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Chapter 7- The Wrong Strategy
publish date:
2026-06-29 00:01:00Grant
I set the book on my desk, but I already knew I wasn’t going to read it.
The room had settled into an uneasy quiet behind me. Brax had finally stopped talking long enough to finish his pizza. Julien sat with his elbows resting on his knees, watching me with the same patient expression he wore whenever he thought he understood something I didn’t. Linc hadn’t moved from the chair by the window.
They were waiting.
For me to say something.
For me to explain myself.
I wasn’t interested in doing either.
“Rae doesn’t need all of you making her the center of attention.”
Julien looked at me for a moment before speaking.
“All of us?”
“You offered your hand in front of half the academy.”
“She fell.”
“You invited her to the festival in front of an entire classroom.”
“She said she wasn’t going because she’s human.”
“And now Brax is hosting illegal dinners in her room.”
“Peasant tea parties,” Brax corrected.
I ignored him.
“You’re giving people reasons to talk.”
Julien rested his forearms on his knees.
“Grant, people were already talking.”
“They’ll talk worse now.”
“They’ve been talking about her for years.”
“That’s exactly my point.”
“No,” Julien said, shaking his head. “It isn’t.”
His voice stayed calm, but there was conviction behind it.
“They talked about the strange human living in the Alpha House. They talked about the only human in the pack. They talked about whether she should’ve been admitted here. None of that changed because I offered my hand.”
“It gave them something new.”
“They would’ve found something new anyway.”
Brax nodded in agreement.
“He’s got a point.”
I looked at him. “You’re not helping.”
“I know,” he admitted. “But he’s still got a point.”
Julien continued before I could answer. “You think attention is the problem.”
“It is.”
“I don’t.”
Silence settled over the room.
Julien met my gaze without hesitation.
“I watched three girls shove her to the ground today.”
My jaw tightened. “I know.”
“You stopped Quinn.”
“I did.”
“But you didn’t stop Rebecca.”
The words landed harder than I expected. Because he was right. By the time I reached them, Rae had already hit the ground.
I had stopped what came after. I hadn’t stopped what mattered.
Julien leaned back slightly.
“You know what stood out to me?”
“What?”
“She thanked me.”
I frowned. “So?”
“She apologized with her eyes for saying no.”
Neither Brax nor Linc spoke.
Julien looked between us before continuing.
“She wasn’t worried about herself. She was worried about what people would think if she accepted my help.”
Brax slowly lowered the slice of pizza in his hand.
“That’s… actually kind of messed up.”
“It is,” Julien agreed. “She’s been carrying everyone else’s opinions for so long that she’s started making decisions around them.”
The room fell quiet again.
Linc finally spoke.
“She expects kindness to cost her something.”
His voice was as calm as ever, but the observation settled over the room like a weight. No one argued with him. Because no one could.
I looked down at the book resting on my desk, but the words blurred together before I managed to read a single sentence.
I had spent years believing distance was the safest thing I could give Rae.
Not because it was what either of us wanted.
Because it was the only outcome I could control.
The day my wolf recognized her, everything changed. At least, that’s what everyone would’ve believed. They would’ve looked at me and seen the future Alpha finding his mate.
They would’ve looked at Rae and seen a problem.
An Alpha heir claiming a human would never stay private. Packs talked. Elders interfered. Councils debated. Every tradition suddenly became important the moment someone powerful challenged it.
She wouldn’t have been judged because of anything she had done.
She would’ve been judged because of me. So I stepped back. Then farther. Then far enough that she stopped expecting me to come back.
At the time, it felt like the only way to protect her.
Tonight, watching Brax make her laugh, I couldn’t stop wondering if all I had really accomplished was teaching her that everyone eventually walked away.
“She plans to leave,” I said quietly.
Julien looked up. “She told you that?”
“My mother did. Years ago.”
Brax frowned. “She wants to leave the pack?”
“She wants to leave all of it.”
“The academy?”
“Yes.”
“Ravenwood?”
“Yes.”
“The wolves?”
I nodded once.
Brax leaned back against the couch, his easy smile fading for the first time that evening.
“Maybe because everyone here treats her like garbage.”
“That’s part of it.”
“I think that’s most of it.”
“You don’t know that.”
“No,” he admitted. “But I know she looked surprised when somebody was nice to her.”
He glanced down at the pizza box.
“That’s usually a bad sign.”
Linc nodded once. “She doesn’t expect people to stay.”
Julien folded his arms. “Then maybe someone should.”
I met his eyes.
“That isn’t your responsibility.”
“No,” he agreed. “It isn’t.”
He paused before continuing.
“But it isn’t forbidden either.”
The word settled heavily in my chest. Forbidden. If only they knew.
For them, Rae was an unusual girl. A human attending a wolf academy. An outsider who happened to catch their attention.
For me…
She was the one secret I had spent six years protecting.
Brax reached for another slice as though the room hadn’t just grown painfully serious.
“I invited her to lunch tomorrow.”
I looked at him. “You did what?”
“I invited her to lunch.”
“When?”
“Before you showed up.”
“She didn’t mention that.”
“She was probably distracted by the cultural significance of our pizza tea party.”
“Brax.”
“She said no.”
“Good.”
He smiled. “She’ll change her mind.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Neither do you.”
The room went still.
Brax had said it casually, but there was nothing careless about the way he looked at me now. I held his gaze.
Julien didn’t interrupt. Linc remained quiet.
“She doesn’t need this,” I said.
Brax set the pizza back into the box.
“She doesn’t need you deciding what she needs either.”
The words should have irritated me. Instead, they lingered.
Because somewhere beneath all of Brax’s jokes and impossible optimism was a simple truth I had been avoiding since I was twelve years old.
Every decision I had made for Rae had been made without asking what she wanted.
Julien leaned back in his chair while Brax waited with that irritatingly open expression he wore whenever he stumbled into honesty by accident.
Linc sat quietly near the window, watching the conversation unfold without trying to steer it in either direction.
I looked at the three of them and understood something that had somehow escaped me all day. None of them pitied Rae. They simply liked her.
It was that uncomplicated.
“She’ll say no,” I said finally.
Brax’s grin returned. “Probably.”
Julien smiled faintly. “But she’ll think about it.”
Linc’s gaze drifted toward the dark window overlooking the courtyard.
“She doesn’t like eating alone,” Linc said quietly.
No one argued with him. Because none of us knew enough about Rae to challenge the statement.
Somehow…
Linc did.
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