Evaline:
I stopped breathing.
The world didn’t slow - it collapsed. Ti folded in on itself, pulling back to a mory I never wanted to revisit. But the famikiar and haunting face walking toward us dragged there anyway.
He was looking just the sa and yet sohow worse. Ti had sharpened his features, but to , he was nothing more than a storm I thought I had outlived.
My chest tightened as mories surged to the surface, pounding into my ribs with every step he took closer.
The boy I had once looked at like he hung the moon. The one I trusted blindly. The one I was ready to spend the rest of my life with.
And the man who told I was never enough.
The mate who humiliated in front of the entire pack while my stepsister clung to his arm like she already owned him. Because she did, didn’t she?
He chose her.
All the affection, the comfort, the illusion that he was my safe place - it had all been a lie. A carefully constructed play orchestrated by Damian, my stepbrother. I had fallen for Ethan’s every word, every touch, every promise. I had believed he saw , needed , loved .
But all he did was to shatter that illusion in the cruelest way possible.
I thought I would never see him again. I hoped our paths would never cross after I left my past behind. But here he was.
Unashad.
And walking toward like we didn’t share a graveyard full of pain.
My vision blurred. I couldn’t breathe. My fingers were twitching uselessly by my sides. Panic tightened around my throat, and every instinct inside scread to run, to vanish.
I started trembling - violently, uncontrollably.
I reached out, desperate for sothing to ground , and my hand found River.
His arm was solid beneath my palm, and the mont I touched him, his head turned sharply. His eyes narrowed as he registered the fear I was radiating, like a dam breaking inside .
"Evaline?" His voice was quiet, cautious. "What’s wrong?"
I couldn’t answer.
Ethan was too close now.
Too real.
I couldn’t look away. I couldn’t move. I felt frozen, like a deer staring down a hunter, but this hunter had already pulled the trigger once.
My lips parted, but only one word slipped through.
"Help."
If I hadn’t been unraveling, I might have noticed the change in River. The way his entire body tensed, like my whisper had pierced sothing far deeper than the surface. His eyes widened briefly as if my request had struck so cord he didn’t even know he had.
He didn’t ask again. He followed my gaze.
He turned his head just enough to glance over his shoulder... and saw Ethan.
And that’s when he moved.
So fast it felt like a gust of wind, he stepped into , pulling tight against his chest in a smooth, protective motion. The world spun, and suddenly I was enveloped in his coat, my face pressed to his warm chest, completely hidden from view.
He wrapped his arms around - firm, immovable. They felt like a barrier between and my past.
Right at that mont, the footsteps halted beside us.
"Alpha Thorne," Ethan’s voice rang out - far too familiar, far too cheerful. "It’s such an honor to et you in person. I’m Ethan Blackwood from Blackwood Pack."
River didn’t respond.
I felt the shift before I sensed it - the weight of his power rippling outward, silent and suffocating. Like a tidal wave crashing against the edges of the corridor. His aura flooded the space with such quiet nace that I felt Ethan flinch even though I couldn’t see it.
The silence dragged.
And then Ethan’s voice ca again, weaker this ti. "I didn’t realize you were with soone. My apologies, I didn’t an to interrupt your... mont."
There was a pause. River’s arms stayed locked around like a shield, his body unmoving. His power pressed harder.
Ethan swallowed. I heard it.
"I’ll... I’ll be on my way. Sorry again."
His footsteps retreated quickly - almost too quickly. He was running from River’s presence, not from guilt. He didn’t even realize who I was. Of course he didn’t.
I waited.
Even after the sound of his steps vanished down the corridor, I couldn’t move. My fingers were clutching the fabric of River’s suit coat like a lifeline. The terror hadn’t ebbed. It was still coiled in my chest, strangling .
River’s hands were gentle when they shifted, one moving to my lower back, the other brushing softly along my arm.
Then he said, quietly, "Co with ."
Still in a haze, I let him take my hand. His grip was firm, unyielding as he led away from the hallway, away from the grand hall, away from all of it. I followed blindly, my mind still spinning in a fog of disbelief.
We ended up in a side room - so office or eting chamber, empty and dimly lit. He closed the door behind us, then turned the lock with a click.
The sound grounded more than anything else had. My heart thudded against my ribs, but I was no longer gasping.
I stood still, trying to catch my breath. The silence between us stretched, thick and heavy.
"I thought he was dead," I finally whispered. And I ant that. Since he was with Lilian that evening, I had assud that he might have beco a victim of the annihilation.
River said nothing. He just waited.
I t his eyes. "I just... thought I would never have to see him again. I built a life without ever expecting to cross paths with him again."
I was babbling at this point. River didn’t even know who Ethan was or how I was related to him. Most importantly, why would he care about my reaction-
"I might not know anything, but I do care, Evaline."
His sharp words had staring at him in confusion for a mont until I realized that I just spoke my thoughts out loud.
He closed the space and ca to stand right in front of . "Ethan Blackwood... what’s your relation with him?"
Reviews
All reviews (0)