Lennox’s POV

While everyone seemed to be buzzing around me, worried, whispering, asking questions, my eyes were only on Olivia, who was leaving the yard. I couldn’t believe what she had done back then in the woods. It was without fear, without hesitation—something Anita failed to do. If it had been left to Anita… I probably would have died in that forest before my brothers ever showed up. Olivia had practically saved my life.

“Sit,” Levi said, snapping me out of my thoughts as he gently guided me to a chair near the healer’s tent. “You’re not walking that off.”

I let him lower me down, gritting my teeth as pain shot through my thigh again. The healer—a short, silver-haired woman with sharp eyes—stepped forward, already reaching for her satchel. “Snake venom,” she muttered, her fingers probing gently around the bite. “Rare one, too. If the person who sucked the poison out hadn’t done it quickly and well, you’d already be unconscious. Possibly worse.”

I heard Anita sniff behind her, still crying silently, but I didn’t look at her. My gaze was locked on Olivia again, who was almost out of sight.

“Who did it?” the healer asked, still examining the wound.

“Olivia,” I said flatly.

The healer glanced up and gave a curt nod of approval. “She saved his life. Good instincts, fast hands. She must’ve known exactly what she was doing!”

And for the first time in a long time, I felt something twist in my chest. Shame… and maybe something else. Perhaps pride… as a memory replayed in my head.

It was years ago. Olivia couldn’t have been more than eleven, a scrappy little thing with big, curious eyes and wild curls that never seemed to stay tied back. She’d begged to come with me, Levi, and Louis on a short run through the woods. Just a harmless patrol near the stream. Nothing dangerous, or so we thought.

We were halfway back when Louis yelped and fell, clutching his ankle. At first, we thought he just tripped—until I saw the two small puncture wounds swelling with angry redness.

“Snake!” I said, dropping to my knees. “He’s been bitten.”

Levi panicked for a second, but I didn’t. I didn’t have time to. Instinct kicked in. I tore Louis’s boot off and pressed my mouth to the bite, spitting out the venom before it could spread. Again and again, until the blood ran cleaner. Then I ripped my shirt, tied it tight around his leg, and threw him on Levi’s back.

Through all of it, Olivia stood frozen… but not with fear. Her eyes were locked on me, unblinking, her small hands clenched by her sides.

When we finally made it back to the pack house, Louis was groaning but stable. Levi was out of breath, and I was spitting to get the taste of blood and venom out of my mouth. Olivia had followed me to the stream where I was rinsing my hands.

“How did you know what to do?” she asked, staring at me like I was some kind of hero.

I blinked at her. “I just… did. You act fast. You get the venom out, tie it off, keep them still.”

“Will you show me?” she asked. “So I know. Just in case.”

I crouched down beside her then, dipping my hands into the water again, and said, “Alright, pup. You watch and remember. If someone ever gets bitten, you do exactly this…”

And she did. She remembered.

That same eleven-year-old girl who watched me save Louis… had done the same for me today. And while Anita stood frozen, Olivia had acted.

A lump formed in my throat as I looked back toward the trees, where she’d vanished from view. She hadn’t changed… just grown stronger. Smarter.

I never imagined if anyone was going to save me, it would be her.

“Lennox, are you okay?” Anita’s irritating voice snapped me out of my thoughts, but I ignored her and looked away.

“You are healed, Alpha. By tomorrow you will be standing on your feet,” the healer said, and I gave her a grateful nod before she bowed and left.

“You should go rest,” Levi suggested, and I nodded, standing to my feet.

“Can you walk?” Louis, the most worried among the three of us, asked, and I nodded. “I’m fine.”

We walked back to the mansion slowly. My leg throbbed with every step, but the healer had done well—Olivia had done better. Her quick thinking, her steady hands… she saved me. Not Anita. Not Levi. Not Louis.

As we reached the front steps of the pack house, Levi motioned toward the stairs. “You should go rest.”

I nodded absently, but instead of turning toward my room, my feet took me down the hall… to the far east wing. Her wing.

I didn’t even think about it. My body moved on its own, pulled by something deeper than logic or reason. A tether.

My wolf stirred inside me, his voice quieter than usual, but firm.

“She has everything a man needs in a mate,” he said. “Strength, heart. She didn’t freeze. She didn’t cry. She saved us.”

I clenched my jaw. He wasn’t wrong.

“And yet, we wasted years chasing Anita… blinded, both me, Levi, and Louis.”

I stopped outside Olivia’s room, my hand hovering near the door. I didn’t know exactly what I was going to say. Thank you didn’t feel like enough.

I knocked.

There was a long pause, then the door creaked open slowly. Olivia stood there, her damp hair falling over her shoulders, her eyes wide with surprise—maybe even a hint of concern. “Lennox?” she asked softly, her voice the same calm, grounded tone it had been in the woods.

I didn’t speak right away. I just looked at her—really looked at her. The girl who used to trail behind us through the woods had become a woman. A brave, capable, and selfless woman.

And my wolf was right. She had everything. Everything I never knew I needed… until today.