“More champagne, sir? ” The words came out dull, mechanical, but Mave Sullivan’s mind was screaming. Her hand trembled as she reached for the bottle, her eyes locked on the man in seat 3A. The dead don’t drink champagne.
Mave knew this as surely as she knew the weight of her wedding ring in the jewelry box at home, as surely as she knew the exact shade of her daughter’s eyes, as surely as she had known for seven years that her husband Elijah was dead. Yet there he sat, very much alive, swirling golden bubbles in a crystal flute. It wasn’t someone who resembled him. It was *him*.
The way his jaw tightened almost imperceptibly before he laughed. The birthmark just behind his left ear that she used to trace with her fingertip. Faith had inherited one in the exact same spot. The tray in her hands crashed against the beverage cart.
Her colleague Helen gripped her elbow. “Mave, you’ve gone pale. What’s wrong? ”
She forced her gaze away from Elijah.
She’d hallucinated him before. In the early days of grief, she’d seen his profile in crowds, caught his scent on passing strangers. It was never him. But this time, he laughed—that rich laugh rising from deep in his chest, the laugh that warmed their kitchen on Sunday mornings.
The laugh she thought their daughter would never know. “I need to serve him,” she whispered. Each step toward him felt like walking through quicksand. Seven years of crying herself to sleep.
Seven years of working double shifts to make ends meet. Seven years of watching Faith’s eyes light up at every new photograph of her dead father. The woman beside him noticed her approach. “More champagne, please,” she said, her tone carrying the expectation of someone who’d never heard no in her life.
And then he looked up. Those eyes—deep amber brown with flecks of gold near the pupil. Eyes she’d stared into as they made love, as they fought, as they whispered promises that apparently meant nothing. His gaze slid over her face with polite disinterest.
No flicker of recognition. No heartbeat of shock. “Please,” he said, with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. Then, with a wink, “Don’t be stingy with the pour, gorgeous.
”
The blonde beside him laughed, her fingers tightening possessively on his arm. Something fractured inside Mave’s chest. She poured mechanically, champagne trembling over the rim of his glass. “Sorry,” she managed.
“No harm done,” Elijah said. Their fingertips brushed as she handed him the glass. Does he really feel nothing? He was already turned away, his head bent toward the blonde as though Mave was less than a ghost.
She barely made it to the tiny airplane bathroom before her knees gave way. Faith’s face swam in her mind. Faith, who kept Elijah’s photo by her bed and kissed it good night. Faith, who just last week asked, “If Daddy’s watching over us from heaven, does he ever miss being able to hug us?
”
Her husband is dead. Her husband is in seat 3A. Two irreconcilable truths waged war in her chest. —
When the plane landed, Mave emerged to find Helen waiting.
“Everyone’s deplaned. What happened? ”
Mave fixed her gaze on seat 3A, now empty. “That man.
The one sitting there. I need his name, his information, everything. ”
“Why? Did he do something inappropriate?
”
“Either I finally lost my mind completely, or my dead husband has faked his own death. So pretty inappropriate, yes. ”
Helen’s eyebrows rose alarmingly high. “Mave, what are you talking about?
”
“Can you help me or not? ”
Helen studied her for a long moment. “I’ll see what I can find out. Wait for me in the first-class lounge.
”
In the lounge, Mave called Alan. Alan had been there the night of the accident. Alan had identified the body. Alan would tell her she was losing her mind.
“I saw Elijah,” she said. A long silence stretched. “Elijah is dead,” Alan said eventually, carefully. “You know that.
”
“I know what I saw. I served him champagne. I was inches from his face. ”
“And what did he say?
”
Mave froze. “Nothing. He didn’t know me at all. ”
“Mave.
You’re working too hard. When was the last time you took a real break? Remember that trip we talked about taking Faith to Disneyland? Maybe it’s time.
”
Doubt crept in. What if Alan was right? What if the long hours, the constant travel, the stress of single motherhood had finally cracked something essential inside her? “That night,” she pressed.
“The body you identified. Are you sure, Alan? ”
The line went staticky with his hesitation. “The crash was bad, Mave.
The injuries were significant. But yes, I’m sure. His father was there, too. Remember?
”
She squeezed her eyes shut. She hadn’t viewed the body herself. Couldn’t bear to see him that way. She’d trusted Alan and Samuel West to handle everything.
