Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 107

Chapter 107

Their bath was quieter than what came before, but no less intimate.

It was not the feverish urgency of the bed. Not the trembling hunger. This was slower. More domestic almost, though still wrapped in enough tenderness to make it feel special. The room filled with steam. Water ran over warm skin. Soap lathered beneath hands that had already learned some of each other’s language. Meadow washed him with care that never felt pitying. Ethan helped her in turn with the easy focus of a man who still could not quite believe he had this sort of access to her. Sometimes they smiled. Sometimes they just looked. Sometimes their eyes met and held a little too long, and they both understood what they were remembering without either of them needing to sign or say it.

By the time they were done, both were calmer.

Dressed.

Composed enough to face the world outside the room, even if some part of the room still clung to them.

Ethan went ahead to see their guests before Meadow.

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Keith and Elaine were already settled by then, waiting in that relaxed way of people who did not feel awkward in his space. Keith took one

look at Ethan and knew. The man did not need more than a scent and a shift in posture to start putting pieces together. He caught the smell of soap first, then something else beneath it, something that made his mouth twitch immediately. He looked at Ethan and smiled in

that infuriatingly knowing way that made Ethan want to throw something at him.

Keith winked.

Elaine smiled too, though hers was gentler, warmer, less annoying.

“Where is Luna, Alpha?” Elaine asked politely.

“She is on her way out. She will join us soon. Have a seat.”

Ethan’s voice gave him away before he realised it. There was something lighter in it. Something almost boyishly pleased. Keith heard it at

once. So did Elaine, Ethan sounded happy. Not relieved. Not merely calm. Happy. The difference mattered. It showed in the way he carried

himself, in the faint brightness that had settled around him. Keith did not miss that. He had known Ethan too long. Long enough to

remember the man before the bitterness. Long enough to know just how much it meant to see traces of that openness returning.

Keith leaned back and looked at him more carefully.

He could guess some of it. Meadow clearly had something to do with this change. She had done what many others had failed to do. She

had reached Ethan where others had only bounced off the walls of him. She had made him soften, even if Ethan would never phrase it

that way, Keith had seen the gradual shift already over time. But this was more than gradual. This looked like a man who had been

handed something he thought he would never get again and still did not quite know how to hold it.

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Chapter 107

Keith found himself unexpectedly glad.

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After all the rejection, after all the damage to Ethan’s pride and spirit, someone had dared to love him. Not out of duty. Not out of

arrangement. Not because of pack pressure. Truly love him. Keith respected that. More than he would probably say aloud without a joke

wrapped around it.

“Did she like the place?” Keith asked.

The question carried real hope beneath the casual tone. He had worked hard on it. Put thought into it. Sweat too. Even if he would laugh it off and call it no big deal, he wanted the answer.

“She did.”

Ethan did not say much more than that, but the way he said it was enough. Keith grinned, pleased with himself and with the result. The

labour had been worth it.

Not long after, Meadow joined them.

She had dressed simply, but on her it did not matter. Ethan looked at her and felt that same quiet pull in his chest again. She had always

been beautiful to him, but now there was intimacy laid over that beauty, and it changed everything. He did not let her choose a separate chair. The moment she moved as if to sit elsewhere, he stopped her with a look and a gesture.

He wanted her on his lap.

Meadow hesitated only for a moment before she came to him, and he settled her there like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Maybe it was becoming exactly that. He wrapped an arm around her as she sat, and in the quiet of that action he felt it again. Sensation.

Still faint, but there. On his thighs. Real enough to send another hidden rush through him. He did not react outwardly. Did not want to

draw attention. But inwardly he felt that same impossible mix of joy and caution.

Something was happening.

And he knew, with a certainty that made no sense and yet felt stronger than reason, that it had something to do with Meadow.

Every time they were together in that way, Echo stirred.

Every time they grew closer, something in him answered.

He thought back to what Camila Richardson had said once and wondered if maybe this was it. Maybe Echo was trying to claim her. Maybe

his wolf recognised something his broken body had not caught up with yet. Maybe Meadow was not only the woman he had fallen for,

Maybe she was becoming the point at which his wolf refused to remain silent anymore.

The thought made his chest go tight,

Still, he would keep it to himself.

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12:00 Wed, Jun 17

Chapter 107

Not yet.

Not until he was sure. Not until there was something firmer than hope and claw marks and faint sensation. He had lived too long with

disappointment to parade around after one good day declaring miracles.

So he said nothing and simply held her.

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12:00 Wed, Jun 17

Underwater: The Silent Luna