(Leah POV)
The forest blurred around me, paws hammering the half-frozen ground, but no matter how far or fast I ran, I couldn't escape the voices. They weren't mine, but they pressed in close, bleeding across the edges of my thoughts until I couldn't tell where I ended, and they began.
Seth's fear. Jacob's steady commands. Paul's impatience.
And now him.
Sam.
The sound of his voice in my head nearly sent me sprawling. Deep, calm, too familiar. For years, that voice had been mine alone. Now it was everywhere, laced through my thoughts like it had always belonged.
{"Leah."}
That was all. Just my name. But for me, it carried all the weight of every memory, every promise, every kiss he'd given me before he tore it all away and gave it to Emily.
I snarled through the bond, fur bristling. {"Stay out of my head."}
But there was no getting out. There was no "out" at all. The bond didn't care about what I wanted. It didn't care that I'd rather tear myself apart than let Sam hear the jagged mess of my thoughts. He was there. They were all there.
And then it hit me, like ice water dumped over fire. I read it from their thoughts. This was forever.
There was no shutting them out. No privacy. Every angry thought, every secret shame, every fleeting memory—wide open. To a pack of men who already saw me as trouble. And worse… my little brother.
My chest heaved, breath tearing in ragged bursts. The humiliation burned hotter than the change itself. Seth's voice tumbled clumsily into the link, shaky and high-pitched with fear. {"Leah? I…I don't get it. What's happening to us?"}
My stomach twisted. He was hearing me. Everything.
God. No sister wants her little brother inside her head. No woman wants men—these men—rifling through the pieces of her she never meant to share. My memories of Sam's mouth on my skin, of the nights I'd cried into my pillow, of the day Emily smiled and everything shattered—any of them could see it. Seth could see it.
A growl built in my throat, half rage, half despair. {"This can't be happening."}
When Sam's reply came, it was steady but heavy with something unsaid. {"Leah… I never wanted this for you. I know what you're feeling. I know it hurts."}
{"Don't,"} I snapped, sharper than claws. {"Don't talk to me like you know. You don't. You…"}
My thoughts stuttered when his memories hit me. Emily's face, soft and smiling, the tug in his chest when he thought of her. Love. Devotion. The kind of certainty he'd once promised me. Then, for just one fraction of a second… Sam compared me to Emily, wondered if she would react this way in my position. Wondered if she would handle it better.
My body stumbled, paws skidding in the mud. My chest burned worse than the fire under my skin. I collapsed, curling into myself. My mind went blank, every thought shut down under the weight of it.
Seth whined, confused and scared, his thoughts tumbling. {"Leah? What's wrong?"}
I could feel Seth nudge me with his muzzle, but it didn't register. I was aware, but unable to process or react. Seth paced around me, whining. Jacob moved closer, maybe to see if I was hurt—but Seth let out a growl at his approach, his hackles up. Jacob moved back, giving Seth and me a comfortable space.
And then, moments later, a large black wolf stepped from the evening shadows as if the darkness had carried him there. The weight of his presence pressed down on us like a storm. Sam... The Alpha arrived!
Even through the haze of panic, I felt Seth's instinct shift—his body wanting to roll over, to show his belly to the Alpha's overwhelming dominance. But despite that, Seth planted himself between me and the black wolf, his teeth bared, trembling but unyielding.
One thought, raw and unpolished, thundered through him, so loud it almost drowned everything else out: Protect my sister. A puppy's desperation, trying to protect his family.
Sam's dark eyes locked on Seth, unreadable in the wolf's heavy gaze. The command wasn't spoken aloud, but it thrummed across the bond, quiet but absolute. {"Stand down."}
Seth shook, every muscle quivering, claws digging into the frozen ground. His growl wavered, the sound caught between terror and determination. {"No. She's my sister. You don't… you don't touch her!"}
The bond vibrated with his desperation, and it hit me, my mind started to move again. I'd always thought of Seth as my kid brother, the one I had to shield from the world. But here he was, baring his teeth at the Alpha himself, his mind roaring with thoughts of the only thing he could cling to... me.
