Chapter 127
Chapter 127
Nolan POV
I couldn’t get her out of my head.
Even after the music had faded and the ballroom returned to a blur of faces and clinking glasses, all I could feel was the press of her hand in mine, the heat of her gaze when she’d looked up at me. That dance had burned into my veins, sharper than any battle wound.
Ellie.
I told myself it was the mate bond clawing at me, a wolf’s instinct, nothing more. But the lie didn’t hold long.
Because when I closed my eyes, it wasn’t just her scent or her touch that haunted me-it was her laughter from years ago, her stubbornness, the way she used to look at me like I was more than the man my father said I’d never be.
The truth lodged itself in my chest like a blade. I had feelings for her. Maybe I’d always had them, buried under duty, anger, and the weight of my family’s expectations.
And gods, I had ruined everything.
I dragged a hand down my face, pacing the length of my room. My thoughts turned, unbidden, to Felicity.
Felicity, with her sharp smile and softer lies. Felicity, who had been a constant shadow at my side. She had been comfort and chaos all at once, and I had convinced myself that being with her was choice, freedom. That she was what I wanted.
But the truth was darker. The truth was a secret I’d buried so deep, even I sometimes pretended it wasn’t there.
The night my parents were attacked by rogues still played in fragments-blood on the forest floor, splintered branches and underbrush, the sound of my mother’s scream echoing through the trees.
I had been too far away to save them. By the time I reached them, my mother was gone, her body limp in my arms.
But my father… he was still breathing. Barely.
He’d pulled me close, his hand sticky with blood as it clutched at mine. His voice was a rasp, weak, but his words seared themselves into me.
“I was too hard on you,” he whispered. “Always pushing… never enough. I’m sorry.”
I had shaken my head, choking on the metallic air. “Don’t talk like that. You’ll make it through.”
But he only tightened his grip. “Live your own life, Nolan. Don’t be chained by me. Don’t let my mistakes bind you. If Felicity makes you happy… stay with her. Don’t waste your chance.”
His eyes, pale and glassy, had searched mine. And then they’d gone still.
I’d taken those words as his dying wish-that I marry Felicity, that I honor what had cost him his life. Because it had been my choices that caused this.
They had followed me into the rogue zone when I foolishly tried to run away to be with Felicity. If I hadn’t put her above everything else, my parents would’t have come searching for me. They wouldn’t have been killed.
The rogues had struck when I wasn’t where I should’ve been.
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Chapter 127
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So I told myself I owed it to him. That I had to follow through, even if it meant binding myself to Felicity despite my instincts screaming at me that I was meant for someone else.
But now… now every time Ellie smiled, every time her eyes sparked with that fire I remembered, I felt the weight of that vow like a noose around my neck.
I had destroyed her once. I had taken the fierce, witty woman and worn away at her confidence until she was a simpering mess, desperate for a shred of affection.
The car accident was like a reset. This was the Ellie that I had broken once. I was determined not to let her become that frightened, desperate version again.
But I couldn’t stop wanting her still.
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