Chapter 37
Elodie’s POV
I don’t even know why my hands trembled on the steering wheel that night. Maybe it was the traffic, maybe it was the storm in my chest that refused to die down. By the time I pulled into the family estate, the sky had already bruised into deep gray, and the Pack House windows glowed like watchful eyes. It was past six. Late again. Always late these days.
My steps paused when I recalled about Liora. It’s been days and she has not reached out to me. My sweet little girl who always clung to me and called me always, wanting me to rock her to sleep while she was younger, now had Sienna. My chest extremely tightened and the urge to break down again overwhelmed me but I sniffled and took in a very large breath and stayed still in the car.
The moment I stepped inside, my grandmother’s eyes found me. Her smile wavered, just a fraction but I caught it. She reached out and brushed her fingers over my cheek, and her touch was so light it almost broke me in half.
“You’ve lost weight,” she whispered, like it hurt her to say it.
I swallowed hard and forced a small smile. “Work has been… busy.” My voice sounded thin, even to me.
Her sigh carried the weight of decades. “No matter how busy you are, child, you must eat. You’ll make yourself sick p>
“I will,” I lied. “I’ll take care of myself p>
I lowered myself beside her, my head leaning against her frail shoulder. She smelled faintly of herbs and warm broth, home, comfort, safety and for the first time all day, I let my body sag. The scent of lamb soup drifted through the room, so thick and heavy, but even that couldn’t stir hunger in me. My stomach has been hollow for weeks now.
She ordered a servant to bring me a bowl, fussing over me like she always did, her words soft, her eyes wet with quiet worry. I tried to blink mine dry. I couldn’t let her see how shattered I was.
So I asked about the others. “Aunt and the rest, are they back from their trip p>
“Not yet,” she murmured. “They’re enjoying themselves so much they’ll be gone another week p>
“What about Uncle Jason? Is he out with clients again p>
Her gaze softened. “He canceled his dinner when he heard you were coming. He wants to eat with us tonight p>
For some reason, that almost undid me more than anything. The loyalty. The way they all still tried to hold me together while I was falling apart.
Uncle Jason walked in minutes later, his shoulders carrying exhaustion like armor. He stopped when he saw me, relief flickering across his tired face. “Elodie… you’re back p>
I forced a smile, but his sharp eyes took me in anyway. He frowned. “You’ve lost weight. Haven’t you been eating p>
“I was too busy before,” I murmured, trying to keep it light. “I’ll eat more now p>
He didn’t look convinced. He simply sighed, reached across the table, and kept piling meat into my bowl, like food could fix what was broken inside me.
But as I stared at him, I noticed the hollows under his eyes, the strain in his jaw. He was fighting, too. The company was crumbling, I knew it, even if he never said it. He bore it all in silence, drowning quietly while pretending to keep his head above water.
And Dante… Dante could’ve changed everything. One word from him, one project, one ounce of help, and Albert’s company wouldn’t be bleeding out like this. But Dante had never lifted a finger. Not unless his grandmother ordered it. Not unless the weight of duty forced his hand.
The truth was cruel: if his grandmother hadn’t intervened those two times, Dante might have crushed us on purpose. He thought so little of me, so little of what we were that I believed he’d destroy Uncle Jason’s company just to punish me for sins I never committed.
The lamb in my mouth turned to ash. I chewed, but every bite was bitter.
After dinner, when my grandmother had dozed off in her chair, I reached into my purse and slid a black card across the table to Uncle Jason. Ten million. Enough to buy him a breath, maybe a month of peace.
“Elodie,” he said sharply, pushing it back. “Your uncle doesn’t need this p>
“I have no use for it.” My voice cracked, but I shoved the card toward him anyway. “Please. Just take it. I can’t do anything else. This is all I can give p>
His mouth opened, then closed again. The silence that fell between us was suffocating.
I’d always been the clever one, the girl buried in books, chasing research and answers to questions nobody else cared about. But none of that meant anything here. Not in this world. Not in Dante’s world of ruthless CEOs and packs built on power and bloodlines. My brilliance was useless currency. I couldn’t save Jason. I couldn’t save my grandmother.
And I sure as hell couldn’t save myself.
True, I had always been the gifted one. Numbers, algorithms, research, I could bury myself in it and breathe. But business? The politics, the endless boardroom wars, the smiling backstabs? I was never cut out for it. And maybe that’s why it still feels like I failed.
Still, I wasn’t starving. The patents I’d secured years ago in artificial intelligence, the ones Johnny and I fought sleepless nights over had grown into something huge. The company we co-founded together before my world fell apart… it still bled me dividends. Enough that even if I locked myself in a dark room and never lifted a pen, millions rolled in every year. Money without life attached.
Jason sat across from me, looking older than he should. His voice cracked when he finally spoke.
“You’ve bailed me out so many times, Elodie. And yet the company still His hands trembled against his knees. “It’s barely alive. Because I lack the ability p>
I bit the inside of my cheek until I tasted blood. “Uncle, companies bleed during transition phases. It doesn’t mean you’re incapable. Don’t carry the weight alone p>
Even as I said it, I heard Johnny’s voice in my head from the other day, like it had cut straight through me. “Do you even realize, Elodie? If you hadn’t chosen him, if you hadn’t walked away from us, our company would be a monster by now. Hundreds of billions. We could’ve been the alpha of the industry. Instead, you left me to fight alone p>
His words had stayed with me like claws. He wasn’t wrong. I had left. I had thrown my brilliance into a marriage that ended in ashes. I had gambled on love, on a mate bond that was supposed to complete me, and instead it hollowed me out.
And now? I sat in here, staring at my uncle’s weary eyes, realizing that my choices had destroyed more than just myself.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered, though the words weren’t meant for him. They were for everyone I’d let down. Jason, Johnny, myself. My wolf stirred uneasily inside me, pacing, restless, as though she too blamed me for ripping us away from where we belonged.
If I had stayed… if I had fought beside Johnny instead of clinging to a man who couldn’t even protect me when the storms came… maybe we would’ve been untouchable. Maybe the industry would bow to us. Maybe I wouldn’t be here, watching Jason crumble and knowing I was too broken to save him.
The silence grew heavier, pressing against my chest until I could hardly breathe. My wolf whimpered inside me, not from weakness but grief. The bond scars still burned faintly at the edges, constant reminders of promises that had turned to poison.
Jason reached across the table, his voice hoarse. “Elodie… if you could come back, if you could lead again, maybe there’s still a chance p>
His hope was a knife. Because I knew I wasn’t that woman anymore. The girl who once coded until dawn with fire in her veins, who believed she could conquer the world beside a man she loved… she had died the day her bond shattered.
Now I was just a hollow shell sitting in her place, holding scraps of brilliance and bleeding guilt into the cracks.
I swallowed hard, forcing the tears back, but my voice still broke. “If I could find her again… maybe. But right now, Uncle, I don’t even recognize the woman in the mirror p>