“Of course,” she murmured. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. ”
She was halfway to the door when Helen rushed in.
“There you are. I checked the manifest like you asked. The guy’s name is Elijah Xavier West. ”
The floor seemed to drop from beneath Mave’s feet.
Not similar. Not close. Exact. “He’s headed to some fancy hotel downtown, according to his booking details,” Helen said.
Mave clenched her fists. “Helen, I need you to cover for me. Tell the captain I got sick. ”
“What?
But we have a turnaround in seventy minutes. ”
“I know. But I need to find him. ”
—
The taxi cost more than Mave’s monthly car payment.
She didn’t care. Rain pelted the cab’s windows as it pulled up to a modern complex of glass and stone—the kind of place Elijah always preferred, his tastes shaped by a lifetime of West family privilege. In the lobby, she approached the reception desk. “I need to see one of your guests.
Elijah West. ”
The receptionist—Amber, her name tag read—offered a practiced smile. “I’m sorry, but we don’t provide information about our guests. ”
Desperation clawed at Mave’s throat.
She pulled out a worn photograph of Elijah on their last anniversary, his head thrown back in laughter. “This is him. Have you seen him today? ”
“Ma’am, I really can’t.
”
“Please. He’s my husband. ”
And then she saw him. Elijah stood near the elevator bank, checking his watch, now wearing dark jeans and a gray cashmere sweater.
The blonde was nowhere in sight. She crossed the lobby like a sleepwalker. “Elijah,” she said. He turned, brow furrowed.
“Yes? ” His eyes scanned her face. “We need to talk. ”
Recognition flashed across his face.
“Oh,” he said. “It’s you. ”
Mave gasped. “You remember me?
”
“Of course. The flight attendant from the plane. ”
The relief vanished, leaving her hollow. “The flight attendant?
That’s it? That’s all you got? ”
Amber approached cautiously. “Mr.
West, is everything all right? Is this woman bothering you? ”
“Bothering him? ” Mave erupted.
“He’s pretended to be dead for the past seven years, and I’m bothering him? ”
Amber’s eyes widened. “I’ll call security. ”
“Whoa, hold on.
” Elijah held up a hand. “What do you mean pretended to be dead? I haven’t been pretending anything. I’ve just been walking around like a very alive person.
”
The flippant response ignited something in Mave. It was so quintessentially Elijah—that slightly bratty smartass tone, his classic defense mechanism when cornered. “Where were you? How could you do this to me?
”
“Do what? And I’ve been plenty of places. You’d have to be more specific. ”
Mave’s palm connected with his cheek in a sharp crack that echoed through the lobby.
Elijah barely flinched. Only his eyes reacted, flashing momentarily from brown to a luminous gold as his pupils dilated. A split-second tell. Gone almost before it appeared.
But Mave caught it. His eyes used to do that. She’d never met anybody else with eyes that could do that. And she realized with sudden clarity—he’d never wanted to talk about it.
He’d been loving, charming, warm. But he’d been secretive, too. Somehow, her grief had conveniently made her forget that these past seven years. “You think I wouldn’t recognize my own husband?
” she demanded. “You’re Elijah Xavier West. Son of Samuel and Diana West. Born May 17th, 1960.
Takes your coffee black, except on Sundays when you inexplicably want cream. You have a birthmark shaped like a butterfly on your lower back, which you call your barcode. You hate cilantro and claim it tastes like soap. You sleep with the window open even in winter.
You fold your socks instead of rolling them. And when you’re startled, your eyes flash gold—like they did when I slapped you. ”
Elijah stared at her, the color draining from his face. “You never did explain that.
Just like you never explained why you don’t go to doctors, or why injuries that should take weeks to heal disappear overnight, or why you can drink an entire bottle of scotch and not even slur. ”
Elijah went completely still—a predator’s stillness that had nothing to do with the casual, charming man he presented to the world. “Give us a minute,” he said to Amber. He grasped Mave’s elbow and steered her toward a quiet alcove behind the fireplace.
Once they were alone, he released her. “Who are you? ” he asked, all pretense gone. “My name is Mave.
I buried you. I scattered your ashes across the sea. I’ve spent seven years explaining to our daughter why her daddy isn’t coming home. ”
“Our daughter.
Now we have a daughter. ”
“Faith. She just turned seven last month. ”
Elijah shook his head.
