Chapter 232 ROWAN

It was sundown by the time they finally began their way back toward the village. The shadows across the clearing lengthened, heavy with the day’s weight, tangled in frustration and doubt in my mind.

By the time they approached the packhouse, I could see Aurora and Dane were outside, her head bent so their foreheads almost touched, as if sharing some whispered communication. The ache that throbbed across his chest was a pang of envy at a friendship or love which didn’t have to keep its secret place in any shade.

“Remember what I said,” she whispered, low and unreachable, and yet riveting. “You deserve to be seen, Rowan.”

The hum of the village surrounded me, wolves chattering as they worked at repairs, laughter carrying on the breeze. Yet I just wasn’t focused. There was a hole in my chest, not the good kind but like a shard that seemed to grow sharper every time Aurora and Dane were near.

Alina’s words replayed in my head: “You deserve to be seen.” Did I? Or was this, too, another mean joke, something to dangle before me while the pack celebrated their perfect leaders?

I stood at the edge of the clearing, my fists clenching and unclenching. Across the way, Aurora oversaw the construction of new housing. She stood tall and confident, her voice steady as she guided the younger wolves.

“Hold the beam higher, Ronan,” she called, her tone firm but patient. “It needs to line up before you secure it.”

“Yes, Luna!” Ronan answered, beaming like a puppy eager to please.

A few feet away, a young girl wrangled with a bucket of nails. Aurora dropped to her knees beside her, shifting the weight so it wouldn’t topple. A look of gratitude spread across the girl’s face.

“There you go,” Aurora said, smiling softly. “Much easier now, isn’t it?”

She exuded an easy warmth – the kind that puts people at their ease. And I hated how much I respected that.

Dane leaned against a post, his arms crossed, and watched her. Even from where I stood, the pride was visible in his eyes.

“She’s a natural, isn’t she?” he said to Trajan, who stood beside him.

Trajan chuckled, his head shaking. “You sound surprised.”

“Not surprised,” Dane countered. “Just… lucky.”

Their words burned – a reminder of all that I wasn’t.

The day trudged along in one agonizing moment after another. I dove headfirst into the training as a means of trying to quiet the tempest that had built inside of me. Here, too, reality could not be dodged.

Piper and Warrick were teasing and laughing in the clearing where they were constructing a new arena in which to train.

“You call that a swing?” Piper mocked, dodging as Warrick swung at her.

“I’m saving my best moves for later,” Warrick returned, grinning.

They were so easy with each other, a fact that infuriated me. How could they make it so easy?

But when Warrick pulled out a knife and began to carve something into the wooden archway, my curiosity got the better of me.

“What are you doing?” Piper asked, her voice half–skeptical, half–amused.

“You’ll see,” Warrick said, not stopping what he was doing.

When he stepped back, Piper’s name was carved neatly in the wood.

She colored up, and for a moment, she looked almost bashful. “That’s… sweet.”

“Don’t get used to it,” Warrick said, his grin faltering as his voice gentled.

I turned away, the image too much to handle.

When darkness fell, I felt ready to blow. I volunteered for patrol, hoping some solitude would calm me. It was just then that Alina found me.

“Mind some company?” she asked lightly.

I hesitated, then shrugged. “Suit yourself.”

We walked some little ways in silence, only the soft grinding of gravel underfoot, before Alina spoke up.

“You seemed a bit tight today,” Alina said finally.

“I am OK,” I murmured. She stopped and swung around, so I wheeled again, too.

“You’re not okay, Rowan. You’ve been pushing yourself ridiculously hard – to prove something.”

“What do you know about it?” I snapped, my voice more caustic than I had intended to be.

She didn’t flinch. If anything, her gaze seemed to sharpen. “More than you think. I know what it’s like to feel invisible. To watch others get everything that you want while you’re left on the sidelines.”

I said nothing, but her words struck a bit too close to home.

“You have potential, Rowan,” she went on. “But you’re wasting it, waiting for someone to notice you.”

“What am I supposed to do, then?” I asked, my tone bitter.

She smiled, a small, predatory smile. “Sometimes, people need to be reminded of your worth. And sometimes, you have to take it.”

And as I finally called the patrol off, her words lingered in my mind long thereafter. On the way to the village, my eyes immediately scanned for Aurora. She stood near the packhouse with Dane, their heads inclined as they talked in hushed tones.

She laughed at something he said, a warm, rich sound.

It was an ache in my chest, one I couldn’t get past – jealousy and longing, a messy tangle inside my chest.

“You deserve to be seen,” Alina’s voice whispered in my memory. My fists clenched at my sides while I watched them from behind the trees. For the first time, the frustration that had been boiling inside actually felt like it might spill over.

Rowan, standing in the dark, staring at Aurora and Dane, his mind drumming with Alina’s words.

Of course, a sleepless night hadn’t relieved the ache within my chest any better. It was early morning already, more than I was ready for, as morning sunlight peeked from behind trees – meaning I was due with the pack in the communal hall to have breakfast. The air rang with laughter and talking, yet such a load brimming on my chest would never leave my lungs.