Chapter 230
Chapter 230:
“I was ten,” he corrected softly. “I learned to survive in the ice and the dark. I learned that pain is the only teacher that never lies p>
The image of the arrogant, billionaire Alpha King shattered, replaced by a lonely boy shivering in the snow, burning with silver. My heart ached with a ferocity that surprised me.
“You aren’t a monster, Dallas,” I said, my voice trembling.
“Aren’t I?” He leaned forward, shadows dancing across his face. “I bought the apartment across from yours because I am obsessed. I track your movements because I am terrified. That is not normal, Adella. That is the beast p>
“Why?” I asked, the question slipping out before I could stop it. “Why me? We signed a contract a few months ago. Why does it feel like this has been going on for a lifetime p>
𝖱𝖾𝖺𝖽 𝖿𝗋𝖾𝖾 𝗇𝗈𝗏𝖾𝗅𝗌 𝗈𝗇
Dallas closed his eyes and exhaled a shaky breath. “Because it didn’t start with the contract.” He opened his eyes and pinned me with a gaze so intense it felt like a physical touch.
“Five years ago. The Alpha Summit in Chicago,” he rasped. “I was there. Ragnar was close to the surface, agitated by the crowd, the noise, the stench of posturing Alphas. I was ready to tear the throat out of the next person who spoke to me p>
I frowned, searching my memory. I had been there — serving drinks as a waitress, a wolfless nobody invisible to the elite.
“I was sitting under an oak tree in the gardens, trying to control the shift,” Dallas continued. “And then you walked by. You didn’t see me. You were reading a book, hiding from your shift manager. You saw a man in pain, and you didn’t run. You dropped a handkerchief on my knee and whispered, ‘Breathe p>
The memory struck me like a physical blow. The man in the shadows. The one who looked like he was fighting a war inside his own skin.
“I smelled it then,” Dallas whispered, leaning closer until our foreheads were nearly touching. “Moonflowers. Rare. Delicate. Impossible to forget. For the first time in my life, the noise stopped. Ragnar settled. I knew then. I knew you were mine p>
Tears pricked my eyes and spilled down my cheeks. He hadn’t been stalking me to control me. He had been waiting. He had been protecting the only thing that gave him peace.
“You’re not broken, Dallas,” I choked out.
I moved before I could second-guess myself. I took his arm and lifted it to my lips, pressing a soft, lingering kiss directly onto the silver brand — the mark of his shame, the source of his pain.
Dallas shuddered, a sound that was half-sob and half-growl tearing from his throat. The electricity of the mate bond sparked between us — not painful, but warm and healing, like sunlight after a long winter.
“You’re just scarred,” I whispered against his skin. “And scars heal p>
He looked at me as if I were the only source of light in the universe. The storm raged on outside, but in here — in the quiet of my den — the war was finally over.
Message from Noa: Have a great day dear readers. God loves you and Noa wishes you all the best. (ɔO‿=)ɔ ♥