From Rejected Luna To Lycan Queen (Eloise and Edward) novel Chapter 378

Chapter 378 Emotional Support Pillow

Chapter 378 Emotional Support Pillow

MALACHI

All I had to do was be here when she opened the door. My heart sped up. I wiped my sweary hands dojmy jeans. I was nervous.

What if she didn’t want me here when she came out? What if she wanted to be alone, or worse, one ofly others? Cassian could make her laugh. Dorian would be the calm, steady anchor she needed. And Had maybe she’d want to talk it out with him.

What did I have to offer her?

owled low at that thought. He didn’t like it when I overthought things.

drifted through the closed door. “…Shadow.”

ry in that one word hit me in the chest before I could stop it. I hadn’t meant to listen, but with like mine there was no blocking it out, coupled with her anguish coming through the thin wood

handle turned.

pushed off the wall before I could think better of it.

She stepped out slowly, like she wasn’t sure what she was walking back into. Her eyes were red and swollen, lashes clumped together from her ruined makeup. My breath caught. She was truly beautiful. My painting of her tears didn’t do her justice. Her cheeks were flushed, her freckled skin blotchy from crying

My chest ached to hug her again. My bear leaned forward inside me, alert and gentle at the same time. urging me to pull her into my chest.

“Malachi. Oh, I’m sorry, were you waiting for me?”

I nodded. I could feel the embarrassment rolling off her now, sharp and hot, layered over the sadness she was trying to tuck away. She was bracing, like she expected to be a burden just for having feelings

The silence stretched between us, and I didn’t know what to say. I never did when it mattered, so I grabbed the only thing in my head.

“Who’s Shadow?”

The second the words left my mouth. I felt her surprise spike. I looked away, rubbing the back of my neck. already regretting opening it.

Still better than asking about her abusive dead husband.

He won’t wrong

Her worry w

own awk

steady and pulsing, and 1 focused on that instead of my

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Chapter 378 Emotional Support Pillow

“How do you know about Shadow?”

I cringed. “I heard you say it through the door. I didn’t mean to eavesdrop”

She blinked at me, caught off guard, then smiled a little as she leaned against the opposite wall, I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you speak.”

I let out a quiet breath through my nose, not trusting myself to answer that without making worse

“Shadow is my fox.”

My bear lifted its head at that, attention sharpening.

Cassian, he growled.

SHH.

“Well, he isn’t really mine.” Zara continued, tucking her copper hair behind her ear as she spoke. “I think he lives in my building, but I kind of pushed him outside when my landlord came over…” She drifted off for a second, then gave a small, shy smile. “Anyway, he makes me feel better.”

Cassian was going to love knowing she’d been finding comfort with his fox.

She bit her lip. “I don’t know. It’s dumb.”

It wasn’t dumb.

Nothing about this gorgeous woman was dumb. She was perfect. Broken sure. But that was okay. I was good with helping her heal.

“I can’t believe I trauma-dumped like that. I’m so embarrassed.”

Embarrassed wasn’t what I’d felt coming off her downstairs. It had been fear first, then shame. The kind that settles deep in people who’ve had to survive things they shouldn’t have had to and somehow ended up blaming themselves for it. I’d seen that same quiet sorrow in Cassian before, and the urge to tell her he would understand rose up fast, but it wasn’t my story to share.

I shook my head. “Don’t be.”

My bear shifted, unhappy with my response. I ignored him.

She ran a hand down her face. “I’m just not ready to go back down right now.” She bit her lip again I had the urge to ask her to stop but bit my tongue.

She looked over at ine then, those emerald green eyes catching mine, still glassy but steadier than before. I’m not so sure I’m mentally stable enough to be interrogated right now, I already know Cassian’s going to push to know more about Kyle, and I’m just not ready to deal with him right now.”

1 didn’t trust myself to say the right thing, so I did what I was good at.

Emotional support pillow,

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Chapter 378 Emotional Support Pillow

1 slid down the wall slowly and sat on the floor, then parted the space beside me. I held my bear as the decided whether to join me or not.

She snorted a small laugh and shrugged before lowering herself down next to me.

That was better.

But the urge to hold her was riding me hard.

Screw it.

The worst she could do was push me away. I could handle that.

Liar

I slid my arm around her shoulders slowly, giving her time to pull back if she wanted. She didn’t. She turned into me instead, pressing her face against my side like she’d been holding herself together for too long and finally didn’t have to. I leaned my cheek lightly against the top of her head, breathing in the faint scent of her.

Strawberry honey.

I felt it then, the shift in her. The sharp edges of her anxiety dulled, the tight coil of fear loosening into something softer. Not gone, but quieter. Safer.

‘She feels safe.

I sighed as my bear settled deeper in my chest, satisfied in a way that made my whole body feel lighter calmer. We stayed like that for a long while, wrapped around each other in the quiet, until she finally broke the silence.

“Thank you.” She glanced up at me as she said it, studying my face like she was trying to find something there, something I wasn’t even sure how to name, I brushed a hand through her wild hair, smoothing in back from her cheek.

“I could say the same to you.”

Her brows pulled together in an adorable little frown as she rested her cheek against my chest

“What do you mean?”

She snuggled in closer, arms tucked in tight to herself, curling toward my warmth until she was practically in my lap. I wasn’t sure she realized she was doing it.

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