2: YOU SHOULD'VE CALLED ME!

MALIA’S POV.

There’s a crowd outside the pack house, even wolves that are supposed to be on patrol, lined up in groups.

But I’m not surprised.

News travels faster than wind around here.

I reached into my glove compartment, spraying the special perfume I kept there— the familiar scent masking over the strange scent on my clothes.

I stepped out of the car.

“Luna,” Zara rushed towards me, relief written all over her face. “I looked everywhere for you last night—”

“Where is he?”

She freezes half a second,

“Your chambers”

I don’t wait. Heading straight to my side of the pack house.

The hallway feels longer than usual, questions in my head growing louder with each step I took.

My fingers hover around the knob for a second, before my grip tightened pushing it open.

Just yesterday, the private investigator confirmed his chances of coming back are Nine to a zero out of a hundred.

Yet, he’s here.

Tall, broad, and familiar, looking out the floor length window, Like he did years ago.

As if sensing me, he turns.

Those hazel eyes lock onto mine. “Malia” my name rolled off like he’d been holding it in for a long time.

He crosses the distance in seconds. His arms are around me lifting me off the ground.

I stiffen completely when his lips crash against mine, hard, familiar yet wrong in every way.

My hands moved before I could stop them shoving him away with a force that surprises us both, sending him stumbling backwards.

He shrugged it off reaching again.

“Malia—"

My hand swung again, the slap echoing through the room with a loud crack, my chest heaving as fury finally found its voice.

“We’re have you been?” The question rolled off like I didn’t already know. Like I didn’t get different version of the same thing over and over.

But I still wanted to hear them come out of his mouth.

Emil bit his lip, running a hand to his cheek, then— “I guess I earned that”

Earned?

Something about the way he said that… made my chest twisted harder.

“Answer the damn question” my voice comes out colder than I feel.

“You know why I left. We need alliances, and I —”

“Oh, cut the crap.” I hissed taking another step back. “You had two years to come up with a better excuse for your silence”

His jaw tightened slightly. “I wasn’t silent. I was working—”

“For who?” I shoot back,

because clearly it wasn’t for me or the pack.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but I was securing our future!” He says, “Everything I did is for you and the pack”

“what’s hard to believe is a wolf willing to go a year straight without his mate”

“I didn’t forget you,” he says quietly. “Not for a second.”

My gaze drops to his wrist, the old worn out bracelet I gave him still there.

Like evidence he expects me to accept. But I know better.

“I made you a promise, Malia,” he adds, stepping closer again. “Everything I did was to keep it.”

My eyes narrowed at him.

“I’m sorry,” he adds. “For what you had to deal with while I was gone.”

The apology sounds right. But something about it feels… distant, like he’s holding back something important.

I don’t speak.

“I know this isn’t easy to take in” he continues, voice softer now. “you’ve always understood what this life demands.”

There it is.

The expectation, that I’d fall back into place if he just says the right things like I always have. It’s almost insulting.

Silence fills the space for a moment, waiting for him to say something that make sense for once.

He doesn’t. So, I do.

“You don’t cut off communication for two years, make up weak excuses and expect me to take you back with open arms because you said sorry right?” I cross my arms over my chest. “Being human doesn’t mean I’m stupid Emil”

“I know you left because you wanted to, I’ve seen pictures, and you seemed pretty satisfied with your new pack” his eyes flickered, the shock was gone as fast as it came.

“Malia-“

“You’re not here because you suddenly missed me. Or because the pack needed you”

“Let me explain—”

“You don’t have to explain what I already know. Your new pack must’ve gotten tired of you, tossed you aside. And then you remembered we exist and now—”

“It’s not like that” he cuts me off with a growl so loud I almost flinched.

Let’s out a sigh then turns back to the window. Pacing a few steps, hand running through his hair. As if he’s trying to gather his emotions. Before facing me again.

“Fine” he muttered.

Then began undoing his shirts buttons.

My breath caught at the sudden movement.

“What are you doing?”

“You want the truth right?” His shirt gone in one sharp motion. “If words can’t explain it, then maybe this will.”

My breath catches when I see it.

A scar.

A brutal uneven scar, had stretched across his torso in a jagged line climbing towards his left arm. As if something had tried to rip him open but didn’t succeed.

I take a step closer, the skin there is darker and rough. Healing imperfectly with faint stich marks.

“How… did this happen?” my voice comes out lower.

Emil watches me for a second before he answers. “We got ambushed. on one of the roads to Darkfangs.”

The words settled heavy in my chest.

“We lost everything we had along the way, Max and I needed to focus our energy on healing, So I shut everyone out.” the last words came as if he had to force them out.

“You have my number memorise, you should’ve called me!” I took a step closer. “No. You should have come back” my voice was nothing more of a whisper.

“Derek wasn’t bluffing with those threats, you saw the bodies he sent” his eyes barely on mine. “I needed to make sure I had what it takes—”

“What if you died?” I yell, blinking away the sting in my eyes.

Alpha Derek never bluffed, but the thought of Emil, in those woods, in pain, dying because he wanted to keep us safe—that, made my lungs burn with an intensity I didn’t knew possible.

“I’m not dead” a bitter smile crossed his face.

“You should have reached out even once, you should’ve called me, I would’ve sent—”

“Malia—” He reach for my hands with a gentle squeeze.

This time, I don’t pull away.

“This is exactly why I didn’t want to reach out. You’ll start worrying and blaming yourself for this”

“This time I’m not blaming myself! I’m blaming you!”

If he called just once, or even a one-line text from him heck even a single word from him, I wouldn’t have given up!

I would’ve waited, no matter how long it would have taken.

Maybe if he’d come back yesterday…

Then Draven and I—

Shit.

“You should have called me!” My chest rises and falls with the force of it, the words still burning in the space between us.

His hands that felt warm suddenly felt wrong around mine.

Silence stretches between us, heavy and suffocating.

Then Emil goes still.

Not quiet—still.

His nostrils flare as his gaze drags from my face down my body, slow, deliberate. Like he’s caught something he shouldn’t have.

A second passes.

Then another.

“Malia…”

My breath hitches.

When his eyes lift back to mine, they’re darker now, something dangerous flickering beneath the surface.

“Why…. do you smell like another alpha?”

My stomach drops.

Because he’s not asking.

He already knows.