Chapter 16
DECLAN
Her scent.
It lasts only a fraction of a second—there and gone so fast I almost convince myself I imagined it. But my wolf doesn’t imagine things. He doesn’t make mistakes about something like this.
Aria.
The name hits me like a current running through my chest, and for one suspended moment, my mind goes completely blank.
How? How could she—
My arms are still around her, and my body doesn’t wait for my mind to catch up. I pull her closer instinctively.
Then she shoves me hard. My back hits the door, the wood rattling in its frame.
A beat of silence. She’s standing a few feet away, breathing faster than she should be.
“I’d prefer we keep this professional,” she says. Her voice comes out steadier than she feels, I think.
I stare at her. I breathe in. Whatever drifted off her in that one unguarded second is completely gone, replaced by the same neutral nothingness she’s carried since I first found her on the road.
The certainty starts to crack.
Was it real? Or did I just—
“Is there something else you need?” she asks.
The question pulls me back. The question that’s been building since that moment rises before I can stop it.
“Do you know someone—” I start.
“No.”
I blink. “I haven’t finished.”
“You don’t need to.” She turns back to the dresser and begins straightening the items she’d already laid out. “I don’t know anyone connected to this pack. I’ve made that clear.”
“I’m not asking about the pack.”
“Then I still don’t know who you’re asking about.” She keeps her back to me, not turning around.
I stand there for another moment, jaw tight, my wolf still restless and searching. Then I leave.
Antony is waiting at the door when I step out. He hurries over, his expression tense. “Alpha, is everything alright? I heard a noise from inside.”
I stop walking and look down at my wrist — the one that had been wrapped around her. My fingers flex slowly at my side.
The silence stretches between us, long enough that Antony shifts his weight.
“Nothing,” I say finally.
He studies my face for a beat too long.
“Nothing,” I repeat, my voice settling into something flat and final.
He nods. “Yes, Alpha.”
We walk.
ARIA
I stand at the dresser for a full minute after the door closes, my hands pressed flat against the wood.
Don’t think about it.
The warmth of his arm. The way he pulled me closer before I shoved him. Like he didn’t want to let go.
Don’t.
I push it down and get back to work. It takes another twenty minutes to finish unpacking. Then I sit on the edge of the bed and let the exhaustion of the last week finally catch up with me.
***
I’m grinding dried herbs when the knock comes—soft and tentative.
I set the mortar down and head to the door. “Yes?”
A young omega stands in the hallway, her expression caught between duty and genuine regret. She dips her head respectfully. “Dr. W, I’m so sorry to disturb you. The Alpha wanted me to ask if you’d be willing to join the dinner. Everyone is very eager to meet you.”
“No.” I keep my voice polite but firm. “Tell them I appreciate the invitation, but I still need to organize my medicines. I’d prefer not to be disturbed for the rest of the evening.”
The omega’s face falls. “Of course. I’ll let them know.”
I close the door and go back to work. The rhythm of the grinding steadies me. The familiar smell of pine resin and yarrow helps even more.
When the door knocks again, I head over and pull it open, ready to send whoever it is away — but the words die in my throat.
The woman standing in the hallway is someone I never expected to see.
Maya.
She looks the same. Older, yes—we both are—and there’s a composure to her now that comes with the years. But underneath it, she’s exactly who she was.
The girl who used to sneak into the clinic after hours to sit with me while I practiced sutures on training pads. Who lied straight-faced to two senior wolves so I could attend a pack lecture I had no business attending. Who knew every secret I had and kept every single one.
She stares at me. Her eyes move across my face, and I watch the moment she stops seeing a stranger.
Her lips part. “...Aria?”
The name, spoken in her voice after six years, breaks something open in my chest.
I reach up and pull the mask off.
Maya’s hand flies to her mouth. Then she crosses the threshold and wraps her arms around me, and I hold on.
She’s gripping my shoulders hard, and I’ve buried my face against hers. I feel her exhale against my hair—shaky and relieved and six years overdue.
“You idiot,” she whispers fiercely. “You absolute idiot. I thought I’d never—” She pulls back just enough to look at me, her eyes red at the edges. “I thought you were dead.”
“I’m not,” I manage.
“Clearly.” She cups my face in both hands. “You look different. You look—” She shakes her head, laughing a little. “You look good, Aria. You look strong.”
“Come inside,” I say. “Before someone sees.”
She steps in, and I close the door, and then we’re sitting cross-legged on the bed like we used to sit on the floor of the clinic after closing.
She tells me about the pack first. Her father’s retirement and the weight of stepping into the Gamma role earlier than she’d expected. The years after my exile—the way Celeste settled into her role as Luna-in-waiting like she’d been preparing for it her whole life.
The Alpha couple’s illness and the desperate search for a healer, the nights Maya spent preparing guest quarters for a doctor whose face no one had ever seen.
“I worked myself half to death getting ready for Dr. W,” she says, shaking her head. “And the whole time it was you.”
“I know,” I say. “I’m sorry you went through all that.”
She waves it off. “Your turn.”
I tell her about the human city, about building a life there from nothing. About the clinic, the years of work, and how I became Dr. W out of sheer necessity. That I’d tried to leave when his letters arrived and somehow ended up here anyway.
Maya stares at me when I finish. “You’re legendary, Aria. Wolves travel across territories just for a consultation. They talk about you like you’re a myth.”
“That was the point,” I say.
She shakes her head, half laughing. Then something shifts in her expression.
“So why are you really here?” she asks carefully. “What’s the case?”
“Celeste,” I say. “He wants me to treat her infertility.”
Maya stands up from the bed slowly, her expression darkening. She looks at me for a long moment like she’s trying to find the right words, then shakes her head.
“I can’t believe him,” she says, her voice low and tight. “He really does love that woman, doesn’t he?”