DEREK
“Mark me.”
The words hit me like a jolt to the spine. For a second, I thought I misheard her. The room, still pulsing with the heat of our lovemaking, went unnaturally still. My body tensed, awareness sharpening.
“What?” I asked, breath catching. My voice sounded rough, disbelieving. Maybe even scared.
She didn’t falter. “Mark me,” she said again, this time softer but more certain–like she was offering me something sacred. Her hand, warm and strong, pressed against my chest. She leaned into me, eyes full of light and fire, pinning me down as if daring me to say no.
She didn’t know. She couldn’t know.
She was still wrapped around me, her body slowly softening, but her gaze–goddess, that gaze–was so open. So trusting. My throat ached with the weight of everything I couldn’t say.
“Elena…” I reached up, cupped her face. My thumb brushed the edge of her cheekbone. “Not here. Not like this.
A flicker of confusion crossed her face, her brows drawing together. And why wouldn’t she be confused? To her, we were two people falling in love. Unburdened by history. By pain. By the wreckage we’d left behind. This was all new to her. Clean.
To me, it was everything I ever wanted but had no right to claim.
She stared down at me, searching for something in my face, and I hated myself for the hesitation. For the cowardice. Because in this moment, with her above me, tangled in sheets and moonlight, I wanted to mark her more than I wanted to breathe. Erebus stirred restlessly within me, clawing at my ribs, his howl rising in my chest.
Claim her! Now.
I closed my eyes and pushed it back.
I’d been enjoying this too much. Pretending I was just a man falling for a woman. That she wasn’t my mate. That she hadn’t once looked at me with devastation on her face as I walked away from her. That she hadn’t disappeared from my life for six goddamn years and taken my soul with her.
But she didn’t remember any of that. Not yet.
And if she did… this–us–might vanish like mist.
The thought gutted me.
“Elena,” I said again, more gently this time. “I-”
I almost said it. I almost told her who we were to each other. Who we had been. But I stopped myself, remembering what the doctor.had told me. She needed to find out on her own. She needed to figure it out for herself or the absolute worst could happen.
I stopped myself just in time and her eyes widened just slightly before the confusion settled deeper.
She was still on top of me, her hand resting against my chest, her body curled so closely into mine it felt like a second skin. And all I wanted to do was pull her closer, press my mouth to her shoulder, and leave a mark that would tell every wolf in the world she was mine.
But I couldn’t–not like this.
I kissed her forehead instead, then let my arms fall away.
And the moment shifted.
ELENA
1/3
L
Chapter 286
+25 BONUS
The way he looked at me–gently, like I was breakable, like he was trying not to shatter something delicate between us–told me everything I didn’t understand. It wasn’t just restraint in his expression. It was grief. Longing.
Guilt? I couldn’t quite place it. Only that it left me feeling like I was holding a thread already fraying.
Still straddling him, I eased back a little, my thighs tightening around his hips as I shifted. The warmth between us cooled just slightly, and with it came the flicker of uncertainty rising in my chest.
“What, you want to be married first?” I asked with a lightness I didn’t feel, tossing the words out like a joke. A lifeline. Something to chase away the fragile silence.
But even as I said it, I felt it wobble–like a vase with a hairline crack, trying to hold water.