And then Mave saw it, as clearly as if watching an old film—the moment she told him she was pregnant. The way his face had drained of color. The panic in his eyes. “Pregnant?
” he’d echoed, hollow. “But you’re on the pill. ”
“It’s not infallible. ”
He’d paced their apartment for an hour, running his hands through his hair until it stood on end.
Then he’d said, finally, his voice strangely flat, “You have to trust me on this. ”
The fight that followed was their worst ever. When she returned the next day, he’d been waiting with flowers and an apology. But something had changed.
The easy confidence had vanished from his eyes, replaced by a haunted vigilance. He wouldn’t leave her side. He was always wary, tense, like some unknown danger was looming. “You left because of Faith,” she accused now, the words tasting like poison.
“You said you were okay with it, but you weren’t, were you? ”
“I don’t know you,” Elijah insisted. Two security guards appeared behind him. “Sir, is there a problem here?
”
“Yes,” Mave said. “This jackass here abandoned his family and now he’s pretending not to even know us. ”
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to leave the premises. ”
“Oh, whatever.
Not like I want to be here anyway. ”
“She’s confused,” Elijah told the guards, his voice measured. “She needs help. A doctor, maybe.
”
“I’m not confused. ” Mave was incandescent with rage. “You’re a coward, Elijah. And you know what?
I’m actually glad you stayed away from my daughter. She deserves better than that. ”
She pulled out the photo of Faith—the school portrait taken three months ago, Faith’s smile revealing her missing front tooth—and threw it at him. “She looks just like you.
In case you ever wondered, now you won’t have to come see for yourself. ”
She turned and walked away, her spine rigid despite the storm raging inside her. —
Elijah didn’t move for several minutes. The photograph in his hand weighed more than it should.
A small girl with dark hair and unmistakable features stared back at him. She had his eyes and his mother’s dimples. The resemblance was impossible to reconcile with the blank space in his memory where this woman should exist. Inside his suite, Elijah poured himself three fingers of scotch.
The woman’s scent lingered in his memory—floral and warm, tinged with determination and barely controlled panic. His wolf had stirred the moment she approached. The troubling part wasn’t her claims. It was what they represented.
If she was telling the truth, she was completely, obviously human. And Elijah didn’t sleep with humans. Ever. The risks were too catastrophic.
Human women didn’t survive bearing shifter children. The pregnancy alone usually killed them. And even if they somehow survived, the shifter gene tended to be dominant—meaning if Faith was his, the chances of her being a shifter were alarmingly high. Elijah wouldn’t do that to someone.
He wouldn’t get a human pregnant and then abandon her to face those dangers alone. He picked up the photo again, studying the little girl’s face. When shifter children hit seven or eight, their wolf begins to stir. Without proper guidance, the first shift can be violent.
Deadly. Not just to the child, but to anyone nearby who tries to help. He reached for his phone. “Nicole.
I need you to look into someone. The flight attendant from earlier. She said her name was Mave. ”
—
Two days later, Elijah stood across the street from an elementary school, watching children spill from the building.
Nicole had found Mave Sullivan’s address easily enough—31, flight attendant, a seven-year-old daughter named Faith, no father listed on the birth certificate. The efficiency of it made him feel like a stalker. Then Faith emerged from the main doors. She gestured animatedly as she talked to her friends, drawing them into whatever story she was telling with natural charisma.
Leadership qualities. His wolf observed with what felt disturbingly like pride. Faith broke away from the group, chasing after a ball that had rolled toward the fence. The wind shifted, carrying her scent directly to him.
Recognition slammed into him with devastating certainty. It was unmistakably his bloodline—like cedar and something wild and clean. She was his. Absolutely, undeniably his.
But she was also completely, purely human. No wolf. No trace of any supernatural ability. It defied everything he knew about shifter genetics.
Yet here she was—his daughter, somehow, by some miracle he couldn’t comprehend, escaped the burden of his nature. The relief was so intense it nearly brought him to his knees. She’s safe. She’ll never have to worry about losing control.
She’s just a normal human child. He took a step toward the fence, then stopped. What would he say? How do you explain to a seven-year-old that her world isn’t what she thought it was?
Maybe the kindest thing is to walk away and let her live her normal human life. He forced himself to turn away. He’d taken three steps toward his car when he heard it. “Daddy.
