Chapter 79: She is Mine

Rhydor’s POV

Four days, maybe five. I stopped counting when the fire died and I did not get up to restart it.

The cold settled into everything after that. The walls. The desk. The chair I had not left in longer than I wanted to think about. The papers in front of me had not been touched. Reports. Updates. Things that needed answers sat exactly where they had been left, edges curling in the cold air.

My shoulder throbbed.

I pressed my palm flat against it and felt the heat pushing through my shirt. Still spreading. Still burning. Still doing whatever it was doing beneath the skin that none of the healers could explain. It hurt when I moved and sometimes when I did not.

But there was another pain. Deeper. Sitting somewhere in my chest that had nothing to do with the wound.

It started when she walked past me like I was air.

Yes, I knew I didn’t call or stop her, and she didn’t turn around once.

I did not understand why that sat the way it did. I did not want to understand. That was the part that kept coming back no matter how many times I told myself to leave it alone.

The fire was dead. The room was cold. I stared at the wall and said nothing.

Then the door opened without a knock.

I did not look up.

Three sets of footsteps. Silas first. Axel was behind him. Torin last, the door clicking shut quietly.

They stood there.

I felt them looking at me.

"You have been in here for four days," Silas said.

Nothing from me.

"The pack is starting to talk," Axel said.

Still nothing.

"She has been awake for days." Torin’s voice was quiet. Not his usual tone. "You know that, right?"

My jaw tightened.

The room stayed quiet.

Then I heard myself speak.

"How do you get a woman to talk to you?"

Axel blinked. I could feel it without looking at him. Silas went completely still. Torin straightened up slowly from where he was leaning against the wall and something that looked like genuine delight moved across his face.

"Did he just..." Axel started.

"I think he did," Silas said.

"The great Alpha needs advice on women." Torin’s grin spread wide and slow. "This is a historic moment. Someone should write this down."

I looked at him flatly. "Are you going to help or not?"

Silas cleared his throat and moved closer.

"Look, Isadora is not complicated," he said. "You have known her forever. Just apologize. She will get over it."

"It is not Isadora," I said.

Silence.

Silas froze mid-step. Axel’s mouth dropped open. Torin pushed off the wall slowly, the grin fading into something more careful.

"Then who?" Silas said. He said it carefully, the way you say something when you already suspect the answer and need a moment to confirm it.

I did not answer.

I watched his face as it arrived without me saying a word. His eyes widened slightly.

"Azura?" he said.

I said nothing. I did not need to.

"Azura," Torin said quietly. Not a question. Just the word landing in the room and changing the weight of everything in it.

Silas sat down on the edge of the desk. He rubbed his face with one hand and looked at the floor for a second before he looked back at me.

"Okay. Azura. That is different," he said.

"Completely different," Axel said.

"She is not like Isadora," Silas said. "You cannot just apologize and move on. She actually feels things. Deeply."

Torin looked at me. "She is hurting right now. Do you know that?"

"I know," I said.

"Do you?" His eyes stayed on my face. "Because she blames herself for what happened. She thinks she failed that little girl."

Silas nodded. "And she probably blames you too. For pulling her out of there."

"I had no choice," I said.

"We know that," Torin said. "She knows that. Deep down."

"But that is not why she is angry at you," Silas said.

I looked at him. "Then why?"

Axel made a sound. Low and quiet, somewhere between disbelief and something close to sympathy. "You really do not know?"

I said nothing.

He shook his head slowly. "Goodness. You are terrible at this."

"The reason," Silas said, leaning forward slightly, "and I am one hundred percent sure of this, is because you were not with her after she woke up. She opened her eyes and you were nowhere. And in the four days since then, you have been in here."

I looked at him. "She saw me that very day and ignored me completely."

Torin looked at me like I had said something genuinely confusing. "That is the thing, man. A woman ignoring you is not a wall. It is a door. She wants to see if you will knock."

Silas pointed at me. "You did not just fail to knock. You boarded the whole thing up and hid in your study."

Silas leaned back slightly and crossed his arms.

"I am not an expert on relationships," he said. "But I have seen enough to know what works."

"Which is?" I said.

"You cannot just walk up to her and say something generic. She will see through it. You have to actually mean what you say."

Torin tilted his head toward him. "Have you ever been in a relationship, Silas?"

"A few," Silas said. "Nothing serious. But I have learned a thing or two."

"What have you learned?"

"Those women do not care about pretty words. They care about consistency. About showing up. About not disappearing when things get hard." He looked at me directly when he said the last part.

Axel cleared his throat.

Everyone turned to look at him.

Torin looked mildly alarmed. "You? What do you know about relationships? Have you ever dated before?"

"No," Axel said. "But I have spoken to a female healer before."

Torin stared at him. "How does that help?"

"She needed me to tell her what I was feeling," Axel said. "Where it hurts. What was wrong? If I just sat there and said nothing she could not help me. She asked questions. I answered. We talked. She figured out what was wrong because I actually spoke to her."

"That is different," Torin said. "That is medical."

Axel looked at him. "Is it? She asked. I answered. We talked. She understood what was happening because I did not just sit there in silence expecting her to figure it out on her own."

Silas nodded slowly. "He has a point."

Torin looked at Axel. Then at Silas. Then at me. Then back at Axel again like he was still processing.

"So what are you saying?" he said. "He should treat Azura like a healer appointment?"

