Chapter 222
[ 485 words ]
Chapter 222:
In the end, she chose the first option, then quietly asked for one week to settle things here and say her farewells.
I gave her that time.
I got back into the car, sent the driver away, and took the wheel myself on the drive home.
After pulling up, I cut the engine, but I didn’t step out immediately. Instead, I leaned back against the seat and lifted my eyes to the master bedroom window on the second floor.
It was completely dark.
Lianne was probably already asleep. Or maybe she simply no longer wanted to leave a light burning for me.
I thought about everything that house had held for us over the last three years, how close we had once been within those walls.
The happiness that had once seemed almost close enough to touch had been ruined by my own hands.
A hollow ache sat in my chest, stubborn and unmoving.
I took out a cigarette and lit it. I hardly ever smoked, and the rough burn of tobacco scraped through my lungs so harshly that it made me cough, leaving my eyes stinging with moisture.
Once my breathing finally settled, I let out a long cloud of smoke and watched it unravel slowly into the night air.
D𝗂ѕ𝘤ov𝗲𝗋 𝘯е𝘄 s𝘵оrіe𝗌 𝗼ո 𝗴a𝗅n𝗼𝘷𝗲l𝗌.c𝗼m
If I walked inside now, would Lianne still be there for me?
Ethan’s POV
For several days, I did not go home.
I buried myself in work from morning to night, dealing with nothing except the mountain of unfinished paperwork.
I could not even say for certain what I was trying to avoid.
As the Alpha of the Thorn Pack, I had never before found myself so incapable of facing anything.
What I feared was hearing Lianne speak once more about ending our mate bond.
There was an important business dinner today. Amid the laughter, the toasts, and the polished conversation, a constant tension sat lodged in my chest.
Outside, the gray sky finally broke, and a relentless rain came pouring down.
After sending off our business partners, I waved the driver away and stepped into the storm alone beneath a black umbrella.
The alcohol coursing through me left behind a faint, restless heat.
I walked without purpose and, before I knew it, had wandered into a narrow, secluded alley.
The passage was empty, with nothing but the dense drumming of rain on my umbrella and the dull echo of my own footsteps.
That kind of silence reminded me of Lianne.
Deep inside me, my wolf let out an uneasy, agitated whine.
Just as I neared the mouth of the alley, six men came toward me. Each one held an umbrella, talking and laughing like ordinary office workers heading home after a long day.
But the instinct that had kept me alive all these years flared at once, warning me that something was wrong.
There was none of the easy looseness ordinary people carried. What clung to them instead was a tension sharpened into hostility.
The instant we drew level, the lead man’s face changed without warning.
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