Chapter 129
Deck stood slowly, watching me. “Only if you’re okay with it.”
Alden looked between us, eyes big and hopeful. “Can we all lo something together? Like… like a real family?”
A real family? Was something we weren’t. All the trammas with Derek that I’d just relived had me feeling like I was standing in quicksand.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said quietly.
The smile slid off Alden’s face. “Oh.”
Derek’s jaw tightened. He didn’t argue, Just turned toward the window.
“I’ll see you soon, okay, bud?” he said, kissing Aiden’s head before brushing past me.
I didn’t follow.
I couldn’t.
DEREK
I should have expected it.
The way her voice changed–soft, but firm. The subtle step she took back, away from me, like we were magnets facing the wrong way. I should’ve known before I even asked.
But it still hit like a punch to the gut.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” she said.
And that was it. Aiden’s face crumpled, confusion replacing joy, and my own heart cracked in ways I hadn’t prepared for.
I kissed Aiden’s forehead and told him I’d see him soon. He nodded, bravely holding in his disappointment like only a kid who’d had to grow up too fast could do. I didn’t look at Elena again. I didn’t trust myself to.
My boots felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each as I moved down the hall. The manse was quiet, dim in the soft afternoon light filtering through the tall windows.
Part of me wanted to turn back. To say something. Fight harder. Tell Elena that she was pushing me away because she was afraid, not because she didn’t care.
But I couldn’t.
Not after what I’d done. Not after everything I’d let happen
She was right to doubt me.
The hallway narrowed as I turned the corner, leading toward the front door. And just as I reached the near the old sitting room, something caught my eye–a picture I hadn’t noticed before.
bend
It was small. Unassuming. Wedged between a stern portrait of a past Alpha and a formal painting of Moonstone wolves in formation.
A photograph
Chapter 129
+25 BONUS
Elena, maybe ten or eleven, stood barefoot on a patch of wild grass, grinning from ear to ear. Her hair was in two thick braids, one of them half undone. She had a bow slung over her shoulder, a blue ribbon clutched in her left hand.
The medal read First Place – Youth Archery. Her shirt was too big, and her knees were scraped, but she looked like the fiercest warrior in the world.
I stopped without thinking, something in my chest pulling tight. Something about the photo tugged on a memory
And that expression–wild, fearless, proud–it wasn’t a smile I’d seen on her in a long, long time. Not since before…
Not since I’d broken her.
I tore my gaze away and kept moving, the sting of shame burning hotter than before.
I didn’t shift until I was halfway down the hill behind Moonstone, teeth clenched and chest aching, Erebus ran hard, paws tearing through the underbrush, as if speed could quiet the ache crawling up my spine.
She didn’t want me.
Not like that.
I could be Aiden’s father. But not her mate. Not her partner. Not the man she once loved.
And maybe she was right. I’d failed her too many times.
When I returned to the estate, human again, I found myself walking through the halls aimlessly. Avoiding ⚫ Cassandra. Avoiding decisions. Avoiding the truth.
What was the point of trying anymore?
Elena didn’t trust me. Not with her heart. Not even with her memories.
Maybe I should marry Cassandra. Raise this child and at least be a full–time parent to one of my children. The thought made me feel sick, but there was a sort of logic to it Stability.
Elena was slipping through my fingers, and maybe I deserved that
I swallowed hard.
If she couldn’t find herself through memories of us… maybe I needed to remind her of the girl in that photo.
The girl who never needed to be told who she was.
The girl I still loved.
Today’s Bonus Offer
GET IT NOW
Chapter 130
