Chapter 31 - 32
Elodie’s POV~
I should never have come back.
The Bellini University hall was buzzing with voices, old classmates laughing like the years hadn’t scattered us across different Packs and lives. But for me, it felt like walking through a ghost town where every shadow reminded me of who I used to be before Dante, before I became nothing more than his Luna in name but never in soul.
Johnny sitting over there, hadn’t changed much. He was still warm, still carrying that boyish charm that once made lectures bearable. Seeing him again was like opening an old wound I thought had scarred over.
We talked about the past. About our professor, the sharp-tongued old wolf who never let us breathe easy. I smiled at the memory, though it hurt. “I saw in the Pack news that he came back for the celebration,” I said softly.
Johnny smirked. “Still the same. Still calling us disgraceful students.”
I laughed, but it cracked halfway, before it turned into silence. My chest tightened. I missed this, the freedom, the hunger to learn, the way my world used to stretch beyond the walls of Dante’s mansion.
Then Johnny’s voice dipped lower. He leaned closer, eyes searching mine. “Come back, Elodie. You were born for this. Not for... that life.”
The teacup in my hand rattled against the saucer. My fingers were trembling. I stared at the dark liquid, afraid to meet his eyes. “Alright,” I whispered, though my throat burned with the weight of it.
Because I wanted to. More than anything, I wanted to step back into the life I left behind. I wanted to be the woman who spent nights scribbling formulas on papers, not the woman who spent nights lying awake beside an Alpha who never noticed her tears.
“I threw it all away,” I said quietly, more to myself than to him.
Johnny’s eyes softened. He didn’t push, just asked gently, “When can you return?”