”
The word stopped him cold. He turned slowly. Faith stood pressed against the chain-link fence, her small hands wrapped around the metal links. Her eyes—his eyes—were wide with recognition.
“Daddy,” she said again, voice full of hope. “I knew it. I told mommy I saw you in my dreams, but she said you were in heaven. ”
She started climbing the fence with the fearless determination that only children possess.
A teacher tried to coax her down, but Faith was having none of it. With a final determined heave, she made it over and dropped to the ground on his side. “Daddy. ” She launched herself at him, and pure instinct made him catch her.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and buried her face against his shoulder. Every protective instinct he never knew he possessed roared to life. “Mine,” his wolf declared fiercely. “I knew you weren’t really dead,” she whispered against his ear.
“I told Mommy you were coming back, but she didn’t believe me. ”
Elijah closed his eyes and held her tighter. “I’m here,” he managed, his voice rough. “I’m here now.
”
And then he caught another familiar scent on the afternoon breeze. One that made his body go rigid with recognition even before he saw her. Mave. —
Mave rounded the corner of the school building at a near run, her face a mask of panic that transformed into fury the moment she spotted him holding Faith.
“What do you think you’re doing? Put her down now. ”
Faith, still wrapped in his arms, turned toward her mother with bright eyes. “Mommy, look.
Daddy came back. ”
“That is not your father,” Mave said firmly, reaching for Faith. “Come here, baby. ”
Faith reluctantly allowed herself to be transferred.
But she kept looking back at Elijah with confusion and hurt. “This isn’t your daddy,” Mave said, her voice gentler now but still strained as she fixed Elijah with a glare that could melt steel. “He’s just someone who looks like the pictures. ”
“You said she was mine,” Elijah said quietly.
“I couldn’t just leave her here, not knowing if—”
“And why not? That’s exactly what you’ve been doing for the past seven years, isn’t it? ”
“I didn’t know about her. How am I supposed to know?
You never reached out. ”
“Because I thought you were dead,” Mave nearly shouted, making Faith startle. “You’re scaring my daughter,” Elijah snapped. Mave’s face flushed with anger.
“Your daughter? Just two days ago you wouldn’t even believe she existed, and now she’s your daughter? Have you lost your mind? ”
“Look, I’m sorry, but like I told you at the hotel, I have no memory of you.
And it doesn’t help that you’ve made up this entire relationship we never had. ”
Mave’s jaw dropped. “I haven’t made up anything. You were declared dead.
If you don’t believe me, ask your father. ”
Elijah frowned, suddenly troubled. “My father? ”
“Stay away from us,” Mave threw over her shoulder, Faith still in her arms.
“I mean it. ”
His wolf snarled at the idea of being separated from his daughter. But Elijah forced himself to remain still. He watched Mave stride across the playground, Faith’s arms wrapped around her neck.
Faith is his daughter. He has rights, too. He’ll find a way to be part of her life. And then he caught a familiar scent on the wind.
Another shifter. Allan. His childhood friend and pack brother. But Allan wasn’t looking his way.
He was walking toward Mave with easy familiarity. He hugged her. Then he leaned in to greet Faith with the casual affection of someone who’d done this countless times before. Allan knows exactly whose daughter Faith is, Elijah realized.
And he hasn’t said a thing. Elijah started walking faster. That’s when Allan saw him. Allan’s head turned.
His eyes found Elijah’s—and then he hurried into the car and started the engine with sudden panicked urgency. “Wait! ” Elijah yelled, breaking into a run. Faith noticed, pressing her face to the rear window.
She waved at him. Mave just shook her head and gave him the finger. Allan gunned the car at an impossible speed, tires squealing as he drove away. —
“See?
” Mave barked as Allan sped through residential streets. “I told you it was him. But you weren’t shocked to see Elijah alive, were you? ”
For two days, Allan had been insisting it was just coincidence.
Grief playing tricks on her mind. But back there at the school, Allan hadn’t looked surprised. He’d looked like a man caught in a lie. “You were scared,” Mave continued.
“You saw him and you ran. You ran because you knew he was alive. ”
“Mave—”
“No. You knew.
You knew it was really him, didn’t you? ”
Allan’s jaw worked silently. In the back seat, Faith hummed quietly to herself. “Stop the goddamn car, Alan.
