Elena tosses her head back and laughs. It’s the first time she has really smiled and laughed around me, and if my face didn’t hurt so fucking bad, I might just laugh too.
“Why did you come here?”
“To yell at my dad,” she replies easily.
“Where were you going to go after?” I ask her.
Her blue eyes look over me with pity, and as much as I deserve it, I hate it.Why am I like this? Why can’t I just accept what I want from her. Why can’t I stop hating myself?
“Back to the house, but don’t tell the others,” she says.
I blink at her, wondering if I heard her right.
“Why?”
Why in the fuck would she ever want to come back to a house that I trapped her in and then promptly told her to run away from?
She exhales dramatically and deflates in the seat.
“There’s nowhere else for me. My brother hates me and will sell me off to a worse pack. There’s a part of me that wants to be independent and to brave the world on my own, but I don’t even know where to start. It doesn’t help what you and Cillian are to me. No matter how angry I am with the both of you, nothing would ever be able to fill that space for me, and I’m fully aware of that. I’m choosing to stay because I want to, not just because I’m out of options.”
Her hand reaches out and cups the top of my bandaged one. Her touch is light as a feather, and isn’t as revolting as I thought it would be.
“I won’t ask you for something you can’t give, Finn. But I am asking for your respect, your protection, and to be a part of your family. Do you think that’s something you’re capable of?”
I flip my hand and squeeze hers lightly. Why does the bare minimum seem so fucking hard?
“I meant what I said, you can’t fix me, Elena.”
“I’m not trying to change you, Finn,” she says softly.
I look at her with so much confusion and admiration. After everything, if she can still show me so much kindness then I can do the same.
“You’re my scent match, Finn.”
It’s a fact, but it still feels strange hearing the actual words fall off her tongue.
“I’m choosing to stay. I’m choosing this pack, can you accept that?”
I swallow, looking at her beautiful face. She’s so pretty it fucking hurts. Now that she’s back, I know my downfall will be inevitable. But with her pleading blue eyes on mine, I know there’s no going back for me now.
Despite how badly I want to continue to fight this, I’m at a loss.
“Yeah, I can do that,” I say softly before squeezing her hand one more time and pulling away.
Even though I know there will come a moment when I can’t hold back this need inside of me. No matter how much self-loathing I put myself through, there’s no denying that Elena belongs to me. I just hope I can be a better man before I take what's mine.
“So this is a truce? You’ll stop being an asshole?”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I retort, and she laughs again.
The others can be pissed at me all they want, but it’s obvious she needed this field trip. Whatever catharsis she got from her father’s grave clearly helped her sort through some of her feelings. At least, that’s how I spin it in my own head to get over this guilt.
Cillian and Declan get in the car. There’s a sharp silence until Cillian breaks it.
“Are you still wanting to run away?” he asks, his voice soft and pathetic.
“No, we can have a pack meeting about it tomorrow.”
