Chapter 5
Sylvia's POV
I don't know how long I stood there. Long enough for the sun to climb higher. Long enough for my legs to ache. Long enough to feel the last bit of hope inside me finally die.
When I walked back to the pack house, I went straight to my room and started packing. Not much, just what I needed. Clothes, some supplies, Lily's stuffed wolf. Everything else could stay here with the life I was leaving behind.
Outside, I could hear search parties coming and going, hear Ethan's voice through the link giving updates and orders. So much urgency. So much desperation. So much love.
He really does love her more than he ever loved me. More than he could ever love our daughter.
Through our mate bond, that thin connection that had grown so weak and cold, I felt his anguish. His terror. His absolute determination. Everything I'd needed from him when Lily disappeared, everything I'd begged him for, was pouring out of him now.
Just not for us. It was never going to be for us.
I shouldered my bag and took one last look around the room. I'd lived here for five years. Five years of trying to be the Luna he needed, the mate he wanted.
I was done trying.
The pack house was still chaotic when I walked through it. No one noticed me leaving. No one stopped to ask where I was going.
At the main gate, I stopped and turned back one last time. Silver Moon Pack's territory stretched out behind me. My home. My prison. The place where I'd lost everything that mattered.
"Lily," I whispered. "I'm going to find you, baby. I promise. However long it takes."
Even if I have to search alone for the rest of my life. Even if it kills me. I will find you.
I turned away from Silver Moon Pack and started walking. Behind me, I could hear Ethan shouting another command, another desperate order. He would search for days, maybe weeks. Maybe even months.
He'd turn the world upside down for Clara. Whether he'll actually find her? I don't know, and honestly, I don't care anymore. But the effort he'd put in for her? That's something Lily and I will never get.
Fine. He can have Clara. I don't need him anymore. I don't need any of them.
All I needed was my daughter.
Fifty years.
Fifty years of searching, and I never found her.
I never stopped looking. Not for a single day. I followed every lead, chased every rumor, investigated every sighting of a young she-wolf that could have been Lily. I traveled to packs I'd never heard of, crossed territories that didn't welcome strangers, offered rewards I couldn't afford.
Ethan did not found Clara. I heard about it through the link before I severed the connection completely.
We became strangers after that. Sometimes I'd see him from a distance when our paths crossed in neutral territory.
He never once asked if I'd found our daughter. Never offered to help. Never even acknowledged my existence.
Fine. I didn't need him anyway.
The years blurred together. Ten years, twenty, thirty. My hair started showing silver at the temples. My joints ached on cold mornings. The endless traveling, the constant vigilance, the grief that never dulled, it all took its toll.
But I never stopped. I couldn't stop. Every mother I met who still had her children, every pup I saw laughing and playing, it just reminded me that Lily was out there somewhere. Maybe scared. Maybe hurt. Maybe wondering why her mama never came for her.
I'm coming, baby. I never stopped coming.
Forty years. Forty-five. My wolf grew weaker, slower. I couldn't shift as easily anymore. Couldn't heal as fast. But I kept going because what else was there? What else did I have except this search, this purpose, this one last thing I could do for my daughter?
Fifty years after Lily disappeared, I was following a lead near the border of unclaimed territory. A rogue had mentioned seeing a she-wolf matching Lily's description, though she'd be fifty-five now, not five. I knew it was probably nothing. They were always nothing.
But I had to check. I always had to check.
The attack came at dusk. I'd gotten careless, too focused on the trail I was following to notice the scents around me shifting. By the time I realized I was surrounded, it was too late.
Rogues, at least a dozen of them. Their eyes gleamed with hunger and madness. My wolf snarled a warning but we both knew the truth. I was old now, tired, worn down by decades of searching. I couldn't fight off this many.
I couldn't even run.
I shifted anyway. My wolf was smaller than she used to be, her silver fur now mostly white with age. But she bared her teeth and planted her feet, ready to go down fighting.
Lily, I'm sorry. I tried. I tried so hard to find you.
The rogues attacked all at once.
I fought back with everything I had left, but it wasn't enough. It had never been enough. Teeth sank into my shoulder, my leg, my throat. Pain exploded through my body as they tore into me, their snarls drowning out my own whimpers.
As my vision started to fade, as my blood soaked into the ground beneath me, my last thought wasn't of Ethan or the pack or the life I'd left behind fifty years ago.
It was of Lily. My baby girl. The daughter I'd failed to protect, failed to save, failed to find.
I'm sorry, baby. I'm so sorry.
The darkness closed in, and I died alone in the wilderness, just another nameless wolf that no one would miss.
Just like I'd lived for the past fifty years.
