Chapter 3

ELARA POV:

Kaelen came back to our suite that night stumbling drunk. A werewolf getting drunk was a rare sight; our metabolisms burned through alcohol too quickly. It only happened under extreme emotional turmoil.

My heart, a stupid, stubborn thing, ached for him. I helped him out of his jacket, guiding his heavy body toward the bed.

He collapsed onto the mattress and pulled me down with him. His wolf was close to the surface, a low growl rumbling in his chest. He buried his face in my hair, his grip like steel.

"You came back for me, didn't you?" he rasped, his voice thick with a desperate hope I had never heard directed at me.

I tried to pull away, a cold dread washing over me. "Kaelen, you're drunk."

"It's you, Lyra," he murmured, his breath hot against my skin. His mind was so muddled with alcohol and obsession that he couldn't even tell his Mate from his fantasy. "It has to be you. It can only be you."

That was it. The final, spoken truth. In that moment, I realized why he was always so sober, so controlled. He was terrified that a single drop of alcohol would loosen his tongue, that his mind-link would betray the secrets he guarded so fiercely.

I shoved him away with all my strength and fled to the balcony, gasping for the cold night air. The city lights blurred through my tears. When I finally composed myself and went back inside, he was gone.

I heard voices from the adjoining balcony, the one connected to the suite Lyra was staying in. I crept closer, hiding in the shadows.

Kaelen stood there, silhouetted against the moon, his posture rigid with fury. "Why are you going back to Europe? You just got here!"

"This was a mistake, Kaelen," Lyra's voice was strained. "I can't be here."

"Because of me?" he demanded, his voice cracking. Then, the confession I had read in his journal came pouring from his own lips, a torrent of raw, ugly truth.

"I married her because she looks like you!" he roared, the sound raw and broken. "She's your blood, your family. It was the only way I could have your scent in my house, in my life, without it being a betrayal! The only way I could pretend!"

He took a ragged breath. "I flew to Paris just to see you, just to breathe the same air as you for a few hours. That's why I blocked her link. I couldn't let her hear how much I needed you."

Lyra was silent, horrified.

"I'm going to name our child Lyren," he declared, his voice filled with a mad certainty. "And Elara... she won't do anything. She wouldn't dare leave me. She's my Mate. I am her Alpha. She belongs to me."

He was wrong.

His Mate was already gone. His Alpha status meant nothing to me anymore.

I was no longer his. I was my own. And I was leaving.

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