The Name I Should Have Called Chapter 07
By the time I reached the capital, I was burning with fever.
My leg throbbed. I gritted my teeth and stayed silent.
Darian wrapped me in a blanket and pressed a cup of warm water into my hands.
He didn’t speak. He just brushed his thumb under my eye. That was when I realized I was crying.
Darian took my hand. His palm was dry and warm. He gently eased open my stiff fingers and laced them through his own.
“Rest. I’ll wake you when it’s time.”
I leaned back against the seat, my thoughts in chaos.
I had known he was well–off, but when I saw the price of two first–class tickets on his phone screen, I realized the cost could have supported me for two full years in the old territory.
When we reached the terminal, a man in a dark coat stepped forward, nodded respectfully, and took Darian’s luggage. “Alpha, the car is waiting outside.”
“Who is that?” I whispered.
“Our driver.” Darian looked at me. “Elena, my grandfather was Darian Lunarix the Elder. Alpha of the
Blackwood Pack. Director of Lunarix Holdings.”
The name meant nothing to me, but unease stirred in/my chest.
The car drove through manicured grounds and finally stopped before a grand estate.
A row of people stood on the steps. At the front was a silver–haired old woman leaning on a cane,
- me.
watching
“Grandmother.” Darian stepped out of the car. “I’ve brought Elena home.”
Her gaze never left me.
“Darian is over thirty and has never bonded. He always said he’d found his fated mate.”
What?
Fated mate.
I hadn’t realized Darian had already chosen me long ago.
That evening, Darian took me back to our quarters. Through the glass walls, I could see the endless lights of the capital.
I stood there until he came up behind me and rested his chin on the top of my head:
#ared” he asked softly
“Maybe I’m not good enough for you.”
He gently turned me to face him. “Elena, you deserve the best in the world. You’ve been manipulated for so long you forgot who you are.”
“Why do you want to bond with me? Just because I called your narae on the ridge?”
He led me to the couch, turned my hand over, and traced an old scar on my knuckle with his fingertip. “Do you remember this?”
I remembered.
I was seventeen, gatherin
I thought I was goin
When the wolf
the highlands, when a feral wolf charged out of nowhere
Doy came charging down the hillside, swinging a branch between us.
he bite with his forearm. The fangs tore through his sleeve, but he never
made a soun
That boy
Aft
- He claimed my mother’s herbal remedies worked better than anything in the
oked deep into my eyes and said, “Elena, you will be my Luna.”
st the boasting of a boy. Why would an Alpha’s son want a she–wolf from the old
fter that, he came back for the ritual ceremony, always bringing gifts but never saying a word
Dond.
as so focused on Kieran back then that I never even noticed him.
aited eight years,” Darian said, pressing my palm to his cheek. My fingertips brushed against the rough
ubble of his jaw.
“I thought I’d lost my chance. Until I heard my name on that ridge.”
His voice dropped lowe
Beyond the glas
answered. She said yes.”