”
Allan jerked the wheel to the right, pulling into an empty parking lot. “Yes,” he said finally. “I lied. But it was for your own good, Mave.
For Faith’s good. ”
“For my own good? Alan, I mourned him. I’ve been raising his daughter alone, thinking he was dead.
And you—you held me while I cried on the anniversary of his death. You’ve been lying to my face for years. ”
“I know what it cost you. I know.
”
“Then why? Why would you do that to me? To Faith? ”
“I can explain.
But not here, not with—” He glanced back at Faith. “Can we drop her off at your mother’s first? ”
The ten-minute drive passed in tense silence, broken only by Faith’s chatter about seeing Daddy at school. Mave’s mother took one look at her face and agreed to keep Faith for the evening without asking questions.
Back in Mave’s apartment, she demanded, “Talk. ”
Allan ran his hands through his hair. “Elijah isn’t who you think he is. He put you in terrible danger, Mave.
Both of you. ”
“What are you talking about? ”
“It wouldn’t make sense if I just explained it. I’d need to show you.
”
“Show me what? ”
“Please,” he said, moving toward her with his hands raised. “Just watch. Try not to scream.
”
The change started in his eyes. Then his face began to elongate, his jaw pushing forward as his teeth sharpened into fangs. Allan dropped to his hands and knees as his spine arched and stretched. Fur erupted across his skin in a wave of sandy brown and gray.
His limbs reshaped themselves with wet, organic sounds that made her stomach lurch. Within moments, where Allan had knelt, a massive wolf now crouched. —
Elijah’s hands shook as he dialed his father’s private number. “Samuel West.
”
“It’s me. We need to talk. ”
“Elijah, where the hell are you? You were supposed to be at the Harrow funeral an hour ago.
The pack is asking questions. ”
“Forget the funeral. I want to know why Allan is hanging around a human woman who claims I’m supposed to be dead. ”
A long silence stretched.
“How did you find out? ”
Elijah gaped. “You knew. You fucking knew.
”
“So, you saw Mave then. ”
“You know her? ”
“No thanks to you. You never bothered to introduce us properly.
”
“She knew things about me. Intimate things. She claimed we were married. ”
“It’s true.
You were married in secret—against pack law and against my explicit orders. ”
“What? How could you not tell me that? ”
“How could you not tell me you were dating a human woman?
You knew I’d forbid it. I told you if you went through with it, I’d banish you from the pack. You’d get nothing. No inheritance, no family fortune, no protection.
And you went and did it anyway. You left us—the pack, your mother—all for this girl. ”
Elijah’s mind reeled. If he’d been willing to give up everything for Mave, willing to defy his father…
I must have really loved her. Somewhere in his missing memories was a love so powerful it made him choose a human woman over everything he’d ever known. And it was gone. Stolen from him as surely as if someone had cut out a piece of his heart.
“I need you to tell me exactly what happened,” Elijah said, his voice hollow. “Because I don’t remember any of this. ”
“You were in a car accident. Allan was with you.
He found you and rescued you. Said you were fine physically, but somehow you’d lost all your memories of her. So we decided not to tell you about Mave. It was like you’d never met her.
You remembered everything else. Everything except her. ”
“So you told her I died? ” Elijah asked, horror and shame washing over him in waves.
Mave—the woman he’d loved enough to abandon everything for—had been left to believe he was dead. Left to grieve alone while carrying his child. “Yes. ”
The simple admission destroyed something inside him.
“How could you? I’ll never forgive you for this. ”
“Oh, come on. You know the law.
She’s human. You’re not right for her anyway. She’s better off without you, and you know it. ”
“Like this is about her—as if you cared one second about her when you left her to grieve and fend for our child alone.
”
“What? What are you talking about? ”
“You couldn’t even have known Faith wouldn’t turn out a shifter. What were you planning to have her kidnapped if she were?
Is that why you have Allan tailing her? ”
“Wait a minute. Are you saying the girl was pregnant? ”
Elijah’s voice dropped to a whisper.
“You didn’t know about Faith? ”
His mother’s voice suddenly filled the line. “Allan has been watching Mave for us for years. We didn’t want—well, we thought we owed her that at least.
Protection. Allan offered. ”
“Unlike us, Allan has been hanging around with Mave for years,” his mother continued, a horrified tone creeping in. “He has to know about the baby.
