Chapter 19
He studied me, his gaze lingering just a second too long, and I felt the heat rising in my cheeks again. My fingers tightened around my purse, resisting the urge to fidget.
“Claire,” he began, his voice softer, almost hesitant. But before he could continue, Zoe bounded over, breaking the tension.
oh my god, you two know each other?” she asked, looking between us with wide–eyed
excitement.
I forced a smile. “You could say that.”
Ethan’s eyes flicked back to me, a glint of something unreadable in his gaze. And I knew, in that moment, that whatever had brought us back into each other’s lives was far from over.
The past wasn’t done with us yet.
Ethan glanced my way, and my heart skipped a beat. His eyes, sharper now and filled with a darker, more dangerous edge, sliced through the bustling crowd between us. I stood there, rooted, the familiar tug of old pain winding its way through me, bitter and raw. Instinctively, I raised my hand, a polite smile frozen on my face as I waved. For a moment, it felt like everything was normal, like all those years hadn’t passed.
But just as quickly as our gazes locked, Ethan’s head dipped, looking away. My hand hovered awkwardly in midair, and I slowly lowered it, swallowing the sting of his dismissal.
*Did he not recognize me?* I wondered, a cold ache forming in my chest. Alphas were always attuned to the scent of their mates, even if that bond was broken or buried beneath time and resentment. *So, was he just ignoring me?*
Fine. If Ethan wanted to play arrogant, I’d let him. I clenched my jaw, an old fire stirring in
my veins. Just as I sent a silent curse his way, a low growl escaped my wolf. Her voice, usually silent, echoed through my mind. *Mate!*
I flinched, a pang of pain shooting through me. It was as if a dormant thread between us, long buried, had just been pulled taut. “No, I told myself. “I’m over this. Over him.” I tried
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Love
Chapter 19
to ignore the heat rising in my cheeks, but the sensation only intensified when Ethan raised his head again, his gaze locking on me with unsettling intensity.
It was like he’d stripped the room bare. The crowd faded to a blur, the murmuring voices dulled, and in that fleeting, silent exchange, the years and distance between us seemed to
fall away.
“Claire,” my wolf whispered, her voice laced with longing and desperation. It hurt, this lingering thread of our old bond–a pain that was sharper and more enduring than I’d ever
hagined.
Ethan’s gaze shifted back to the officer in front of him, who held out a document. I watched as he signed it, his movements deliberate, his eyes occasionally flickering toward me, though he pretended not to notice. His pace slowed as he scrawled his signature, finally coming to a halt, as if he could sense my simmering frustration.
I crossed my arms, abandoning any attempt at a smile, and just stared at him. If he wasn’t going to acknowledge me, I wasn’t about to let him forget I was here. And yet, even as I stood there defiantly, my gaze was drawn to his face, familiar and yet changed. His jaw was more defined, his eyes darker and shrouded with something I couldn’t place.
Our eyes met a third time.
But before I could muster the courage to speak, a slender, uniformed girl appeared at his side, whispering something into his ear. Jane. I recognized her immediately, and my stomach tightened.
Jane clung to his arm, speaking close to his ear, her voice a murmur that only he could hear. I caught a bit of what she said, though, thanks to my Omega hearing. She was talking about me -how I’d helped her in Shadow Sand, even mentioning the rumors about Ethan’s “suicide.”
His eyes flicked to me, his expression a strange mixture of emotions I couldn’t quite decipher. And then, something inside him seemed to snap. His eyes reddened, not with anger but with a raw, aching sadness that cut through the air between us.
*“I thought you were dead.“* The words echoed in my mind, spoken not aloud but through a Mindlink–a privilege only a mate could share.
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Chapter 19
My breath caught. *No way. Had he really just opened a Mindlink, after all rikawa yahre?
these My wolf yelped in response, her voice breaking through the fragile calm f’d tried
*Moon Goddess, are you messing with me?” I thought, frustrated and helpless. Med Bang apart for ten years, our bond broken, yet here she was, awakening it like a smoldering
flame brought back to life.
A hand nudged my shoulder, snapping me back to reality. Nick, my friend and confident, gave me a worried look. “Claire,” he murmured, “you okay?”
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Chapter 20
Chapter 20
