Chapter 174
“Ellie,” she finally says. “I’m really…really happy for you. For this. You’re not an ordinary wolf. This is what you deserve.”
My stomach tightens.
“Okay,” I reply slowly. “That’s dramatic.”
She looks back at me, serious now. “It’s not, my love. Being beside Dominic will protect you.”
“Protect me…from what?”
She shakes her head, almost apologetic. “I just… feel it. This marriage isn’t just about love or timing. It’s for you.”
Oh, mother, you couldn’t be more wrong.
She reaches across the table and places her hand over mine, grounding me.
“But, Ellie. I need to say this. Just incase. Do what you want because you want it,” she says gently. “Not for me. Not because you think you owe me something.”
I pull my hand back. “I’m not.”
“Good,” She hums. “Because you two really are made for each other.”
I feel a slight sting.
“Everyone keeps saying that,” I mutter with a weak smile. “Like some perfect destiny unfolding.”
“Maybe it is.”
It’s not.
She studies me in a way that makes my skin feel thin.
“Do you love him?”
I look down at the table. At the faint scratches in the metal.
“Yes,” I say finally. What else is there to say? No? And have her feel guilty?
She doesn’t argue with that. She just nods like she understands more than she should.
When the guard announces time, we stand at the same time. We hug again, tighter this time.
“You’re going to be beautiful,” she whispers into my hair. “I love you.”
Outside the prison, Dominic is leaning against the car where I left him, sleeves rolled to his forearms, posture straightening the second he sees me. His eyes move over my face quickly, not dramatic about it, not asking yet, but checking.
“I’m fine,” I say before he can open his mouth. My voice comes out steady enough. “She’s… happy for us.”
His mouth curves slightly.
“For our fake marriage?” he asks, quiet enough that no one else could hear it even if they tried.
The words hit strange. Not painful. Just… complicated.
I walk past him and stop beside the passenger door, resting my hand on the cool metal.
“Is it fake,” I murmur, staring at my reflection in the window, at the girl in a nice dress who looks like she belongs to someone
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else’s life, “if it’s still legally happening?”
He doesn’t answer right away.
Instead, he reaches past me and opens the door, the movement smooth, automatic, his hand steady on the handle.
“Only we can decide that. But not now.”
I slide into the seat without looking at him, smoothing my hands over my lap so he doesn’t see the faint tremor in my fingers.
The door closes with a soft, final sound.
By the time he gets in on the other side and starts the engine, the prison is already behind us, shrinking in the side mirror into nothing more than steel and concrete and ghosts.
I glance at Dominic.
Protect me. She said.
The words echo in my head, unwanted.
Not an ordinary wolf.
I press my fingers lightly to my temple, as if I can physically push the thought away.
She meant it in a mother way. In the soft, emotional way mothers talk when they want their daughters to feel important. Not in a prophecy way. Not in a you are different, you are in danger kind of way. Or…reborn kinda way…
Right?
I swallow and look out the window, watching the city blur past in familiar pieces. Stores I’ve walked into. Streets I’ve crossed. Places where nothing ever happened to me.
Because I’m not special. Sure I was reborn, but…I can’t even shift properly. Not like Dominic. Not like real Alphas. My bloodline barely registers on any chart that matters. We were never powerful. Never chosen. Never anything worth protecting beyond basic decency.
And yet…
My fingers curl slightly in my lap.
If this marriage is protection, then something must still be coming.
And I can’t tell if I’m being saved this time…
…or led right back to the place where it all ended.
Because it sure feels like the seco