”
“She’s not a baby anymore, mother. She’s seven. ”
The implications hit like dominoes falling. Allan kept his parents’ secret from him.
Told him nothing about Mave being alive and grieving. But Allan also kept Faith’s existence secret from his parents. For years, Allan had been the only one who knew all the pieces of this puzzle. “He’s been playing all of us,” Elijah realized.
“But why? ”
“I don’t know. But he saw me today, mother. And he ran.
He took my daughter and drove away like his life depended on it. ”
He hung up without waiting for a response. Allan—his childhood friend, his pack brother, the man he’d trusted above all others—had been orchestrating this entire situation for seven years. The question that terrified him was simple.
*Why? *
—
Allan transformed back into his human form. “Jesus Christ,” Mave muttered, running her hands through her hair. “Faith was right.
Oh my god, my seven-year-old knew before I did. ”
“I’m sorry for not telling you. We’re not supposed to tell humans about what we are. ”
“Who’s *we*?
”
“Shifters. There are more of us than you’d think. We organize ourselves into packs. Each pack has an alpha who leads, makes decisions, enforces our laws.
My alpha, Samuel West, has forbidden me to…”
“Wait. Are you telling me Elijah is like you? ”
“He is. Which is why I’m risking everything telling you this secret.
Because you need to understand the gravity of the crime he committed when he got you pregnant. ”
“What? ”
“It’s illegal for shifters to have children with humans—especially human women, because a human very rarely survives bearing a shifter child. Getting pregnant from Elijah should have killed you.
And even if it hadn’t, if Faith had turned out to be a shifter, you would not have been allowed to raise her. ”
The pieces clicked together with devastating clarity. Elijah’s reaction when she told him about the pregnancy—not joy, but horror. His desperate insistence that she couldn’t keep the baby.
“That lying scumbag. He lied to me this entire time. He never told me. ”
“Exactly.
He started a relationship with you against orders and then made the mistake of getting you pregnant. ”
“Well, in his defense, it’s not his fault I forgot to take my pill once,” Mave said reluctantly. “Okay, twice. Maybe three times.
”
“How can you defend him? Do you have any idea the danger he put you in? ”
“Is that why he pretended to be dead all these years? Because he committed a crime?
”
“No. ” The voice came from behind them, low and furious. Mave spun around to see Elijah standing in her doorway, his eyes blazing. “I’ve never pretended to be dead,” he said, stepping in.
“Something happened to me—some sort of accident—and I somehow lost my memory of you and Faith. My father decided it would be better if you thought I was dead. And he—” Elijah pointed an accusing finger at Allan—“helped him convince you. Meanwhile, never telling my father you were pregnant with our child.
”
Mave gaped at both men, the betrayal so complete, so overwhelming that she could barely speak. “You’ve been lying to me for seven years,” Elijah roared at Allan. “Keeping me away from my family. ”
“Your family?
You put her in danger. You were selfish, reckless. You always do what you want without thinking about the consequences. ”
“You want to talk about consequences?
You let my daughter grow up without her father. ”
“I was protecting them. From you. From the danger you represent.
”
“Meanwhile, you never had the courage to approach her at all. But you wanted to, didn’t you, Allan? ”
Allan’s mouth snapped shut, his face going pale. “You loved her,” Elijah concluded, his voice deadly quiet.
“That’s what this is about. You loved her. And unlike me, you didn’t approach her. ”
Mave stared at both men.
“Allan. Is this true? ”
Allan looked at her with anguish in his eyes. “Yes.
It’s true. I saw you first. And I loved you first. But I knew the rules.
”
“Is that why you had my memory erased? ” Elijah demanded. “No. You had your own memory erased.
”
Both Mave and Elijah stared at him in stunned silence. Allan looked cornered. “You were growing weaker because of the pregnancy,” he said, his voice full of resentment. “Elijah was desperate to save you, but it was too little, too late.
There was nothing we could do. Eventually Elijah went to see a magician who has the power to grant any wish—but for a price. ”
“What kind of price? ” Mave asked, though she suspected she already knew.
“He and I went to see the magician—a man called Adrien. He granted Elijah’s wish to ensure Faith would be human and you would survive the pregnancy. But in doing so, he lost his memories of Mave. Elijah finished, his voice hollow.
