Chapter 143

Victory felt weird. Anticlimactic, almost.

Pack members swarmed through Blood Moon's great hall, hammering at broken walls and sweeping up debris from the battle. But something heavy lingered in the air—thicker than dust, sharper than smoke. Sure, we'd eliminated the immediate threat. The future, though? That was anybody's guess.

Especially mine.

Raymond tracked me down on the balcony overlooking our territory. I'd been staring at lands that once meant home but now looked like someone else's memories painted in watercolor.

His hands found the stone railing as he stepped closer. That familiar scent wrapped around me—pine and leather, the same smell that had followed him around since we were kids.

"Now that Giana's gone, we can start fresh. Build what we should've had all along."

He'd already decided for both of us. No questions in his voice. No acknowledgment that I might've developed my own opinions during months of separation and struggle.

Looking at him felt too dangerous right now. I kept my gaze straight ahead.

"We can start over," Raymond kept going when I didn't respond. That commanding tone crept into his voice—the one that reminded everyone he was Alpha whether they wanted to hear it or not. "Build something real this time, based on genuine partnership instead of a contract or magical coercion. I know Giana's influence caused problems between us, but all of that's behind us now."

The hope in his voice was genuine. So was the assumption that our future was already carved in stone.

Kane appeared in the doorway before I could respond. His face stayed blank, but I caught the tight set of his shoulders. He looked ready to bolt or fight—maybe both.

"Sorry to interrupt." Kane's voice stayed polite, but something else lurked underneath. "Just needed to speak with you both before the recognition ceremony."

"Recognition ceremony?" Raymond's voice turned sharp. His Alpha side was waking up.

Kane looked at both of us, though his gaze lingered on me for just a second. "The Alpha King's planning some recognition ceremony for everyone who fought the conspiracy. Problem is, I don't deserve any recognition for my part in this."

Kane was laying it all bare.

"I've screwed up everything as an Alpha," Kane said, finding his rhythm as the words came easier. Everyone knows I spent all my time as Alpha so far busy drinking, losing my temper, and walking away when my pack needed me most. My pack paid the price for my cowardice."

Raymond blinked before subtly catching my eye. Obviously wondering why Kane was confessing his screw-ups to us.

"Losing people terrified me so much that I'd shove them away before they could leave. Thought if I didn't get attached, it wouldn't destroy me when they walked."

The raw truth in his words knocked the breath out of me. Kane was demolishing every defense he'd spent years building.

"I hurt you," Kane said, looking straight at me while ignoring Raymond's increasingly hostile expression. "Hurt my people. I failed everyone because I let old wounds make my decisions for me."

Kane stood straighter, squaring his shoulders. "You probably hate me after everything I did to you, Aurora."

Each word felt like he was passing judgment on himself.

"I could never hate you, Kane."

"Even after I betrayed your trust? Even after I chose my fear over your love when you needed me most?"

His words hung between us. Each word felt like he was passing judgment on himself.

"Yeah, you hurt me," I said loud enough that neither of them could miss it. "Made me pretty angry too. But I got why you did it."

Raymond sucked in a breath that reminded me he was catching every single word of this conversation.

"But mostly I just felt bad for you," I said, turning my attention to Kane. "You tortured yourself with what-ifs while I just wanted to love you."

"Love?" Raymond's voice cracked. "Aurora, what the hell are you saying?"

Kane stood tall and looked Raymond dead in the eye. "I'm in love with your wife, Raymond. And I believe she has feelings for me as well."

The confession hit the evening air like lightning splitting the sky in half. No more hiding behind professional courtesy. No more pretending our connection didn't exist.

Raymond's face went through about five different emotions in ten seconds. Shock first, then hurt, then anger—the kind that made his Alpha instincts flare up hot and dangerous.

"She's married to me!" Raymond snarled, voice carrying the full weight of his territorial instincts. "You've got no right to make such claims about her!"

Kane didn't flinch or step back, even with the obvious threat rolling off Raymond in waves.

"She deserves to choose her own happiness, Raymond. Not be bound by arrangements made when she was too young to understand what she wanted."

"Think she'd choose you?" Raymond demanded, hands curling into fists at his sides. "Some failed Alpha who drinks himself into oblivion and abandons his responsibilities whenever things get difficult?"

Kane's answer was simple and brutal: "Maybe not. But I want to show her I can be better. A better partner. Someone worthy of the woman I love."

The breeze carried construction smells—fresh sawdust, drying cement, the particular scent that comes when people rebuild what's been destroyed.

"I want to show I can do better," Kane said, meeting my eyes directly. Every word rang with sincerity. "Once everything calms, I'd like to court you properly—assuming you'd let me."

Raymond exploded instantly, like someone had lit a fuse that'd been burning for hours. "Court her? She's already married! To me!"

"A marriage that was presented to her in a way that she couldn’t say no to it," Kane replied, calm as still water despite the storm building around us. "Marriage maintained through magical coercion and political pressure. That's not choosing. That's just accepting what other people decided."

Kane's was right. My marriage to Raymond came from duty and family pressure—not from anything I'd actually wanted.

"I'm heading back to clean up the disaster I created," Kane said, his voice turning hard as iron. "My people deserve so much more than the garbage leadership I've been giving them. It’s time I prove that I can actually lead."

He turned to face me, looking scared but determined. "I'll contact you when I've become someone worth your time. Someone who can offer you a real partnership instead of all my baggage."

My chest tightened watching hope and terror battle across his face. For once, Kane was picking a fight with his problems instead of swimming to the bottom of a bottle.

"Kane—"

"Don't give me an answer now," he said quietly, and I could hear months of buried feelings in those words. "Just think about what would really make you happy. Not what everyone expects or what looks good politically—what would make you happy."

He was giving me a choice and daring me to take it. Could I build something real with a man who was finally ready to change?

After dropping that bomb, Kane turned and left. Raymond and I just stood there while the dust settled, with everything we'd never said finally scattered between us like broken glass.

Raymond went quiet for what felt like forever. I watched him work through the implications, saw the exact moment everything clicked. When he finally spoke, he sounded beaten down in a way that was completely new.

"You love him." Not a question. He already knew.

With everything Kane and I had been through, denying it would've been pointless.

"I'm sorry," I said so quietly the breeze nearly stole the words away.

Raymond sighed, frustrated. "You do realize he’s bailing on you again? He’s leaving you to wait for some unknown time when he’s deserving of your love. What if that time never comes, Aurora? "

I frowned, not sure how to answer. Raymond had a point, as much as I wanted to believe that Kane was ready for a future together, there was a nagging feeling of doubt that I couldn’t ignore. “I… don’t know.”

"What happens now?" Raymond asked. He sounded confused instead of in control for maybe the first time since I'd known him.

I looked out at territory I'd called home forever, at people I'd sworn to keep safe. Everything ahead looked complicated and unpredictable, but at least now I got to make my own choices about it.

"I have no idea," I admitted. "We'll figure something out, though. Won’t we? "

Raymond gave me a tight smile before he gave my hand a gentle squeeze.

I knew this wasn't what Raymond wanted when he'd found me out here. But maybe it could become something better for both of us—something honest instead of just dutiful.

Kane was gone, but what he'd said lingered like smoke in my mind. He said he’d return once he'd shown everyone—me, himself, his pack—that he could be the leader they needed instead of the mess he'd been.

Question was: would I still be here when he came back?