Chapter 109

Dante’s POV

The river felt like the only thing left with life. Everything else was dead quiet, and for once, I could hear myself think, no screaming, no clanging metal, just the smell of wet dirt and pine needles tangled in the air.

Elora was by the side, knees tucked up under her chin, clothes trailing in the water. She didn’t talk. She didn’t need to. Just being there was enough, steady, almost ghostly, like that eerie calm before something big and ugly hits.

The moon spun her hair silver, made her eyes look soft, far away. She was off in her head again. Always was.

I bent down next to her, stone-cold on my hands. We just sat there, saying nothing. Everything felt breakable, patched together by someone who didn’t know what the hell they were doing.

She was still bleeding, but not anywhere you could see. You could just... feel it.

“Have you ever thought about what it would be like to wake up and not remember any of it?” I finally asked. “The war. The people we lost.”

She looked at me, her lips pressed in a thin line. “You mean just forget?”

“Yeah. Just for one day. Pretend none of this ever happened.”

She looked down, watched her reflection split and swirl in the river. “If I forgot, I’d lose who I am now. Who I had to become.”

I studied her... how tough she was underneath all that sadness, the way she never let the exhaustion show. “You became the kind of person the rest of us would follow,” I said. “Someone worth holding onto.”

She let out this rough laugh, not quite bitter, not quite anything. “Worth remembering. You say that like it’s simple.”

“Nothing about you is simple,” I blurted, before I could stop myself.

She turned slowly, eyes looking at the moon. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

My heart did this weird flip. She was close... closer than I’d realized. Her shoulder brushed mine. I could feel her breath.

“It means you make it hard to think straight,” I managed to say.

She parted her lips, and neither of us moved. The air between us felt like it was about to snap. I watched her fingers, restless, drawing patterns in the dirt.

“Elora,” I tried.

She looked back, eyes sharp.

“There’s something I got to say,” I blurted.

Her brow pulled tight. “Dante...”

“I’m not asking for anything,” I cut in. “Just need to say it before it eats me alive.”

She waited. She always waited.

I sucked in a breath. “I loved you before the war gave me a reason. Hell, maybe before I even knew what that meant.”

Her eyes went wide, her hair catching the wind like silver flames.

“I think I knew the day you told Dominic to shove it in the council room,” I kept going, voice low and fast. “You stood there shaking, so damn angry, and you still wouldn’t back down. Everyone saw an omega who didn’t know her place. I saw someone who could torch the whole world if she wanted.”

Her lips moved, but she didn’t say anything.

“I loved you on the battlefield, you had blood on your body, barking orders while everyone else froze. I loved you when you held onto me after the ambush, when I thought I was done for. You told me you couldn’t lose me.”

My throat closed up a little. “That’s the first time I ever believed I mattered again.”

My words just hung there, raw and ugly and real.

She blinked, and I caught the shine of tears. She didn’t turn away.

“Dante…” she whispered.

I reached for her, fingers brushing the back of her hand, but she didn’t pull away.

“Don’t answer. Not yet,” I said, voice barely more than a breath. “I just... needed you to know. Even if you leave, or go back to him, or start over somewhere new. I had to say it. Once.”

Silence, thick as mud. Just the river, and the distant crackle of dying fires.

Then she spoke, quiet as the night.

“I love you too.”

Those words made my heart skip a few beats.

She finally turned to face me, all the way this time. Her eyes were shiny, almost watery, and her mouth was trembling.

“I love you,” she said again, voice all shaky. Then that pause. “But…”

My chest went tight, my throat was stuck. “But?”

She dropped her gaze to where our hands were tangled up. “But I can’t leave him.”

Yeah. Dominic.

No one needed to say his name. It was already there, hanging between us like some stubborn ghost that just refused to pack up and leave.

Jealousy hit... sharp, bitter, a slow burn in my gut I’d been shoving down for months. But underneath all that? I got it. I really did.

I let out a shaky breath, and gave her a nod. “Yeah. I know.”

She looked back up at me, all heartbreak and way too much longing for my comfort levels. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“You already did,” I managed to say, whispering. “But honestly? I’d rather hurt you than do this life without you at all.”

Didn’t mean to say that out loud. Oops. Too late. She flinched, eyes going shiny again.

So we just sat there.

I wanted to grab her, tell her she didn’t have to choose tonight, didn’t have to be anything except herself. But the words got stuck. Not happening.

So I just stared at the river, the moon reflecting on the water.

At some point, she leaned her head on my shoulder, carefully, like she wasn’t sure if she was allowed. I didn’t move.

We sat there for a while, saying nothing, just listening to the river make a peaceful noise.

She was in love with me but married to another. Her heart was a mess. I let her stay that way.