The next morning, the sun rose over Silverstone Pack like it didn’t care what had happened the day before.
Its light stretched wide over the land, warming the grass, glinting off the rooftops. The scent of dew mixed with pine. Warriors sparred in the distance. Young wolves trained in neat lines while children laughed and played nearby.
To anyone else, it probably looked like peace, but not to me. There was no peace. Not in my chest. Not in my mind.
My boots crunched across the gravel as I stepped onto Lucien’s land, each stride deliberate. My eyes scanned everything—fields, rooftops, shadows between buildings. Every sound felt too sharp. Every movement made my wolf twitch.
I wasn’t here to pick a fight. Yet. I was here for one reason. Felicia and our sons.
The courtyard opened before me like a memory I hadn’t earned. I took a breath to steady myself—then stopped dead in my tracks.
They were there.
Danny and Max.
Running barefoot in the grass, their laughter cutting through the air like sunlight. Kicking a small, battered ball back and forth, smiling like the world had never touched them with pain.
I couldn’t move. Could barely breathe.
Five years. Five whole years.
My chest tightened so hard I thought I might shatter.
And then Max looked up.
His little face lit up the second he saw me. “Hey!” he shouted, letting the ball roll away as he sprinted toward me.
Danny turned too, eyes narrowing in recognition, before they widened with surprise. “Mister! I saw you at my uncle’s funeral!”
Before I could think, they were on me—two tiny hurricanes crashing into my legs, arms wrapping around my waist like I had never left. Like I had always been here.
I staggered slightly, caught off guard, breath stolen from my lungs.
“What are you doing here?” Max asked, tilting his head up, eyes impossibly bright.
I opened my mouth and struggled for words. “I—”
I had prepared for hesitation. For distance. I had told myself they would be wary. That I’d need to earn their trust. But there they were. Smiling. Clinging to me. No hesitation at all.
Danny grinned. “Do you wanna play football with us?”
My throat tightened. A lump caught there, thick with guilt and gratitude.
I crouched and ruffled their hair. “You two think you can beat me?”
“Yes!” they shouted together, bouncing on their feet.
I laughed—really laughed—for the first time in what felt like years. It wasn’t just amusement. It was joy. Raw and unfamiliar, but welcome.
I picked up the ball, tossing it into the air. “Alright. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
They shrieked with excitement as we kicked the ball across the field, their giggles ringing like bells through the morning. I let them dart around me, feint past me, score again and again. They played with wild abandon, and I let them win every time.
I didn’t care about pride. Not here.
Not with them.
For a little while, everything else faded. The pack, the danger, the betrayal, the past. It was just us. Me and the two boys I had missed more than I could admit.
For once, I wasn’t Damien the Alpha.
I was just Dad.
But even in that moment, a shadow lingered.
A weight I couldn’t see… but could feel.
Up in the manor, just beyond the tall windows of the study, something watched us.
Someone.
I felt the tension shift before I even turned my head.
And I knew.
Lucien.
Inside the study above, I imagined him standing there—jaw clenched, fists curled, watching me run across his land with my sons.
I smiled. Let him watch. Let him feel it.m This wasn’t his family to take.