Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 102

Chapter 102

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Ethan stayed still for a beat too long, then forced himself to move again. He did not want to ruin this. Did not want to stop and explain

something he was not even sure had happened. Maybe it had been imagination. Maybe not. He told himself he would think about it later,

after, when Meadow was not looking at him with flushed cheeks and open trust. When her body was not still warm beneath his hand.

So he pushed the moment aside.

Or tried to.

11

Thi

He removed the last of her clothing and paused just long enough to take her in. Meadow’s body had always undone something in him, but

tonight it felt worse. Better. More dangerous. He looked at her and wanted far too much. Wanted to worship her. Wanted to lose himself.

Wanted to prove with every touch that she was not just desired, but cherished.

Meadow, impatient now in her own way, reached for his clothes.

Π

He had to laugh under his breath at that. There was something so honest about it, so hungry and unguarded, that it went straight to his

ego in a way he had not felt in years. He let her pull at what she could, let her show him she wanted him too. He found it hot and almost

funny, but in the best way. He had spent too long feeling like less than a man in too many corners of his life. Too long letting other

people’s pity, silence, or discomfort tell him what was missing. But Meadow wanted him. Not kindly. Not carefully. She wanted him fully,

like there was nothing lacking about him at all.

That feeling alone nearly undid him.

“I am all yours, darling.”

The words came out low, warm, more vulnerable than he probably meant them to sound. But they were true. She had him. More than she

knew.

Meadow straddled him, and the position made both of them go still for a moment. It was not only the pressure of her body over his that

shook him. It was the sensation on his thigh. Faint. Strange. Almost ghostlike. That part of him had been numb for seven years. Dead

space. Foreign territory. Yet now there was something there. Weak, almost impossible, but real enough that he noticed it. He did not say anything. Did not dare. He had imagined too many things before. Hoped too many things before. He would not let himself build too

quickly on something so small.

Meadow, meanwhile, was beyond overthinking.

She did not know what was happening inside her body except that everything in her seemed to be pulling toward him. Every touch made her need sharper. Every breath from him against her skin made it worse, She held him, guided him, pressed closer, and once she had what

she needed from him she did not hesitate. The sensation of finally taking him in made her eyes flutter shut. Heat shot through her at

once, deep and overwhelming, and her hands tightened on him because she needed to hold onto something.

For a while after that, there was hardly room for thought.

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Chapter 102

Only feeling,

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Only the rising, building, consuming pull of each movement after the next. Meadow moved with more confidence than she knew she had,

Ethan held onto her as if she was the only thing keeping him anchored and pushing him under all at once. The air inside the room

changed. The softness of the sheets, the lavender in them, the lingering scent of flowers from the décor, all of it mixed with something

more intimate now, something distinctly theirs. Meadow’s scent deepened, sweeter and richer, and it affected Ethan more than he could

explain. It filled his senses until he could hardly think around it.

Echo was there again, close to the surface.

Not fully. Not strong. But there.

II

ريال

Ethan felt it like the hint of a shift that could not quite complete itself. The old pull. The old wildness. The old promise of something

larger inside him answering the moment. He did not resist it. He leaned into it, hungry for it, hopeful in a way he had not let himself be

in years. Meadow’s scent was all around him now, more potent than before, almost enough to drive him into a frenzy if he let it.

He gripped her harder.

الماس

She was close. He could feel it in the way her body responded, in the way her pace changed, in the tension building through her. Her

release approached like a storm and took him with it. Meadow clung to him, moved with him, then shook against him with the force of it.

The intensity made her dig her nails into his chest without meaning to. Ethan followed not long after, his own release hitting hard

enough to leave him briefly stunned.

Neither of them noticed right away what else had happened.

Little traces of the wolf had surfaced through him in the middle of it. Not fully. Not enough to shift. But enough. His claws had come out.

That had not happened in seven years.

He did not know.

N

Not yet.

By the time the intensity started to fade, both of them were breathing hard, spent and almost dazed. Meadow stayed over him for a

moment longer, as though neither of them was ready to break the closeness yet. Then, gently, she eased off and settled beside him on the

bed. Ethan reached for her almost immediately and pulled her close.

That was when he saw it,

Retracted claw marks on his fingers. Not fully out anymore, but enough of a trace left for him to know he was not imagining things.

He stared at his hand in shock.

His heart thudded so hard it was almost painful. For one suspended moment the room seemed to fall away around him. The bed. The

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Chapter 102

warmth. Meadow’s body tucked close to his. Everything narrowed to his own hand and the impossible proof it carried.

Then he heard it again.

“Mine.”

This time the voice was clearer.

Still faint. Still weak. But real.

Ethan closed his eyes at once.

L

:))

It hit him too hard to keep them open. The emotion of it rose fast and brutal through his chest, through his throat, behind his eyes. He

had buried this grief so deep he almost forgot it was still alive inside him. The loss of his wolf had been more than silence. More than absence. It had been like being cut off from a part of himself no one else could see, then being expected to keep living as though the missing half did not matter. He had done that. He had survived it. He had learned how to wear the wound quietly. But now, with that voice brushing against him again, all the old ache came rushing back with the hope.

“Echo?”

Echo growled softly in reply, the sound still weak, still far away, but there.

Ethan started laughing before he even fully realised it.

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11:59 Wed, Jun 17

Underwater: The Silent Luna