Chapter 276
ELENA
I couldn’t stop talking about the date.
Erin. Mason. The maids. Dawn. Even Chad.
+25 BONUS
It was like my mouth had no filter anymore. Everything that usually kept me a little reserved my instinct to be discreet, to keep things private, to protect the sacred things in my life–had been torched the second he said yes.
I was going on a date.
With him.
The man from the hospital. The one with the silver–streaked hair and eyes that made my stomach do something indecent. The one Nox wouldn’t stop pacing about. The one who made my skin feel too tight, like I’d been dipped in electricity and sweetness at the same time.
My fated måte.
I hadn’t called him that out loud. But that’s what it was. The bond was undeniable. The way my body responded to his–like we were made of the same core materials and had just been broken apart and sent to opposite ends of the world to find our way back
And now we were here.
And I had a date.
“I mean,” I said to Erin as I rummaged through my closet, “what even is too much for a first date with your mate?”
“Probably sequins,” she said dryly from my bed. “Maybe also leather. Unless you’re planning to ride him like a bull by the end of dinner.”
I threw a pillow at her.
She caught it. Smirked.
“Sorry,” she said. “Couldn’t help it. It’s just–this is wild. You’re really into him, huh?”
“Wildly,” I murmured, holding a blouse against me and frowning at the mirro
”
Erin sat up. “But you feel like you do.”
And don’t even know him. Not really.”
I met her gaze in the reflection.
“Yeah,” I said. “Exactly.”
That was the thing. Everyone had been weird around me since the hospital, but not about the guy. They were weird about me. Like I was the one saying things wrong. Like they were waiting for me to trip a wire I didn’t know existed.
But I was done playing it safe. Done worrying about what they weren’t telling me.
Screw them.
I was excited.
I wore a soft wrap dress–something that didn’t scream pack meeting but still hugged me enough to make an impression. I curled my hair. Did my makeup carefully. Added a subtle shimmer to my cheekbones that Dawn had insisted was “irresistible in candlelight.”
I didn’t care if they thought I was being reckless. I was done overthinking.
1/5
+25 BONUS
He made me feel like fire. Like I could remember something I didnt even know I’d lost.
The restaurant we picked was in the heart of a neutral zone, a sma Moonstone–owned garden bistro tucked between old stone buildings and flowering trellises. When I arrived, he was already waiting.
He stood when I approached.
His eyes drank me in. Just once. But it was enough to set every nerve in my body alight.
“Hi,” I said, breathless.
He smiled like it pained him not to touch me, “Hi.”
We sat. Talked. Drank.
The mate pull between us was unbearable. Every time his land brushed the table, I had to resist the urge to slide mine closer. Every time his eyes dropped to my lips, Nox purred.
Q
I was not a forward person. I wasn’t shy, exactly, but I didn’t chase. I didn’t take men home after one drink, I didn’t melt just because someone looked at me like I was water in the desert.
But him?
I wanted to press my face into his throat and taste the skin there. I wanted to crawl into his lap and ask him to ruin me. I wanted to memorize his body by touch alone.
He, on the other hand, was… restrained.
Polite. Shy, almost. Like he couldn’t believe this was happening. Like he was afraid to reach too far, say too much.
But the chemistry between us was loud.
When the check came, he reached for it, fingers trembling.
As we walked out of the restaurant, I found myself leading him into a quieter side street. A narrow brick–lined alleyway full of flowering vines and lantern glow.
We paused. Close.
I tilted my head. My pulse thundered.
“You could come home with me,” I said.
His smile was slow. Aching.
“Maybe next time.”
I nodded, trying not to let the rejection sting. “Okay,” I said softly I can play it that way.”
We kept walking, just passing an alleyway.
And then I stopped.
Turned.
I couldn’t help myself.
I pulled him into the alley by his hand, rose on my toes, caught his collar, and kissed him.
The reaction was immediate.
He kissed me back like he’d been waiting for this for years. Like he was drowning and I was air. Like the world was ending and I was the only thing that could keep him sane.
Chapter 276
**** +25 BONUS
His hands cupped my waist. Pulled me closer.
I moaned into his mouth. Whispered against his skin, “Please. I need you. Right here. Please fuck me.”
I didn’t care that it was an alley. That the street was just around the corner. That I barely knew him.
I needed him.
And every part of him–his body, his wolf, his heat–screamed back the same thing
But he stopped.
Breath ragged, lips red.
“I want to,” he rasped. “More than anything. But… not yet.”
I blinked. Confused. Hazy.
“Why?”
He touched my cheek. Smiled like it hurt.
“Because you deserve more than that for our first time.”
And just like that, I melted.
He walked me back to my car, fingers laced with mine.
And I felt like the luckiest woman alive.
DEREK
Goddess.
She was trying to fuck me in an alleyway.
And I wanted to.
I really wanted to.
Erebus was howling. My wolf had never been louder. The second she touched me, , kissed me, begged me–I was gone. I was undone.
Her lips. Her breath. The way she whispered my name like it meant something sacred.
It took everything I had to stop.
Because the doctor had warned me. Because her memories- -our memories–weren’t back yet. Because if she remembered me too fast, if the shock hit her system wrong, it could undo all the healing she’d done.
She needed to remember who I was on her own time.
But the selfish part of me thought maybe–maybe–if she remembered while I was inside her, while I was buried so deep she couldn’t tell where I ended and she began… maybe that wold be enough to bring it all back.
Still.
Not tonight.
Not like this.
I pulled away gently. Tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. Kissed her forehead instead of her mouth, even though every part of me was screaming to keep going.
chapter/E
I walked her to her car like I hadn’t just turned down the one thing wanted more than breathing.
She let me hold her hand.
And for a moment- one sweet, suspended moment–I felt like I had everything.
Like this was my life.
Like I was Derek King, Alpha of Silverclaw, mate of Elena Hart, father of her child, and this–this–was the future I’d been fighting for.
The next time I saw her…
If she asked me again?
I wasn’t saying no.
And I was going to enjoy every second.
