They Don't Deserve Your Forgiveness

I didn't remember willing my wolf forward.

One moment, I was standing in that bloodstained clearing, the three of them staring at me like I was some kind of explosive.

The next, I wasn't in control anymore.

Not really.

Not fully.

She was.

The wolf inside me, the one I'd buried deep for so long, had clawed her way to the surface like she'd been waiting for this exact moment. She wasn't quiet. She wasn't soft. She was feral, enraged, and utterly unafraid of the three men who had shattered our soul into pieces.

My bones cracked as the shift tore through me, swift and brutal. Not graceful like others. Not the kind of shift we were taught to control. This was rage-born. Messy. Painful. Raw.

A scream twisted from my throat, or maybe it was hers, and then I was gone.

The forest exploded around me in a blur of scent and sound. Leaves lashed against my sides. Dirt sprayed behind my claws. Every step was a thunderclap. The wind roared like it was cheering me on.

Run, run, run.

Run from their lies.

Run from the betrayal.

Run from the bond that shouldn't have existed.

But you can't outrun yourself. Not when your own fated mates are the ones who broke you.

Not when your brother returns from the dead to say the Moon Goddess has tied him to you in the cruelest twist imaginable.

Not when your soul is howling with grief and your heart is a battlefield.

So I didn't run forever.

I stopped.

By the edge of the river where my mother died.

Where I first shifted, bloody and broken, all those years ago.

Where the nightmares always began.

I collapsed there, panting, foam clinging to my jaws, claws digging into the soil like I could somehow root myself to the earth and make the pain stop.

But it didn't stop.

It never stopped.

"Why now?" I growled, my voice distorted by the half-shift. "Why did the Goddess wait until I was nothing to bring him back?"

The river didn't answer. Of course it didn't. But someone else did.

"You weren't nothing."

The voice was soft, careful, not like the other three.

I turned slowly, baring my teeth.

He stood behind me. A boy. No… not a boy. A man now. But still familiar in a way that made my soul recoil.

Ash-blond hair, uneven scars down one side of his neck, like something had tried to silence him once and failed. His eyes were green, but not the kind that tried to manipulate or seduce.

Just… honest.

"You shouldn't be here," I snarled, taking a step back. "You weren't at the ceremony. You're not part of this."

"I was," he said, his gaze never wavering. "You just didn't see me."

"What?"

"I didn't want you to. You were already dealing with too much."

I stared. "Who the hell are you?"

His jaw flexed. "You knew me. A long time ago. Before they took you from the river that night. Before they broke your bond. Before you became their mate."

My heart skipped.

No.

No, no, no.

"I don't remember you," I whispered. But something in me did. A flicker. A scent. A shadow behind a locked door.

"You will," he said. "Because I remember you, Rae."

He stepped forward and I didn't move.

Because something in his voice felt like safety. Like before everything went wrong.

"I was there that night," he said quietly. "The night Rowan died."

I froze.

His voice didn't waver.

"They didn't just leave you there to bleed. They let the witch mark you. They watched her curse you."

"No," I rasped. "That's not— Killian tried to save me—"

"Killian held the blade that pinned you to the altar," he cut in, and my knees buckled.

The world swayed. I gripped the earth to keep from falling.

"He didn't stab you," the stranger continued. "But he didn't stop it either. He stood there. Because he thought it was the only way to save his own damn life."

My breath came in short, sharp gasps.

Lies.

All of it.

Except… my wolf wasn't denying it.

She was howling. Screaming with the sound of truth she didn't want.

"You're lying," I whispered.

He stepped closer. "I wish I was."

I stared up at him. "Why are you telling me this now?"

He knelt beside me, gaze gentle but steady.

"Because you deserve to know everything. Because they don't deserve your forgiveness. Because the mate bond doesn't mean anything if they don't choose you back."

Tears slid hot down my cheeks.

"And because the witch is coming back," he added. "And when she does… you'll need someone who doesn't flinch when things get dark."

A silence fell between us.

Only the river spoke, murmuring secrets to the wind.

Then I said, "What's your name?"

He smiled, but it was sad.

"You used to call me Ash."

And before I could react, before I could ask the hundreds of questions rising in my throat, the air ripped open behind us.

A roar shattered the clearing.

Not from a wolf.

From something older.

Something hungry.

The sky turned black overhead, and when I looked up…

The stars were bleeding.