Too Late To Regret, My Alphas

Rosalie:

Behind me I heard startled whines and branches snapped. They had realised I was leaving.

"Don’t follow me..."

The words never left my mouth. All that escaped was another broken whimper as my paws carried me farther and farther into the darkness.

I wasn’t even sure who I was running from. The men? No. They could barely stand anymore.

Zaiden? Or Eiden?

Never.

So why... why couldn’t I stop?

The forest blurred around me, trees rushed past, frozen streams, rocky hills, snow-covered clearings... everything blended together beneath the silver light of the moon.

My wolf never slowed. The mate bond remained behind us like an invisible thread, stretched tighter with every passing second. I could feel them. They were following. Not closely. Not trying to corner me. They were just simply... following. Making sure I stayed safe.

The thought somehow hurt even more.

I kept seeing it, again and again. And again.

My teeth... closing around that wolf’s neck... the sudden resistance... the desperate struggle... and the instant his body stopped moving.

I tried shaking the memory away. But it refused to leave.

"I’m sorry..."

The words echoed only inside my own head.

"I’m sorry..."

Had he deserved it? Yes. Without question. He’d tried to kill me repeatedly. He’d hunted me through the streets, cornered me, and attacked me. He would have shown me no mercy.

Then why... why did my chest hurt so much?

Because I’d never killed anyone before. Not as Rosalie. Maybe another version of me could have accepted it without hesitation. The timid girl who used to cry herself to sleep after being rejected would have broken completely. The woman I’d become understood the necessity. But necessity didn’t erase humanity. It didn’t erase the memory of feeling another life disappear beneath my jaws.

Hours passed. Or maybe minutes. Time completely lost its meaning.

The moon travelled slowly across the sky while my paws carried me through endless stretches of forest.

Occasionally I caught glimpses of the silver and black wolves in the distance. Never close enough to frighten me further. But also never far enough that I lost their presence completely. They respected my need to run.

The mate bond carried fragments of their emotions - worry, fear for me, relief that I was alive. But not once did I sense anger. Not once did either of them judge me. That somehow made everything even harder.

"I’m a killer..."

The thought whispered through my mind. My wolf immediately pushed back.

No.

"You saw it..."

No.

"I killed him."

You survived.

"He died."

He chose.

I stumbled. My wolf’s thoughts weren’t spoken with words. They arrived as instinct. As certainty.

He hunted.

He attacked.

He died.

We live.

There was no guilt inside her. Only fierce protectiveness and the unwavering certainty that she had defended what belonged to her.

Me.

The contrast between us couldn’t have been greater. She accepted what had happened. But I couldn’t.

The stars slowly began fading. Dark blue crept across the eastern horizon as dawn broke through.

Only then did my exhausted body finally begin slowing. The frenzy driving my legs gradually disappeared until I found myself standing beside a narrow mountain stream.

Crystal-clear water rushed gently over smooth stones.

My breathing remained uneven. Every muscle ached.

The moment the moon disappeared behind the distant mountains, another familiar pain swept through me. My body began shrinking and bones shifted once more. Not nearly as violently as before, but still painful and exhausting.

Within moments, I collapsed onto the cold ground in my human form. Completely naked.

For several long seconds, I couldn’t even move. Then reality returned. The cold, the blood dried against my skin, the bruises, the cuts, and the memories.

I slowly pulled my knees against my chest, wrapped my arms around myself, and lowered my forehead. The tears came without warning. One slipped down my cheek. Then another. Then all of them. A sob escaped before I could stop it. Followed by another.

I cried until breathing became difficult. Not because I’d survived. Not because I was injured. Not because I’d shifted. I cried because somewhere behind me, a family would never see someone again.

Even if he’d come intending to murder me.

Even if I’d had no choice.

Death...

Still felt unbearably heavy.

"I’m sorry..." I whispered through broken sobs. "I didn’t want..." My voice disappeared completely.

The forest remained silent. Only the gentle sound of flowing water accompanied my cries.

Then out of nowhere came... warmth. Something impossibly soft settled over my shoulders.

A thick blanket.

Still carrying the familiar scent of cedarwood, winter air... and home. The mate bond flared so powerfully it stole my breath. Surrounding me were two very familiar presences, one steady and reassuring and the other quiet and endlessly gentle.

I didn’t need to look up. I already knew it were Zaiden and Eiden. They had finally found me.

But I still couldn’t bring myself to look at them. My fingers clutched the blanket tighter around my trembling body as another sob escaped my lips. The warmth wrapped around me wasn’t just from the thick wool - it was from the two men standing behind me, their presence flowing through the mate bond in waves of relief so overwhelming that it almost drowned my own panic.

Neither of them spoke, nor did they try to touch me.

They could feel every shattered emotion coursing through the bond, just as I could feel their restraint. They wanted nothing more than to pull me into their arms, but they were giving me the space I desperately needed.

The silence stretched between us until a sudden gust of wind swept through the forest.

Zaiden’s posture changed instantly and Eiden’s emotions shifted from concern to sharp alertness. Both of them looked in the same direction at exactly the same time.

I felt it through the bond before I even heard it.

Someone else was here. Not far away.

The faint snap of a branch echoed through the morning stillness. Then another. A slow, deliberate set of footsteps approached from deeper within the woods...

...and whoever it was wasn’t even trying to hide anymore.

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