Chapter 22 - 23
Elodie’s POV
The moment Mila’s arms wrapped around me, I almost broke. It had been a month since I’d seen her, but the second she pulled me into her hug, something inside me caved.
“Elodie!” she whispered like she’d been holding my name on her tongue for weeks.
I managed a faint smile, hugging her back tighter than I meant to. “Took you long enough.”
But my voice cracked on the words.
We sank onto the couch, trying to fall back into that easy rhythm we’d always had, but nothing about me was easy anymore. My chest felt like it had been carved open, and no matter how much I tried to keep it together, grief had a way of leaking through the cracks.
She reached for my hand, her eyes clouded with guilt. “God, El... I’m so sorry about this mess. I should never have told him where you were. What the hell was I thinking?”
I squeezed her fingers gently. “Don’t. Don’t do that to yourself.” I forced a shrug. “If you hadn’t told him, Calhoun would’ve just sent someone to track me anyway. Better it happened the way it did. A clean break hurts less than being dragged through it slowly.”
The lie tasted like ash on my tongue. There was nothing clean about the way it ended. Nothing clean about the way he had ripped my heart out of my chest, stomped on it, then dared to look at me like he owned the pieces.
Mila didn’t look convinced. Her jaw clenched like she wanted to argue, but instead her gaze flicked past me. My stomach twisted before I even turned. I didn’t need to. I could feel it, the heavy pull of his stare.
Calhoun. He was across the room, pretending not to look, but I knew better.
His wolf was restless, I could sense it. Every line of his body screamed that he was memorizing me, hoarding every detail, like he had any right left to.