The inland path from Calareth narrowed as it climbed away from the shore.
The laughter had thinned.
The wind had softened.
Only boots against gravel. The subtle sound of their bodies shifting. The distant, steady hush of waves behind them.
Jasper walked ahead with the soldiers, speaking lightly, occasionally clapping soone on the back as if he had always belonged here. As if he had grown up running these very trails with these wolves.
Dax walked a few paces behind him.Watching.
Not casually.Nor amused.He was studying him.
The line of his shoulders.
The steadiness in his stride.
The way n twice his age unconsciously adjusted their pace to match his.
Leadership wasn’t loud on him.It was gravity.It ca naturally.
Dax swallowed taking a few steps ahead,tapping Jasper’s shoulder."Walk with ," he muttered.
Jasper slowed without looking back. Fell into step beside him easily. Too easily.
"Uh oh," Jasper murmured, hands slipping into his pockets again. "That tone usually ans advice or emotional damage."
Dax didn’t smile.
For a mont, neither of them spoke.
Leaves shifted overhead. A raven took flight sowhere in the trees.
Finally—"You said," Dax began slowly, voice rough from disbelief, "that I’m alive in your ti."
Jasper nodded once.
"Old," he added.
Dax ignored that.
"And fragile."
A pause.
"Because I give up my wolf?!"
The words felt foreign in his mouth.
Heavy.
Jasper didn’t answer imdiately.
That was answer enough.
Dax’s jaw flexed.
"You don’t give it up because you’re weak," Jasper said quietly.
Dax’s eyes flicked to him.
"You give it up because you choose to."
Silence again.
Dax let out a slow breath through his nose.
"No wolf ans no pack rank. No full bond with the pack. No shift. No instinct." His voice lowered. "No purpose."
Jasper tilted his head slightly.
"You still have purpose."
"That’s not what I asked."
Jasper’s lips curved faintly — not amused this ti. Sothing softer. Sadder.
"You give it up to save soone."
Dax stopped walking.
Gravel crunched as the soldiers ahead continued a few steps before realizing and slowing.
"To save who?" Dax asked.
Jasper held his gaze.
"You don’t want that answer yet."
The air tightened between them.
Dax stepped closer.
"Was it worth it?"
There it was.
The real question.
Jasper inhaled slowly. For once, he didn’t deflect.
"Yes,I guess so," he said.
No hesitation.
Dax’s throat moved as he swallowed.
"And Vera?"
The na ca out quieter than the rest.
Jasper’s jaw tightened almost imperceptibly.
That was new.
Dax caught it.
"You already know," Jasper said carefully.
Dax’s fingers curled into fists at his sides.
"She was the aid in the kidnapping," he said, more to himself than to Jasper. "Of you. Of Willa, of Freya?"
Jasper nodded once.
Dax closed his eyes briefly.
He had suspected.
The inconsistencies. The absences. The way her scent had shifted during those days.
But suspicion was smoke.
Confirmation was fla.
"And I stay with her?Even after knowing that I don’t reject her? And fuck she was with pup.What happens to the pup..." Dax asked.
Jasper didn’t answer imdiately.
That silence hurt more than anything else.
Dax let out a broken, humorless breath.
"I stay."
"You try," Jasper corrected gently.
Dax looked at him sharply.
"You try to believe she had reasons," Jasper continued. "You try to fix it. You try to forgive."
"And?"
Jasper’s gaze drifted ahead, toward the path Autumn had taken.
"And so betrayals don’t shrink when you explain them. They grow."
Dax’s chest rose slowly. Fell slowly.
In the distance, Autumn’s silhouette moved steadily forward, unaware of the fracture widening behind her.
"You hate her?" Dax asked.
It was not accusatory.
It was vulnerable.
Jasper was quiet for a long mont.
"No," he said finally. "I don’t."
Dax searched his face.
"I understand her," Jasper added. "That’s worse."
The wind threaded through the trees again.
Dax looked down at his own hands.
Strong. Scarred. Steady.
He imagined them without a wolf beneath the skin.
Empty.
"You look at like I beco sothing," Dax said slowly.
Jasper’s lips twitched faintly.
"You do."
"Good or bad?"
Jasper considered that.
"You beco tired," he said honestly. "But you beco... deliberate...umm, but let’s not look too reliant on the future. Our choices morph the future."
Dax absorbed that.
"And do I regret it?" he asked.
Jasper smiled faintly.
"You never regret protecting us."
That hit.
Dax’s breath stuttered just slightly.
Us.Us who?
He turned away for a mont, staring into the trees as if they might offer clarity.
"If I leave her now," he said quietly, "does it change anything?"
Jasper didn’t rush to answer.
"That’s the problem with knowing the future," he murmured. "Every choice feels like you’re trying to outplay a ghost."
Dax looked back at him.
"And?"
"And sotis," Jasper said, voice softer now, stripped of swagger, "the future isn’t a wall. It’s a warning."
Dax studied him.
Really studied him.
For a flicker of a second—
He saw it.
Not the confident heir.
Not the joking bastard squeezing his arms on the beach.
But a boy.
A boy who had been tied down.
A boy who had watched people break.
A boy who had grown into sothing sharp because he had to.
"You forgive ?" Dax asked quietly.
Jasper frowned slightly.
"For what?"
"For failing you."
Jasper stopped walking.
So did Dax.
The forest seed to lean in.
"You didn’t fail ," Jasper said, and this ti there was no humour at all. "You were late. There’s a difference."
Dax closed his eyes.
Late.
Not absent.
Not indifferent.
Late.
When he opened them again, there was sothing settled there. Not peace.
But decision.
"You don’t have to give up your wolf," Jasper added, almost casually. "That part isn’t fixed."
Dax’s head snapped toward him.
"What do you an?"
Jasper’s smirk returned — softer this ti.
"I an, Uncle Dax... I didn’t co back just to save my blood family...you are family too..."
The implication hung there.
Heavy.
Change , it said.
If you dare.
Ahead, Autumn paused at a bend in the path, glancing back at them.
Dax straightened slowly.
His doubts about Vera were no longer smoke.
They were fire now.
But the wolf inside him stirred — restless, protective, alive.
"I won’t be late again," he said quietly.
Jasper held his gaze.
"I know."
Dax didn’t feel like a man watching his future.
He felt like a man capable of rewriting it.
But then all of a sudden there were disturbances... Just behind their back...
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