Chapter 246 ROWAN

As Aurora turned back toward the packhouse, I stepped out from the darkness, my heart pounding in my chest.

“We need to talk,” I said.

She faced me and didn’t bat an eyelid in her stare as she stopped. A second more, and I half expected her to send me away, but she nodded then and said, “Let’s talk… but not here.” She turned and moved away.

I trailed behind Aurora toward the practice area, above us, the moon cast a shallow ray upon the yard. She walked to the edge of the clearing, turned, and faced me. I gulped as I felt my throat run dry. I felt my chest tightening with the way she pinned her interrogative gaze on me.

“What is it that you want, Rowan?” she asked in a calm though firm manner. “I gave you your space, reached out to you, but I don’t have a magic lamp to fix what’s wrong until you tell me.”

It was a sincere sounding tone, but it was enough. It made a well of anger bubble just beneath my surface. I couldn’t keep quiet any longer.

“What’s going on?” I spat back. “You tell me. You’re the one who…”

“I want you to know that you don’t need to try and prove yourself neither to me nor anybody inside this pack. You have always been worth it, Rowan. Yet, the choices that define which person you are to turn into shall be defined by you and no other person, neither me nor Alina, but you… yourself.”

I gulped as those words felt like a lump in my throat, suffocating me. I watched her walk away and I sighed, I was more baffled after the discussion than I had been before.

The words of Aurora continued to ring within me as I trudged towards my quarters, her frankness cutting through the fog of doubt which had assailed my mind for weeks now. It felt like the little room was more suffocating than usual when I went in. I threw myself onto the bed and fixed my gaze on the floor.

And at once, in my mind I played back the sentence Alina had said, “They’ll never respect you the way I do.”

For the first time in my life, I began to question it as a fact.

I spent most of the next morning wandering vaguely through the pack’s grounds, my head and heart all snarled. It finally carried me in the direction of the training area, where Piper was sparring with a ring of younger wolves, Warrick on one corner with her.

When Piper saw me approaching, she warily met my gaze and, more cautiously, asked, “Rowan, what brings you out here?”

“I’m not looking for trouble,” I lied hastily. “I just... I need to..."