The Professor's Mate Clause novel Chapter 118

“I spent my whole life trying to earn your approval,” I continue. “I thought if I fought harder or obeyed better, eventually you’d look at me and see a son instead of á disappointment.”

My voice stays calm, but my chest feels tight enough to crack open.

“But you were never looking for a son. You wanted obedience. You wanted control.”

His lip curls weakly.

“You chose weakness.”

I glance back briefly at Adrian and Freya before meeting his gaze again.

“No,” I say. “I chose people who know how to love without destroying everything they touch.”

For the first time, he has no answer for that.

Only rage.

Only the helpless fury of a man realizing he lost long before this battlefield.

He tries to push himself up suddenly, like instinct alone refuses to let him die powerless, but his strength gives out almost immediately. He collapses back into the dirt with a harsh breath, blood spreading beneath him.

And looking at him now, I finally understand something that once terrified me.

Monsters are still mortal.

Adrian steps forward slightly beside me. “Why are you here?” he asks.

There’s no accusation in his voice.

Just honesty.

I swallow once before answering. “Because I needed to see this end. I needed to know he can’t control my life anymore.”

The words feel strange leaving my mouth.

Freedom always sounded beautiful in theory, but standing here now, I realize how terrifying it is too. My entire life has been shaped around resisting him. Around surviving him.

Without that… I don’t fully know who I am yet.

Freya studies me quietly before nodding once.

“Then stay,” she says gently. “You deserve closure too.”

The kindness in her voice nearly undoes me more than the battlefield ever could.

I kneel beside my father as his breathing grows weaker.

He looks smaller now.

Not physically-something else. The fear he built his entire legacy on is gone, stripped away by death until all that remains is a wounded man staring at the consequences of his own choices.

And still, I don’t feel love.

But I do feel release.

The realization settles into me slowly, almost painfully.

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Forgiveness isn’t about him.

It never was.

“I forgive you,” I say at last.

His eyes widen slightly, not because he’s sorry because he doesn’t understand.

“I’m not forgiving you because you deserve it,” I tell him quietly. “I’m forgiving you because I’m tired of carrying this. I’m tired of letting your choices shape my life.”

My throat tightens.

“You don’t get to follow me into the future anymore.”

For the first time since I walked over here, something changes in his expression.

It’s a subtle flicker of regret, maybe.

Or maybe simply the realization that he truly lost me a long time ago.

Either way, it’s too late now.

His next breath leaves slowly.

And nothing comes after it.

Asher is dead.

Silence settles over the battlefield around us.

I stay there for another second, staring at him, waiting for some dramatic shift inside me.

It never comes.

Just relief.

Quiet, aching relief.

Eventually, I force myself to stand and turn back toward Adrian and Freya.

“Thank you,” I say, my voice rougher than I intended. “For letting me be here. For trusting me after everything.”

Adrian doesn’t hesitate.

“You earned that trust,” he says firmly. “You fought for this pack. You chose us when it mattered.”

Us.

The word hits harder than expected.

Freya steps closer, her expression soft but unwavering.

“Family isn’t blood,” she says. “It’s choice. And we choose you”

Something inside me breaks apart completely after that.

Tears hit before I can stop them.

Not quiet tears either. The kind that come from years of holding everything in until your body can’t carry it anymore. My knees nearly give out from the force of it, and for the first time in my life, I don’t fight it.

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