<h4>Chapter 324: The Endless Pain (II)</h4>


    <strong>Warning: Read at your own risk </strong>


    <strong>- - - - -</strong><fnea2d> For original chapters go to Find?Novel</fnea2d>


    <strong>Kieran:</strong>


    The hours passed in a blur of silence.


    I stayed locked in my room, refusing to answer the soft knocks at my door, refusing food, refusing to face any of them. My chest still felt raw, torn open, every breath an effort to drag myself through the day.


    When the clock on the wall told me it was past four, I finally rose. My eyes were dry now, though the ache behind them hadn’t dulled. The decision I made earlier was still firm. It was the only way I could survive this.


    I packed.


    The suitcase felt heavy in my grip as I carried it down the stairs. Each step echoed like a final nail being driven into a coffin... my coffin. I could already smell them downstairs, hear the faint hum of conversation. And her... her scent wrapped around me before I even reached thest step.


    They were all there.


    Oscar and Draven were lounging casually, their faces bright with the ease of men who had no idea that their happiness had shattered their brother. River was standing by the ss wall, his presence like a de I couldn’t escape. And then... Evaline.


    Her eyes found me instantly.


    Something twisted violently in my chest, and I nearly stumbled under the weight of her gaze. My wolf pressed against me, desperate to look at her, but I forced my eyes away, fixing them instead on the floor, on my suitcase, on anything but her.


    Their expressions lit up when they saw me, but the joy flickered out almost as quickly. Confusion reced it when their eyes dropped to the suitcase in my hand.


    River’s voice cut through the tension, sharp and steady.


    "What’s going on?"


    The air left my lungs. He always saw too much. Always cut right to the truth.


    But not this time.


    "I have got a flight to catch," I said, keeping my tone calm, casual, as though this were nothing out of the ordinary. "I’m heading to Midnight Wolf Academy."


    The silence that followed felt suffocating.


    I added quickly, "It’s ast-minute thing. They offered me a slot to join the seminar on newfound herbs, and... I epted. Couldn’t really pass it up."


    It was flimsy, barely held together, but it was all I had. If River dug too deep, I would crumble.


    Before they could ask anything else, I smiled and forced myself to keep going. "I’ll call once I get there. But I’m already runningte, so I should head out."


    I moved to River first, patting his shoulder. It was the lightest touch, but it felt like I was saying goodbye to more than just him. Then I turned to Oscar and Draven, smiling again, pretending the corners of my lips weren’t trembling.


    "Congrattions to you all. I’m sorry I won’t be able to celebrate this properly right now, but... we’ll do that when I return."


    And then I turned away.


    I didn’t look at her.


    I couldn’t.


    Her eyes were burning into me, I could feel it, but if I dared meet them, I would lose everything I was holding together by the thinnest thread. My wolf was wing at me, screaming to look at her, to not leave her behind... but I pushed him down, gripped my suitcase tighter, and walked out.


    The evening air was biting cold. Snow drifted down from the sky, soft kes that melted on my skin but never reached the fire in my chest. I loaded my suitcase into the car and slid behind the wheel, starting the engine with hands that were shaking.


    And then I drove.


    I left the mansion, the warmth of theirughter, the scent of her, behind me in the rearview mirror. The world grew darker as I pressed forward, snow falling harder, swirling around me like the world itself wanted to bury me alive.


    At first, I tried to focus on the road. On the hum of the engine. On breathing.


    But it didn’tst.


    The mask slipped. My chest cracked open all over again. My wolf keened inside me, his pain so raw it blurred with my own.


    By the time the tears came, I couldn’t stop them.


    They blurred my vision, spilled hot down my frozen cheeks, dripping onto the steering wheel as sobs wracked through me. My body shook, my breathsing sharp and uneven.


    The ache inside me had no edges... it was endless, all-consuming.


    The image of her, smiling between them, her belly soon to swell with their child... it wouldn’t leave me. It dug into me like knives, tearing at my insides until I thought I might bleed out right there in the car.


    I gritted my teeth, trying to hold on, but my control slipped further, unraveling.


    And then it happened.


    The tires skidded on the icy road.


    The car spun.


    Metal screamed as I lost control, and in the next heartbeat, I was crashing. The vehicle jolted violently, snow spraying as the car veered off the road and mmed into the frozen ditch.


    And then, there was just silence.


    My chest heaved. My hands were clutching the wheel, my knuckles white, as my entire body trembled from the shock. The car was ruined, but I barely noticed. My pain was louder than the crash, louder than everything.


    I mmed my fists against the wheel, and the sound echoed in the empty night.


    "Why?" I screamed, my voice raw and broken. "Why me?"


    My words tore out of me, ragged with despair.


    "Why did you do this, Moon Goddess? Why did you give them everything, and leave me with nothing? Why them? Why not me?"


    My voice cracked, the anguish spilling free.


    "Why did I never find my mate again? Why did you let me fall in love with her when she was never mine? Why her? Why make her theirs?"


    Each word broke something deeper inside me.


    "Why did you forget me?"


    The woods around me were silent, and the falling snow uncaring. No answer came. There was only the hollow echo of my own despair.


    My wolf roared within me, unable to bear it any longer. The grief, the rage, the betrayal of fate itself... it was too much.


    I stumbled out of the car, the cold night air mming into me, and before I knew it, my bones were cracking and fur ripped through my skin. My howl tore through the darkness as I shifted, the pain of my body twisting almost a reliefpared to the torment inside.


    And then I ran.


    Through the snow, through the trees, through the endless dark. My paws pounded the frozen ground, carrying me nowhere and everywhere.


    I ran from the harsh, bitter reality. From my brothers. From her.


    From the truth that was killing me.


    But no matter how fast I ran, her face followed me. Herughter. Her touch. The warmth of what could never be mine.


    And in that cruel, endless night, I realized the truth that shattered me all over again...


    No matter how far I ran, I could never escape her.


    And I could never escape the fate that had abandoned me.