LOGINAfter arriving all he did was stare at me,Like I was some statue that had appeared out of nowhere, like his eyes needed a moment to confirm that what they were seeing was real and not something the pain had manufactured, and I stood in the doorway of his room under the dim light and looked back at him and what I saw made my chest do something it had no business doing,He was on the floor,Back against the bed, with one hand flat against the cold stone like he was using it to anchor himself, and even in the low light I could see it, the pain moving across his face in waves, controlled and quiet the way he did everything but unmistakably there, and he was wincing, small and suppressed, the sound of someone who had been enduring something alone for a very long time and had gotten very good at making it look like nothing,I crossed the room fast,I crouched in front of him and looked at his face properly and what I saw under the dim light was pain and torture, deep and old, the kind that
I got to the bookshop earlier than I needed to,Old habit, the kind that survived everything apparently, including being kidnapped by wolves and kissed by an Alpha in a moonlit bedroom at two in the morning, my body still knew that work started at eight and that arriving ten minutes early was the right thing to do,I was at the door with my key out when I saw him through the glass,Marcus,He was inside arranging books on the shelf the way he always arranged books, methodically like it was something that mattered, and I stood outside the door for a moment and looked at him and noticed how he still looked as charming as before, the dark curly hair and the warm brown eyes and the easy way he moved through a space,And funny enough I was not moved,Not even a little,I stood there genuinely puzzled by this because I had carried a crush on Marcus for five years, five years of Thursday deliveries and rehearsed conversations and hoping he would look up from whatever he was doing and actuall
After much thought about it I finally went to sleep,And I thanked God that I did not disturb the others because the last thing I needed was Danny knocking on my door asking why I was awake at two in the morning with my curtain still moving from a window I had not opened myself,The next morning I woke early around six as usual,I lay there for exactly three seconds before I made myself get up and get dressed because lying there meant thinking and thinking meant last night and last night was something I had made a firm decision not to revisit before breakfast,I went downstairs,Ruth was at the stove, Danny was setting plates, Caroline was cutting bread, and the three of them moved around each other in the small kitchen with the easy rhythm of people who had spent weeks holding the same space together, and when I walked in all three of them looked up at the same time,Nobody said anything for a moment,Then Danny said good morning and went back to the plates and that was how I knew he
After he came inside my room he looked everywhere and said it looks very portable and comfySo all I could say was thank you and immediately I felt really nervous My mind started bringing different thoughts of what could happen today and I began to feel restless.Then he spokeIsadora I don't know what you might think of me right now but it's because- because my wolf wouldn't stay still I am attached to you Isa and he kept drawing closer.I kept pushing back until my body landed on the wall and there was no space for me to move again.Then I look at her other side trying to avoid eye contact with him .I felt really hot as he came closer and he finally did then he said.You might not understand what I am about to say. Isa you are my mate and we are meant to bond but I can't and the more I keep resisting the more I keep wanting what I should do with you.I became short of words and really loss as to what I am about to say According to what wren has told me I was able to understand t
I screamed his name before I even fully processed that it was him, and then I screamed Caroline's and both of them spun around and their faces did the thing faces do when they see someone they had already started to grieve, that specific crack of disbelief and relief hitting at the same time,Run, I said, I was still running, I did not stop, just grabbed Caroline's arm as I passed her and said run right now and she ran, she did not ask questions, she just ran, and Danny fell into step beside me and the three of us crashed through the undergrowth together with the sounds of the Duskfang wolves somewhere behind us fading, fading, and then gone,We did not stop until we hit the edge of the tree line,The road was there, the actual road, tarmac and lamplight and the ordinary human world sitting exactly where it had always been, and we stumbled out of the trees and stood there breathing hard with our hands on our knees and the forest behind us dark and silent,Danny straightened up first,
I was given an hour to pack,Which was almost funny because I had arrived with nothing and I was leaving with almost nothing, just the clothes that had been given to me and the small things Wren had pressed into my hands over the weeks, a hair tie, a small pot of something that smelled like lavender, a note she had written and folded twice that she told me not to read until I was home,I held the note for a long moment,Then I put it in my pocket and looked around the room that had been mine for weeks, the window with its view of the courtyard and the forest beyond, the fireplace that Maren kept stocked without being asked, the bed that had been too wide and too warm and nothing like the thin mattress in the cell below and everything like something I had not expected to get used to,I had gotten used to it,That was the inconvenient truth sitting in the middle of everything else,Wren came in without knocking because she had stopped knocking three weeks ago and sat on the bed and watc







