Chapter 85
Maya's POV
I didn’t rush.
Not because I wasn’t desperate to get back — but because every step hurt, and I wasn’t sure what I’d find when I got there.
Hollow Creek.
Home.
Or… what used to be.
I stopped just before the tree line thinned out, leaning one hand against the rough bark to steady myself. My ribs protested immediately. I ignored it.
“You can still turn around,” I muttered under my breath.
My legs didn’t move.
Of course they didn’t.
I exhaled slowly and forced myself forward.
The first thing I saw wasn’t destruction.
It was movement.
Wolves working. Carrying wood. Fixing what they could. Talking. Living.
For a second, I just stood there, staring.
They survived.
A strange mix of relief and fear twisted in my chest.
Because if they survived… then they would remember.
Me.
I took another step.
Then another.
A few heads turned.
I felt it immediately — that shift in the air when someone unfamiliar… or unwanted… walks into a place they used to belong.
No one attacked.
No one moved toward me either.
They just… watched.
My throat went dry.
“Keep walking,” I whispered to myself. “Just keep walking.”
So I did.
Each step felt louder than it should have. My breathing sounded too harsh. My heartbeat too fast.
A wolf near the edge of the clearing straightened slowly.
Bren.
His eyes locked onto mine.
Recognition hit first.
Then something else — not anger. Not exactly.
Uncertainty.
“Maya?” he said, like he wasn’t sure the word would stay real if he spoke it too loud.
I swallowed. “Hi.”
That was it. That was all I had.
His gaze flicked over me — the dirt, the blood, the way I was clearly barely standing.
“You look like hell,” he said quietly.
“Feels accurate,” I replied.
He took a small step forward.
Then stopped.
Like he didn’t know if he was allowed to get closer.
That hurt more than anything.
“I—” he started, then shook his head. “You’re back.”
“Yeah.”
Silence stretched.
Then—
“TIARA!” someone shouted from across the clearing. “Slow down—!”
I barely had time to turn my head before a small body collided with me.
Hard.
My breath left me in a broken gasp as Tiara wrapped her arms around my waist like she was afraid I’d disappear if she didn’t hold tight enough.
“You came back!” she cried, voice shaking.
My hands hovered for half a second.
Then I held her.
Carefully. Tight. Like I needed it just as much.
“I was always trying to,” I whispered, my voice breaking in the middle of it.
She pulled back just enough to look up at me, eyes wet but bright. “You took too long.”
A laugh escaped me before I could stop it. “I know. I’m sorry.”
“You promised,” she said, small but firm.
“I know,” I repeated softly. “And I’m here now.”
She studied my face like she was checking for cracks.
Then she nodded once, satisfied, and hugged me again.
Behind her, footsteps approached — slower, heavier.
I didn’t have to look to know who it was.
Noland stopped a few feet away.
He didn’t rush forward.
Didn’t pull Tiara away.
Didn’t say anything right away.
He just… looked at me.
Not as Alpha.
Not as judge.
Just… looked.
“You’re standing,” he said finally.
“Barely,” I admitted.
He nodded once. “That’s still something.”
Tiara glanced between us. “She’s staying, right?”
Noland crouched slightly so he was at her level. “We’re not deciding anything in the first five seconds, Snowflake.”
“But—”
“Maya just got here,” he said gently. “Let her breathe.”
Tiara frowned, then looked back at me. “You can breathe here.”
My chest tightened.
“I’ll try,” I said.
A new presence settled behind Noland.
Lucien.
I felt him before I saw him.
When I finally looked up, he was standing a few steps back, arms crossed, expression unreadable.
Not soft.
Not welcoming.
Not attacking either.
Just… controlled.
“Maya,” he said.
My name sounded heavier coming from him.
“Lucien.”
Neither of us moved.
The silence stretched long enough to hurt.
Finally, he spoke again. “You’re alive.”
“Yeah.”
“You look like you shouldn’t be.”
“That’s fair.”
His jaw tightened slightly.
I waited for it — anger, accusation, something sharp enough to cut through the tension.
It didn’t come.
Instead, he said, “You came back on your own.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
The question landed harder than anything else.
I swallowed. “Because this is still my home.”
Another pause.
“And?” he asked.
“And…” My voice wavered before I steadied it. “Because I didn’t betray her.”
Tiara tightened her grip on me at that.
“I didn’t betray any of you,” I added quietly. “I fought them the entire time. I lost sometimes. But I never stopped fighting.”
Lucien didn’t react immediately.
He just watched me.
Like he was measuring something I couldn’t see.
“I was afraid,” I admitted. “Not of dying. Of becoming something that would hurt all of you and not care.”
The words felt heavy leaving my chest.
“I thought if I got close again…” I shook my head. “I didn’t trust myself.”
Noland spoke before Lucien could.
“You’re here now,” he said.
I looked at him.
“That counts for something,” he added.
Lucien exhaled slowly.
Then, finally, “You don’t get your place back in one conversation.”
“I know,” I said immediately.
“You don’t get trust just because you walked in here breathing.”
“I know.”
His gaze didn’t soften.
But it didn’t harden either.
“Then you stay,” he said. “You work. You prove it.”
My throat tightened.
“Okay.”
Tiara beamed like that was the best outcome possible. “See? I told you!”
Lucien shot her a look. “We are not letting you run negotiations anymore.”
She grinned. “I’m good at it.”
Noland snorted quietly.
Bren finally stepped closer, scratching the back of his neck. “Uh… we’ve got space. Not fancy, but it’s not broken anymore.”
I glanced at him. “That’s more than I expected.”
He nodded awkwardly. “Yeah. Well. We’re trying.”
“Me too,” I said.
For the first time since I stepped into the clearing, something in my chest loosened.
Not fully.
Not safely.
But enough to breathe without it hurting quite as much.
Tiara tugged my hand. “Come on. I’ll show you everything.”
“Everything?” I echoed.
“Yes. Even the part where Eli fell off the roof.”
“I did not fall,” Eli shouted from across the clearing. “I slipped strategically.”
Mara’s voice followed immediately. “You screamed.”
“I did not—!”
Tiara giggled and pulled me forward.
I let her.
For now… that was enough.
As I walked deeper into Hollow Creek, surrounded by voices I knew, by people who hadn’t turned away—
I realized something I hadn’t let myself believe yet.
I wasn’t just alive.
I might still belong.