Levi's POV
For two days, the silence I gave the girls was a wall they couldn't climb. Every time they entered a room, I left it. Every time they tried to catch my eye at breakfast, I was deep in conversation with Liam. I saw the way their faces fell, the way their "princess" posture was slowly collapsing into something smaller, humbler.
But something else was happening: my body was finally catching up to my spirit. The dull ache in my leg had faded. On the third morning, I stood in front of the mirror and didn't reach for the cane. I took a step. Then another. No limp. No stumble. The Alpha blood in me had finally burned away the last of the weakness.
I walked down to the breakfast table without the cane. Everyone was there—Lennox, Louis, Olivia, the boys, and the twins. The girls looked exhausted, their emotions pitiful. I ignored the empty chair at the head of the table and stood, placing my hands firmly on the wood.
"I don't need the cane anymore," I announced.
