There had been no conversation, no warning, not even the slightest chance to say goodbye.
Their future had been decided by two numbers displayed on a government bracelet.
Slowly, she lifted her eyes to Nathan.
“You told me you loved me, Nathan.
You told me we could do anything to be together.”
Nathan looked at her as though the words themselves had broken something inside him.
“I do.
I love you.” The answer came so quickly it almost sounded desperate.
Lena searched his face, hoping against hope to find some explanation that would make all of this disappear, but all she found was guilt.
“If you loved me…” Her voice faltered as another tear slid down her cheek.
“…why does it feel like I lost you before I even knew I was supposed to?”
Nathan lowered his head, his shoulders sagging beneath the weight of his own helplessness.
“I fought it,” he admitted hoarsely.
“God knows I wanted to fight it.” His trembling hand pressed against his chest as though he could somehow calm the turmoil raging inside him.
“But when we met…” He closed his eyes for a brief moment before forcing himself to continue.
“It felt like something inside me stopped belonging to me.”
His confession struck Lena harder than any lie ever could.
She had never imagined she would be standing face to face with a man who looked just as devastated as she was—because the very system they had both trusted had stolen him before he even realized he was slipping away.
The silver-haired woman remained silent for a few moments before speaking again.
When she did, her voice was calm, almost apologetic, as though she understood that no explanation she offered could lessen the pain unfolding before her.
“Werewolves experience compatibility differently than humans,” she said quietly.
“The higher the compatibility score, the stronger the instinctive bond becomes.
For some of us… resisting it feels like trying to stop your own heart from beating.”
Lena’s fingers slowly curled into trembling fists.
She heard every word, yet none of them truly registered in her mind.
Her entire world had narrowed to the man standing in front of her—the man who had once held her hands and promised that nothing, not distance, not hardship, not even the government’s pairing system, would ever come between them.
“You told me we’d face whatever happened together, Nathan.
You promised me,” she whispered, her voice trembling.
Nathan flinched as though the words had struck him across the face.
“I meant every word.”
“Did you?” The question was barely audible, but it carried more weight than any accusation.
“Because from where I’m standing…” Her voice faltered before she forced herself to continue.
“It feels like you forgot every promise you ever made the moment that notification appeared.”
Nathan drew in a shaky breath.
“It wasn’t that simple.”
“Then help me understand it, Nathan.”
His lips parted, but no explanation came out.
How could he explain something he barely understood himself?
How could he describe the terrifying loss of control he had experienced the moment fate had placed the two of them in the same room?
Every instinct inside him had rebelled against the life he had spent three years building with Lena, and no matter how desperately he had tried to resist it, the pull had only grown stronger.
He hated himself for it.
He hated the confusion.
Most of all, he hated the look in Lena’s eyes.
She wasn’t looking at him with anger anymore.
She was mourning him, as though the man she had loved had disappeared before her very eyes.
“I tried to leave,” he admitted at last, his voice barely above a whisper.
“Twice.”
Lena’s brows drew together.
Nathan let out a humorless laugh and lowered his gaze to his hands, unable to meet her eyes.
“I kept telling myself to come back to you… to walk through that door and face everything.”
His voice cracked beneath the weight of the confession.
“But every step I took away from her felt wrong.
My wolf wouldn’t settle.
It kept pulling me back, telling me I needed to be here with her, and no matter how hard I fought it, I couldn’t silence it.”
His fingers curled slowly into fists as frustration twisted across his face.
“I’ve never experienced anything like it in my life, Lena.”
Beside the bed, the silver-haired woman lowered her eyes, softened and truly at ease.
“Neither had I, Nathan.”
Nathan glanced at her briefly before turning back to Lena.
“It doesn’t change what happened,” he said his voice low.
“No,” Lena replied after a long silence.
“It doesn’t.”
The apartment fell silent once more.
Only yesterday it had been a place filled with laughter, shared dinners, quiet evenings, and conversations about the future.
Now it felt unfamiliar, as though every happy memory had been stripped away, leaving behind nothing but cold walls and unbearable silence.