When I stepped close and met Alpha Vincent’s eyes, the nausea returned, stronger than ever. But this time, I understood why)
<-10
The moment I stepped into Alpha Vincent’s car, my breath hitched.
It wasn’t just the shock of leaving everything behind–Foreland Pack, my title as Luna, the wreckage of my mamage. It was somethin deeper, something primal. My wolf stirred within me the second our eyes met, just as she had during the alpha gathering. Just as she had when Vincent visited Foreland and I nearly collapsed from a wave of nausea and confusion. Now, everything made sense |
The nausea. The pull. The disoriented ache in my chest whenever he was near.
It was the bond.
The fated mate bond.
My heart slammed against my ribs as the realization settled like thunder in my chest. “It’s you,” I whispered, almost to myself, as i tumed to look at him.
Vincent’s hands gripped the steering wheel tighter, his jaw clenched, “You feel it too,” he said, voice low, rough, “I thought I was imagining it Gods, Ivy. All this time.”
“All this time,” I echoed numbly, my gaze flickering to the road before us. My stomach churned–not from nausea this time, but from the avalanche of emotions rushing through me. “How is this possible? Why now?”
“I don’t know,” he muttered. “The Moon Goddess has her own sense of cruelty and timing.”
The silence that followed was thick with disbelief, tension, and something unspoken that danced just beneath the surface. We both sat in it, letting the bond puise quietly between us, tender and strange like a forgotten melody playing from the heart.
I tried to remember every time I had felt it–that unfamiliar heat, that dizziness that took me off guard. It wasn’t just the scent or his presence. It was my wolf recognizing something I hadn’t. At the hotel room at the alpha gathering…. when I was locked in the dungeon and he had come to the packhouse… it had always been him.X
And I had been blind.
“How long have you known?” I finally asked.
He exhaled. Truly? Only today. I suspected at the gathering, I felt it–when you walked into the hall. My wolf nearly broke through the surface.” He glanced at me, his eyes glowing faintly in the dark. “But you were still wearing his scent.”
A flush of shame crept up my neck. Ethan’s scent. All the lies I wore like a second skin!
“I don’t know what to do after everything.” I said quietly.”
“And now?” he asked, the words a whisper. A hope.8
“I don’t know,” I admitted, my voice barely audible. “I’m broken, Vincent. I’m tired, and I’m… I don’t know who I am anymore.”
The car slowed as we passed through the tall gates of Nightshade Pack. Guards bowed their heads in respect as we entered, but I barely noticed. My entire body felt like it was floating and falling at the same time.
The car came to a stop in front of a grand stone manor nestled between the forest’s edge and the heart of the pack. It was colder here. the Nightshade territory darker and older than Foreland. But somehow, it felt safer too.
Vincent opened the door for me, and I stepped out, hugging my coat tighter around my waist. The chill in the air wasn’t what made me shiver–it was the storm of feelings still raging inside me.!!
He led me inside, not to the pack hall, not to the guest quarters, but to a quiet study that smelled faintly of pinewood and old leather. The fire crackled gently in the hearth, casting warm shadows on the walls.
We sat, a heavy silence stretching between us once more.X
Tm not rejecting the bond,” I said suddenly, breaking the quiet. I looked up at him, his tall figure leaned forward, hands clasped. “I need you to understand that. This connection between us? I feel it. So does my wolf. But I’m not ready to leap into something new when I’ve just clawed my way out of hell.“H
His brows furrowed. “I’m not asking you to choose me today, Ivy. I just need to know you won’t reject me. That you’ll give yourself time. That maybe someday–you’ll let me in.”}
I let out a slow breath, the tension in my shoulders easing “I can promise you that.”
His expression softened, the faintest smile tugging at the corners of his mouth “Then that’s enough for now.”
Our wolves were quieter now, less agitated. Still sad, maybe, but understanding. Mine was curled up inside me, licking her wounds, but she no longer felt alone.
“Why do you think the Moon Goddess waited?” I asked. “Why didn’t we feel it sooner?“)
Vincent shrugged, eyes distant “Maybe she wanted us to be ready. Or maybe she needed to break us first, so we’d know how to value
each other”
I stared into the fire, the flickening flames a mirror of my thoughts. “I don’t want to be broken anymore
“You won’t be,” he said firmly. “Not here. Not with me”
I looked at him–really looked. Vincent was never the type of alpha who demanded loyalty through fear. He ruled through strength, yes, but
904 PM ₫
I looked at him–really looked. Vincent was never the type of alpha who demanded loyalty through fear. He ruled through strength yes b
also through presence. Calm. Steady. Unshaken. He had always been there in the background of my life, and now the fates had place him front and center.
“I still need time” I repeated, more to myself than him.
“You have all the time you need, Ivy,”
His words wrapped around me like a balm, and for the first time in weeks, I let out a true breath. I wasn’t healed. I wasn’t whole. But i was away from Ethan. Away from the lies. And I was with someone who saw me–not as a title, not as a trophy–but as a woman. A wolf. A
mate
Later that night, as Vincent led me to a guest room, I paused by the window and looked out across the forest. The moon hung high in th sky, silver and silent.
The bond still pulsed gently between us. And for the first time, it didn’t hurt.8
Maybe the Moon Goddess hadn’t abandoned me after all.
