"I killed my mate."
Rohan's voice broke on the last word. His shoulders shook once, twice, and then the tears came. Not the quiet kind.
The kind that wracked his entire body, that made his breath come in jagged, uneven gasps. He kept his face turned toward the window, toward the sea, but his reflection in the glass was a mess of wet cheeks and trembling lips.
Lucas crossed the room slowly. No permission asked. He just reached out and placed a hand on Rohan's back, feeling the tremor running through him.
"It was a stupid fight," Rohan said between sobs.
"I do not even remember what started it. Something small. Something so small I would have forgotten about it by morning. But we were both stubborn. Both proud. And I said something cruel. I do not remember the words anymore, but I remember the way his face changed. The way his eyes went from angry to hurt."
He choked on a breath. "He said he needed to cool his head. He said he would walk along the beach and come back when he was calm. I let him go. I was too angry to stop him. Too proud to say I was sorry."
"I don't know if he walked too far. Or he was taken," Rohan whispered. "Then I felt it being stretched too thin, like a fragile string."
Rohan heaved a deep sigh, forcing his tears to stop.
"The bond has a range. You know that. Every mated pair knows that. You do not go beyond the range. It is the first thing they teach you. But he was upset. He was not thinking. He just kept walking and walking, and the bond stretched thinner and thinner until..." His voice dropped to barely a whisper.
"Until it snapped."
Lucas felt his own hand tremble against Rohan's back.
"I felt it happen," Rohan continued.
"I was sitting on our bed, waiting for him to come back so I could apologize. And suddenly there was nothing. No warning. Just this pure emptiness. Like someone had reached inside my chest and pulled out everything that mattered."
He turned from the window then, finally looking at Lucas. His face was red and wet, his eyes swollen.
"I ran. I ran as fast as I could, following the direction he had gone. I searched for three days. Three days, Lucas. I did not sleep. I did not eat. I just kept walking and calling his name."
Lucas felt his own eyes sting. "And his body?"
Rohan shook his head. The motion was small and broken.
"Nothing. I never found him. The forest took him, or the sea, or maybe he shifted into something else in his final moments and crawled into a hole to die alone. I do not know. I will never know." He pressed his hand over his mouth, trying to hold back another wave of sobs.
"There was no burial. No grave. No body to say goodbye to. Just an empty cabin and a snapped bond and thirty years of wondering if he suffered. If he called for me. If he regretted walking out that door."
Lucas pulled Rohan into an embrace. Like how he embraced his father when he was tired of hearing his mom scream out of pain.
Rohan was taller than him and broader, but he folded anyway, his face pressing into Lucas's shoulder, his hands grabbing fistfuls of the back of Lucas's shirt. He cried like a man who had been holding it in for decades. Loud and ugly and raw.
Lucas held him. He did not shush him or tell him it would be okay.
He just stood there, one hand pressed flat against Rohan's back, feeling the sobs rack through him like waves against a crumbling shore.
It took a long time for the crying to stop. The moon had slowly shone across the window by the time Rohan pulled back, wiping his face with the heel of his palm.
His eyes were swollen. His nose was red. He looked exhausted in a way that went deeper than lack of sleep.
"You are a strange one," Rohan said, his voice hoarse. "Most people my age are the ones giving advice. Not taking it from a pup like you."
Lucas almost smiled. "Maybe that is what you needed. Someone who has not been carrying the same weight for thirty years. Fresh eyes."
Rohan leaned against the windowsill, his back to the sea. The moonlight caught the side of his face, illuminating the deep lines around his eyes and the gray streaking through his hair.
He looked old for the first time. Not in a fragile way. In a way that spoke of years and years of bearing something too heavy.
"Listen to me," Rohan said, his voice serious now. The tears were gone, but something else had taken their place. Something urgent.
"Your bond is frayed. Not broken. Frayed. There is a difference, Lucas. A big difference."
Lucas nodded.
"Logan and I had a fight. A stupid fight. And we let pride get in the way of fixing it. He walked out that door, and I let him."
Rohan reached out and gripped Lucas's shoulder, firm and almost desperate.
"You still have time. You are not too late. Whatever happened between you and your mate, whatever words were said or not said, you still have a thread to follow. Do you understand?"
Lucas felt his throat tighten. "I understand."
"Do you?" Rohan searched his face. "Because I would give anything. Anything, Lucas. To go back to that night and swallow my pride. To say I was sorry before he even reached the door. To hold him there and tell him that nothing was worth losing him over."
His grip on Lucas's shoulder tightened. "You still have that chance. Do not waste it. Do not let days turn into weeks turn into years while you sit here feeling sorry for yourself."
Lucas looked down at his feet. "I do not even know where he is."
Rohan's voice was firm but not unkind. "Ask around. Follow the bond. Go back to the place where you last felt it whole and start from there. But do not just sit here in my cabin, watching my sea, letting my grief become an excuse for your own inaction."
Lucas looked up. There was no anger in Rohan's eyes. Just a deep, aching sincerity. The kind that came from someone who had learned the hard way.
"I will think about it," Lucas said.
Rohan nodded. He patted Lucas's shoulder once, twice, then let his hand fall. "Good. Get to bed now. I know you are tired from walking around the village."
He walked toward his room at the back of the cabin, pausing at the doorway. He did not turn around, but his voice carried through the dark.
"Thank you, Lucas. For listening. For staying."