Chapter 176 Home Again
Chapter 176 Home Again
Ivy POV
Morning light crept through the curtains, and for once I woke because I had slept enough, not because someone needed me.
The room was quiet except for the crackle of the dying fire. No hurried footsteps echoed outside my door. No messenger waited with bad news. The stillness felt unfamiliar, but it no longer made me uneasy.
After getting dressed, I headed downstairs. The smell of fresh coffee drifted through the lodge before I reached the dining room.
Lucas looked up first."There she is. We were starting to think you'd decided to sleep all day."
"I was thinking about it."
"You missed your chance." Maya slid a mug toward me. "Caden already finished half the breakfast."
"I did not."
Lucas pointed at the empty plate in front of him. "The evidence says otherwise."
Caden shrugged without looking the least embarrassed. "I was hungry."
Laughter spread around the table, and the conversation drifted from one topic to another. Lucas talked about the repairs on the western cabins.
Maya mentioned the letters that had arrived overnight from several packs asking for copies of the Charter. Caden listened more than he spoke, content to let everyone else fill the room with conversation.
Somewhere between the second cup of coffee and Maya reaching for another piece of toast, I realized nobody had mentioned a crisis.
It was the first breakfast I could remember that wasn't interrupted by fear. I wrapped both hands around my mug and looked at the three people sitting with me.
"I think it's time we went back."
Three pairs of eyes lifted toward me."Back to New York?" Maya asked.
I nodded.
"I left so much behind when all of this started. My apartment. School. My old life. I don't want to live there again, but I need to see it with my own eyes before I can move on."
Caden reached across the table and laced his fingers with mine."Then we'll go."
The answer came so easily that it made me smile. Nobody questioned the decision. Nobody tried to convince us to stay.
Blackwood no longer depended on either of us being here every minute of the day, and that was exactly what we had been working toward.
The rest of the morning disappeared into packing. My suitcase filled with ordinary things. Clothes replaced spare weapons. My mother's journal and psychology textbooks went in beside notebooks that had somehow survived everything we'd been through.
Maya tucked a folded scarf between the stacks before closing the case."So you don't forget us."
"I'm not going that far."
She smiled. "I know."
Across the room, Lucas stared into Caden's open bag."That's all you're taking?"
Caden glanced down. "What?"
"You only own four shirts."
"I only need four shirts."
Lucas rubbed a hand over his face."Living with you is going to be an adventure."
"It already has been."
Even Lucas couldn't argue with that. By late afternoon everything was packed, so Caden and I wandered through the compound one last time.
The sound of hammers carried across Blackwood as workers finished repairing the last damaged buildings. Children raced through the snow with wooden swords, shouting as though they were legendary warriors.
Near the training grounds, a group of younger wolves practiced under the watchful eye of one of Blackwood's instructors.
Life had settled into an easy rhythm.
Watching it filled me with quiet satisfaction.
Not because every problem had been solved, but because the people here no longer waited for someone else to solve them.
Our steps carried us beyond the gates and into the forest. Fresh snow covered the path, and the branches above us swayed gently in the wind. We stopped beneath the old oak where Caden had first admitted he loved me.
He looked up at the tree and smiled."I remember standing here wondering if I was about to ruin everything."
"You nearly did."
His head turned so quickly I couldn't help laughing.
"I did?"
"You talked in circles for five minutes."
"I was choosing my words carefully."
"You were panicking."
A reluctant smile spread across his face.
"Maybe a little."
I stepped closer until only a breath separated us."If someone had told me we'd end up here after everything we've survived, I wouldn't have believed them."
"I wouldn't have either."
His hand settled against my cheek."Any regrets?"
I thought about the people we had lost and the choices that had brought us here. Some memories would always hurt, but I would not trade the life waiting for us because of them.
"None."
His smile softened."I have one."
"What is it?"
"I should've kissed you sooner."
"Then don't waste any more time."
He kissed me, slow and unhurried, while snow drifted around us. When we walked back toward Blackwood, lights glowed warmly behind the windows, and smoke curled from the chimneys into the evening sky.
Tomorrow we would leave for New York.
This time, we weren't leaving because we had to. We were leaving because we finally could.