GAVIN’S POV
65 vouchers
I was in Ace’s living room sending a text to Cyrus when I heard footsteps behind me. Charlotte stopped a few steps away quietly staring at me. When our eyes met, my heart did stupid somersaults in my chest. “Damn my stupid heart!” I almost cursed out loud. I still loved her a lot more than I did years ago. After all these years, it still reacts to her like this. You would think time would have killed whatever was left but it didn’t.
The truth is, I truly loved my mate. When I found her sick, I fought like hell for her to live. I stayed in that hospital more than I stayed home. When I was with her, she was the only woman I loved, not just because she was my mate or the mate bond that pulled us together, and I made sure I told her that everyday. I stayed with her until the very end. When she died, something in me died with her. I actually believed that was the end of everything I had ever felt before her too. I told myself whatever I once felt for Charlotte had died a long time ago. But then I saw her again at a medical event in Tokyo a little over two years ago. One look at her face and all the things I had told myself crumbled. All the feelings I thought were gone rushed back to the surface, they never died.
When I saw her at the International Trauma and Regenerative Medicine Summit in Tokyo, she was on stage teaching a session on advanced tissue regeneration and accelerated wound healing protocols. In the human world, it was about stem- cell stimulation, rapid cellular repair and managing abnormal scarring. In our world, it translated perfectly to wolf physiology, controlling aggressive regeneration, stabilizing shifting trauma, preventing fatal rejection during forced partial shifts. The hall was filled with doctors taking notes while she spoke.
For a moment I thought I was mistaken. They say everyone has a double in this life. I don’t know if that applies to werewolves, but staring at her, I convinced myself it couldn’t be the same Charlotte I once knew. She looked too polished and untouchable. Then she said her name out loud again, flashing her beautiful smile.
Even without her birthmark, I would recognize her anywhere. The way her cheeks flushed lightly when she spoke too long, the perfect set of white teeth, that quiet calmness she always kept with her even when people around her were nervous. Some faces you don’t forget no matter how much time passes.
I did spend real time with her back at Brown League Pack. When her family shut her out and made her sleep outside like she wasn’t a person, I stayed with her. When she pretended she wasn’t cold, I sat close enough so she wouldn’t freeze. I gave her comfort the only way I knew how back then, without asking for anything in return.
It wasn’t easy getting close to her at that event. She was the respected daughter of Alpha Graves now. When I finally managed to stand in front of her, I expected at least a small recognition smile to show she remembered me. I found out later she had amnesia. My face must have been insignificant to her because she didn’t remember me when she saw me at her hospital. After that, I kept my distance but never really left. I thought of different ways to approach her without making it obvious. In the end, an opportunity presented itself. I brought one of my men to her hospital by myself just to see her professionally.
And now she’s standing in front of me again. I stepped closer and immediately caught Ace’s scent on her. I fucking hated it. That smell on her should have been mine, not my brother’s.
I still loved her, a lot more than I did back then. And I was not going to sit back and let Ace take her from me again. Walking in earlier and seeing them making out like that on his bed, it punctured my heart in so many unexplainable ways.
“Ummm,” she cleared her throat, straightening a little. “I have to ask you some questions and I want you to be very honest
with me.”
“How do you truly know me? Which pack do I come from? And how do you know my mate?”
When I didn’t answer immediately, she continued, her voice quivering a little. “I know I said I didn’t want to find out about my mate anymore, but the recent events are bringing up more questions.”
1/3
11:55 am PPPD
Chapter 86
55 vouchers
My brows creased. “What recent events? Did something happen to you?” I stepped closer without thinking. A loud possessive growl of protest filled my head. For a second I thought it was my wolf reacting, but it wasn’t, this felt more threatening. I lifted my head and saw Ace standing at the door, watching us. His jaw was flexing as his hands balled into tight fists by his side. He had just forced a connection through the mind link after years of us shutting each other out.
I ignored him, but I made sure not to touch Charlotte. “Did you start having new dreams?” I asked again. She nodded. I noticed the tiredness on her face. She had been up all night tending to Ace, anyone else would have burned out by now, but. she stood straight, even if her eyes looked tired.
The desire to curl her up in my arms was strong but that would be too forward and I might end up scaring her away. If only she knew how many nights she fell asleep with her head on my thighs while we sat outside under the cold sky. How many times I wrapped my arms around her so she wouldn’t freeze before dawn when they eventually opened the door for her to come in and do all the house chores without feeding her.
“In my most recent dreams, I was locked up in a small space, it felt like a restricted prison. Every day they dragged me out in public and whipped me with leather.” Her memories are gradually coming back scattered in pieces through dreams and flashes she couldn’t control. “That dream was gutting.” “She continued. “I want to know who I was in my past life and what I did that was so bad I had to go through all of that. Who decided that I deserved that punishment? What did I do?” She started pacing as she asked all the questions she’s been carrying for so long.
I glanced at Ace, he hadn’t moved. His face was blank, but his eyes… I couldn’t read the river of emotions fighting in there.
“I saw one face,” she sighed. “Moon’s face.”
My heart dropped straight into my stomach. If she has started seeing Moon, then this was about to get ugly. “She came to see me as they dragged me back,” Charlotte went on. “She hurt me physically and said some nasty things to me.”
I swallowed painfully. “You saw Moon’s face?”
“Yes. That was the first time I saw any face clearly. Now you have to tell me which pack I come from and how Moon came into the picture. Isn’t she Ace’s wife? Why would she show up there?”
I wanted to tell her everything down to the tiniest detail. But when I looked at Ace, my throat clamped for a minute. His eyes had turned red, the kind that comes before something breaks. He was gripping the glass door so tight I could hear it strain under his hold. For a second I thought it would shatter.
Fear, hurt, guilt, shame and so much pain were smeared all over his face and he wasn’t trying to hide it.
And right there, I realized this was my chance. The bond between us as brothers had been weak for years. He hurt the woman I loved and never once thought about what it would do to me. Why should I protect him now?
I looked back at Charlotte. She deserves to know the truth.
“If you’re seeing Moon in your dreams,” I began slowly, my eyes continually darting towards Ace who looked like he would die any second, “then it means she was…”
Sara Lili is a daring romance writer who turns icy landscapes into scenes of fiery passion. She loves crafting hot love stories while embracing the chill of Iceland’s breathtaking cold.