"I am saying he needs to talk to her," Axel said simply. "Not wait for her to figure it out on her own."

"Exactly, start with the truth," Silas said. "Tell her you should have been there when she woke up. Tell her you know you failed her after. No dressing it up."

"And if she does not want to hear it?" I asked.

"Then at least she will know you tried. That matters more than you think."

"Bring her something," Axel said. "Food. A small thing. Show her you were thinking about her when she was not around."

Torin nodded. "Small gestures matter. She needs to see that you care. Not just hear it."

"Do not make excuses," Silas said. "Do not say sorry but. Just say you are sorry. Mean it. Let her see it in your eyes."

"And if she still will not talk to me?" I asked again with a brow up.

"Then you try again," Silas said. "And again. You do not give up after one attempt."

I sat with that. The fire was still dead. The cold was still in the room. But something had shifted just slightly in my chest in a way I was not ready to look at directly.

Torin went quiet.

Then he pushed fully off the wall, and the easy version of him stepped aside completely, and what was left was something much more direct.

"Okay," he said. "Enough of all this. Let us talk about the real issue here."

"What real issue?" I said.

"You. Sitting here. Nodding. Saying okay." He looked at me steadily. "But will you actually do it?"

I looked at him.

"Because I know you," he said. "You listen. You nod. You say okay. And then you do nothing. You wait. You let things sit until they fix themselves or fall apart."

Silas looked at the floor. "He is not wrong."

"So I am asking you directly," Torin said. "Will you actually go to her? Will you actually say these things? Or will you just sit here and let her slip away?"

"You think I would let her slip away?" I said.

"I think you are scared to admit anything you feel for her." He held my gaze. "And I think that fear is going to cost you something you cannot get back."

"You do not know what you are talking about," I said. Low.

"I know she deserves better than a mate who hides," he said.

Something stirred deep in my chest. Logan lifted his head.

"And I know that if you cannot step up, someone else will."

"Torin," Silas said quietly in a warning tone.

Torin did not even glance at him.

"I know that she looks at you like you are the only person in the world," he said. "And you look at her like she is a problem to solve." He tilted his head. "Honestly? You do not deserve her. Not the way you are right now."

I stood up slowly from my chair ready to bring him down.

"Say one more word," I said.

Torin stepped closer.

"Which word?" A pause. "The truth?"

He looked at me directly.

"You are a coward."

A beat.

"If you will not claim her," he said quietly, "I will."

Logan exploded.

I was across the room before I decided to move.

My hand closed around his throat and I drove him back into the stone wall. The whole room shook. Dust rained from the ceiling. His head snapped back hard into the stone.

He was smiling.

"There he is," he said, rough through my grip.

"Rhydor, STOP!" Silas was already moving.

Axel grabbed my arm. I threw him off without looking. He crashed into the bookshelf and books came down around him like rain.

My fist connected with Torin’s jaw. Head whipped sideways. Blood hit the wall. He laughed.

"Good. Keep going. Because I do not intend to stop any time soon, little bro."

He shoved me back hard. I stumbled. He swung immediately and his fist drove straight into my wounded shoulder.

White. Pure white. Then I came back harder.

We were a blur. Fists. Movement. Things breaking. The desk flipped. Papers everywhere. A chair splintered. Silas grabbed for me and I threw an elbow back without looking. Axel went for Torin’s legs and got kicked across the room.

Torin took every hit and kept coming. His face was getting worse by the second. His eyes stayed bright through all of it.

"You fight like you actually feel something," he said, spitting blood. "Good."

I grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up.

"She is MINE." Raw. Rough. Not something I decided to say. Something that broke through everything on its own. "She is mine and you will not..."

"Then act like it," he said, cutting me off.

He headbutted me. I staggered. He launched off the wall and we crashed down together into what was left of the furniture. Rolling. Neither of us let the other go.

I got on top. My hands found his throat. I squeezed.

His face was destroyed. Blood on his teeth. That smile was still there like nothing could touch it.

"Go ahead," he whispered. "Prove that you care more about your mate than your pride."

I squeezed harder.

Silas had both arms around my shoulders pulling with everything he had. Axel was working on my fingers one by one. Neither of them was getting anywhere.

The red owned everything. Nothing else existed. Just my hands and his throat and the roaring in my chest that had not stopped since she walked past me in that corridor and did not look back.

Then.

"RHYDOR!"

That voice. That voice had kept me awake for nights.

The only voice I wanted to hear. Her scent became stronger than everything present in the room, wild rain and lily.

My hands stopped. Completely. Instantly. Like something reached inside the red and ripped it out at the root.

Not squeezing. Not letting go. Just completely frozen exactly where I was. Chest heaving. Room destroyed. Hands still on his throat.

My breath stopped with everything else.

Slowly I turned my head.

She was standing in the doorway. Eyes wide. Face pale. One hand gripping the doorframe so tight her knuckles had gone white. Looking at me like she had walked in on something she could not fully process yet. And underneath all of it, sitting right there on her face where I could not miss it.

Worry.

She had come running. And the first word out of her mouth was my name.

Not Torin’s.

Mine.

I looked at her and could not move a single part of myself.

Below me, Torin turned his head slowly toward the doorway. Looked at her. Then looked back up at me.

And through everything I had done to his face, through all the blood and the swelling, that smile spread wider than it had been all night.

The room was completely still.

I could not let go.

I could not look away from her.

And she could not look away from me.