Bloom

Saying Goodbye

“McKenna Rochester. Step forward.”

The elder's voice carried across the hall, cutting through the conversations that had filled the room only moments earlier.

For a heartbeat, I didn't move.

I knew what was coming. My father had warned me that the elders might exile me, and Alpha Azeo had made no effort to hide his opinion when my banishment was discussed. Still, hearing my name spoken like a sentence made it harder to pretend this was just another decision being made about my life.

I lifted my chin and stepped away from the crowd.

Every eye followed me.

I could feel their judgment before I reached the elder—the familiar mixture of pity, discomfort, and barely concealed disgust. Some looked away when I met their gaze. Others watched openly, as though they had been waiting years to see the pack's weakest wolf finally removed.

Wonderful. At least tonight's entertainment was free.

The elder waited at the centre of the hall, his expression solemn. He had known me since I was a child. He had watched my assessments, heard the whispers about my lack of ability, and seen my score reduced to a number that followed me everywhere.

Yet he looked at me as though I were a problem to be resolved rather than a person standing before him.

“McKenna,” he said, “you understand the decision that has been made?”

“I understand what you've decided.” I held his gaze. “I'm not sure that means I agree with it.”

A murmur travelled through the watching wolves.

“This is not the time to challenge the council.”

“I'm not challenging anyone. You asked whether I understood. I answered.”

His expression hardened. Then his gaze shifted towards the head table, where the visiting Alphas sat.

I didn't need to follow it to know where it would land.

Azeo.

I looked anyway.

He was watching me, his face unreadable. The same Alpha who had spoken of my banishment as though it were inevitable now sat in silence while the decision became real.

I wanted him to look away.

I wanted him to stand up and explain why he'd been so certain I should be cast out.

Most of all, I hated that some foolish part of me still wanted to understand him.

I turned back to the elder.

“Let's get this over with.”

Something flickered across his face, but it disappeared before I could identify it. He held out his hand.

I hesitated, then placed mine in his.

His fingers closed around my wrist.

“By the decision of the council, McKenna Rochester is released from this pack and its protection. The bond that ties her to us shall now be severed.”

The words settled over the room.

A cold knot tightened beneath my ribs.

The elder began the ritual, and something inside my chest pulled taut.

I sucked in a breath, reaching instinctively for the familiar presence at the edge of my mind. The pack bond had always been there, even when I'd felt like an outsider in my own home. A quiet awareness of the wolves around me. A connection I'd never questioned because I'd never known life without it.

Now it was being taken from me.

The pressure grew until I could barely breathe.

Then the bond began to tear.

Pain exploded through my chest.

My knees hit the floor before I could stop them, and a strangled cry escaped my throat. I pressed a hand against my sternum, as though I could hold myself together by force.

I couldn't.

The bond was breaking, and it felt as though it was taking a piece of me with it.

This was nothing like what my parents had described when they'd spoken of transferring to another pack. They'd told me it felt like being pulled from one heartbeat and joined to another.

But they'd only ever transferred.

There was no new heartbeat waiting for me.

There was only the tearing.

I felt the pack's presence flicker through my mind. Familiar lives. Familiar voices. Wolves I'd grown up beside, even those who had never bothered to learn anything about me.

I reached for them desperately, unable to stop myself.

One by one, the connections snapped.

Each break struck like a blade, until the last thread stretched thin and broke completely.

Silence crashed over me.

The wolves were still there. I could hear their breathing, the rustle of clothing, the whispers beginning around the hall.

But I couldn't feel them anymore.

I was surrounded by my pack, and I'd never been more alone.

A second wave of pain rolled through me, fierce enough to blur my vision. I pressed my fingers harder against my chest, trying to hold myself together.

Then something unexpected stirred beneath the pain.

A strange warmth spread through my body. For one impossible moment, the emptiness felt almost like relief.

Like a door had opened.

I didn't understand it. I could barely breathe, let alone make sense of what was happening inside me.

But the feeling was there, waiting beneath the hurt.

Across the hall, McKayla swayed.

Our eyes met.

I knew that look. The tightening around her mouth, the rigid set of her shoulders. She was trying not to let anyone see what she felt.

She was hurting too.

Our connection had always been different from the pack bond. We shared echoes of pain and emotion neither of us could explain, and we'd learned long ago not to let anyone see it.

McKayla couldn't reach for me. She couldn't rush to my side or call out my name without inviting questions we weren't ready to answer.

But one tear slipped down her cheek.

Just one.

She brushed it away almost immediately and lifted her chin.

I wanted to go to her.

Instead, I gave the smallest shake of my head.

Not here.

Her eyes held mine for one more heartbeat before she looked away.

Then I felt something else.

A presence that didn't belong to my twin or the pack.

Azeo.

I couldn't explain how I knew, but his pain brushed against me like a distant echo. He sat rigidly at the head table, his fingers curled tightly against the edge, his expression controlled.

His eyes weren't.

For a moment, I saw something raw in them. Something that looked horribly like pain.

He was hurting.

The same Alpha who had spoken of my banishment as though it were an obvious solution now looked as if watching me suffer was costing him something.

Why?

He'd helped bring me here. He'd made his position clear before the elders had finished their decision.

He didn't get to look hurt now.

I turned away before I could wonder whether there was something I didn't understand.

The pain slowly loosened its grip, leaving me trembling on the floor.

I forced myself to stand. My dress was torn at the hem where I'd fallen, but I smoothed it down, wiped my eyes, and straightened my spine.

Pull yourself together, McKenna.

I wasn't going to leave like some broken thing.

This had been my home, even if I'd spent most of my life feeling like I didn't belong in it. My parents had loved me. McKayla had stood beside me. And despite everything, there were people here who had once made me laugh, shared meals with me, or offered a kindness I hadn't forgotten.

They deserved a goodbye.

I cleared my throat.

“I would like to thank my pack for the support shown to me during my time here.”

My voice wavered, but I kept going.

I looked at my parents. My father stood with his hands clenched at his sides. He had warned me this might happen, but knowing the elders could do something and having the power to stop them were two very different things.

He had no position from which to overrule their decision. If he challenged them openly, he risked drawing their attention towards the rest of our family.

I knew that.

It didn't make leaving any easier.

“I'm not angry with you,” I said, though the words caught in my throat. “Not everything turns out the way we hope.”

My mother's eyes shone. She gave the smallest nod, as if she were holding herself together by the same thin thread I was.

“Maybe there's something better waiting for me. Maybe there isn't.” I managed a small, unsteady laugh. “I hope there is. Otherwise, I'm screwed.”

A few wolves shifted awkwardly. I couldn't tell whether they were uncomfortable with my words or simply waiting for me to stop talking.

In the corner of my vision, Azeo frowned.

That arrogant, beautiful monster.

He'd been the first to speak my banishment aloud. He'd looked at my assessment and decided my future was a problem to be dealt with. I still couldn't understand what he wanted from me, or why he seemed to know more than he was willing to say.

He was an attractive, arrogant ass.

And I was done with him.

At least, I intended to be.

I lowered my head briefly, allowing my hair to fall forward and shield my face.

“I wish you all well.”

Then I turned and walked out.

My throat burned. My eyes stung. Every step away from the hall felt like another small admission that I had nowhere to return to.

But I would not let them see me cry.

Not tonight.