A DINNER BENEATH THE STARS

CHAPTER THREE

Elena's POV

For a long time, I stared at the small piece of paper in my hands.

Seven o'clock. The eastern garden.

That was all it said.

No explanation. No greeting. Just a time and a place, written in the same firm handwriting I had seen on the documents Alpha Adrian Blackwood signed every day.

I read the words again, wondering whether I had misunderstood them.

The Alpha had invited me to dinner.

Me.

Elena Rose, the girl without a wolf. The girl people whispered about whenever they thought she couldn't hear them. The girl who had spent most of her life trying to become invisible so that nobody would have another reason to laugh at her.

Perhaps he wanted to ask me questions about what had happened in the western storage room. Perhaps he wanted to understand why he had called me his mate. Or perhaps, after resting and recovering from his injuries, he had realised that whatever connection he had felt between us was a mistake.

I tried to prepare myself for that possibility.

Still, when evening came, I found myself standing in front of the small mirror in my room, trying to decide what to wear.

My choices were limited.

Most of my dresses were old, and some had faded from being washed too many times. I finally settled on a simple yellow dress. It wasn't expensive, and the material had begun to wear thin around the edges, but it was clean.

I brushed my hair, smoothed the dress over my body, and borrowed a pair of shoes from Maya.

When I stepped outside, she looked at me for several seconds before breaking into a wide smile.

"Elena Rose, where are you going looking this beautiful?"

"Nowhere special?" She raised an eyebrow. "Then why have you been staring at that yellow dress for the past twenty minutes?"

I rolled my eyes, but my cheeks grew warm.

"I'm going to have dinner."

"With whom?"

I hesitated.

Maya's mouth fell open.

"Don't tell me it's the Alpha!"

"Keep your voice down!"

She grabbed my hands, excitement shining in her eyes.

"Elena, are you serious? Alpha Adrian Blackwood invited you to dinner?"

"Yes, but I don't know why."

"Does it matter? Just go and enjoy yourself!"

I looked down at my dress.

"What if he changes his mind when he remembers who I am?"

Maya's expression softened.

"Then that will be his loss. You deserve to enjoy one evening without worrying about what other people think of you."

Her words followed me as I walked towards the eastern garden.

The garden was beautiful.

Small lanterns hung from the trees, casting a warm glow over the stone pathway.

Flowers lined the edges, and the evening breeze carried their sweet fragrance through the air. Beyond the garden, the sky stretched into shades of orange and purple as the sun disappeared behind the distant hills.

Adrian stood beside a small table beneath a flowering tree.

He wore a black shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. Without his usual formal jacket, he looked less like the powerful Alpha who commanded the Northern Territories and more like a man who had managed to steal a quiet moment away from his responsibilities.

When he saw me, he straightened.

For a moment, neither of us spoke.

Then his gaze settled on my face.

"You came."

I stopped a few steps away from him.

"You invited me."

Something resembling a smile touched his lips.

"I suppose I did."

He pulled out a chair for me, and I sat down, suddenly very conscious of my old dress and borrowed shoes.

Adrian took the seat opposite me.

The table had been prepared with a simple meal. There was roasted meat, fresh bread, vegetables, and a jug of water. It wasn't the grand feast I had expected from the Alpha's household, but I was grateful for the quietness of it all.

There were no crowds watching us. No whispers following me. No one reminding me that I was different.

For once, I could breathe.

"Are you always this quiet?" Adrian asked.

I looked up.

"Only when I don't know what to say."

"And you don't know what to say to me?"

I gave a nervous laugh.

"You're the Alpha. Most people don't exactly sit across from you and have ordinary conversations."

"Then perhaps you should stop thinking of me as the Alpha for one evening."

I studied him.

"Is that possible?"

He leaned back in his chair.

"We'll find out."

His answer surprised a small laugh out of me.

And just like that, some of the tension between us began to disappear.

We talked about the pack, the changing weather, and the difficulties of his responsibilities. He told me about the constant demands placed on him and the council's expectations.

"Sometimes," he admitted, looking towards the garden entrance, "I feel as though everyone wants something from me. They want decisions, strength, certainty. They expect me to know the right answer before they've even finished asking the question."

I listened quietly.

"Doesn't anyone ask how you feel?"

His eyes returned to mine.

"Not often."

"That must be lonely."

For a moment, the expression on his face changed. It was brief, but I saw it.

"Perhaps," he said.

I understood more than I wanted to admit.

