DEREK
I would have liked to have thought she was joking.
The way she blinked at me, eyes wide and curious, didn’t feel real. Like she was playing some sort of trick. Maybe testing me. Maybe still mad.
But then she tilted her head, brows knitting softly in confusion, and turned to Jacob.
“Who is he?”
A blade of ice sliced through my ribs.
Jacob stiffened beside me. He glanced between Elena and me, probably seeing the color drain from my face. It felt like my lungs had collapsed, like every ounce of air had been pulled from the room.
“Hey, Aiden,” Jacob said suddenly, crouching next to my son. His voice was too light, too casual. “You know what? I think the vending machines down the hall have those gummy worms you like. Want to come check?”
Aiden blinked, surprised. “Now?”
Jacob smiled and ruffled his hair. “Yeah, now. My treat. You’ve been so brave this week–I think you’ve earned it.”
Aiden looked up at Elena. “Can I, Mom?”
And Elena–Elena, who looked at me like I was a stranger–gave him a warm, easy smile. “Of course, sweetheart,” she said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
The door clicked shut behind them.
And I was left standing in the sterile quiet of the hospital room, feeling like the ground beneath me had turned to mist. My pulse thundered. My wolf clawed at the edges of my chest, wild with confusion.
I took a step closer. Careful. Reverent.
“You really don’t know who I am?” I asked.
She shook her head slowly, expression soft and unreadable. Not afraid. Not angry. Just… curious. There was no recognition in her eyes–but no rejection either.
Then her gaze swept over me again, slower this time, and something shifted in her voice.
“No,” she said, “but I sure would like to.”
My heart cracked wide open.
A breath trembled in my chest. I didn’t know whether to laugh or fall apart.
Then, without warning, her hand came to her chest. Not urgently. Not like she was in pain. More like she was caught off guard. by something stirring inside her.
“Are you okay?” I asked, taking a step forward, ready to bolt for a nurse.
She blinked slowly, shaking her head. “No… It’s her.”
“Her?”
“My wolf,” she murmured. “She’s… she’s going a little wild right now.”
And that’s when I felt it too.
A flicker beneath my ribs. A tug in my soul. The faint pulse of something ancient and sacred threading between us.
+25 BONUS
The bond.
Our bond.
Her eyes lifted to mine again. This time, something coy danced behind them. Something unguarded.
“Are you feeling this too?” she asked, voice just above a whisper.
Inside me, Erebus surged forward, howling. Not in pain. Not in fury. But in stunned, relieved, euphoric recognition.
Yes. YES.
“I am feeling this,” I said hoarsely.
And instead of the walls I’d grown used to–the mistrust, the disappointment–she smiled.
Not politely.
Not cautiously.
A real smile.
Radiant Curious. Alive.
“Well,” she said, with a teasing lilt that made my heart ache. “Isn’t that interesting.”
My whole body felt like it was on fire.
That’s when the doctor walked in.
He hesitated at the threshold, catching sight of us. His gaze swept over the room–me standing too close, Elena smiling like a girl in the middle of a flirtation, not a patient recovering trauma.
“Ms. Hart,” the doctor said carefully, stepping in with clinical caution. His eyes flicked between us–me, Elena, then me again, brow furrowed with something that looked very much like alarm. “How are you feeling?”
Elena’s smile didn’t falter. In fact, it deepened slightly. She leaned back into her pillows with an ease that made my throat tighten, her eyes never leaving mine.
“I feel great,” she said brightly. “I’ve just met someone…”
I could see the way her words hit the doctor. A flicker of tension in his jaw. A subtle shift in posture. That single, loaded sentence told him everything he needed to know.
He crossed the room with deliberate speed, reaching into the pocket of his white coat.
“Ms. Hart,” he said again, gentler now, switching into full diagnostic mode. “Do you mind if I check your pupils real quick?”
She looked surprised but not wary. “Sure,” she said. “I feel fine, though.”