”
“And I asked you,” Elijah said slowly, “not trusting my father. I asked my good friend Allan to tell me everything and bring me back to Mave. But you didn’t. ”
Allan turned to Mave instead of answering.
“Because he didn’t deserve you. He put you in danger. He almost killed you. I’ve loved you since the first moment I saw you.
I just wanted what’s best for you. ”
The words should have been romantic. Instead, they made her feel sick. “Then why didn’t you make the wish?
” she asked quietly. Allan recoiled. “You claim to want what’s best for me. What’s best for me is for my daughter to grow up with her father by her side.
Surely you know that. Surely if you love me, you know that’s all I ever wanted. ”
Allan went pale. “Why didn’t you make the wish?
Faith and I would have been fine. Elijah would have been with us. And you would have lost your memories of me. ”
“Maybe not,” Allan admitted reluctantly.
“The price is what you love most. ”
Mave smiled grimly. “Well then. If you’re not sure that’s me, then you can’t claim you loved me as much as he did.
”
She pointed to Elijah. “I don’t fault you for not making the wish. You don’t have to do that for me. I’m not your wife.
I’m not your family. Faith isn’t yours. But you could have spared me the grief. You could have told Elijah the truth.
You say you did that out of love, but that’s bullshit, and you know it. ”
Allan reached for her, desperation in his eyes. Elijah threw himself forward, restraining him. “Stay away from her,” Elijah snarled.
Mave met Allan’s eyes, her heart shattered not by his love, but by his betrayal. She never wanted anything more to do with him. —
Three months passed like a dream twisted into something Mave couldn’t quite name. Faith—who had spent seven years clinging to photographs and stories—now had the real thing.
A father who looked at her with wonder in his eyes. And Elijah was still *him*. The man who knew intuitively when she was in a bad mood. Who couldn’t cook to save his life but tried anyway.
The same man, but with a hole where she used to be. Sometimes she caught him watching her with something that might be interest, probably attraction. But it wasn’t love. Not the love that made him sacrifice everything.
Then one night at dinner, Faith was showing Elijah her new notebook. “This is where I’m going to write all my wolf stories. Because wolves are the best animals. Like you, Dad.
”
Elijah smiled fondly. “I’m glad you think so, Princess. ” His gaze drifted up, meeting Mave’s across the table, and his smile lingered warm. And suddenly, his expression froze.
His glass slipped from his fingers. “Elijah? ” Mave sat forward. He stared at her, his face draining of color, eyes wide and unfocused.
“Dad? ” Faith’s voice wavered. “Are you okay? ”
Elijah didn’t respond.
He kept staring at Mave with an intensity that made her skin prickle. She moved around the table, hesitating just a moment before touching his arm—the first deliberate contact she’d initiated since his return. He blinked rapidly, focus returning to his eyes. “What is it?
” Mave asked again. He tried to speak. His mouth opened and closed, his eyes never leaving her face. And just when she wondered if she should call a doctor, he whispered, “Freckles!
”
Mave’s breath caught in her throat. The nickname—her nickname—hung in the air between them. There was something different in his gaze now. Something that made her heart race with recognition.
He reached for her, hand trembling. Then, slowly, with aching care, he touched a strand of her hair, twisting it gently between his fingers. The gesture was so achingly familiar—the same way he’d touch her hair on their first date, in bed, in the drowsy mornings when they’d wake tangled together. “It’s not pink anymore,” he said, his voice rough with emotion, tears filling his eyes.
Mave began to cry, remembering the pink hair she’d had when they’d been together. “What is it? What’s happening? ” Faith asked, looking between them in confusion.
Elijah dropped the strand of hair like it burned him. Guilt and shame crossed his features. He opened his mouth—and Mave knew he was about to apologize. Before he could speak, Mave leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.
The kiss was desperate. Seven years of longing poured into a single moment of contact. His arms wrapped around her immediately, pulling her closer, holding her like he’d never let go again. Faith squealed, clapping her hands in delight.
When they finally broke apart, both breathing hard, tears streaming down their faces, Mave cupped his face in her hands. She stared into the eyes that had haunted her dreams for seven years. She saw the love and recognition shining there. And she knew that, somehow, against all odds, he’d come back to her.
“Your father is home,” she told Faith, her eyes never leaving Elijah’s. “He’s finally home. ”
