All Chapters of The Bride He Never Wanted : Chapter 51 - Chapter 60

OLIVIAI pushed myself to my feet again, using the tree trunks to steady myself. My whole body felt weak, shaky, like I could collapse any second… but I kept going.Branches scratched my arms, leaves brushed against my face. The sound of the waves faded behind me as the forest swallowed me whole.“How much farther?” I asked weakly.“Not far,” Raina said. “Look to your left. Do you see the plant with long green leaves and red veins?”I turned my head. At first I didn’t see anything but trees and bushes. Then… there it was. A plant growing low to the ground, its leaves long and shiny, with dark red streaks running through the middle.“Yes,” I whispered.“Take them,” Raina instructed.I knelt down… or tried to. My legs shook so badly I fell forward, catching myself on my palms. Dirt got under my nails. My breath came in sharp gasps.But I reached out and pulled the leaves.Raina spoke again. “Now the small white flowers beside it.”I looked and saw tiny white blossoms hiding under the le

OLIVIASomething tickled my leg.At first, I thought it was the wind. Then it moved again… higher.My eyebrows squeezed together as my eyes slowly fluttered open… and the first thing I saw was a crab.A fat, ugly crab crawling up my leg.I screamed so loud the birds flew off the nearby trees. “AHHHH! Get off! Get off!”I kicked weakly, pushing the crab away with a shaky hand. It tumbled onto the sand, waved its claws at me like it was the offended one, then scuttled off.My heart pounded fast. “Calm down,” Raina’s voice murmured in my mind. “It’s just a crab.”“A crab almost ate me alive,” I muttered, still panting.“Olivia.”“Okay, okay… I’m calm,” I whispered, though I clearly wasn’t.I rubbed my eyes and finally took in where I was.I was lying on perfectly arranged banana leaves. I frowned, touching the leaves under me. Someone had placed them carefully… this wasn't a random pile.I sat up slowly, wincing at the sharp pain in my ribs and the dull ache everywhere else.Then it hit

RYANSeeing her cry did something to me.Something I didn’t even know I could feel anymore.I stood there frozen, still in my wolf form, watching Olivia break apart on the sand, because of me.Living among humans meant hiding every part of myself, and I convinced myself I didn’t need anyone to know. Didn’t need a mate, didn’t need a pack.But the moment I saw her shift in front of me on the beach… bleeding, fighting for my life while I was half-dead, it felt like the world punched me in the chest.She wasn’t human. She was one of us.A wolf.Her healing me, her bringing me back. her wolf guiding her through those herbs… everything finally made sense.It was the curse breaking.Slowly, I stepped back, letting the shift pull through my body again. My bones cracked, fur sank back into my skin, my hands reformed. A moment later, I was kneeling in the sand, in my human form again. “Olivia…” I whispered softly.She didn’t look at me. Her hands were over her face, her shoulders shaking.I mo

OLIVIAFor a few seconds… maybe minutes… I just stayed there, leaning against his chest.I hated him.God, I hated him so much in that moment. But I also… couldn’t move.My body didn’t have the strength. My mind was a mess, spinning and spinning until all I could do was breathe against him, letting my tears soak into his skin.His arms were warm and tight around me, steady in a way that made something in my chest ache even more.A wolf.Ryan.He was actually a wolf.A twist I never saw coming. Not even in my dreams, and now he could walk? Shift? Stand on both feet like nothing had ever been wrong?It was too much.I wanted to push him away… God, I wanted to shove him so hard he’d fall back into the sand. But my arms felt like jelly, my legs were trembling, and my head was pounding.So I just stayed there, trapped between anger, shock, heartbreak… and exhaustion.We stayed like that for a long moment, just breathing, or trying to.Then suddenly… I smelled something. I scrunched my face

RYANI sat on a flat rock near the fire, my back turned toward the ocean where Olivia had gone to bathe. The waves were loud… but not louder than the mess in my head. I stared at my hands and still couldn’t wrap my mind around the truth of it. I was walking, shifting as breathing without pain. All because of her.I wasn’t supposed to be like this, sitting calmly and trying to behave like a decent man. I wasn’t supposed to laugh, or talk gently, or watch the fire beside someone without wanting to push them away. I wasn’t supposed to be nice. But I had been. Today… I had actually been nice to Olivia.And the realization twisted something painful inside my chest.I tilted my head up toward the darkening sky, letting the heat of the fire warm my back. Every woman I’d ever tried to be around never stayed longer than a day… I made sure they didn't. I didn’t want anyone close enough to hurt me the way my mother did. She traumatised me, used me, and left me crippled and cursed. Women were tr