Chapter Nineteen – The Choice
Hazel POV
The forest wasn't all that quiet anymore. It was getting to morning. And I still had a huge ass bounty on my head. I needed to leave.
"Oh, c'mon sweetheart, we can take em, a little harmless wolves? Onis? Thats an insult saying you want to run love." Helene said.
"To u? Maybe, to me, nope, it's not, I'd rather run away than fight with how tired I am. I need sleep. I need to get back to the pack house."
"Then just teleport.... Why walk?"
"Because Helene, I don't know how to so can you please stop talking and let me walk in peace?"
"I can teach you?"
"Thanks but maybe later. Flora? Are you alright? You're less chatty than normal."
"I .. I'm great." Flora replied in my head.
"Okay ....."
I kept walking making sure to be mindful of my surroundings.
Every step I took pressed into damp earth that remembered blood. The trees leaned in too closely, branches creaking softly like they were whispering to each other about me. About what I was. About what had woken up.
I didn't run. That was the strangest part tho.... I felt something close... Watching me.... But I didn't run. The old Hazel would've fled until her lungs burned and her legs gave out. She would've chased distance the way some people chased hope.
But now?
Now the power sat low in my spine, warm and coiled, like something ancient stretching after a long sleep. It didn't urge me forward or pull me back. It simply existed — patient, observant.
Helene lingered at the edge of my thoughts, not pushing, not mocking. Just there. Quiet finally.
Flora padded closer, ears flicking, hackles half-raised. I was seeing her in my mind
You shouldn't be alone right now, she murmured.
"I know," I whispered aloud. "But I need to be."
Needing didn't mean wanting.
My chest felt… wrong. Too tight. Too hollow. Like something essential had been cracked open and left exposed to the air. Every breath scraped. I really could feel powerful.
The forest shifted subtly — or maybe it was my senses. I felt him.
Concern, sharp and unmistakable.
"Hazel."
Lucien's voice cut through the quiet or not-so-quiet peace. I turned slowly.
He stood a few yards away, half-shadowed by an oak tree, shoulders tense like he'd been bracing for impact. Relief flashed across his face the moment our eyes met — raw and unguarded — before he forced it back behind control.
"There you are," he said softly.
His gaze swept over me without asking permission. My face. My hands. My stance. Checking for damage I couldn't see.
"I was starting to think you vanished on purpose."
"I kind of did," I replied.
"Damn, for a halfwit, my sister does know how to make hot guys, my, my, my, if we don't keep the alpha, let's keep him."
I burst out laughing after she said that. Lucuen raised an eyebrow. Then he huffed a breath that might've been a laugh if it didn't sound so strained. "That tracks."
He didn't know why I was laughing, and I wasn't planning on telling him, so I studied him in return.
He looked… different. Less polished. Like he'd left in a hurry. Dirt scuffed his boots. A shallow cut marked his jaw — fresh, already healing.
"You left the pack," I said.
"Yes, I left Caleb's to check up on you in ours only to be told you weren't there this morning or last night. Everyone was worried. They even wanted to send a search party, but I told them it was too late to do that. It's 2 a.m., Hazel."
"I'm sorry. If I say I don't remember leaving the pack would you believe me?"
"I do. Damn i always will."
Silence stretched between us, dense but not awkward. The kind that comes when two people know too much about each other's wounds to pretend.
"Why?" I asked quietly.
He hesitated — not long, but long enough to matter.
"Because it's you," he said. "It's always been."
Something twisted painfully behind my ribs.
"You know you can't feel that way about me, I have a mate and I don't want you getting hurt."
"I wasn't asking for permission. Besides, I'm not forcing my feelings. Caleb's a great guy. I just want you to be happy even if it's not with me."
I scoffed weakly. "You're impossible."
"And yet," he said gently, "here I am."
The forest shifted again.
This time, heavier.
Controlled.
Danger wrapped in discipline.
Lucien stiffened beside me. And I smelt the delicious scent I've been denying missing all this time.
Flora came alive then. "He's here.... God he smells amazing."
Caleb stepped into view, his presence pressing against the space like gravity recalibrating itself. He stopped when he saw us together — not shocked, not angry, or maybe a little. Just… registering.
