Chapter Twenty-Two
Elle's POV

An hour passed before he said anything, placing gentle caresses upon my ankle, easing the pain.

His scent was made of soft dew at nightfall and of earthen trees in the rising sun. It was made of bubbling rivers and the tallest mountains. His scent was peace, a sanctuary. He was the forest, and the forest was him. It kissed his skin in a delicate aroma that settled my racing heart.

His shallow breathing had steadied, and his fingers deftly massaged away the pain. 'If it were something I could frame, I would so that I could show you.' His voice was sombre, and he drew in an unsteady breath, his fingers stilling, 'But it's not something I can touch or see. I feel it. I feel it so intensely that it hurts.

'And although it's not something tangible, I feel I could touch it if I tried. It's a connection, like twine holding us together. I can feel it from here,' he pressed a finger to his chest, right above his heart and then threaded an invisible line through the air, 'and it connects right here.'

I felt his touch deeper than my skin. It penetrated deeper than the surface, touching my heart. 'And from here to here.' His touch moved from across my shoulder back to his own, 'And here to here. I can feel it in every fibre of my body. I know that you are the only one that truly matters to me. I know with every cell I have in my body that you and I are tied together in this miracle of fate, and all I can do is pray desperately that you'll trust me and that you feel even a fraction of what I feel.'

I clutched at my throat, unable to breathe. His eyes were too bright and feverish, a pained glimmer reflecting in their depths. He was clinging onto the hopefulness, and as he continued to break apart, it was clear that he had been holding onto it for too long. Seeing the desperation that clung there was painful, and it meant something. It meant he cared.

With a choked sob, I begged, 'I need to hear you say it.'

His eyes were wet, his hands moving to cup mine, which trembled as I studied the emotions on his face. 'We are soulmates, Elliot. I would do anything to keep you safe because I don't know who I would be without you. I would have nothing.'

I shuddered, the air jolting from my lungs shakily. My ribs tightened around my lungs and heart, and I pressed my fingers to my lips, wishing I could hold back the sobs that shook my body. 'Did he put you up to this?'

'Who?'

'Lachlan.'

Kaden's lungs were dredged with a whoosh, and he delicately slipped his fingers under mine, cupping my face. 'No.' He swept away tears with the pad of his thumb, but as he pushed them to the side, new ones took their place, splashing against our joined hands. 'What he did to you, Elle, cannot be undone, and it cannot go unanswered, but I promise you that this is real, that I will not walk away from you, not like he did.'

Wet lashes clung to my cheeks, tears holding on like dew on a spider's web. 'When did you realise?'

He hesitated, and my blood turned sluggish, a heavy weight settling in my stomach. 'Elle,' it was barely a whisper, a quiet plea, 'you have to understand...'

I didn't want to hear the excuses. I needed to know the truth.

I pulled back, slipping away from his touch, glancing across the room uneasily. 'When?'

'I-'

'When?'

He flinched, his gaze falling to the ground. 'Thirteen years ago.'

The air caught in my lungs, and I reefed my body away from his touch, curling myself into the corner of the room, trembling. I whispered, 'Why didn't you say anything?'

He reached for me, his hands hanging between us for a heartbeat before he twisted away, raking his fingers through his hair as his breath quickened, feverously pacing the length of the room. 'I had to protect you!'

Tears dribbled from my chin to stain the white sheets, and he wasn't there to catch them this time. My voice cracked, and I gasped for air, 'You could have said something!' I whispered. 'If I'd known...' I buried the palm of my hands into the curve of my eyes, pressing against the tears to keep them locked away. 'I never would have been with him.'

'I'm so sorry, Elliot.'

He slid down the wall, the furthest he could get from me, and bore witness to my breakdown as I slowly fell apart, pain blazing in eyes that refused to look away.

***

Getting out of the car was hard.

My body vibrated, fuelled with fear and dread, the need to run consuming every thought that flew through my mind. I needed to get out of Kaden's car and run until my legs turned to jelly. I needed to run and lock the doors behind me, so my fears couldn't follow me. I had to escape the heartbreak that was sure to follow. I had to avoid falling victim to another Lachlan.

But an infinitesimal part of me, no louder than a muffled whisper in the deep recesses of my brain, managed to hold me there, unmoving. I couldn't forget the touch of his skin or the fresh, dewy scent that lingered there, and that small nonsensical part of me wanted so desperately to want to stay.

I was suddenly hyper-aware, focused on his breathing and every small move he made. I was caged in the car under my own turmoil, and at some point, our breathing had fallen into a slow, steady rhythm. As I clutched the door handle, turning my eyes skittishly over the road, I wondered if our breathing had been accidental or if it had jumped for a while, uneven and more telling of our emotions, before falling into the rhythm.

'I wanted to tell you, Elliot, I did.' His words were almost drowned out by the drumming of my heart as it leapt in my throat and lodged itself there. 'I didn't know how to tell you and keep you safe. I just wanted to protect you.'

I pushed back against the headrest, drawing my shoulder across my body so I didn't have to face him. I couldn't look at him without something sharp burrowing into my chest.

I dug my fingers into my thigh, pressing so hard that I was sure I would leave a mark. I couldn't keep the emotion out of my voice, though I tried, and it warbled my words. 'But you didn't. Who knows what would have happened if you'd told me. But you knew, and you didn't say anything.'

I cleared the heartache from my throat and focused all my attention on the corner of the windscreen. 'You let my heart break, over and over again, as I lived with the consequences of your decision.' The tears pooled in the back of my throat, and anger sparked against the fumes. 'You didn't protect me against him, you could have, and now I don't know what to say to you that won't completely ruin this if you're even telling me the truth. Because what kind of soulmate stands by and watches their other half fall into the trap of a man who isn't telling the truth.'

His voice broke with emotion. 'I am telling you the truth.'

I shoved the door open, my resolve hardening. 'That's just something I will have to work out for myself. And something you might regret for the rest of your life because I've been there before, and it's crushing.'

The pavement was solid beneath my shoes, grounded me, a reminder that there were other ways to walk away from someone than fighting a losing battle.

'Wait!' His fingers were cold against my wrist but gentle, and his eyes held a desperate passion that they hadn't before. 'I didn't want you to find out. Not like this. And not now. I'm sorry. It's been thirteen years of walking away from you so I could protect you, and I don't know how. I don't know anymore.'

'No more ignoring me, not if what you say is true.'

'You don't understand. You'll be the first human in a position of this power.'

'Werewolves match with humans all the time!' I cried, tensing under his touch.

'Not like this. Not like us.' He slid his hands up my arms to cup my cheeks, tracing the contours of my face with the edge of his thumbs. 'This is the first time in history that a human and a werewolf elite has had a soul-line. It makes us so much more vulnerable.

'Elliot, you are my strength and weakness, my sun and moon, my light and darkness. I am petrified that someone will take you away from me. I'm terrified that one day I won't be able to protect you or save you from the monsters that hide in the shadows.'

I sniffled, air hissing into my lungs. 'What about the monsters that don't hide?'

He was broken, but he wasn't the one who lived every moment of that pain. His heart didn't break for months. I almost pulled away when he rested his forehead against mine, his breathing slow and deep, the opposite of mine, but then his body shook with a sighing cry, ' I almost couldn't today.'

I gathered the fabric of his jacket into clenched fists to hide the tremble of my hands and steady myself. 'What else could I need protecting from?'

Sniffling, I watched the lines of his face fall apart. 'Everything.'

A watery laugh simmered on my lips, and I leaned into his touch as though his magnetic field drew me in. 'You can't protect me from everything.'

His hands steadied on my cheeks, caressing a blush to the surface. 'I can try.'