Unclaimed Bonds

Chapter 13

Kane’s Return

The border alarm came just after midday.

Lila was in the training grounds with Talia, working through a basic set of defensive movements, when one of the patrol wolves came sprinting across the clearing in human form, still breathing hard from the shift. He went straight to Ronan, who had been observing from the edge of the trees. The conversation was short and low. Ronan’s expression didn’t change, but the set of his shoulders tightened almost imperceptibly. He glanced once toward Lila, then gave the patrol wolf a short nod and started across the grounds.

Lila lowered her hands. “What is it?”

“Border,” Talia said quietly. She had gone still, head tilted as she listened to sounds Lila couldn’t yet parse. “Someone’s pushing the line.”

Ronan reached them a moment later. “Kane Blackwood is at the eastern boundary. He’s refusing to leave. He’s asking for you.”

The broken bond in Lila’s chest gave a single, hard throb. For a second the training grounds tilted. She steadied herself against the feeling and met Ronan’s eyes. “He can’t come in.”

“He won’t,” Ronan said. There was no hesitation in the words. “I’m going to the border. You can stay here, or you can come with me and hear what he has to say from a safe distance. Your choice. Either way, he does not cross into Silver Ridge.”

Lila’s first instinct was to refuse. To stay in the clearing and let Ronan handle it. The thought of seeing Kane again—of smelling him, of feeling the broken bond react—made her stomach turn. But the colder, harder part of her that had driven through the night to Silver Ridge in the first place wanted to look him in the eye and confirm that the door she had closed in the study was still closed.

“I’ll come,” she said.

They took two betas with them. The walk to the eastern boundary took nearly twenty minutes through dense pine forest. The closer they got, the more clearly Lila could feel the faint, frayed pull of the old bond. It was weaker than it had been the day Kane showed up at the pack house, but it was still there—an unwanted thread stretching toward the man waiting on the other side of the line.

Kane stood just beyond the marked boundary stones, hands open at his sides in a deliberate show of non-aggression. Two Silver Ridge patrol wolves flanked him at a distance, tense and ready. He looked better than he had the last time—less wild, less sleep-deprived—but the desperation in his eyes had only gone colder and more focused. When he saw Lila emerge from the trees beside Ronan, something raw flashed across his face before he locked it down.

“Lila,” he said. His voice carried easily in the still afternoon air. “I need to talk to you.”

Ronan stopped at the boundary line and positioned himself slightly in front of her. “You can talk from there. You’re not coming any closer.”

Kane’s jaw flexed. He kept his eyes on Lila. “Five minutes. Alone. That’s all I’m asking.”

“No,” Ronan said.

“I’m not speaking to you, Vale.”

“You’re on my border making demands about someone under my protection. You are speaking to me whether you like it or not.” Ronan’s tone remained level, but the authority in it was absolute. “Say what you came to say. Then leave.”

Kane’s gaze flicked to Ronan, gold sparking at the edges of his irises, before returning to Lila. “I know you’re angry. You have every right to be. But you left before I could explain everything. Sienna—”

“I already heard the part about Sienna,” Lila cut in. Her voice surprised her with its steadiness. “You said she drugged you. You said you didn’t know what was happening. You said you’ve been looking for me every day. I heard it all in the study. It didn’t change anything then. It doesn’t change anything now.”

“It should.” Kane took a half-step forward. Both patrol wolves tensed. He stopped himself with visible effort. “The bond isn’t fully gone, Lila. I can still feel you. You can still feel me. That has to mean something.”

The broken bond pulsed in answer, a dull, unwanted echo. Lila pressed her palm flat against her sternum as if she could quiet it by touch. “It means the bond was strong enough that breaking it left scars. It doesn’t mean I owe you another chance.”

Kane’s expression cracked for a second. “I’m not asking for a chance. Not yet. I’m asking you to come home long enough to hear the full truth. My father wants to meet with you. Officially. There are things you don’t know about that night. Things Sienna isn’t telling anyone.”

Ronan spoke before Lila could answer. “If Alpha Blackwood wants a formal meeting, he can request one through proper channels. Showing up at my border and trying to pressure her isn’t proper channels.”

Kane ignored him. “Lila. Please. You’re in another Alpha’s territory with a broken bond and a pack that doesn’t fully trust you. How long do you think this lasts before the politics get ugly? Come back. Let me fix what I broke.”

The old anger flared, hot and clean. “You don’t get to fix it. You don’t get to decide that enough time has passed for me to be reasonable. You broke the bond, Kane. You did that. Not Sienna. Not the circumstances. You.”

Silence stretched across the boundary line. Wind moved through the pines. One of the patrol wolves shifted his weight, gravel crunching under his boot. Kane stared at her like he was trying to memorize the exact shape of her refusal.

“I’m not giving up,” he said finally. His voice was quieter, but the intensity behind it had not faded. “I’ll request the formal meeting. I’ll do it the right way if that’s what it takes. But I’m not walking away from this. From you.”

“You already did,” Lila said. “The night you let her into that bed, you walked away. Everything after that is just you refusing to accept the consequences.”

Kane’s face went white around the mouth. He looked at Ronan then, really looked at him, and something ugly and helpless moved behind his eyes. “You’re enjoying this.”

“No,” Ronan said. “I’m protecting what’s mine to protect. There’s a difference.”

Kane held his gaze for a long moment, then looked back at Lila one last time. “This isn’t over.”

“It is for me,” she answered.

He turned and walked back into the trees on the Blackwood side of the border without another word. The two patrol wolves followed at a distance until he was out of sight. Only when the last sound of his footsteps had faded did the tension in the clearing ease.

Ronan turned to Lila. “Are you all right?”

She let out a slow breath. The broken bond was still throbbing, but the sharpest edge of the encounter was already beginning to dull. “I will be.”

They walked back toward the pack house in silence for a while. The betas ranged ahead, giving them space. Lila watched the light shift through the canopy and tried to sort through the tangle of emotions Kane’s appearance had dragged up—anger, residual grief, a tired kind of finality.

“He’s going to keep pushing,” she said eventually.

“Yes,” Ronan agreed. “He is.”

“And if his father requests a formal meeting?”

“Then we’ll decide together whether you want to take it. You’re not obligated to do anything that puts you back in that house before you’re ready.”

Lila glanced sideways at him. The calm certainty in his profile settled something restless in her chest. “You make it sound simple.”

“It’s not simple,” Ronan said. “But it is clear. You already chose. The fact that he refuses to accept it doesn’t make the choice less real.”

They reached the edge of the training grounds as the afternoon light began to turn gold. Talia was still there, running a second group through drills. She looked up as they passed and gave Lila a small, questioning nod. Lila nodded back once, then kept walking.

That night the broken bond flared again in the dark of the guest room—less violent than before, but persistent. Lila got up, pulled on a sweater, and went to the window. The forest beyond the glass was black and still under a thin moon. Somewhere out there Kane was driving back toward Blackwood territory with her refusal still ringing in his ears. The thought brought no satisfaction. Only a quiet, exhausted certainty.

She had drawn the line at the border.

She would hold it.