Chapter 50

I’d spent years convincing myself I didn’t miss this place. That I didn’t need it. That I could carve out a life for myself without Talon Pack, without the wolves who had turned their backs on me. But being here again, surrounded by their wary eyes and hushed whispers, I felt the weight of what I’d lost pressing down on my chest.

I leaned against a tree, the rough bark digging into my back, and let my eyes drift toward the faint lights of the pack compound in the distance. Even from here, I could sense their unease, their distrust. My return had stirred the pot, just as I’d known it would. What I hadn’t anticipated was how much it would unsettle me, too.

The wolves I’d once called family now looked at me like a stranger, an intruder. Worse than that—a threat. They didn’t see the Dante they’d known before, the one who had fought alongside them, who had dreamed of leading them into a better future. They saw the shadow of my banishment, the stain that had never quite faded. And maybe they were right. Maybe I was too far gone to ever truly be part of Talon Pack again.

I closed my eyes, memories pressing in like claws against my mind. The day I’d been cast out felt as vivid now as it had then. The cold, hard stares of the elders. The Alpha’s voice, quiet but firm, as he stripped me of my place, my purpose.

“You’re too wild, Dante,” he’d said, his words cutting deeper than any wound.

“Too dangerous. I can’t trust you to lead this pack.”

I’d tried to argue, to fight, but it hadn’t mattered. My ambition had been my undoing, my vision for the pack twisted into a threat by those who couldn’t see beyond their own traditions. And when the pack I’d loved more than anything turned its back on me, I’d had no choice but to leave.