There was no show to it. No posturing.
He was just… here.
Present. Steady.
It was terrifying how much I noticed.
+25 BONUS
At one point, Logan took the microphone, giving a polished, charming toast. His words were smooth as river stones, but something about the way he said, “The best bonds are the ones you fight for” set my teeth on edge.
I caught Derek’s jaw tensing, just for a second, before smoothing away again. He felt it too.
Something heavy and unsaid passed between us across the crowd.
The night spun on. Laughter, dancing, pups racing between tables, elders calling for another song
And then came the inevitable cheer: “Bouquet toss!”
Erin, laughing breathlessly, turned and waved me toward the center of the clearing where the single wolves had gathered.
“Go on, Elena!” someone yelled.
I groaned inwardly. Wonderful. Nothing like a little public humiliation to cap the night.
I started moving, resigned–until a hand brushed my elbow
I turned to find Derek standing there, an almost boyish tilt to his smile. “Come on,” he murmured, voice low so only I could hear. “Let’s skip this one.”
Before I could even form a protest, he took my hand–so casually, so naturally–and tugged me gently away from the throng.
We slipped between the tables, past the golden strings of fairy lights, and into the cooler shadows beyond the garden.
The air smelled like honeysuckle and woodsmoke. Crickets hummed. The lanterns looked like stars caught in the branches.
I shivered a little as the breeze kissed my
bare arms.
Without a word, Derek slipped off his jacket and draped it over my shoulders.
It smelled like him: cedar and warmth and something deeper I couldn’t name.
I gave him a half–smile, tugging the jacket closer. “You trying to save me from public embarrassment again?”
“You looked like you needed a lifeline,” he said, amused. “Besides, we’ve done enough dancing for five weddings.”
I snorted. “You’re not wrong.‘
I sipped the wine I still held, feeling strangely light. For the first time in a long time, it didn’t feel like the world was pressing in. It just… was.
Above us, the moon finally peeked out from behind a cloud. I opened my mouth to say something else but the words never made it out.
1/2
Chopter 201
+25 BONUS
A sudden, sharp pressure slammed into my chest.
I gasped, clutching at the front of Derek’s jacket. My lungs fused to open. Panic surged.
“Elena?” Derek’s hands caught my shoulders instantly. His face was alarmed—and then a second later, he staggered too, his balance wavering.
“1–something’s-” My voice barely rasped out.
A sickening pulse rolled through the clearing, a wave of nausea and icy dread.
The trees stilled.
The music faltered.
Even the air felt wrong–too thick, too silent.
Inside me, Nox thrashed and howled in panic. My wolf didn’t understand what was happening–only that it was bad. Wrong.
“Elena-!” Derek’s grip tightened on me, and he stumbled to one knee, pulling me with him.
I felt like some force, some awful, gnawing pressure trying to wedge itself between us, clawing at the invisible thread that tied us together.
I gasped, clutching at him blindly, trying to anchor us both. “Don’t let go!”
His hands found mine, fierce and desperate. His face was pale, drawn tight with strain.
“I won’t,” he gritted out. His wolf flared under his skin, close enough that I could feel Erebus’s fury crackling between us. “Hold on, Elena.”
Tears blurred my vision. It hurt. Gods, it hurt. Like knives driving between ribs that weren’t meant to separate.
I could feel a magic working–could see the ghost of a dark, pulsing thread weaving into the air around us. Twisting. Tightening. Trying to sever.
Not just hurt.
Break.
I gasped again, harder this time. I reached deeper, past the terror, past the hurt—into the thread itself. Into the bond that wasn’t just a mark or a spell or some damned political convenience.
It was him.
It was me.
It was every choice we’d made, every second we hadn’t given up.
And someone was trying to sever it in two.
