Underwater: The Silent Luna novel Chapter 275

Chapter 275

“Welcome back, Echo,” Ethan said to his wolf while he lay in bed with Meadow in his arms.

For a moment, there was only silence inside him. Not the dead silence he had lived with for seven years. Not the hollow emptiness that had made him feel incomplete even when he pretended to be whole. This silence was different. Full. Waiting. Alive. It carried breath, strength, and a presence Ethan had missed so deeply that feeling it again made his chest ache.

“Ethan,” Echo growled.

Ethan wanted to laugh from the pure joy of being complete again. His wolf was back. Not as a distant shadow. Not as a faint whisper he had to strain to feel. Echo was there, strong enough to speak, strong enough to growl, strong enough to make Ethan feel like the

missing half of his soul had finally returned home.

“It was hard not being able to come out. I am glad we are back,” Echo said.

Ethan agreed. He did not know how to explain the ache of those years to anyone who had never lost their wolf. It had not only been

his legs. It had been more than the chair, the pity, the loss of rank, the whispers, and the humiliation. It had been the emptiness inside him. The place where Echo should have been. The place that had gone quiet because silver had taken too much from them.

“I am glad you didn’t scare away our mate, Ethan. I tried to tell you so many times, but you just couldn’t feel it. But I am glad now,”

Echo said.

Echo lowered his head and kissed Meadow’s hair.

“Mine,” Echo said.

The word moved through Ethan’s body with such possessive warmth that Ethan gave him the back seat for the first time in seven years. He allowed Echo to enjoy the feel of holding his mate in his arms. Meadow was asleep against them, soft, warm, and deeply settled, unaware that the wolf inside her husband had risen properly and was savouring every second of her closeness like a starving

beast finally fed.

Ethan’s mind reeled with the possibilities of what he could do now that he was complete again. He could feel his wolf in his bones.

He could feel strength returning in ways that made hope dangerous. But he still needed to get his legs working. Hope was not

enough. Echo’s return was not enough. He needed exercise, therapy, training, and patience. He needed to rebuild what had been

damaged. He needed to teach his body to obey again before he could run, fight, or shift properly.

He looked at his feet and wiggled his toes.

They moved.

It was not a strong movement. Not enough to make him leap out of bed or shout the whole mansion awake. But the twitch was

there. Small. Real. Precious. Everything was getting better. Ethan stared at his toes like a fool, but he did not care. That small

movement meant years of impossibility were cracking open. It meant the body everyone had written off was answering him again.

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Chapter 275

Ethan wondered what it would be like to shift and run in the woods. To feel paws striking earth. To feel wind rush past him. To feel

Echo take full form after years of being buried beneath pain and silver. The thought made him restless with excitement.

“Not yet, Ethan. We have a lot of work to do; I will be a crippled wolf out there,” Echo teased him.

Ethan already knew that, but his excitement was why his mind was racing. Even Echo’s teasing felt like a gift. His wolf was back

enough to mock him. Back enough to keep him grounded. Back enough to remind him that healing would still require work.

Meadow got up to use the bathroom. She felt shy and excited at the same time, and it made her move quietly, almost carefully, as

the room had become sacred in the night. She could not wait to look at Ethan’s mark on her neck. The urge had been sitting under

her skin from the moment she woke. She had felt it there. A warmth. A claim. A truth she had never believed would belong to her.

When she finished using the toilet, she stood in front of the mirror at the sink to admire the crescent-shaped mark on her neck. For

a few seconds, she only stared. It sat beautifully against her skin, not ugly, not frightening, not like a scar forced on her. It looked

like belonging. Like devotion. Like a promise written in flesh.

She gently grazed her fingers over it, and tears filled her eyes.

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Underwater: The Silent Luna