My chest constricted, a sob caught somewhere inside my wolf's throat. He was just a boy. My brother. And he was going to tear himself apart trying to protect me from the one person in this pack who could crush him without a second thought.
Sam's presence pressed heavier, a weight impossible to resist. His command deepened, his authority saturating the air until even I felt the pull of it in my bones. {"Seth. Enough. You are pack. You are safe. So is Leah. Stand down."}
Seth whimpered, his growl crumbling into a pitiful sound of fear and confusion. His body shook, torn between his protective instinct and obedience, between being a boy who wanted to fight for his sister and the wolf that couldn't resist the Alpha's command.
Jacob's thoughts intruded, his disappointment at Sam for using the Alpha command so readily. Sam growled and snapped at Jacob's thoughts, but didn't address them.
I forced my head up, my own voice bleeding raw into the bond. {"Seth. Stop. Please. It's okay."}
The words cracked through him, cutting sharper than Sam's dominance. His tail tucked low, his body sagging in reluctant surrender. His thoughts dimmed to a broken whimper: {"Leah… I can't… I don't…"}
My brother's panic bled into my veins, Sam's steady control tangled with my own thoughts. I couldn't tell where Leah ended and the rest of them began.
And beneath it all, like a second heartbeat, the humiliation burned. They could all see this—my fear, my shame, my memories of Sam, of Emily. My little brother could see it. Feel it.
I wanted to tear my own mind out just to keep him from seeing me like that.
Sam took a step closer, his massive paws soundless. His voice slid across the bond again, low and certain. {"Leah, breathe. You're not alone. You're safe."}
Safe. The word rattled around in my head like a cruel joke. There was no safe. Not anymore. Not with my mind lying open like a wound for them all to pick through.
Seth's trembling form pressed against my curled-up body, a hot, shaking anchor. {"Leah… I'm scared."}
That did it. That cracked through all the noise. My baby brother, caught up in this nightmare, clinging to me for stability I didn't have. It was supposed to be me protecting him, being there for him.
I uncurled from the ball I had been in, stood up and approached Seth, then lowered my head, pressing my muzzle against his, a shuddering whine rising in my throat. {"It's okay. I've got you."}
For the first time since the change, the fire inside me flickered—not out, but steadier. I still felt Sam's presence, still felt Jacob's quiet watchfulness, but Seth's terror began to ease under my touch. His body slumped against mine, exhausted.
Somewhere, under all the noise and shame, the realization rooted itself in me like ice: This is my life now. This bond. This exposure. This… pack. No more walls. No more privacy.
I thought that losing Sam to Emily had broken me, this was worse. This was being stripped open. Flayed. Every jagged thought, every memory, every ugly piece of me out in the open for men I could barely tolerate, and my little brother, to trip over.
The thought was enough to make me want to scream. But Seth was still pressed against me, trembling. So instead, I swallowed it down. For him.
For a few breaths, that was all there was, his heartbeat hammering against mine, the pack's voices dulled to a background hum. For a moment, I almost believed I could hold it together.
And then Jared's voice slipped into the bond, halting and heavy. {Leah… Seth… I'm sorry. Harry… Your dad… He didn't make it.}
The words weren't alone. His thoughts came with them, unbidden, unstoppable: the flashing red of ambulance lights, the sterile stench of antiseptic, my mother bent over Dad's body, her hands pounding rhythm into his chest long after the paramedics had shaken their heads. Her voice, hoarse and breaking, as she begged him to come back.
We saw it all. Felt it through Jared.
Seth let out a strangled cry that twisted into a whine, his grief crashing into me through the bond, raw and jagged. And I couldn't stop mine from joining it. There was no wall, no silence, no escape.
And then the sound ripped free of both of us, unplanned, unrestrained—a howl that rose into the night, torn from the marrow of our bones. Long, broken, laced with everything we had lost.
Jacob answered, his deep voice weaving with ours. Paul and Jared joined next, though we were miles apart, their grief carried on the wind. Even Sam, steady and strong, tipped his head back to the evening stars and let the sorrow rise from his chest.
One pack. One loss.
Our voices blended together into something bigger than words, a chorus of loss that rolled through the darkening forest… and lingered there, long after the howls had faded.