Page 26

Eli

The flames dance higher as I feed another photo into the fire, watching Kate’s smile curl and blacken at the edges before disappearing entirely.

Three years of memories reduced to ash and smoke, and for the first time since she left, I feel something other than the hollow ache that’s lived in my chest.

I feel free.

The fire pit behind my cottage casts flickering shadows across the garden as evening settles over the estate.

I’ve been at this for an hour now, methodically burning every trace of Kate’s presence in my life.

Photos, letters, the expensive perfume she left behind—all of it feeding the cleansing flames.

There’s only one thing left.

I look up at the wind chimes hanging from my porch, their gentle melody filling the night air. Kate had hung them there during our second summer together, claiming they’d help me track wind patterns for the gardens. We both knew it was just an excuse to mark my space as partly hers.

For three years, I couldn’t bring myself to take them down.

They were my penance, my reminder of what I’d lost, what I’d failed to keep.

But now, standing in the warm glow of the fire with Kate’s ghost finally banished, I realize they represent something else entirely.

They represent my inability to move forward.

My commitment to living in the past rather than building the future I deserve.

I reach for my phone, my fingers hesitating only briefly before typing out a message to Jolie.

We need to talk. Can you meet me by the lake? It’s important.

I hit send before I can second-guess myself, then immediately start pacing around the fire. What if she doesn’t come? What if she’s already moved on completely, found someone who isn’t carrying enough emotional baggage to sink a ship? What if I’ve waited too long?

My phone buzzes almost immediately.

Jolie: I can’t. I promised my mother I wouldn’t have any contact with you or your family.

The words hit me hard, but I force myself to type back.

Please. Just this once. I have something that belongs to you.

Jolie: I never left anything at your cottage.

My heart, I want to write, but even in my current state of emotional revelation, I’m not quite that dramatic.

Something I should have given you weeks ago. Please, Jolie. After tonight, if you want me to stay away forever, I will.

The minutes stretch endlessly before her response comes.

Jolie: The old oak tree by the water. Twenty minutes .

I bank the fire carefully, making sure the last of Kate’s belongings are nothing but embers before I head toward the lake.

My hands are shaking—with nerves, with hope, with the terrifying possibility that I might actually get this right.

The moon is full tonight, casting silver light across the water where Jolie and I first kissed. Where I first tasted what it felt like to be chosen rather than settled for.

The memory of that afternoon—her soft lips, her trust, the way she’d looked at me like I was everything she’d been searching for and now gives me the courage to keep walking.

She’s already there when I arrive, standing at the water’s edge with her arms wrapped around herself defensively.

The moonlight catches in her shorter hair, emphasizing the elegant line of her neck, the determined set of her shoulders.

Even angry with me, even trying to protect herself, she’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

“Thank you for coming,” I say quietly, stopping a few feet away to give her space.

She doesn’t turn around. “You said you had something of mine.”

“I do.” I take a deep breath, letting the words I’ve been practicing spill out. “My complete honesty. My trust. My willingness to fight for us instead of against my fear.”

Now she turns, her amber eyes reflecting the moonlight.

“Eli—“

“I burned everything tonight,” I interrupt, needing to get this out before I lose my nerve. “Every photo, every letter, every reminder of Kate I’ve been clinging to for three years. I should have done it the day she left, but I was too much of a coward.”

Jolie’s expression softens slightly, but her posture remains guarded. “Why now?”

“Because losing you hurt worse than losing her ever did.” The admission tears from my throat, raw and honest. “Because I realized I wasn’t mourning Kate. I was mourning the version of myself that existed before she left. The man who believed he was worthy of love.”

“You are worthy of love,” she says quietly.

“I’m starting to believe that, thanks to you.” I take a tentative step closer, encouraged when she doesn’t back away. “Jolie, I know I hurt you. I know I was a coward when you offered me everything I’d ever wanted. But I’m not that man anymore.”

“What’s changed?” There’s something in her voice—not quite hope, but not complete dismissal either.

“Everything.” I laugh, the sound carrying three years of suppressed emotion. “I realized that being afraid of losing you is no reason to push you away. That my fear of not being enough is exactly what makes me not enough.”

She studies my face in the moonlight, and I can see her weighing my words against the hurt I’ve caused her.

“What exactly are you asking for, Eli?”

