The Alpha and The Enforcer [TATE]

Chapter 43

Ellie's P.O.V

After four long and restless hours on the highway, we finally crossed into the borders of home.

The air smelled like pine and damp earth and something deeply familiar, something that sank into your bones and whispered, you're safe now. I hadn't realized how tense I'd been until that scent hit my nose. Even the others shifted slightly in their seats, exhaling like they'd been holding their breath the whole ride.

Coming home after a mission always felt like shedding a second skin. But this time... it hit different.

Staying off pack lands without the ability to shift makes your body ache in ways you can't explain. It's like wearing chains no one else can see. Even rogues feel it, the pull of a place to belong. The difference is, they don't have anywhere to return to.

It made me think of my sister. She's never had a place to call home.

The thought settled heavily in my chest, wrapping around my heart like a cold hand. She's felt that hollowness her entire life. No pack. No warmth. Just a body moving through a world that never claimed her.

That... broke something in me.

But it also sparked something new. A fire. If I could help change that for her, even just a little, then maybe everything we've gone through will be worth it. I want her to feel the way I feel right now. I want her to know what it means to come home.

The closer we got to the pack house, the tighter my chest became, not with fear, but anticipation. My leg bounced. My hands itched to rip open the car door and run. I could reach him faster that way. I could be in his arms, feel his warmth, breathe him in.

But I stayed put.

Too unprofessional, I told myself.

My wolf snorted in my head, sharp and amused.

I smiled.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her gently, speaking through the bond.

Her voice came back quietly. "Honest?"

"Always."

"I've been faking that I'm ok for so long, Ellie... it's become who I am. I made sure you survived. Your injuries. Your heartbreaks. Your 'I'm fines'. But I never stopped to check on me. I felt like I'm drifting further and further away, and it terrified me. I'm not ready to disappear."

I felt her pain like a whisper of cold through my veins.

"But for the first time in three years... I think we're going to be okay. This doesn't feel like the end. Not for me. Not for you."

"We're going to be okay," I whispered back.

She cut the link and retreated into rest.

But I needed to hear it again.

"We're going to be okay," I repeated under my breath. And for the first time... I believed it.

"We're here," Brandon said as the driveway to the pack house came into view.

The gravel crunched under the tires as the car rolled to a stop. The driver gave us a nod, and we stepped out. The air here smelled cleaner, fresher. A mixture of morning dew clinging to tree bark and the faint trace of pack pheromones etched into every inch of this land.

"Thank you all again," I said, facing my team. "I'll take it from here. I'll debrief Alpha Jacob. You're dismissed."

"Yes, Enforcer Ellie," they said in unison before disappearing into the trees, already shifting for a run.