Mated To The Crippled Alpha Chapter 387: My good Path

Watching Whitney crumple to the deck, sobbing with her whole body, made sothing in my chest pull tight. I moved in quietly and wrapped my arms around her from behind, holding her steady against the wind. "It’s cold out here. Let’s go inside. He told your health hasn’t been good you’ll make yourself sick."

Her crying only got louder. Between sobs, she managed to push the words out. "Elena, why didn’t you tell sooner?"

"He had his reasons," I said gently. "And I want you to know the tracker was a lie. There’s no chip. He made it up."

I rembered Vito’s face the night before when he’d told . There had been sothing in his eyes grief and tenderness so tangled together they’d looked almost the sa. She believed every word, he’d said. I told her the chip would detonate if she wandered too far, and she just believed . Like a frightened little rabbit. He’d almost smiled when he said it, and that almost-smile had been the saddest thing I’d seen all week.

But it wasn’t Whitney who was foolish. It never had been.

I couldn’t follow his suggestion to deceive her. Living through everything with Lewis had taught exactly what it felt like to be protected through dishonesty to have soone decide, on your behalf, that the truth was too heavy for you to hold. Lewis had done it out of love, and it had still broken sothing between us. I didn’t want that for Whitney. Whatever was coming for Vito, whatever road he’d chosen, she deserved to walk into her future with her eyes open. No one got to make that choice for her. Not even him.

"Wisteria had already planned everything before any of us could stop it," I continued, keeping my voice soft. "He used the chip story and the threat against the Morrigans to back you into a corner because he was terrified of what Wisteria would do to you if you had any room to fight back. That day, when you had no choice but to act against your father he never wanted that guilt to live inside you. He chose to be the one you’d hate. He decided your hatred was easier to carry than your grief." I paused. "He also lied to . He said the ashes were Malcom’s. They weren’t. They were Grandma’s. He deceived Dominic to get them to and asked to say nothing to you. He even suggested giving you sothing to erase your mories so you could wake up as Anna Morrigans, clean and new, with none of this weighing on you."

Whitney turned into , pressing her face against my shoulder, her tears soaking through the fabric. "Elena," she whispered. "Why are you telling all of this?"

"Because it’s yours to decide. Not his, not mine. Only you and he could ever really untangle what’s between you, and you can’t make a real choice without the truth." I pulled back just enough to look at her. "I have the pills. But whether you take them is entirely up to you."

Her red-rimd eyes lifted to mine. "What about him?"

I wiped her face carefully with my thumb. "He has his path. And you have yours. You’re almost twenty-six, Whitney. You’ve earned the right to walk forward without the past chained to your ankle. Don’t let regret be the thing that keeps you standing still."

She was quiet for a long mont.

"Freedom," she said slowly, like she was testing the shape of the word. "Do I actually have it now?"

"Yes," I said. "You do."

Whitney let help her to her feet. She turned back toward the water out of instinct, but the island had already disappeared into the distance nothing left of it but open sea and gray sky. I reached up and smoothed a hand over her tear-stained cheek. "What are you thinking?"

"I’m thinking about the road that brought here."

Not about him. About the road. I wasn’t entirely sure I believed her, but I understood what she was trying to do and I respected it.

"Elena." Her voice ca out soft and a little worn. "I’m okay. Can you give a minute alone?"

"Of course."

I picked up the cloak Vito had left folded near the railing dark fabric, practical, chosen with her in mind and draped it carefully around her shoulders before stepping away.

The mont it settled onto her, Whitney’s tears started again. She pulled the edges of it closed with both hands, knuckles going pale, and pressed her lips together hard. When she finally spoke it ca out barely above a whisper. "No one will ever understand the way he did."

I left her with that and walked back inside.

Vivian looked up when I entered, hesitating, clearly wanting to cross the space between us and not quite finding the nerve. Greg sat with Malcom, both of them carrying the particular awkwardness of people who knew they owed an apology they didn’t know how to shape. Malcom looked like he’d been working sothing up for a while. I didn’t give any of them the opening. I moved past them without slowing down.

Their remorse didn’t reach anymore. The version of who had needed their love who had spent years quietly hoping for it was gone. That girl had been buried slowly, under every mont of neglect and pain they had handed her, and she wasn’t coming back.

Lewis caught as I reached him, pulling into his arms without a word. "Rest."

"Okay."

I closed my eyes against his chest, and the steady rhythm of the ship rocking on the water pulled under faster than I expected.

In the dream, I saw her the silver-haired woman, standing alone at the water’s edge, playing the ocarina. The lody drifted out over the sea as the sun sank low and red on the horizon. Then she set the instrunt down gently on the wet sand, turned toward the water, and walked in. The waves rose around her, and she let them. Her face was completely at peace. No fear, no struggle. Just a quiet smile as the deep water took her.

"No "

I jolted awake, heart slamming against my ribs. Lewis was already looking at , his hand warm on my arm.

"Nightmare?"

The feeling of cold water closing over was still everywhere in my lungs, on my skin, pressing in from all directions. I grabbed his sleeve and reached up to touch his face, needing to feel that he was solid and real. "Lewis. Lewis "

"I’m here. What’s wrong?"

"I don’t want to be alone." My voice ca out smaller than I ant it to. "Please don’t leave ."

He gathered back in, pressing his lips to the top of my head. "Silly girl. It was a dream. I’m not going anywhere." His hand moved slowly through my hair. "Look we’re almost at shore."

I looked up. Sunlight was pouring through the window, and the sea outside was calm and flat and ordinary. The island was completely gone from view. Everything that had happened there already felt like sothing half-imagined a dream layered inside another dream.

I had lost Grandma. The Blackwells had gotten what they ca for. Whitney had found her freedom.

It was over.

..

A helicopter was waiting on the shore, arranged by Lewis. There weren’t enough seats for everyone, so the Morrigans would take a car back separately. I looked over at Whitney before we boarded, hoping.

She had already made her decision. "Elena, they need more than you do right now."

I understood. The Morrigans ho even broken and hollowed out as it was was still hers. She couldn’t walk away from it, not yet.

"Okay. Call when you’re settled."

"I will."

Lewis had already boarded. I was two steps behind him when soone grabbed from behind arms wrapping around fast, hot tears imdiately soaking into my neck.

Vivian’s voice cracked completely. "Elena, I know there’s nothing that makes what we did okay. After everything I finally understand how much we put you through. I should have seen you sooner. I should have protected you. Every mistake was ours."

Months ago, hearing those words would have ant the world to . I had spent so long wanting exactly this just to be seen by her, just to matter. I had needed it with a desperation that had quietly shaped everything about who I was.

But that version of was gone.

I carefully unwrapped her hands from around , held them briefly, then reached up and tucked a strand of her white hair back from her face. I looked at her directly and kept my voice gentle. "Mrs. Morrigans, I think you’re confused. Your daughter Elena is gone. Don’t you rember?" I gave her a small, steady smile. "The person in front of you is Riley. My mother is Lena. My father is Grant. Please try to rember that, the next ti we see each other."

I turned and walked toward the helicopter, each step deliberate and unhurried.

Behind , Vivian’s voice broke open.

"Elena just once more can’t you just call Mom one more ti?"

I kept walking.