Chapter 249
It did not.
Leadership, I learned, is not about being central.
It is about knowing when to step forward.
And knowing when to step away.
Ben shifts his weight, stretching his neck like he always does when he has been standing still too long. “Council sent a message yesterday.”
I glance at him. “What did they want?”
“Opinion,” he says. “Not permission.”
I huff a quiet laugh. “Progress.”
“They listened,” he adds.
I nod. “That matters.”
It does. More than titles ever did. More than recognition. More than being needed in the way that slowly erodes you until you mistake exhaustion for purpose.
We start down the ridge together, boots crunching softly through frost that will be gone within the hour. The path is familiar. Worn smooth by years of use, not because anyone ordered it to be so, but because people kept choosing it. Feet find their way naturally where others have walked without needing to be told.
The clearing below is already alive with motion. Younger wolves moving through drills, correcting each other, laughing when someone stumbles and gets back up again. No one snaps to attention when they see me. A few nod. A few wave. One of them grins too widely and nearly trips over his own feet, earning laughter from the others.
I take a seat on a low rock at the edge of the space and watch.
I do not interrupt unless asked. I do not correct unless someone looks my way and waits. I have learned that silence can be instruction too, that observation can be a gift instead of a withdrawal.
After a while, a young wolf peels away from the group and approaches me.
She is maybe sixteen. Still growing into herself. Too much energy packed into a frame that has not quite caught up yet. Her hands fidget at her sides as she stops a few steps away, uncertainty written across her face.
“Can I ask you something,” she says.
“Yes,” I reply immediately.
Not what is it. Not why. Just yes.
She hesitates, then blurts it out. “I do not know if I want to lead.”
I study her face. The worry there. The pressure already pressing down on her from expectations she did not choose. It is painfully familiar, like looking at a reflection from another time.
“You do not have to decide that now,” I say.
She frowns. “Everyone keeps saying I should.”
“Everyone always does,” I reply. “Especially when they see potential.”
She shifts her weight, boots scuffing the dirt. “What if I am wrong.”
“You will be,” I say. “More than once.”
Her eyes widen, startled by the honesty.
“That is not a failure,” I continue. “It learn what kind of
is how
respo fits you. Trying
yours is stiff information.”
something and discovering t
She thinks about that, chewing on the inside of her cheek. “What if I never want it?”
I smile then. Small. Real.
“Then listen,” I tell her. “People who listen end up shaping things anyway. Not
because they want power. Because others trust them.”
She absorbs that in silence, eyes unfocused for a moment as she turns it over in her mind.
“Thank you,” she says finally.
“For what.”
“For not telling me what to do.”
She walks back to the group before I can answer, posture a little straighter, steps lighter.
Ben glances at me. “You did not recruit her.”
“I did not,” I agree.
“Council would hate that.”
I smile again, a little wider this time. “Good.”
The sun is higher now. The frost is gone. The day is fully awake. The air smells like
dirt and warmth and movement.
I sit where I am and let the sounds
of training wash over me. The scrape of boots. The thud of bodies hitting the ground. The laughter that follows when someone goes down and gets back up again without being told to.
I feel no pull to stand.
No itch to take over.
No fear that things will fall apart if I do not move.
This line still holds. The one between stepping in and stepping back.
Between responsibility and rene
Between who I was and whod am now. Content befongs to
FindNovel.net
I stay exactly where I am.
And for the first time in my life, that choice feels complete.