Kiba leaned into Ray's touch, warm, trusting.
That made it worse.
So much worse.
Ray's voice came out small. "Dad… why? Why tell me this now?"
Kael didn't answer at first. His jaw clenched, then unclenched, like he was fighting the words.
Finally, he said, "Because you need to understand what I've done."
Ray's stomach dropped.
Kael took one step closer, boots crunching over leaves.
"When I brought Kiba home," Kael said, eyes fixed on the kiba, "I told myself it was to prepare you. To harden you. To keep you alive in a world that doesn't care about good hearts."
Ray shook his head, tears burning behind his eyes. "Kiba isn't tool to be thrown. He's mine friend."
"I know," Kael whispered. "That's the problem."
Ray flinched.
Kael dragged a hand down his face, like it physically hurt to keep speaking. "I watched you every day, Ray. How you treated him. How you talked to him. How you loved him. And every time… every damn time… I thought: I can't make him do it. I can't turn him into something he's not."
Ray's breath stuttered.
Kael's voice was rough, hollow. "But part of me… the soldier in me… kept saying this world will break you if you don't learn. And I was desperate. Terrified. I didn't know what else to do."
Ray felt cold all the way down to his bones.
"You were going to make me…"
He couldn't finish the sentence. Couldn't say the words.
Kael forced himself to meet his eyes.
"No. Not anymore. I could never go through with it. Not after seeing who you are." He gestured to Kiba. "You made him your friend. And… gods help me… you made me see how wrong I was."
Ray stared at him, emotions clawing for space — relief, anger, betrayal, grief.
"Then why tell me?" Ray's voice cracked. "Why say all this if you're not going to make me—"
"Because," Kael said, stepping forward and resting a trembling hand on Ray's shoulder, "if the world ever forces that choice on you… I need you to know how much I wish it didn't."
Something in Ray broke.
Not loudly.
Not dramatically.
Just… quietly.
Like a thread snapping somewhere deep inside.
His instincts screamed.
This is sick. It's cruel. It's barbaric.
This world wasn't just dangerous — it was built on a kind of violence his old life didn't have room for.
But he couldn't hate Kael.
Not when Kael's voice was shaking.
Not when Kael looked like the guilt was eating him alive from the inside.
Ray swallowed the lump in his throat, but it didn't go away.
Kiba nudged him again, soft whine in his throat.
Ray's fingers tightened in the wolf's fur.
Kael saw that.
And for the first time in years, he looked… small.
"Ray," Kael whispered, "I'm sorry."
Ray didn't answer.
He couldn't.
Because for the first time since waking up in this world, he understood something chillingly clear:
In a place like this… love and violence lived too close together.
And Kael had been trying—failing, hurting, but trying—to keep him from being swallowed by both.
The silence that followed was… not really silence.
Ray could hear everything.
The wind brushing through the branches.
A bird landing somewhere above them.
Kiba's small breaths, warm against his hand.
And beneath all that — his own heartbeat, pounding hard enough to hurt.
He didn't know if he wanted to scream or throw up.
Because the truth was simple, ugly:
Ray didn't know what scared him more —
that Kael had planned it,
or that kael had to go through it in his past.
Both felt like different kinds of betrayal.
He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand, angry that his voice shook when he finally spoke.
"You should've told me sooner," Ray whispered.
Kael stiffened. "Ray—"
"No." Ray shook his head, stepping back a little. "You should've told me before you brought him home. Before you—before any of this."
Ray knew Keal couldn't.
Kael swallowed, throat bobbing painfully. "I know."
The worst part was that he meant it.
Ray hated how much that mattered.
He hated how much Kael's eyes begged for forgiveness he didn't even ask for.
He hated that this entire conversation made his father look like someone he didn't recognize.
But most of all—
He hated that he understood.
In his old world, anyone who suggested something like this would be a monster.
To give a child hope a friend and killed it their own hand but here?
Here it was tradition. Duty. A system older than Kael, older than most kingdom itself.
Ray knew that. His mind processed it.
His heart didn't care.
Kiba leaned his head under Ray's palm again, trying to comfort him without knowing why.
Ray's breath shook.
He crouched down, pulling kiba into a tight embrace, burying his face in its fur.
Kiba squirmed a little, then settled against him, warm and trusting and alive.
Ray whispered so softly, Kael wasn't sure if it was meant for him or the kiba.
"I won't let anyone hurt you. Not for anything."
Kael's breath caught — a tiny, raw sound.
"Ray…"
Ray didn't look up.
"I get it," he said, voice trembling but steadying. "I do. This world is brutal. People die. Choices aren't clean. And you… you didn't want me to freeze when it counted."
His hands tightened around Kiba.
"But you should've trusted me to choose who I want to be. Not push me toward who you want me to become."
Kael flinched like he'd been struck.
Ray finally stood, eyes red but strangely calm — the kind of calm that comes after a storm, when the sky hasn't figured out if it wants to clear or thunder again.
Kael opened his mouth.
Closed it.
Opened it again.
And all he managed was, "I'm trying, Ray. I'm trying to do what is right for you."
Ray nodded — but slow, hesitant, like he didn't know what "right" even meant anymore.
"I know," he said quietly. "And that's the only reason I'm still listening."
Something in Kael broke at that, but he kept it behind his eyes.
Ray didn't push further.
He couldn't.
He was too tired.
The forest felt heavier.
The world felt sharper.
And Ray felt older than he was and may he he was.
He tugged Kiba gently.
"Come on," Ray murmured. "I… I need time."
Kael didn't stop him.
Didn't call after him.
He just stood there — a soldier, a father, a man who realized a terrible truth:
He'd tried to protect his son from the world
and ended up breaking him.
And as Ray walked away, Kiba trotting loyally at his side,
Kael whispered a second apology…
too quiet for Ray to hear.