Chapter 411

[ 976 words ]

Arya’s POV

‘Mate!’ My wolf’s cry hit me so hard I nearly stumbled where I stood.

Two Alphas were crossing toward the bar. Both of them radiated the kind of authority that made a room quieter without either of them trying. One moved calmly and easily. He was the picture of an Alpha comfortable in his own strength, unhurried in a way that made everyone around him relax a little just by proximity. The other stopped me cold. Every thought in my head went silent at once.

He looked like my brother. My brother, who I had spent years believing was dead, buried somewhere I would never even get to visit.

“Arya,” Talia said. “Which one is it? Which Alpha is your mate?”

I just stood there, frozen. I couldn’t speak, couldn’t even move. My wolf had locked us both in place, and all I could do was stare.

Then he saw me, and whatever he’d been saying to the man beside him died in his throat mid-sentence. He crossed the last of the distance at a dead run and pulled me into his arms before I knew what was happening.

“Arya?” His voice cracked on my name. “Is it really you? Arya?”

His scent hit me the same moment his arms did, like being thrown backward through every year that had passed since I’d last smelled it. I knew that scent. I had known it my whole childhood.

“Geoffrey?” His name came out as a sob. “Brother… you’re alive. You’re really alive.”

I was crying too hard to say anything else, clinging to him like he might vanish if I let go, and I heard Talia’s sharp breath beside us, heard Della go completely silent, both of them clearly as stunned as I was.

Talia recovered first. “This is your brother? Alpha Geoffrey is your brother?”

“Yes, he’s my brother.” I stepped back a little so I could really look at him, still half sure I was dreaming.

“How? How did you not know?” Talia asked.

“Back in our old pack, Doomfur, our parents were just regular warriors. No fancy title. Pack members abused us, and it’s kept getting worse every year. Eventually, our parents decided we had to leave before something awful happened,” I explained, my voice shaking. I remembered how my father woke us up with blood on his face from the wound at the top of his head. He was urging us to flee. Geoffrey pulled me into a hug, muttering, “I thought you were dead. I thought…” “You saved us. You didn’t fail me,” I told him before turning back to Talia. “Geoffrey stayed behind to give us a head start. He got caught. We heard he was tortured endlessly for helping us.”

“Why didn’t you say anything? I could have intervened,” Nolan said.

“We were so wary that we just wanted to stay under the radar, and then there was nothing. Not a word for years. I spent all that time thinking they killed him for saving us. I had no way to know for sure.”

Geoffrey wiped the tears off my face with his thumb, the same way he used to when I was little. “I survived. It took everything I had, but I survived, and I became Alpha. Doomfur is mine now.”

I stared at him. Pride and disbelief crashed into each other in my chest until I couldn’t tell which one was winning.

“I’ve been searching for you for years,” he said. “Every lead, every rumor of a girl matching your description, I chased it. I never once thought to look at Bloodmoon. I never imagined you’d end up here.”

“They treated us well here,” I told him. “Better than Doomfur ever did. But our parents didn’t last long after we settled. They were already too worn down by the time we arrived. They died not long after.”

Something passed behind his eyes at that, grief settling in alongside everything else, but he didn’t let it stop him.

“Have you found your mate?” he asked.

I looked over at the other Alpha. He had walked in beside Geoffrey and stood back this whole time, watching the reunion unfold without a word. He gave us space to have it without intruding on something that clearly wasn’t his to interrupt.

“I’m her mate,” he said, stepping forward at last. “I’m Alpha Henry of Shadowclaw. It is good to finally meet you.”

My wolf noticed it first. ‘He doesn’t seem happy about us being mates,’ she said.

There was no excitement, no big jolt of joy, none of that wild, fated-mate energy I’d always seen with others. Instead, he just said it calmly, but his eyes never left mine. “You don’t seem thrilled,” I said quietly.

“I’m not the type to make a scene,” he replied, taking my hand in his. “But you’re my mate, and I want you.”

His deep, husky “I want you” was enough for me. There weren’t any fireworks, but I still knew he was exactly the Alpha, the mate I wanted by my side.

Talia and Della were already grinning. “Damn, Henry, didn’t know you had that kind of charm,” Della laughed, and Marco covered his face.

“Hush,” Talia said, nudging Della out of the way.

“Henry is a phenomenal Alpha,” Talia said. “Genuinely, Arya, the Moon Goddess couldn’t have picked a better mate for you.”

“Congratulations,” Della added, practically vibrating with excitement. “This is the best birthday twist I’ve ever witnessed in my life.”

For the first time in a long time, I felt whole. My brother was alive and standing in front of me. My mate wanted me and was a great Alpha. Everyone around me was thrilled for both at the same time. For one full second, one entire breath, I let myself believe the night could be this good, with nothing left to complicate it.

Then Geoffrey’s voice cut through it, flat and hard in a way it hadn’t been a moment ago, all the warmth gone, as if it had never been there.

“I object!”

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