Chapter 109

Fiona

“I’m here for you,” he answers, but I step back, making his hand drop from my face.

“Here for me?”

I push down the hope that foolishly rises inside me. He wasn’t supposed to be back until tomorrow, but he’s here now.

Ethan nods, his eyes roam from the top of my head down my body in a slow caress, making me shiver. The concern shining from his eyes speaks louder than anything he could say in the moment. It’s almost like he’s checking to make sure I’m okay.

The longer we stand here, the more I feel the invisible thread connecting us. It pulls at my heart, urging me to go to him. My body moves before I can stop it, taking a step closer. The pine scent he always carries reaches my senses and something inside me calms slightly

He reaches for me again but pauses and drops his hand to his side while we both just watch each other.

“I’m so sorry, Fiona. I never should’ve—”

“What’s taking so long out- oh…” Isla stops at my side, her eyes bouncing from me to Ethan. “Well, this isn’t the delivery boy I was expecting.”

I throw my elbow into her ribs, shushing her while turning my attention back to Ethan. I need to know what he was about to say.

“I’ll be taking Fiona home now,” Ethan says before bending forward, wrapping his arms around my legs and planting his shoulder in my stomach. He lifts me onto his shoulder almost as if I weighed no more than a feather.

“What are you… put me down, Ethan!” I screech, grabbing the back of his shirt so I don’t fall. The strong arm banded against my backside lets me know Ethan won’t drop me, but hanging upside down still makes me nervous.

Isla’s laughter follows us to the car, and I flip her off as I’m carried away.

“I can walk, you know,” I mutter, but Ethan doesn’t respond as he makes his way to the unfamiliar car in the driveway and opens the door. As if I were a sack of potatoes, he deposits me in the front seat, leaning over and buckling my belt without a word.

I watch silently as Ethan closes the door and walks around the front of the car. He doesn’t say anything when he gets in or even when he starts driving, which confuses me. Why did he go from apologizing to saying nothing?

Does he not know what to say?

I stay quiet too, hoping he’ll talk first sine he came for me, but after a few miles of nothing, I lift my head and look at Ethan. I mean, really look at him. The stress lines wrinkling the skin around his eyes are only more visible with the bags underneath them. His messy hair looks like he’s run his hands through its strands several times before he got to me. The shirt he’s wearing is a dress shirt, but it’s wrinkled and unbuttoned at the top, unlike his usual put together self.

He looks as tired as I feel.

Is that why he’s here?

“You didn’t get married,” I say, the words coming out on their own before I can stop them.

“No. I didn’t.”

Ryan said he wasn’t, but hearing the words straight from Ethan give me a sense of relief. My body instinctively relaxes into the seat, as I ask, “Where are you taking me?”

“Home,” he answers immediately.

“Home? I don’t have a home anymore, Ethan,” I whisper, looking out the window while pulling my knees up to my chest and wrapping my arms around them. “There’s nothing left for me. Everything is gone; my mom, my home, my relationships.”

A growl rumbles beside me, making me turn my head. Ethan’s knuckles are white against the dark leather of the steering wheel.

“Your home is with me, Fiona.”

Biting my lip, I think about what he said. I wish he was right, but could we really make this work? I haven’t had a true home in so long that if he offers and it falls through, I don’t know if I can handle it. The pain would kill me, and I’d be without a home again.

Without him.

“Stop,” Ethan growls softly in the silence, his eyes flickering yellow. They change between green and gold a few times before they settle on the wolf’s glowing gold eyes.

“You’re not alone, mate. We won’t leave you,” the rumbly voice says, sending a little shiver of pleasure down my spine. His voice really is very nice to listen to.

“Hi, wolfy,” I whisper, waving my fingers in a small gesture.

Ethan groans and shakes his head, his eyes returning to their normal green. He chuckles and looks over at me, saying, “Don’t tempt him. He wants to come out and see you just as much as I wanted to see you when I got back tonight.”

“And how much was that?” I ask, curious. Had he missed me as much as I missed him? Is that what he’s trying to say? I take a deep breath and ask the question on my mind, “Did you miss me?”

Ethan glances at me briefly.

“I’ve missed you since the moment you started pulling away two weeks ago. I want to be near you, hold you, kiss you, and having you close to me but also so far away has been awful. It’s like someone put a glass wall between us we couldn’t get past, but I’m done. I’m done being separated from you, done trying to placate my parents, done trying to negotiate about this marriage,” he says through clenched teeth.

The steering wheel creaks under the pressure from Ethan’s grip, and I’m touched by his words. He wanted to see me, both of them did.

“Does that mean you’re not getting married?”

He nods as we pull into his driveway, and my body deflates with relief, sagging against the chair. Turning, I stretch the seatbelt and look at him.

“Is that where you went? To tell your parents you weren’t marrying Angela?” I question, leaning closer for his answer.

“No, I haven’t told them yet. I wanted to get back to you first.”

“So, where did you go?”

Ethan unbuckles and turns to face me, looking much more uncomfortable than I must because of his bigger body. He adjusts himself, moving this way and that until he finally finds a comfortable enough position.

“I went back to my pack to get advice from Mr. and Mrs. Denton, a lycan-human couple from my pack. They’ve been together for a long time, and I wanted to get their opinion on how to handle the situation with my parents,” he answers, rubbing at the back of his neck before raking his fingers through his hair.

“They’re like us?” I ask, fascinated. I remember him mentioning that there are human-lycan couples, but I didn’t know he was so close to one of them.

“Sort of. Mr. Denton is a former council member who met his wife, Beth, while she was traveling the Western countries. She got into some trouble, and he helped her out of it, realizing they were mates in the process. They’ve been together for years, living on a small property in my pack,” he tells me, reaching across the consol and taking my hand. Our fingers twine together, his thumb rubbing gently across my knuckles.

I savor the feeling of his touch, the warmth it provides before asking, “What did they tell you?”

“They told me to follow my heart, that my mate is more important than anything,” he answers. “Mr. Denton said that we shouldn’t let others dictate our lives, and that if we can work on things together, it will work out.”

“Is that what they did to be together?”

He nods, and I watch with bated breath as Ethan lifts my hand and kisses the back of it. The familiar tingle from Ethan’s touch that I’ve been missing rocks my body full force, becoming more and more intense the longer he touches me.

I’ve missed this, being intimate with him. Maybe now things can get back to how they were.

“He didn’t have to, but Mr. Denton gave up his council position to be with her, and—”

“I don’t want you to give your pack up for me. I would never ask that,” I say quickly, squeezing his hand. “I told Ryan that I would give you time to find a solution, and I will, but I have one request.”

“What is it?” Ethan asks softly.

“Keep me in the loop. I want you to talk to me and discuss things with me even if I can’t help you find a solution,” I tell him. There would be less communication if he just spoke with me about things, like how he never planned to marry Angela or that he was leaving to ask for advice.

Ethan smiles, squeezes my hand again, and presses a kiss to my forehead.

“I will.”