Confused
Chapter 3
Selene’s POV
I ran.
I didn’t even know where I was going.
The trees blurred past me. My legs were bleeding. My feet had long since gone numb. My heart felt like it was breaking open inside my chest. I didn’t care. Let the wolves eat me. Let the night take me. I had nowhere else to go.
Tears blinded me. I could barely breathe.
I had been kicked out of my father’s house.
Kael—my mate, the one I had loved more than anything in this world—had chosen someone else.
He had stood there.
He had watched Mira lie.
He saw me cry and still... he turned away.
He told me I could stay in the pack, but never in the house my father built.
He said I could stay to watch how his children would one day rule my father’s pack.
I stumbled again. My knee hit a rock, and I fell.
I didn’t get up.
I was tired.
Tired of being strong.
Tired of pretending I was okay.
I curled up on the forest floor. The cold wind cut through my skin like blades, but it didn’t hurt as much as what was in my chest. Nothing could.
Then everything went dark.
When I woke up, I didn’t know where I was.
The place was warm. There was a fire. I could smell herbs and smoke. I was lying on a bed made of thick furs. A soft blanket was pulled over me.
My eyes blinked slowly. I was confused. Was I dreaming?
Then I heard a voice.
“Selene Adeleke.”
My full name.
I gasped and sat up quickly. My body screamed in pain, but my fear was louder. “Who are you?!” I cried. “How do you know my name?!”
The man stood across the room. His arms were folded. He had broad shoulders and thick black hair that fell just above his eyes. His face looked rough—like someone who had fought many battles. But his eyes...
His eyes were soft.
Sad.
“My name is Ronan,” he said quietly.
My heart stopped.
Ronan.
That name.
I had heard it before.
My father used to say it when I was a little girl.
He would tell me stories about a man who once saved his life. A man he trusted more than his own blood.
“If anything ever happens to me,” my father had told me once, “Find Ronan. He will protect you.” I stared at the man in front of me.
“Ronan...” I whispered. “You’re... you’re the one my father trusted.”
He nodded once. Slowly.
The tears came back. I didn’t mean for them to, but they spilled before I could stop them.
“I have nowhere to go,” I said, choking on my words. “They threw me out. He... he left me.”
Ronan walked toward me. He didn’t say anything. He just sat beside me on the floor and looked at the fire.
“I know,” he said after a long silence. “I saw what happened. I’ve been watching.” I looked at him in confusion. “Why didn’t you stop it?”
His jaw tightened. “Because it wasn’t time.”
I didn’t understand.
But I was too broken to ask more questions. The night passed slowly.
He gave me warm tea and a fresh shirt to wear. I wrapped the blanket tighter around myself and stared at the fire.
My heart still felt like it had been ripped out of my chest.
I could still see Kael holding Mira.
I could still hear him say those words.
I will rule this pack. You will live here and watch how my children lead it one day. He had used me.
He had used my love... and my father’s trust.
And Mira...
She had poured water on herself and blamed me.
She had acted like the victim, and Kael had believed her. They all believed her.
I had begged.
I had cried.
And they had turned their backs.
I don’t know how long I stared at the fire, but when I looked at Ronan again, he was watching me.
Not like Kael did.
There was no pity in his eyes.
Just quiet understanding.
“You don’t have to speak now,” he said. “You’ve lost everything. But you haven’t lost you.”
I lowered my head. “I don’t know who I am anymore.”
“You’re Selene Adeleke,” he said firmly. “Daughter of Alpha Adeleke. The rightful heir of this pack.”
I looked up at him, my heart pounding. “No one believes that anymore.”
“I do,” he said. “And your father did.”
“My father will be so dissapointed in me, I don’t know what to do” I whispered.
Ronan’s expression darkened.
“Kael was your mate. And your father made the mistake of trusting his daughter’s heart.” He stood up, pacing.
“I warned him,” he muttered. “I told him Kael was dangerous. I told him that boy would turn once power touched his hands. But your father believed in love more than politics. I know Kael very well, and I knew he never love you, I let your father lnow, but he said No”
I cough.
“Kael banished me after he became the alpha, knowing that everyone in the pack respected me, trusted my decision well”
“So Kael banished you,” I whispered.
Ronan paused. His jaw tightened.
“Yes.”
“Because you were too close to my father. Because the pack respected you.” He nodded once.
“He feared I would stop him. So he sent me away the day your father died.”
My hands clenched the edge of the blanket. Everything was making sense now. The way Kael had changed. The way the elders had grown silent. The way my father’s name was no longer spoken in the pack.
Kael had stolen everything.
And Mira had helped him.
Ronan turned back to face me, his voice quiet now.
“Selene,” he said. “There’s something else you should know.” I looked at him, tears still falling.
“What?”
He stared into my eyes, and his next words hit me like lightning. “I’m Kael’s uncle.”
My breath caught in my throat.
No.
No, that couldn’t be.
My heart beat wildly in my chest as the fire crackled beside us. Uncle?
Then why...?
Why would he help me?
Why would he care?
Everything inside me screamed with questions.
But I didn’t ask them.
Not yet.
Because this story...
Was just getting started.