Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 126

Chapter 126

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The following day, Ethan took Meadow back to the clearing because he refused to let fear steal what was becoming theirs. He did not

want the attack from the day before to poison the woods for them. He did not want Meadow to look at that place and only remember the

brown wolf, the crash against the tree, the blood, the shock in his chest when he realised how close he had come to losing everything. He

wanted something else to remain stronger. The peace. The trust. The feeling of Nightshade moving freely in the open while he watched.

He wanted her to have that again. Maybe he needed it too.

What Meadow had told him about Echo had stayed with him all night and long into the morning. It lifted him in a way he could not deny.

Even with all the uncertainty, even with the frustration of not being able to make his wolf fully surface, knowing Echo was there changed

everything. Knowing his wolf wanted out, wanted his mate, wanted life, gave Ethan something he had not allowed himself too much of in

years.

Hope.

It felt dangerous, but he welcomed it anyway.

He told himself that with enough effort, enough patience, enough work, Echo would come out properly one day. He had to believe that

now. He had to. There was too much proof already for him to crawl back into hopelessness. The sensation in his thighs had not

disappeared. The claws had come. The voice had come. Meadow and Nightshade had felt Echo too. All of that meant something. It had to.

Still, as he wheeled himself toward the clearing and watched Meadow walk beside him, another thought kept coming back like a bad taste

in his mouth.

The attack.

He kept thinking of it in ugly flashes. The sound of impact. The savage speed of Nightshade. The unnatural timing of it all. He hoped it

had been a fluke. A mad wandering wolf. A strange isolated thing that would never happen again. Because the alternative sat heavy in

him. Trouble. Real trouble. Trouble he was not in the right condition to handle. Trouble that would not only touch him but Joseph, Levi,

his mother, Meadow, all of Whitewood.

That thought made his chest tighten.

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He hated the idea of leaving a mess like that for other people to clean up while he sat limited in a chair, half healed, half broken, fighting

battles inside his own body. He could endure many things. Humiliation. Pain, Setbacks. But uselessness? That was the one thing that still

bit deep. If something bigger was coming and he could not stand fully in front of it, then what sort of Alpha did that make him?

A useless one.

He hated the thought as soon as it formed, but that did not stop it from being there. He pushed it down. Told himself not to drown in it

before there was proof of anything, Told himself the wolf therapist might help. Had to help. At the very least she might give him something clearer to fight. A direction. A reason. A path out of the fog.

When they reached the clearing, Nightshade was all joy,

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12:02 Wed, Jun 17

Chapter 126

Meadow shifted and let her wolf loose into the open, and Nightshade took to the place like she had been waiting for it all morning. She

moved through the clearing with the wild sort of happiness wolves were meant to know. Running. Leaping. Stopping to scent the air.

Circling back toward Ethan and then darting off again. Her white fur flashed beautifully against the earth and green. The open space

suited her. The light suited her. Everything about her looked more alive there.

Ethan watched her with quiet wonder.

He was still not over it. Not over her beauty. Not over the truth of what she did yesterday. Not over the fact that this wolf, this strong,

bright, strange creature, belonged to Meadow and was somehow also his. His mate’s wolf. His wolf’s mate. His Luna’s other self. He

watched Nightshade play and kept feeling the same thing over and over.

Comments

MermicornQueen

1 Comments >

Looking forward to them marking each other and sealing the mate bond, rhink that will accelerate their healing

7 days ago

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Underwater: The Silent Luna