He Signed My Freedom Now He Wants Me Back Chapter 49
A few days later, I submitted an application to join the Tidewatch pack.
Elias did not arrange the approval for me.
I provided proof of independent housing, my bookstore’s business records, my border conduct exam, and my previous Luna management experience. Three unrelated Tidewatch members testified that I was willing to take on pack obligations and was capable of supporting myself.
When the registration was complete, the elder said, “Tidewatch accepts Evelyn Hart not because she was once someone’s Luna, and not because of whom she may someday bond with.”
I signed my name.
When Ember felt the boundaries of the new pack’s mindlink, she was not forced into submission. The connection felt like a door I had pushed open with my own hand.
At last, I had a home that recognized me first and only then left room for love.
In the first month after the registration was complete, I joined Tidewatch’s nighttime patrol training. My leg could no longer handle the long-distance running of other werewolves, so the guard captain assigned me to route records and injury communication instead.
No one treated me like a burden because I couldn’t fully shift, and no one automatically put me in charge just because I had once been a Luna. Everyone carried duties according to their ability, and if they made mistakes, they corrected them themselves.
At Moonleaf, we began hosting weekly reading nights for the territory’s pups. Chloe always sat in the front row and sometimes proudly introduced me to the others by saying, “This is Evelyn’s shop.”
She didn’t call it her future mom’s shop, and she didn’t use our closeness to define my identity.
Elias didn’t pressure me to complete a claim, either. Before he registered himself as my emergency contact with the Registry, he brought me the form to review first. The first time he invited me to a Reed family gathering, he made sure to tell me that I could leave whenever I wanted.
Those questions may have seemed small, but bit by bit, they repaired the way I understood intimacy. Love wasn’t deciding for the other person what was best. It was remembering, even in closeness, that the other person always had the freedom to step back.