Page 77 of Salt Between the Wolves

The thought struck with such force that he felt his pulse stumble.

Beside him, Kael straightened slightly, having noticed the rider as well.

The patrol slowed as the messenger finally reached them and hauled the exhausted horse to a stop.

He was breathing hard, his face pale beneath a layer of dust that covered his cloak.

For a moment he simply stared at Soren.

No one spoke because no one needed to.

Soren already knew—not what had happened, but who it concerned.

The messenger slid from the saddle.

"My Alpha—"

His voice caught, and the silence that followed felt endless before he finally forced out the words:

"She's gone."

Nothing moved.

The words seemed to linger in the cold mountain air long after they were spoken.

There was no mention of Lady Eira, no formal report, and no explanation—only three simple words.

She's gone.

Soren stared at the messenger.

The bond suddenly made perfect sense, not because it had changed, but because he finally understood what it had been trying to tell him.

She hadn't truly left that morning.

The decision had been made long before that, perhaps weeks earlier or even longer.

The signs had been everywhere: the silence, the distance, the way she had withdrawn from the fortress, the way she had stopped looking at him, and the way she had stopped asking for anything at all.

He had seen every one of them and understood none of them.

Around him, the patrol had fallen completely silent.

Someone asked a question, but the words barely registered because the messenger was still speaking about her room, the stables, and the missing horse.

Soren heard almost none of it because another realization had already taken hold.

He had spent weeks preparing to send her away, and she had simply left first.

Soren found himself with nothing to say, and only silence remained while somewhere beyond the mountains, beyond the forests, and beyond every road he could see from where he sat, Eira was gone.

Chapter 12: West

Eira

The mountains were still asleep when Eira left Ironfang behind.

The darkness had begun to soften at the edges, turning from black to deep blue as dawn gathered somewhere beyond the eastern peaks. Frost covered the ground in silver, and the world seemed suspended in the strange stillness that existed only in the moments before sunrise.