All Chapters of FAKE MATE, REAL BOND: Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

GinaThe drive back to Dante’s estate was longer than I remembered.Or maybe it just felt longer because every mile gave me more time to second-guess everything.The road twisted through black pines and ragged underbrush. My thoughts twisted just as wildly.Ryan’s face when I told him I was staying.Rose’s tears.The cold conviction in my own voice, as if I hadn’t been crumbling inside.When the car finally stopped in front of the mansion, I didn’t move. I sat with my hands clenched in my lap, staring at the massive iron doors that loomed like a judgment.Dante didn’t rush me. He sat behind the wheel, quiet and still. Only the ticking engine marked the time passing between us.At last, I forced myself to push the door open and climb out. My legs felt like they belonged to someone else.The night air was sharp, biting my cheeks and filling my lungs with frost.Dante came around to my side but didn’t touch me. He simply walked beside me up the steps, his silence oddly comforting.Inside

Gina. The vial sat on the edge of the nightstand, catching the dawn light like a shard of ice.I couldn’t look away from it.I’d lain awake for hours, my body exhausted but my mind refusing to quiet. Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Ryan’s face the moment I told him I wouldn’t come back. I heard Rose’s voice cracking as she begged me to reconsider. And behind all of it was Dante’s steady, relentless presence like the gravity of a planet I could never escape.I pressed a hand to my belly. The smallest swell was there now, undeniable. Proof that no matter which path I chose, nothing would ever be simple again.A soft knock interrupted the tangle of my thoughts. I almost ignored it. But something in the quiet patience of that sound made me sigh and force myself upright.“Come in,” I rasped.The door swung open, and Dante stepped inside.He didn’t look like a man who’d slept much either. Shadows bruised the skin under his eyes. His hair was disheveled, and there was a rawness around hi

I didn’t sleep that night.Not even for a moment.I sat by the window as dawn broke across the trees, the sky a watercolor of bruised violet and gold. The air was so still it felt like the world itself was holding its breath.Inside me, everything was shifting.All the questions I’d spent my life asking who I was, where I came from, why I was never enough had finally found answers. But answers weren’t the same as peace.Answers were only the beginning.I touched my belly with both hands, feeling the small swell beneath my palm. My child. My blood. A symbol of everything I had been and everything I was about to become.I thought of Ryan, the way he’d looked at me in the clearing like he’d die if he couldn’t have me back.And I thought of Dante, standing silent in the shadows, eyes dark with something that might have been regret…or pride.Two men who both wanted pieces of me.But what did I want?That was the question I couldn’t outrun.By the time Mara returned, carrying a tray of warm

GinaAfter Ryan left the courtyardhis scent lingering like a promise I didn’t go back inside right away.I stood in the doorway, my hand pressed to the rough wood, trying to quiet the war in my chest.I had never imagined a life where I could choose. Where no one owned my fate no alpha, no parent, no ancient pack feud.But choice was a terrifying thing.When the wind finally grew too cold to bear, I stepped back into the hall. The quiet was so absolute it made my ears ring. Every footstep echoed like an accusation.At the end of the corridor, a door stood open. The study.I knew without looking that Dante was in there. Watching. Waiting.My heart fluttered a soft, unsure beat and I nearly turned back.But I was done running.Slowly, I crossed the threshold.He was at the window, silhouetted by pale winter light. His coat hung from the back of a chair, and his shoulders looked heavier without it, as if the weight he carried had finally sunk into his bones.For a moment, he didn’t turn.

RyanI don’t move.I stand there in the cold, my breath fogging the air, and watch her disappear back down the path toward Dante’s estate.Her cloak flutters behind her like a shadow I can’t catch.Even when she’s out of sight, I still don’t move.Because if I do, if I turn around, if I let my legs carry me back to the car I think I’ll fall apart.The wind is bitter against my skin. It seeps into my bones. But none of it feels as cold as the emptiness hollowing out my chest.This isn’t how I thought it would end.Not with her walking away from me.Not with me letting her.If you decide you want me, I’ll be here.I meant every word. And maybe that’s the worst part.Because I’m not the boy I was when I first met her. I’m not naive enough to think love is enough to heal every wound. But even knowing that, I still can’t imagine a life where I don’t wait for her to come back.I drag a hand over my face, trying to scrub away the sting in my eyes. My palm comes away wet.Goddess, what is wro