Chapter 132
Dominic POV
I am not hiding outside the infirmary.
I am standing very strategically near the door.
There’s a difference.
The door is cracked just enough for voices to slip through, and I lean against the wall with my arms crossed, pretending I belong here. Like I’m waiting for someone.
“…no abnormalities,” a healer says inside. “Sometimes stress manifests physically.”
Stress.
I almost snort.
Ellie under stress once took am impossibly rigged exam, slept four hours across two days, maybe,, and still corrected my form during medic drills. She doesn’t faint from stress. She snarls at it. And me.
I’ve seen stressed.
This wasn’t that.
Through the thin wood, I hear her voice-quiet, groggy, half-conscious-and something in my chest tightens before I can stop it.
The memory flashes back uninvited.
Something was wrong when she approached, like she didn’t even realize it was me. I was angry at first, annoyed that it was her, anyone but her, treating me.
Especially after that morning, seeing her with Lucas.
I nearly rolled my eyes.
But the way she went down wasn’t graceful. No warning. One second she was wrapping my arm, the next her knees buckled and she fell straight into me like gravity gave.
I’d caught her, arms locking around her as her head hit my shoulder, her breath warm against my neck, and her fingers-
Her fingers fisted into my shirt like she was drowning.
She didn’t just grab me. She clung.
My hand moved over my chest, rubbing the spot she nearly ripped my shirt.
I still feel it. The pull. The way she pressed closer like she needed my chest under her cheek, my heartbeat against her ear.
Then Lucas was… there.
“Let me,” he’d said, already reaching for her.
I hadn’t wanted to let go. That part bothers me more than it should. But he was already taking her.
Only problem was, she didn’t either.
Ellie’s hand wouldn’t release my shirt. Not when Lucas tugged. Not when I tried to gently pry her fingers loose myself.
We had to peel her off me, one by one.
She made a sound when we did. Small. Almost a whine.
+30 Bonus
I don’t know what to do with that memory, so I shove it down and listen harder as the healer moves on, satisfied with her nothing-answer.
Then, Lucas passes me, rushing into the room.
