Chapter 469

Nolan’s POV

I waited until Talia was out of earshot before laughing, and even then I tried to keep

it quiet.

“She’s different,” Marco said.

“No,” I said, sitting down at my desk. “She always used to leave the room like that whenever I brought up something she didn’t want to talk about. She’d just walk out mid-sentence and pretend she had something to do.”

“Where did she sleep last night?” Marco asked.

“Our room,” I replied. “I’m staying in the guest room down the hall.”

Marco frowned and said, “I’m sorry. I know that was difficult to accept.”

“That was my decision, not hers. I want her to be comfortable and not feel pressured,” I explained.

Marco considered that for a moment, his gaze softening. “I get it. It’s just… I saw what it did to you, all those years waiting. And now she’s here, you’re still holding back. Aren’t you scared she’ll never remember if you don’t push at all?”

The question hit a sore spot because, of course, I was scared. I was terrified that Talia wouldn’t ever truly remember me, that she’d play along out of duty or guilt. But I’d rather wait forever than force her into something she didn’t choose.

“She met me yesterday.”

“She’s your mate.”

“She doesn’t know that,” I said. “To her, I’m just the guy she’s been told is her mate”

“She’ll come round to it.”

“Maybe she will. But if I go into her room tonight just because I’m supposed to, I’d be asking for something she’s not ready for. She’d probably go along with it because she feels like she owes me for the last five years. I don’t want that.”

“I can understand that.”

“I waited five years. I can wait a bit longer.”

“Just promise me you won’t do what you did last time,” Marco added. “Your whole journey to get to know her and to win her over was stressful. Be upfront and honest about how you feel this time.”

“I know,” I said. I didn’t need to be reminded that it was a miracle that Talia hadn’t rejected me for how I acted before.

But I did wonder: if she met me for the first time all over again, would she choose me now?

‘Of course she will choose us,’ my wolf huffed. ‘She is our mate, and you will not deny the mate bond this time. The pull between true mates is impossible to ignore. Even if she can’t remember me, the bond is still there, waiting, just beneath the surface.

‘I said I was sorry about that.’

‘We wasted so much time on your foolish decision,’ my wolf said. ‘We won’t do it again.’

“So, Camilla advised she needs familiar people and things around her,” Marco said, changing the subject. “Then, I think you do need to move back into your room with her.”

“I told you I won’t pressure her.”

“You’re not going to jump her bones

UT

by sleeping in the same room with her. I believe you have more restraint than that, Alpha,” Marco added. “Spend time with her. Talk to her, do things together. The more time she spends with you, the more likely she’ll remember. Sitting in separate rooms being polite won’t help anyone.”

“Okay, I’ll do that starting this afternoon. The twins want us to pick them up from

school together, and Elian wouldn’t leave until I promised.”

Marco laughed. “That kid doesn’t miss anything, does he?”

“No, nothing,” I said. “He’s worse than when I was a kid.”

“He and his sister,” Marco chuckled. “With those two alone, I bet Talia gets her memories back faster than anyone expects.”

I thought about the twins and how easily they accepted everything. They acted as if Talia had been away on a trip. Their adaptability made things seem possible.

“I hope so,” I said.

That evening Talia and I went down to the school in Fangvale to pick the twins up. It was a better school than the one within Bloodmoon, only because in the safe zone, children would be allowed to interact from. other packs’ without fear of being attacked.

When we got there, the yard was full when we came through the gate. Children everywhere, most of their parents waiting along the fence, and the noise thinned as people worked out who was standing next to me. had made that walk on my own every time until tonight, and nobody had looked up once. I let them look now.

Nyla saw her first. She came across the yard at a flat run with her bag swinging off one shoulder and hit her mother at the waist hard enough to move her back a step.

Talia got both arms around her and kept her upright by about an inch.

Then Nyla turned round with a fistful of her mother’s coat still in her hand.

“This is my mother,” she told the whole yard. “She’s awake now.”

Elian came up behind her at a walk, put his arms around Talia’s waist, then turned

and delivered his own news with his chin up.

“She’ll be picking us up from school from now on,” he said.

Talia smiled and said, “Most days.”

The other children closed in around her. Their parents were watching from afar.

Seeing the Alpha Queen was an honor for them.

“You’re so beautiful,” one of the small ones said.

“She looks like the Moon Goddess,” said another.

“No, she doesn’t. She looks prettier,” a girl at the front corrected him.

The tall boy standing behind the others, who’d been building up to it since we

walked in, finally said, “No wonder you are the Sleeping Beauty Queen!”