Chapter 78: Final Choice

Claire’s POV

The battlefield was broken and quiet.

Ash hung suspended, like grime-covered snow, in the air, and blood and burned-earth smell clotted the air. My lungs stung from the smoke, my heart hammering against my ribs. Warriors beside and on both sides of us stood still—stunned, silent, gaping mouths. None of them stirred.

In the centre, Jared dropped to his knees.

He didn't look like a monster anymore. His dark shadows that had hugged him like a second skin dissolved, swept away like dust. His claws folded, his red eyes vanished. He was white, gaunt, trembling. His shirt torn, there was blood seeping underneath him on the ground, and there was something hollow on his face. Like all his struggle drained out of him.

As if suddenly realizing what he had become. 

I froze, a few feet back. My body was battered, my clothes ripped from combat. Behind me, Derek stood firm, hurt but unshaken. Theo and Rowan flanked us on either side, their faces shut down. Everyone waited for the next step, but none of us were prepared for what did come next.

Jared raised his hands slowly—shaking, empty. And then he dropped them to the ground, fingers digging into the dirt.

“I surrender,” he whispered, voice hoarse. “It’s over.”

No one spoke.

He lifted his head and looked straight at me. His eyes—no longer filled with rage or magic—held something else.

Defeat.

Regret.

Pain.

“I give up, Claire,” he said again, louder this time. “I release you. You’re no longer mine.”

The words which were shouted over the field were more than any war cry. And so the final strand that ever bound me to him—weak and worn thin—snapped completely. I could feel it in my chest. A queer, stabbing pain. Like a chain snapping.

He had finally let me go.

An individual should have been free. An individual should have been glad. But all an individual felt. Was sorrow.

This man, once the owner of my heart, had lost it all. His pack, his future, himself. And now he was kneeling in the dirt, broken and alone, losing what little pride he had left.

The fighters began grumbling among us. Others gasped. Others holstered their blades. Some of the Midnight Moon wolves stepped back slowly, their eyeballs protruding. Others even fell to their knees, as if losing their Alpha set them free too.

Derek moved forward, his voice firm but controlled. "Nobody moves. This is not over."

Jared did not move. He did not try to struggle. He did not even look at Derek.

His eyes continued to hold mine.

"I was wrong," he said, his voice breaking. "About all of it. About you. About power. About what it meant to be Alpha."

Lump in my throat.

"I thought I was protecting our pack. I thought keeping you behind was love. But it wasn't. It was fear. And I let that fear rip us apart.".

He allowed his head to fall again, slouching his shoulders. "I don't ask for pardon. I just… I wanted you to know that I realize now. What I was. What I did."

I parted my lips to speak, but nothing was said. I had no idea what to say. I had no idea if anything would do him any good now.

Derek stepped forward alongside me, his eyes burning with fury at Jared. "What do you want now?" he snarled.

Jared lifted his head, the corners of his eyes wet. "I want peace," he said. "I want this done. I don't want to fight anymore."

Derek hesitated, then nodded once. "Then you'll go to the council. You'll be taken."

Jared didn't argue. "Fine."

I stepped forward, no thought, just one, but Derek halted me with a soft outstretched hand.

"You don't have to," he said.

I shook my head.

"I do."

I stepped until I stood in front of Jared. He did not raise his head. His eyes stayed cast downward, his face inches from the ground.

"I don't hate you," I said softly.

His head jerked up in shock.

"But I can't love you anymore, either."

He nodded barely detectably. "I see."

"You broke something in me," I breathed. "But I used the pieces as strength."

There was a single tear rolling down his cheek. He left it alone.

"I hope that one day you see something decent about yourself again," I said.

And I stepped back. The quietness was suffocating, the kind that is left by an incredibly long storm. The sort where the clouds had opened and the sun just didn't return.

The Redwater warriors moved stealthily. Two of them came up to Jared, who did not struggle as they bound his wrists. His head remained bent, silent, broken.

Someone screamed behind us.

"What now?" It was a warrior—a young, unsure one.

Derek slowly rotated his head, his eyes scanning the people. "We rebuild. We heal. And we make sure this never, ever happens again."

There were nods. Murmurs. The beginning of something new.

But before the instant could last, Rowan hardened. His nostrils flared. He spun his face away from the stand of trees.

"Something's wrong," he said.

I sensed it too—a knot in my skin. The air shifted. Not magically. But something physical.

Derek frowned. "Where are the scouts?"

Theo took a sprint up to the far side of the clearing and sampled the air off the ground. Then his face jerked into attention.

"Rogues," he said to her. "Lots of them."

The pack burst into laughter.

"Everyone ready!" Derek shouted.

"But how?" I demanded. "Why now?"

Rowan paled. "It wasn't Jared himself who craved power. Someone else… watched. Waited."

A shriek tore through the forest—shrill, crazy, and not from any pack that we knew.

Dozens of dark forms stepped out of the darkness. Rogues. Not just wolves that were banished—but feral, wild ones. Their eyes burned with madness, their bodies wolfen and lean. They did not come with orders or banners.

They came to kill.

The warriors stood in formation, but we were not ready. Not after all. Not after war, wound, loss.

Derek grasped my arm. "To safety."

No, I cried, pulling back. "I fight."

He didn't argue. He just nodded.

The rogues leapt at once. Squeals echoed as they arrived at the edge of the clearing. Blood spattered and claws rasped. The earth convulsed into chaos again.

Jared did not stir, still bound, his head lowered low. He did not lift his eyes, even when the fray swirled about him a second time.

But something in his quiet made me shiver.

I wheeled back toward the battle, my heart racing, wondering if we'd live through another fight this quick.

And then, just as I reached the line of fighters, I heard Rowan yell over the chaos:

"Claire—Jared's gone!"

I spun around.

The chains were broken in the ground.

And Jared was gone.