Chapter 139

Olivia POV

Not wanting to rouse the hostess yet again, Elroy and I quietly made our way into the kitchen to make some coffee. I, or my stomach, located some cheese and bread, and then we sat down together and embarked on a long, long-overdue conversation.

“I had tried for a year to get pregnant with Damian,” I began. “It was horrific, to say the least. Pills and shots and acupuncture, eating weird foods that made me want to vomit. I even hung upside down for an hour once.”

“Did Damian have to hang upside down with you?” Elroy asked so seriously it took me a minute to realize he was teasing.

Imagine that. Elroy teasing me again.

I just shot him a look and continued, but I felt my lip curl up even as I spoke. “I was determined to get pregnant no matter what, so I went to talk about it with Damian, who was in the middle of screwing my stepsister and making all these sex noises about making her his Luna and her giving him an heir.” I paused to push down the feelings of betrayal that wanted to rise up.

“What assholes,” Elroy said. “And then you met me, I take it?”

“Well, first, I got drunk.”

Elroy chuckled ruefully. “I thought you’d had a few.” He sobered. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have touched you.”

I waved a hand. “I wasn’t that drunk when we met. I knew what I was doing, and I wanted you fiercely.” I tilted my head to regard him. “You were and still are the most handsome man I’ve ever met.”

“I couldn’t believe someone as gorgeous as you wanted me back,” Elroy said.

I could have made a remark about Emma then, but this was supposed to be a constructive conversation, and I kept the barb that danced on my tongue to myself.

“After all that, my stepfather still wanted me to marry Damian.” I snorted. “He insisted on it, actually.”

“I recall.”

I nodded, and then I grinned and waited for Elroy to take a sip of his coffee. “I thought you were a call boy, you know.”

He didn’t quite spit the coffee all over the table, but it was close. He sent me a narrow-eyed look and then laughed. “I suppose I can see it.”

Then he shocked me by putting on a fey little face. “I mean, I guess I could have gone that route.”

I laughed, making an effort to keep quiet for our hostess’s sake.

“Then, praise the Goddess, I was able to expose Damian to the Pack as an infertile asshole.

“Azoospermia, right?” Elroy asked. “No chance of having a child under any circumstances.”

I nodded. And then you parted the crowd and announced who you really were.” I recalled the moment vividly and smiled at him. “It was glorious, the first time in a very long time I had felt completely vindicated.”

Then something else happened that had been absent for too long: we sat in companionable silence. I didn’t want to speak and end it.

Elroy spoke instead. “I couldn’t believe this goddess had just shown up in my life, let me into her bed, and then, watching you stand there and take them all on, I couldn’t believe my incredible luck. I knew I had to mate you if you would let me. I knew you would be my Luna. The whole future was a clear path ahead.”

He sent me a gentle smile. “And you agreed. You even broke your bond mate with that ass clown.”

“And you helped,” I said, surprising him. “Did you really think I didn’t notice?”

Elroy hummed ruefully. “I thought a lot of stupid things.”

“You did,” I said more sharply than I meant. He looked surprised, but I shrugged. “So did I.”

The comfortable silence returned like warm rain on my fur.

“I was angry,” Elroy said calmly. “I didn’t like that you were talking about debts and such when we were mates.”

I nodded.

“And then Mother—” He broke off, obviously struggling with a memory.

“Iris? What about her?”

“She thought I had mated you because of the prophecy.” He growled lowly. “As if I ever paid attention to that damn nonsense. Stormhowl was a proud Pack, but so is Lunaris, and Lunaris is my future, not some cursed pressure from the dead.”

I chuckled a little, surprising him.

“You know, that’s what they call tradition: peer pressure from dead people.”

He laughed, but I heard the regret in it. “I wanted you for you,” he insisted. “Just you.”

“Thank you. I can say the same.”

I could see then that he wanted to ask what had gone wrong. Perhaps the mindlink made it so clear. But instead he went back to the task we had set: clearing up misunderstandings in our relationship from the very beginning.

“I was terrified about your decision to shift for the first time during our ceremony. Pressure to transform makes it all the more difficult, even for those well-practiced in it.” A look of awe came into his eyes. “And then you showed up in that dress.”

“Thank Jordan for that dress.”

“I thank the Goddess for that dress,” he said seriously. “And then you were like something out of ancient lore, transforming into a silver wolf.” He tilted his head as though at a sudden thought and asked, “Did you know about the prophecy then?”

I shook my head. “That little jackal Rita told me about it at the banquet.”

He rolled his eyes. “Horrible little wolf. She tried to frame you with that oleander poison. I was in awe, you know, watching how effortlessly you dealt with it all.” His eyes grew dark. “And then the council wouldn’t punish her properly no matter how obviously she needed it.”

He snickered suddenly. “I wish I had been there to see you drink the water in the vial. I’m sure everyone was staring, assholes.”

He frowned and took a bite of cheese before looking back into my eyes. “What was it like, talking to your wolf for the first time after so long?”

I frowned too, thinking back to it. “It was odd, having this observer who had always been with me but never spoken before, like suddenly having my chair ask me how I was doing.”

He laughed.

“She apologized for having to be silent, and she said she felt weak. But then she started talking about how I had this ‘special power,’ which I didn’t understand.”

“I assume she meant your ability to heal people,” he said.

I shrugged. “I suppose so. It’s hardly unprecedented, of course, but it is ‘special’ enough. I just felt like she meant something else.” I shook my head. “Delusions of grandeur, I suppose. But I desperately needed to feel like all the garbage I’d been through had been in pursuit of something grand.”

“Your wolf couldn’t be more specific?”

“She said she had no idea what my ‘special power’ was.” I smiled at him. “She loved you right away, you know. She kept nudging me to love you too.”

He smiled but then grew sad. “Loving each other was never the problem.”

“No,” I agreed. “So what is it?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know. I’d do anything to figure it out, but I don’t know.”

I nodded then, completely certain in my next words.

“Emma knows.”