Chapter Eight: Like We Never Let Go
504 Words
Lena
I told myself I wouldn’t go.
But when the moon rose and the wind carried Luka’s scent through the trees, I found myself walking—barefoot, cloak wrapped tight, Noah asleep behind me.
The clearing was the same one we used to sneak off to as teenagers. The ash tree still stood. Broken in places. But alive.
Like us.
Luka was already there, pacing. He stopped when he saw me. Relief bloomed across his face like dawn.
“You came,” he said.
I folded my arms. “This doesn’t mean I forgive you.”
“I don’t expect forgiveness,” he said. “Only a chance to make it right.”
I stepped closer. “So. What’s the plan? You said you wouldn’t run.”
“We can’t. Not yet.” He knelt and scratched a rough map into the dirt with a stick. “But there’s a network—wolves who resist the Council. Quietly. Some in our territory.”
“You’re talking about treason.”
“I’m talking about survival.”
I sank to my knees across from him. “And what about Noah? If anything goes wrong—”
“I’ll die before I let him be hurt.”
He said it so simply, so fiercely, I looked up into his eyes—and felt the shift.
The tension between us changed. It stopped being a wall.
It became a tether.
He reached out slowly, brushing his fingers against mine.
I should’ve pulled back.
But I didn’t.
His touch traveled up my wrist, along my arm, until his hand cradled my cheek.
“I never stopped loving you,” he whispered.
Tears filled my eyes. “You left.”
“I never wanted to.”
“And now?” I whispered, trembling.
“I want you back.”
I leaned into his hand for one heartbeat.
Then pulled away.
“I want that too,” I admitted. “But not until he’s safe.”
We both looked toward the village lights flickering through the trees.
Luka nodded. “Then we start tonight.”
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Kellan
Kellan didn’t sleep anymore.
He watched.
He waited.
He listened.
He’d had guards assigned to Lena’s house under the guise of ‘protection.’ He rotated the night patrols around Luka’s quarters. He bribed two low-ranking trackers to report on every conversation his brother had.
But it still wasn’t enough.
Lena had been gone tonight.
He could smell it on her.
Pine. River. Ash tree.
And Luka? Gone, too.
His eyes narrowed.
He didn’t need proof to know something was happening.
He just needed the right moment to catch them.
So he returned to the ash tree clearing after they left.
And found the map.
Crude. But legible.
Territory lines. Notes about border weak points.
Resistance symbols.
Treason.
Kellan grinned slowly in the dark.
“You think you’re clever, brother,” he whispered. “But I’ve hunted wolves all my life.”
He crushed the map in his fist.
“Now I’ll hunt you.”
- Writer