“A chance to prove that I can be the Alpha you deserve. The man who will choose you every day, not because biology demands it, but because I can’t imagine a life without you in it.

” I pull something from my pocket—a small velvet box.

“I’m asking you to let me love you the way you should be loved.

Completely. Without reservation. Without fear. ”

Her eyes widen as she slides her fingernail over the box as we stand beside the lake where we first kissed, where I first understood what it meant to be chosen.

“I’m not asking you to marry me,” I say quickly, seeing the panic that flashes across her face. “It’s a key to my home. For you to come and go as you please, or…move in. But what it also represents is proof that I’m ready to be your Alpha in every way that matters.”

“Eli...” Her voice is breathless, uncertain.

“I know you said I had one chance, and I threw it away. But Jolie, if you can find it in your heart to forgive me, I swear I will spend every day proving that your faith in me wasn’t misplaced.”

She stares down at me for a long moment, moonlight playing across her features. When she finally speaks, her voice is thick with emotion.

“I can’t.” My stomach drops to the floor, but I force myself to hear her out completely.

“I can’t because my mother was right about one thing—alpha pheromones have influenced me.

I’ve been making decisions with my body instead of my head, and I need space to figure out what I actually want versus what biology is telling me to want. ”

Hope flickers in my chest despite her rejection. She’s not saying no forever—she’s saying not right now.

“How much space?” I ask quietly.

“I don’t know.” She wraps her arms tighter around herself, and that’s when I notice she’s shivering. “We’re leaving, Eli. Mom and I. This weekend.”

“Leaving?” I shoot to my feet. “Where?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

“Jolie, please—“

“Don’t.” She holds up a hand, stopping my approach. “This is what I need, Eli. Time away from all of this to figure out who I am when I’m not surrounded by Alphas who make me feel things I can’t trust.”

“What things?”

“Like I belong with you. With your brother—“

“Beckett?”

She nods and I want to argue, to point out that running away won’t solve anything, that what we have is real regardless of biology. But the determined set of her jaw tells me that pushing now will only drive her further away.

“Okay,” I say instead, the word tasting like surrender. “If that’s what you need.”

Surprise flickers across her features. “You will not fight me on this?”

“I spent three years fighting my happiness,” I whisper. “I won’t make the same mistake by fighting yours. If you need space to be sure, then I’ll give you space.”

“Thank you.” Relief clear in her voice, but there’s something else there too—disappointment, maybe, that I’m not fighting harder.

“But Jolie?” I wait until she meets my eyes. “When you’re ready—if you’re ever ready—I’ll be here. However long it takes, wherever you go, I’ll be here waiting for you to come home.”

She nods, tears spilling down her cheeks. “I should go. Mom will worry.”

“Wait.” I catch her hand gently as she turns away. “The wind chimes. On my porch. Do you want them?”

She looks confused. “Why would I want them?”

“Because Kate hung them, but they sing with your laughter now. Because they’ve been marking time until you came into my life, and now that you’re leaving.

..” I swallow hard. “I was going to take them down tonight, but I thought maybe you’d want to keep them.

As a reminder that some things are worth waiting for. ”

Fresh tears spill over as she shakes her head. “Keep one, Eli. We’ll take it down together one day.”

She pulls her hand from mine and walks away, leaving me standing alone by the water with moonlight reflecting off the key I never got to offer properly.

I watch until she disappears into the shadows between the trees, then sink onto the fallen log where we shared our picnic.

The night air carries the faint trace of her scent—honeyed sweetness with that sunshine warmth underneath that calls to something deep in my soul. Even leaving, even protecting herself from me, she smells like home.

I sit by the water for hours, turning the box over in my hands and listening to the gentle lap of waves against the shore.

By the time the sun rises, painting the sky in the most beautiful shade of deep red, I’ve made a decision to give her the space she needs.

I’ll let her leave without the pressure my Alpha so desperately wants to do.

But I won’t give up hope that someday, she’ll realize what I’ve finally figured out.

It took me a while. I just hope it doesn’t take her as long to work out that what we have is worth any risk, any fear, any obstacle we might face.

And when that day comes, I’ll be ready for her.

No matter how long it takes, no matter how far she goes, I’ll be here when she’s ready to come home. Because some love is worth waiting for.

And Jolie Masters is worth everything.