold the last of my clothes in silence.

***

That evening, I walked through the pack grounds one last time.

The pack was quieter than usual, the paths emptier. It was as though the whole territory knew something was ending, and had decided to give me space.

I started at the training grounds. I had spent years here, standing in lines with the other pups, watching them shift one by one while I remained on two legs, small and awkward and ashamed. I had listened to the whispers. I had felt the stares. I had learned, slowly and painfully, that this place was not built for me.

I walked to the main square. I had stood here beside Declan two years ago and believed I was the luckiest girl in the world. I had held his hand and listened to him promise me a future, and I had believed him. That dream had ended in a single moment. A door pushed open. A smile from the wrong person. And the whole world tilting beneath my feet.

I walked to the small house where I had grown up. My mother had lived here. She had died here. I had carried a version of her in my head that was quiet and fragile and human. That version was gone now. Mara had taken it from me the night before, and in its place was something I still didn't understand.

I looked at the house for a long moment. Then I turned and walked away.

I didn't say goodbye to anyone. There was no one left to say goodbye to.

***

I was walking back to the house when I heard footsteps behind me.

My whole body tensed. I knew that sound. The soft tread of wolves who were used to moving unseen. I braced myself and turned, half expecting to see Wren, half expecting to see one of her friends with that same smug look on their faces.

Instead, I saw a young wolf I didn't recognize.

She was small and quiet, standing a few feet away with her hands at her sides. Dark hair fell around her face, and her eyes were watchful. She looked like a wolf who had spent her whole life learning not to be noticed.

"You're Nova," she said.

It wasn't a question.

"Yes."

"My name is Sera."

I frowned. I had seen her before, at the edges of gatherings. She was one of those wolves who existed in the background of pack life, doing the small work that nobody noticed. I had never spoken to her.

"What do you want?" I asked.

She glanced over her shoulder. Then she stepped closer.

"I overheard something," she said. "Something you need to know."

Something cold began to settle in my chest.

"I waited until I could catch you alone," she continued. "I didn't want anyone to see me talking to you."

"Why?"

"Because it wouldn't be good for me."

I waited.

She took a breath. And then she told me.

"The elders are planning to rule against you," she said. "They've already decided. They're just going to delay a little longer so it doesn't look like a decision. And then, when the pack is tired of waiting, they'll say they had no choice."

I felt the words land on me one by one.

"They're going to force you to marry Garrett," she finished.

My stomach dropped.

For a moment, I couldn't speak. I had suspected it. I had known, in some quiet part of myself, that the elders had already made up their minds. But hearing it out loud made it real in a way it hadn't been before.

"How do you know?" I asked.

"I heard them talking," Sera said. "Two nights ago. I was walking past the elders' hall. The window was open. I didn't mean to listen, but I heard your name."

I stared at her.

"Elder Corvin was speaking," she went on. "He said the bond isn't real. He said Kael manipulated you, that he used the mark to trap you, and that a wolf with no pack and no territory has no claim on a daughter of Ashford." Her voice was steady, but her hands were clasped tightly in front of her. "He said the only way to protect the pack is to marry you to Garrett."

I closed my eyes.

"Elder Miriam argued with him," Sera added quietly. "She said they couldn't just ignore a bond. But Elder Corvin said bonds could be broken. That it's been done before."

I opened my eyes. "And my father?"

Sera hesitated.

And that hesitation told me everything.

"He was there," she said finally. "He didn't say anything."

Of course he didn't. My father never said anything. He had spent my whole life saying nothing. Standing in rooms where decisions were made about me, watching, listening, staying silent.

I felt something burn behind my eyes. But I didn't cry. I was past crying.

"There's more," Sera said.

I looked at her.

She glanced over her shoulder again, then leaned closer, lowering her voice.

"Elder Corvin said something else," she told me. "About Kael."

I felt my whole body go still.

"He said Kael is a threat," Sera said. "He said if Kael stays in Ashford territory, he'll bring danger to the pack. He said the only way to deal with it is to remove him."

I stared at her.

"Remove him?" I repeated.

"Those were his exact words." Sera's voice was barely a whisper now. "He said Kael needs to be dealt with."

Something cold and terrible opened up inside my chest.

They weren't just planning to marry me off. They were planning to get rid of Kael. I had spent weeks believing the elders were only dragging their feet, only playing politics, only waiting me out. I had never once considered that their contempt for Kael might turn into something worse.

But of course it would. Kael was a stranger with no standing, no protection, no pack to come to his defense. In the eyes of the elders, he wasn't a mate. He was a problem. And problems, in Ashford, were handled quietly.

And then the realization hit me, full and cold and certain.

Kael was no longer safe here.

He had come to Ashford for me. He had walked into a pack that had never wanted him, stood before elders who had already decided against him, and stayed because I had asked him to. Every day he remained in this territory, he was putting his life in the hands of wolves who saw him as nothing more than an obstacle to be removed.

I had brought him here. I had asked him to stay. And now, because of me, he was in danger.

The thought made my hands shake.

"When?" I asked.

"I don't know. They didn't say. But Corvin said it more than once. And no one argued with him."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked.

Sera looked at the ground for a moment. Then she looked up again.

"Because I know what it's like to be overlooked," she said. "To be treated like you don't matter. I've watched you for weeks. I've watched you stand up to the elders, and to Wren, and to everyone who thought they could decide your life for you." She paused. "And I think you deserve to know the truth before they take it from you."

I didn't know what to say.

It had been so long since someone had done something for me without expecting anything in return.

Sera glanced over her shoulder again. The path behind her was still empty, but the night felt suddenly thin.

"I need to go," she said. "If they find out I told you—"

"I won't tell anyone," I said. "I promise."

She nodded once. Then she turned and walked quickly away, her footsteps light on the path, her shape dissolving into the dark between the houses.

I watched her until she disappeared.

Then I stood there, alone, in the middle of the pack grounds I had known my whole life.

The wind moved through the trees. Somewhere far off, a wolf howled.

I thought about the elders. About their delays and their silences and their careful, patient cruelty. I thought about Elder Corvin speaking in that hall, saying Kael was a threat, saying he needed to be dealt with. I thought about Wren's smile in the square, and Declan standing beside her, agreeing with every word. I thought about my father, saying nothing, always saying nothing.

And I thought about Kael. About the settlement. About the small house he had offered me and the life he had built from nothing. About the fact that the only reason he was in danger was because he had come here for me.

Kael was no longer safe in Ashford. And it was my fault.

I had been considering leaving all day. But now the choice had been made for me. The elders had already decided my future. And they had decided Kael's too. They had just been waiting for me to run out of strength.

I wasn't going to give them that satisfaction.

I walked back to the clearing.

Kael was sitting on the fallen log, exactly where I had left him. He looked up when he saw me. His expression shifted the moment he saw my face.

I stopped in front of him.

"We need to leave," I said. "Tonight."