Chapter 116

DEREK

I stayed in the grotto long after she was gone.

The trees didn’t move. The water barely rippled. The only sound was my own ragged breathing and the distant echo of paws crashing through underbrush.

I can’t.

That’s all she’d said.

Just those two words, strangled and breaking, before she shifted and ran. No explanation. No warning. One second, I was holding her like she was mine again, like the past and the pain had burned away under moonlight—and the next, she was gone.

My hands were still half-outstretched, empty and shaking. My heart pounded like it didn’t know what to do without her.

I sat back slowly, lowering myself onto the cool moss-covered stone, not caring that I was still bare. The wind moved over my skin like a ghost. Her scent lingered in the clearing—salt, wildflower, heat. But the space between us had cracked wide open again.

And this time, I didn’t even understand why.

I’d thought we’d turned a corner. That something in her had finally softened. That when she looked at me, when she touched me, when she let me in—it meant something.

But maybe I was wrong.

Maybe it was too much. Too soon. Maybe she’d only meant for tonight to be a memory. One last moment before she put up the walls for good.

Still, I couldn’t shake the look on her face right before she bolted. It hadn’t been cold. It hadn’t been rejection.

It had been fear.

Pain.

Like she was on the edge of remembering something she wasn’t ready to face.

And I’d pushed.

God, I’d ruined it.

I scrubbed a hand over my face and stood slowly, muscles aching from the shift, from the tension coiled deep in my chest.

By the time I climbed back up the path toward the estate, the sounds of the pack had begun to return. Not here, not in the sacred hush of the grotto, but farther off—toward the center of Moonstone territory.

The Moonlit Shift had ended. The others would be gathering for the Bondfire by now.

It felt like walking between worlds as I left the shadows of the woods behind. One moment I was wrapped in memory and moonlight and the scent of her skin, and the next I was stepping into firelight and laughter and life.

The pack was scattered across the lawn, shifting back into human form, wrapped in blankets or finding clothes left in the tree hollows.

They were glowing. Joyous. Released.

I couldn’t help but envy them.

Because for them, the ritual had brought peace.

For me, it had opened a wound.

My clothes were still where I’d left them, half in a heap. I dressed in silence, every movement mechanical.

I scanned the crowd forming near the center of the Moonstone grounds, but I didn’t see her right away.

There were couples tucked together, pack members huddled close under lanterns strung from low tree branches, and the ever-present low hum of conversation that followed any powerful ritual.

Then I saw her.

She was already dressed, standing near the edge of the circle with her friend Dawn and that woman—Erin—the rogue. No, not just a rogue. Mason’s fated mate. That fact still hadn’t settled fully in my head.

Erin looked calm. Not submissive, not tense, just… present. Like she belonged here. I watched her for a moment and caught the way Mason glanced at her across the clearing, something soft and completely unguarded in his eyes.

I turned back to Elena, but she didn’t look at me. Not once.

Maybe she hadn’t noticed me. Or maybe she had, and she was avoiding my gaze.

I knew better than to push.

The Alpha stepped up onto the platform in the center of the lawn. His voice cut through the chatter, warm and rich like a storyteller at the edge of a fire.

“The Moonlit Shift reminds us who we are,” he said. “That we are more than flesh and fur. That we are part of something older, something sacred. The bond between wolf and Moon, between mate and pack—it lives here, in each of us. And now, we honor that bond in flame.”

The platform had been transformed into a wide, raised square framed in blackened stone and stacked high with seasoned logs and wild herbs. I could smell the lavender and sage from here.

It was beautiful. Bigger than the one the children had used earlier, this one felt… ceremonial.

A priestess in pale silver robes approached the pyre. Her presence sent a hush over the crowd. She bowed her head and raised her arms, palms glowing faintly with moonlight.

“We honor the Moon Goddess with fire,” she intoned, “And with the symbols of what we release—and what we become.”

She turned to the four who stood at each corner of the platform: the Alpha, the Luna, Mason, and Elena.

My breath hitched.

Elena looked radiant, even in the firelight. Composed. Fierce. The flicker of the torch in her hand mirrored something wild in her eyes.

Together, they lowered their torches, slow and reverent. The fire caught, a breath of heat and gold rushing upward as the pyre came alive. The logs snapped and cracked, and a trail of smoke spiraled toward the sky like a whispered promise.

The priestess stepped back. “Now,” she said, “Each of you may come forward to burn your tokens. But before you do…” She smiled, voice rising. “The future of Moonstone has an announcement.”

The crowd stilled.

Mason stepped up onto the platform. The firelight danced across his face as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small bundle—a smooth stone, I realized, wrapped in a piece of velvet.

He cleared his throat.

“I didn’t plan to say anything tonight,” he began, “But it feels right. This—this whole night—reminded me what it means to be part of something bigger than yourself. To serve your pack. To honor the Moon. And to be brave enough to choose love when it finds you.”

He turned to Erin, who had gone still beside Dawn.

“Erin,” he said, voice strong now, “You walked into my life like a lightning strike. I tried to deny it, tried to fight it, because I was scared. Scared of what people would say.”

Everyone was silent, watching. “Scared of who I’d have to become to deserve you. But you stayed. You made me stronger. And I want to spend every day earning the love you’ve already given me.”

The crowd held its breath.

Then Mason dropped to one knee.

Erin’s hands flew to her mouth. Her eyes filled with tears.

Mason opened the velvet pouch and held out a ring that shimmered in the firelight. “Will you marry me?”

She nodded—furiously—and dropped to her knees in front of him, pulling him into a kiss that set the crowd roaring. Cheers rang out through the clearing, echoing against the trees like a pack-wide howl of joy.

I clapped with the rest of them, but my mind had already drifted back to Elena.

I wondered if she was thinking the same thing I was. About proposals. About how differently things could’ve gone.

The first time I proposed to her, it wasn’t even a real proposal. It had been… a transaction. Cold. Duty-driven. I winced just thinking about it.

The second time—if you could call it that—had been in a grotto, not an hour ago.

Post-coital and breathless. I hadn’t even realized the words had come out until it was too late. I’d just looked at her and wanted forever. No plan. No ring. No sense.

If I were her, I would’ve rejected me too.

But for the first time, I wasn’t devastated by that thought. I wasn’t crushed beneath the weight of what I couldn’t have.

I was clear.

Because tonight had shown me something I hadn’t let myself believe for a long time.

We weren’t broken. We were unfinished.

She hadn’t rejected me. She’d rejected the way I’d come back into her life. The way I’d tried to resume what we had without making space for what she’d become.

And that was going to change.

I looked back toward the fire. Elena had moved forward now, slipping something small into the blaze. I had no idea what it was—some token of pain or loss or guilt, maybe.

But as the fire consumed it, she didn’t flinch. She stood tall. Proud. Reborn in the heat of it.

I let out a slow breath.

I was going to win her back.

Not with declarations. Not with grand speeches.

With patience. With presence. With every small act that showed her I saw her—fully and completely.

Not just as my mate, not just as Aiden’s mother, but as the powerful, radiant force she was.

If I had to start over, so be it.

I’d court her like I should have the first time. I’d learn her favorite things all over again. I’d listen better. I’d show up. I’d build something she could trust—not because the Moon Goddess said we were meant to be, but because she chose me.

She deserved more than fate.

She deserved someone willing to earn her, day by day, moment by moment.

And I would.

Because Elena Hart was mine.

And this time, I was going to prove I was worthy of her.