People often assumed that being alone was the same as being unwanted. But there was a difference between choosing solitude and being pushed into it by everyone around you.

I knew what it felt like to sit in a crowded room and still feel as though nobody could see me.

"What about you, Elena?" Adrian asked.

"What do you want from life?"

The question caught me off guard.

Nobody ever asked me that.

Most people wanted to know what I could do for them. Others wanted to remind me of what I lacked. They rarely cared about the things I hoped for.

I lowered my eyes to my hands.

"Nothing extraordinary."

"That isn't an answer."

I smiled faintly.

"I want a small home of my own someday.

Somewhere peaceful. Perhaps a little flower shop where I can work and arrange flowers every morning. A place where I can open the windows when it rains and not have anyone shouting at me for being useless."

The last words escaped before I could stop them.

Silence settled between us.

I immediately regretted saying them.

"I'm sorry. That sounded foolish."

"No," Adrian replied.

His voice was quiet, but there was something firm beneath it.

"It didn't."

I looked at him.

He held my gaze.

"You shouldn't have to dream of a place where people won't call you useless. They shouldn't be calling you that in the first place."

My throat tightened.

I had heard people tell me to ignore insults before. I had heard them tell me to become stronger, to stop being sensitive, and to accept that life wasn't fair.

But Adrian wasn't telling me to endure their cruelty.

He was telling me I didn't deserve it.

I looked away before he could see how much his words affected me.

"Why did you invite me here?" I finally asked.

He didn't answer immediately.

Instead, he reached for his glass, turning it slowly between his fingers.

"I've been thinking about you."

My heart stumbled.

"About me?"

"Since the night I found you in the storage room."

I swallowed.

"You called me your mate."

"I did."

"But I'm wolfless, Adrian."

The words came out more quietly than I intended.

He set down his glass.

"I know what people say about you."

"Then you know why it doesn't make sense."

"Does everything have to make sense before we can understand it?"

I stared at him, unsure how to respond.

He leaned forward slightly.

"I don't have all the answers, Elena. I don't understand why the Moon Goddess would connect us, and I'm not going to pretend that I do. But I know I haven't stopped thinking about you."

My fingers tightened around the edge of my napkin.

"Why?"

"Because there's something about you I can't explain."

For the first time that evening, I allowed myself to wonder whether he meant it.

Perhaps this connection between us wasn't something I had imagined. Perhaps there was a reason the most powerful Alpha in the Northern Territories had looked at me and recognised something nobody else could see.

But hope was a dangerous thing.

I had learned that the hard way.

So I forced myself to look at him and ask the question that mattered most.

"What happens if you discover that I'm not the person you think I am?"

Adrian's expression grew serious.

"Then I'll discover who you really are."

He said it so simply that I almost forgot to be afraid.

For the rest of the evening, we continued talking beneath the stars. He asked about my childhood, and I told him a little about growing up without a wolf. I didn't tell him everything. Some memories were too painful to share with someone I barely knew.

But I told him enough.

And he listened.

When the evening finally came to an end, Adrian walked me towards the garden entrance.

The night air had grown cooler, and I wrapped my arms around myself.

He noticed.

"Are you cold?"

"A little."

He removed his jacket and held it out to me.

"You don't have to—"

"Elena."

I stopped talking.

"Take it."

I accepted the jacket, pulling it around my shoulders. It carried his scent, a deep, familiar fragrance that made something inside me grow strangely quiet.

We stood there for a moment.

"Thank you for dinner," I said.

"You're welcome."

I turned to leave, but his voice stopped me.

"Elena?"

I looked back.

"I'd like to see you again."

My heart began to race.

I wanted to ask him why. I wanted to ask whether he understood what his attention could mean to someone who had spent her entire life being overlooked.

Instead, I managed a small smile.

"All right."

His expression softened.

"Goodnight, Elena."

"Goodnight, Alpha."

He gave a quiet laugh.

"Adrian. You can call me Adrian."

I nodded before walking away, his jacket still wrapped around my shoulders.

I didn't know what the future held for us. I didn't know why the Moon Goddess had chosen to connect a powerful Alpha to a girl everyone believed was wolfless.

And I certainly didn't know that the feelings beginning to grow inside my heart would one day become the source of my deepest pain.

That night, however, I allowed myself one small, dangerous thought.

Perhaps I wasn't as unlovable as the world had made me believe.

And perhaps, just perhaps, Adrian Blackwood was beginning to see me.

End of Chapter Three.