Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 117

Chapter 117

Ethan said it casually enough, but Keith caught what sat beneath it. This was not only hospitality. It was an invitation into something

warmer. Ethan wanted the company. Meadow wanted the company too, even if she had not said it aloud. Keith turned his head slightly

and glanced toward the kitchen. He could see Elaine and Meadow moving around each other, one talking, one signing, both smiling in

small bursts between tasks.

He nodded.

He approved.

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“It will be nice. Being isolated from the rest of the pack gets to her sometimes, but she refuses to move back to town. She likes it out

here. We get to shift and hunt whenever we

like, and the place is just serene.”

Keith sounded fond when he spoke of Elaine, and Ethan understood the feeling immediately. He understood wanting distance from the

noise of pack life. Understood the relief that came from being away from everybody’s eyes, expectations, pity, curiosity, and gossip. Once

upon a time Ethan had thought he would have that kind of peace with Cynthia. Thought he had found the woman he would build quiet

places with. Dreamed stupid dreams, maybe, but they had been his. A life. A home. A future that did not feel like a punishment,

Then Cynthia crushed all of it.

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His hopes. His dreams. His desires. She had not merely left. That would have been painful enough. She had left at the exact point when

love should have held. At the exact moment he had become difficult to keep. There were some betrayals a man could name plainly and

survive. Others sank into the bones. Ethan had carried that one too long.

But sitting there that night, with the kitchen warm and Meadow’s scent drifting in and out of his senses, he realised something that

surprised him.

He did not feel anything for Cynthia anymore.

Nothing sharp. Nothing desperate. Nothing aching. Not even anger, not really. Thinking about her now felt strangely flat, like touching a

scar that no longer throbbed. It had marked him, yes. Changed him too. But the wound itself was closed. He looked toward the kitchen

then, toward Meadow helping Elaine with the food, and his mouth softened into a smile before he could stop it. Maybe healing did not

always arrive with grand declarations. Maybe sometimes it showed itself quietly, in the simple fact that the past no longer had the power

to stir anything but memory.

“I guess everyone has the perfect someone that would love them regardless.”

Keith caught the statement instantly.

So that was where Ethan was now.

He did not answer right away. He just smiled, because there was no need to crowd the moment with too many words. His friend was finally stepping out of the shell he had built around himself. Finally moving forward. Keith had hoped for this. Prayed for it in his own

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Chapter 117

way. Watching Ethan arrive there, even slowly, even with all the scars still in place, felt good.

Then Ethan shifted the conversation.

“Is the doctors’ cabin ready?”

Keith nodded.

“Both cabins.”

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That earned a small approving nod from Ethan. Keith had made sure everything was done properly. One cabin for the doctor, one for the

medical staff. Ethan had asked, and Keith had delivered. It was as simple as that.

Then Keith looked at him more carefully.

“So, do you think it will work?”

He meant Meadow.

Her silence. Her muteness. All the oddness wrapped around it that never quite sat right. Ethan’s expression changed slightly. Hope was

there, but so was concern. He sighed before answering.

“Hopefully. I do not think she is mute, Keith. I have seen her wake up and scream. Something is really off. I do not think her condition is

biological. I think it is psychological.”

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Underwater: The Silent Luna