Betrayed By One. Bound To Three Chapter 91: Wrong distance

Selena.

Morning began quietly, but nothing about it felt gentle to .

I walked a few steps behind them, my arms loose at my sides, my eyes fixed on the uneven path ahead. The forest felt different now. Still familiar. Still quiet. But no longer entirely safe. And the silence between and the three n in front of felt deadlier than anything else.

Kael, Edris, and Ronan moved together easily.

They always had.

But I used to be part of that ease.

Now I was not.

Their voices carried low through the air, too quiet for to catch every word, but enough for to know they were speaking to each other.

Once, they would have slowed without thinking, allowing to fall into step between them. Once, one of them would have glanced back, checking on without needing a reason.

Now they kept walking.

I told myself it did not matter. It was just a morning. Just a quiet stretch of road. Just a mood that would pass once whatever was bothering them settled.

It had to be that simple.

Still, I could not ignore the way the distance had ford so naturally, as if it had always been there and I was only just now seeing it.

My wolf stirred beneath my skin.

It had been restless since I woke, shifting in a way that made it hard to focus on anything else. It did not like this distance. It did not understand it. The bond that once felt warm and steady now felt stretched thin, like sothing being pulled too far without care.

I inhaled slowly, steadying myself.

Whatever this was, it would pass.

Ahead of , Edris said sothing that made Kael let out a quiet breath that almost sounded like a laugh. Ronan responded, his voice low, and though I could not hear the words clearly, the ease between them was unmistakable.

It twisted sothing inside .

Not jealousy.

Sothing closer to loss.

I tightened my fingers slightly and forced my attention back to the ground. The path had grown rough, scattered with loose stones and hidden roots that pushed through the soil. I adjusted my steps carefully, though my mind was still too divided to give it the attention it needed.

My foot caught before I realized it.

One mont I was steady, the next the ground shifted beneath and my balance slipped. My body lurched forward, and I hit the earth harder than I expected, my palms scraping against rough stone as my knee struck the ground.

The sting ca sharp and imdiate.

For a second, I did not move.

The world seed to pause around .

They heard it.

I knew they did.

The sound had not been small. The fall had not been quiet. It had broken through the stillness in a way that should have pulled them back instantly.

Before, it would have.

Before, one of them would have been at my side before I even fully hit the ground. Hands on , steadying , lifting , checking without needing to ask.

Before, I would not have been alone.

My wolf flinched.

It was not the pain in my knee or the sting in my palms that made it recoil. It was sothing deeper. Sothing instinctive. The absence of them hit harder than the fall itself, like sothing that had always been there had suddenly been taken away.

A space where they should have been.

I pushed myself up slowly, keeping my movents controlled even as the ache settled into my body. Dirt clung to my hands, and a thin line of red marked where my skin had scraped against the stone.

Only then did I look up.

They had stopped.

All three of them stood a short distance ahead, turned halfway toward . Their expressions were not panicked. Not even concerned.

Just aware.

The pause stretched longer than it should have.

Ronan’s gaze lingered on for a mont before shifting away. Kael glanced down briefly, then back ahead. Edris exhaled under his breath, the sound quiet but edged with sothing I could not quite na.

No one moved.

No one ca to .

No one asked if I was hurt.

"You should watch your step," Edris said.

That was all.

The words settled heavily between us.

I held his gaze for a second, searching for sothing behind it, sothing familiar that would make sense of this distance, but I found nothing.

Just indifference.

Or sothing close to it.

"I am fine," I said.

My voice ca out steadier than I felt.

I rose fully to my feet without help, brushing the dirt from my hands. My knee protested when I put weight on it, but I ignored it.

I would not give them a reason to look at like that again.

They turned away before I was even fully upright.

Just like that, they continued walking.

I stayed where I was for a mont, my eyes fixed on their backs as they moved ahead of , as if nothing had happened.

As if I had not fallen.

As if I had not been left behind.

A mory surfaced without warning. The way Kael used to steady even when I did not need it. The way Edris would complain and still reach for without hesitation. The way Ronan’s presence alone used to feel like a shield around , quiet but constant.

That had been real.

I knew it had been.

The way they all used to reach for without thinking that was not sothing you imagined.

What I did not understand was how sothing that felt so certain could disappear so completely.

My wolf shifted again, restless and unsettled. It did not pull away from them. It did not turn its back. Instead, it lingered, reaching for sothing that no longer reached back the sa way.

The distance felt wrong.

Nothing about this made sense anymore.

I drew in a slow breath and stepped forward, closing the space they had left between us. Each step felt heavier than the last, not because of the pain in my leg, but because of the weight settling quietly in my chest.

When I reached them, I did not try to speak.

Not this ti.

Instead, I listened.

Their voices lowered slightly as I approached, just enough to remind they knew I was there, just enough to keep out of whatever they were saying.

I caught fragnts.

"...not necessary..."

"...we will handle it..."

"...no need to involve..."

My gaze sharpened.

Not necessary.

We will handle it.

No need to involve.

The aning settled slowly, but once it did, it stayed.

This was not just distance.

This was sothing else.

Sothing deliberate.

They were leaving out.

My jaw tightened, but I said nothing.

If they thought I would chase their attention or demand answers, then they had already forgotten who I was.

I had not co this far, had not fought through everything that had been thrown at , only to be pushed aside in my own war.

Silas still controlled a pack that belonged to by right.

That had not changed.

And whatever this was, whatever had shifted in them, it would not change that either.