Chapter 64: Aurora

Shortly after Dane left, the twins came. I spent an hour with them and my own pack members, so happy to be alive and to see them. Then the healers came and said Dane had ordered that I be moved to a different room.

It wasn’t in my suite with my pack members. I protested, but they said it was temporary, so the healers could visit me more easily until I recovered, and so I could rest without too much interruption. Hopefully, in a day or two, I could return to my normal room.

So, I went. The room was nice. It had a window that looked out over the forest, and the afternoon sun spilled in, warming it.

I wasn’t expecting Dane to slip inside. Half-asleep as I was, I didn’t even know he was there until he shifted, and the chair by the bed creaked beneath his weight.

I sat up, and immediately I was dizzy. I leaned against the headboard. “Dane!”

He watched me with a serious expression. “My beta thinks you’re going to betray me to Holden and Fall Line. He said I shouldn’t trust you.”

Fear quickened my heart. Did Archer somehow know about the conversation I’d had with Holden? How could that be?

“I have no plans to betray you,” I said truthfully.

Then I waited, watching. Because in all the years I’d known him, Dane had never believed me.

But slowly, he nodded. “I’m going to trust you. I think, after all these years, you deserve it.”

That made me feel sick all over again, because I didn’t. I knew I didn’t.

Tell him, something in me whispered. Tell him about your past. Let it all come out. Be completely honest. That way he knows, and none of this can haunt you anymore.

But he had just said he trusted me, and I wasn’t willing to lose this moment. Not yet.

“I ended things with Evelyn,” Dane said abruptly.

At first, his words sounded so foreign to me, I couldn’t understand them.

Then when I did, I didn’t believe them. There was no way. No way he would end the relationship that had plagued me for the better part of a decade.

“You…what?”

His gaze was steady. “I don’t love her. I don’t want her. I haven’t for a long time. After the Night’s Truth, all of us knew it.”

“But her child…”

I bit back those words. I’d heard her in the hall with someone, I was mostly certain…even though, since what had happened in my old bedroom, I wasn’t sure if my own memories were to be believed.

Lying to Dane about who the father of her child was would be too low, even for Evelyn.

Wouldn’t it?

“You have my children, too,” Dane’s voice was rough. He moved and sat on the edge of the bed, facing me. “For years, I thought I owed her. But now I owe you just as much, or more.”

Tentatively, he touched my cheek. “When I found you in the woods, I swore to myself I would protect you. Then I became your greatest enemy. Maybe it’s time to go back to my original promise.”

He leaned forward and softly, tenderly, he kissed me.

At first, it was hardly more than a brush of his lips against mine. I knew I should hold back. My past wasn’t as simple as I used to think.

What if this all went wrong? What if I was a danger to him, and hurt him again?

But I had never been able to resist when he touched me, and when I exhaled and melted against him, he deepened the kiss.

His arms went around me, pulling me close, trapping my arms against his hard chest. One of his hands tangled in my hair, cradling my head. The other wrapped low around my back and crushed me against him.

“I have fought wanting you for so long,” he whispered against my lips. “For years, I hated myself for wanting you. But I wanted you all the same. And if you really were a victim of the Night’s Truth, like I was, you want me, too.”

I shuddered, because as much as I wanted to deny him, he already knew he was right.

He had ended things with Evelyn.

Maybe now, maybe this time, he really, truly, could be mine.

He explored my lips for a long time, so gentle and tender it felt heartbreaking. I closed my eyes, and warm tears trailed onto my cheeks. I’d wanted this for so, so long.

He kissed the tears, his own breathing unsteady, but his hands and mouth never wavering as he explored my face with lips and fingertips. He moved to my forehead, then my nose, then my cheeks, then my jaw.

When he got to the sensitive skin of my neck, I gasped. I wrapped my arms around his and tilted my head back to give him easier access. “Dane…please…”

With a rumbling sound like a growl, he dipped his head lower.

He’d never taken this much time with me. Never…loved me in this way.

If I was dangerous for him, I should push him away. But how was I ever supposed to let this go?

There was a sharp ringing at the side of my bed. He pulled back long enough to glance at the source of the noise: my phone, ringing on the bedside table.

“Turn it off,” he growled.

But I was already pushing him away. I grabbed the phone and answered, hoping my voice didn’t sound too breathy as I said, “Hello, grandmother. What can I do for you today?”

“Aurora,” she snapped. “Your cousin, Lilliana, has arranged a marriage with a very powerful Alpha. I’m pleased with her. You, on the other hand, seem to be struggling to find one simple relic.”

“Bul-”

She cut me off. “Silence. I’m displeased with you, and I’m tired of wasting our resources. If you don’t return to Europe now, I’m giving the title of Luna-heir back to your cousin, and you are going to lose everything.”