"I don’t think I’m ever going to finish this."
Erald sighed, head resting in one hand, her other hand flipping through yet another stack of parchnt.
The oak desk in her father’s study was buried in scrolls, reports, and correspondence, land disputes, trade complaints, rogue sightings, and political threats she couldn’t ignore.
Her eyes burned; her neck ached.
This wasn’t a crown... it was a noose with paperwork.
She leaned back in the high-backed leather chair and gazed at the space around her. Her father’s scent still clung to the walls: pinewood, leather, and sothing faintly spicy.
His books still lined the shelves. His dagger rested in the display case behind her.
But it wasn’t comforting, it was crushing.
"You made this look easy," she whispered.
With slow steps, she rose and crossed to the far wall where a frad painting hung: her father, Alpha Vale Lycanis, standing tall, eyes like steel, arm draped across her shoulders. She’d been barely eighteen in that portrait.
The way he looked at her... proud. Certain.
Like he already knew she’d be standing where she was now.
"I don’t know if I can live up to you," she admitted in a whisper. "Even after everything you taught ."
A single tear slipped from her eye and traced down her cheek.
Behind her, the door creaked open. Darius didn’t announce himself; he didn’t need to. She knew his footsteps by heart.
"You okay?" he asked quietly.
Erald sniffed and straightened her shoulders. "Just... tired."
"You’ve been in here since dawn."
"I’m trying to catch up. Father handled all of this without blinking."
"He had decades of practice. You’ve had just three days, one coronation, and three territorial Alphas in heat."
She cracked a small smile, then sighed. "I’m not afraid of them. Or the Council. But... sotis I think I’ll fail him. That I’ll fail the pack."
"You won’t," Darius said with certainty. "But you’re allowed to doubt. You’re not weak for feeling the weight of a crown."
Erald looked at him. "How did he do it? Stay sane under all this pressure?"
Darius smiled faintly. "He ran. Every week, without fail. Through the forest. No politics, no noise. Just the wild."
Erald blinked. "I haven’t shifted since I got back."
"Then let’s fix that."
—
The moon was high in the sky, glowing softly and casting silver light through the dense trees of the Western Shadow territory. Two wolves raced through the forest, one had smooth, black fur with a green stripe along her back, while the other was larger, grey, and as fast as the wind.
Viola revelled in the run, howling with joy as she raced through terrain she’d once called ho. Erald forgot the scrolls. Forgot the doubts.
Here, in the heart of the wild, she rembered who she was.
By the ti they reached the border, she was panting slightly, her fur damp with dew. Darius shifted first, already tugging a pair of pants on from his tied bundle near the trees.
Erald followed suit, shifting back into her human form and covering herself with a robe.
"This helped," she murmured, brushing dirt off her legs.
"You needed it."
They stood at the edge of their lands, the invisible line drawn through trees and stone.
"Everything feels different now," Erald said. "Sa woods. Sa stars. But I feel... bigger. And lonelier."
Darius was about to reply when a familiar scent suddenly filled the air. It was sharp and unsettling... and it belonged to one person: Rick.
Then ca another scent, sweet and overwhelming, like roses that blood in a grave; Alia.
Erald felt a rush of tension as she turned to see two figures stepping across the line that bordered Western Shadow.
"Well," Alia said with a mild smile, dressed in flowing white like a damn goddess of grief. "Isn’t this nostalgic?"
Darius growled low in his throat and took a step forward.
Erald held a hand out. "It’s okay, Uncle. I’m over him."
Rick didn’t look overjoyed to see her, but he didn’t look unaffected either. His gaze swept her from head to toe, lingering on the straps of her robe around her waist, the braids in her hair, the silver on her arms.
"You look different," he said finally.
"I am different," she replied coolly.
Alia’s eyes glead. "I’m sure we’re all very happy for your... transformation."
Erald’s fingers curled at her sides. She tried not to let her jaw clench.
Rick folded his arms. "You disappeared after committing a cri. And now you parade around like you’re innocent."
"I didn’t disappear," Erald said. "You banished . And I didn’t commit anything except trusting the wrong people."
Alia laid a hand on Rick’s arm. "It’s okay, Rick. I’m sure Erald didn’t an to. Maybe it’s my fault she got so... jealous. Bitter."
Darius snarled, but Erald lifted a hand again.
"No need to defend ," she said. "Because I no longer care what he thinks."
She turned to Rick and t his gaze head-on. "You believed her before even asking . You didn’t need proof. You just needed soone to bla."
Rick’s mouth opened, but then he stepped forward.
Too close.
His hand wrapped around her wrist, without warning.
And then...
"Get your hands off my mate," a voice growled, dark and cold like smoke curling from the ground.
Lucien stepped from the shadows behind them, his cloak fluttering around him, his silver eyes lit with fury.
Rick flinched.
Erald tried not to flinch too.
Lucien’s aura was thick, pressing down on every nerve. Rick stared at him, their gazes locked in primal challenge.
"Back off," Erald snapped, stepping between them.
Lucien’s jaw flexed. Rick didn’t move.
"If you ever touch again," Erald said slowly, turning her full fury on Rick, "it will be the last ti you have hands."
For a heartbeat, nothing.
Then Rick smiled softly, as if he were intrigued.
She hated that.
"Let’s go," she muttered, brushing past Lucien. Darius fell in step behind them.
Only when they were well past the trees did she round on Lucien. "What are you doing here? I told you... all of you, not to visit for a week."
Lucien didn’t flinch. "I often run near the border. And I’m glad I did tonight."
"You’re breaking the rules."
"I’ll break them all if it ans keeping you safe."
She opened her mouth, ready to snap sothing back, but then he reached out and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, his knuckles grazing her cheek.
"You are mine to protect," he said quietly. "And I’ll go against your rules every ti to do that."
Erald’s breath hitched.
Lucien didn’t say anything else, he just stepped back and lted into the darkness like smoke on the wind.
Darius cleared his throat behind her. "Are you okay?"
She exhaled. "No."
He raised a brow.
"I think it’s ti I got to know my mates."
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