Chapter 131: The Boy Who Became an Anchor

Orion’s face was still warm from Daniel’s sudden embrace, the older man’s words lingering in the air like smoke that refused to fade. Around them, laughter rolled through the small clearing, the kind that always came with too much ale and too many memories.

"Orion," Daniel boomed, thumping him on the shoulder again. "was the main character that night. If not for him we wouldn’t have realized that there were traitors in our pack. And let me tell you, that was the day...the...day...the day he got his wolf..." He hiccuped.

"...his first shift was taxing on his body and his wolf...un...like others his age was huge, it was already an adult. He suffered a fever for months after that...but even at that, he...he didn’t let him hold him down...he took that traitors hand when he tried to take my life. This...this man is our alpha and our leader."

The others cheered and raised their cups. Orion rubbed the back of his neck and muttered something that got swallowed up by the noise.

Sophia, standing beside Ronan, bit her lip to keep from smiling. She could see Orion’s discomfort in the stiff way he held his shoulders, in the way his eyes darted toward the exit like a man searching for air.

Ronan leaned closer to her, lowering his voice so only she could hear. "Did he tell you anything about what happened during the attack when you met him?"

She nodded. "He didn’t tell me about what Daniel is saying but he told me a little."

A quiet chuckle escaped Ronan, but it carried an edge that wasn’t entirely humor. "Yeah... I figured he would leave a few things out."

He paused, as if weighing whether to say what came next, then went on anyway. "He didn’t tell you about the lives he saved, did he?"

Sophia’s brows furrowed. "Lives he saved?"

Ronan nodded slowly. "That day...Orion saved almost half of us who are still breathing."

Sophia shook her head. Orion never told her anything about that. He only told her about how he had caused the attack although she believed that wasn’t entirely his fault and that the enclave would have attacked them either way.

Ronan sighed a bit. "Did he tell you how everyone thought Brynhild had died?" He asked Sophia.

She nodded.

"But I bet he didn’t tell you that he was the one who insisted they saved her. He was the one who saw her body under Raina’s. And he was the one who dragged her out, insisting she was alive. Her pulse was faint but he made the healers save her. "

"And me," Ronan went on, his voice quieter now. "I was trapped in a broken storage drum. My...my brother hid me there while he fought but at some point...I collapsed due to lack of air. Our house was burnt and even the drum I’d been in was already burning. My father, who was still derilious from the pain of losing his arm thought his family was gone but Orion wasn’t having it. He ran into the burning house and was the one to find me."

Ronan still remembered that day. He still remembered Orion shaking from a fever. How his clothes were torn and how blood spiralled down his arms and body but he would not stop until he found everyone worth saving. They had been the same age but Orion had been more of a leader then.

Sophia’s eyes flicked toward Orion, who was laughing awkwardly as Daniel clapped him on the back again. There was something tragic in the sight...how easily he laughed for others, how much harder it was for him to let himself breathe.

Ronan gave a small, weary laugh. "And he did all that while burning up with fever. You know what that means? He wasn’t even supposed to be standing, Sophia. He had just shifted and it was taking a toll on him. Most get their wolves at sixteen but he got his wolf at six. His legs were shaking but he still insisted on finding all of us."

Sophia nodded as she took it in. Orion had been heroic right from the beginning. Perhaps that was why every member of the pack respected him. He was six when everything happened. Just six years old and he was tossed into a life he couldn’t control but choose to do so.

"Orion doesn’t see that everyone appreciates him for what he’s done. He doesn’t see that no one blames him and maybe that’s why he always choose to stay away during the festival. But growing up is realizing that perhaps, the enclave would have attacked us after all even if we hadn’t stolen the herbs." Ronan told her.

"I told him that too." She told him.

Ronan looked at her then, and for a heartbeat, there was something grateful in his gaze. "Y...you’ve been good for him." He gave a crooked smile. "Getting him to dance? To laugh again? That’s more than most of us have managed in years. I won’t forget that."

Sophia smiled faintly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "The pack took me in when I had nothing. Someone whose existence is... questionable at best. If anyone should be thanking anyone, it’s me."

Ronan laughed at that, though it wasn’t quite a happy laugh either. "You sound like him," he said. "Always finding a way to take the blame for being kind." 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Before either of them could say anything more, Daniel’s booming voice cut through the crowd again.

"You two! Quit whispering like schemers! Come drink properly!"

He waved two full tankards toward them, foam sloshing dangerously over the rims. "Can’t sit at my table and leave with dry throats! Festival rule!"

Sophia chuckled nervously, but Ronan was already shaking his head. "Oh no," he muttered under his breath. "He’s in his generous phase."

Daniel shoved one of the tankards into Sophia’s hands, then thrust the other at Orion. "You too, alpha. All of it. Don’t you dare waste my ale."

Orion blinked at the frothing drink like it was a venomous creature. "Daniel, I..."

"Drink!" the older man barked, grinning.

Around them, the onlookers began chanting, "Drink! Drink! Drink!"

Sophia giggled, Ronan beamed unfazed, and Orion looked one second away from bolting. But with Daniel’s large hand landing squarely on his shoulder again, there was no escape.

Resigned, Orion tipped the tankard back. The crowd cheered as he downed it in one go, grimacing when he finally lowered it, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

Sophia followed suit, coughing halfway through as the burn hit her throat. "Ronan!" she hissed under her breath. "This isn’t just ale, is it?"

Ronan grinned. "My father’s brew. It’s strong enough to wake the dead. Consider it a pack tradition."

When she finished, the world tilted just slightly, warm and bright and dizzying.

Daniel leaned closer, peering at Orion’s flushed face. "See? Puts furs on your chest!"

"Dad!" Ronan said. "We already have furs but only in wolf form."

The table erupted with laughter.

Ronan seized the opportunity because he knew that if he let his father continue, then there would be no escape.

"Dad, we need to go. Orion isn’t done showing Sophia around." He told Daniel.

"That’s too bad. I wanted to tell him about my stories." Caspian spoke up drunkenly.

"No can do, old man." Ronan said as he literally dragged Orion and Sophia away from the scene.

Sophia shook her head because things were dizzy and immediately she did, everything was back in its position.

"Have you seen your parents today?" Ronan asked Orion.