"So," he said slowly, eyes flicking between us. "This is where you always disappear to."
Lucien didn't rise to the bait. "Someone alerted you."
"Someone always does," Caleb replied, voice flat. Then his gaze locked onto me.
"Hazel."
His voice was deepened and sexy, and his eyes were golden. I knew his wolf was surfaced too.
Just my name from his mouth makes my senses go into overdrive. My pulse jumped traitorously.
"What's going on?" he asked.
The question wasn't sharp.
It was tired.
Lucien exhaled through his nose, like he'd already decided how this would go. "We should talk."
Caleb's jaw tightened. "About?"
"Everything."
That did it.
I stepped forward before either of them could shape the narrative around me.
"My pack is alive," I said.
Caleb froze. Then he blinked and exhaled except it wasn't a tired sound, more of relief.
"The children," I continued. "Some elders. Survivors. They were evacuated before the massacre. There's an underground settlement."
Lucien watched Caleb closely as he spoke next. "The attack wasn't rogue. It wasn't inter-pack conflict."
Caleb's eyes darkened and he avoided my eyes. "You're saying it was ordered."
"Yes."
"By who?"
"The royals."
The forest seemed to hold its breath.
Caleb didn't explode.
Didn't deny it.
He looked away, just briefly, like something deep inside him had finally been given a name.
"And Helena," I added, voice colder now. "She will pay. She was a weapon. Blessed, corrupted, unleashed. Used at the end. She had a middleman, I'll find the bastard too. And when I do...."
Caleb swallowed. "That's… a heavy accusation."
"I have proof," I said. "Records. Names. Blood rituals."
Lucien nodded then looked at Caleb deeply. "I've seen enough to know this isn't delusion."
Caleb was quiet for a long time.
When he finally spoke, his voice was lower. "And what do you plan to do with that truth?"
I didn't hesitate.
"I'm ending them."
Lucien's breath hitched.
Caleb looked at me sharply.
"I'm dismantling the royal lines," I said evenly. "The councils that signed the orders. The elders who buried it. I'm exposing everything — and then I'm burning what survives. I'll give them a good burial?"
"Ha, that's my girl. Finally some action, I need something to do badly." Helene giggled
"Hazel, I don't think that's a great idea, they're the royals," Flora argued.
"That's war," Lucien said.
"Yes."
"You'll be hunted."
"I already am."
Silence crashed down hard.
Lucien ran a hand through his hair, tension radiating off him. "Hazel—"
"I'm not asking," I cut in. "I'm telling you."
He studied me then — really studied me. Not the girl he'd treated. Not the survivor he'd watched sleep. Not his best friend. The thing I'd become.
Then he nodded once.
"I'm with you."
The simplicity of it stole my breath.
I expected that.
I didn't expect Caleb.
"I won't protect them," Caleb said suddenly.
I turned sharply. "What?"
His shoulders sagged, just a fraction — a crack in the Alpha armor.
"I won't stand between you and the truth," he said. "Or between you and them."
I searched his face for deception.
Found none.
"You tried to kill me," I said quietly.
His jaw tightened. "I know."
"And now?"
"Now I know I was wrong."
The bond stirred uneasily, like something waking from a bad dream.
"I'm sorry," he added, voice rough. "For hunting you. For believing the lies."
I waited.
"And?" I pressed.
"And I know now the royals ordered the massacre," he said. "They turned packs into weapons."
I nodded slowly.
He still didn't know about it all. I'll show him everything. I hope the three of us can find the middleman.
I have to tell them about blood and lineage and orchestration.
Lucien glanced at me, reading the pause, but stayed silent.
"This stays between us," I said finally. "For now."
Caleb inclined his head. "For now."
The forest exhaled.
And for the first time since everything broke, I understood something clearly.
This wasn't fate tightening its grip.
This was a line drawn in the dirt.
And I had just stepped over it.
I was ready for some action too.
"Training starts tomorrow then. Let's head back to the pack. We'll all meet here tomorrow yes?" Lucuen said and asked.
"No, you should follow Caleb. You both run your pack I'll meet you guys here tomorrow. I promise."
"I... Okay." Caleb said. They went on their way, and I continued on mine.