Page 35 of Breathe Again

Do you think that’s what we look like when we talk like this?Elizabeth asked curiously.

I just shrugged. “Zach, Cora, are you guys staying for dinner?”

“No, Cole. But thanks. I think we need to get going. I want to do some research and reach out to a few contacts to see if anyone has ever experienced something like this. I mean if you had been intimate before and the bond started and been unsettled all these years, that could at least give an explanation. But since I know that’s not the case, I just can’t understand it,” he said.

I looked at Elizabeth and subtly shook my head, then grabbed up the dinner plates and moved them to the living room coffee table to allow as much space between Zachary Collier and me as possible.

Don’t say it,I warned her.

She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “And if we did, hypothetically speaking, that would make sense of everything?” Cora covered her face with her hands. Zach’s face turned beet red. “Hypothetically, Daddy.”

“Hypothetically, Lizzy, yes, that would make some sense.”

“So if, say, hypothetically speaking of course, we lost our virginities to each other, let’s say as teens like fifteen years ago, would that have any bearing on the situation?”

I sat down on the recliner closest to her. My head dropped back into the cushion as I stared at the ceiling and considered all the ways I could shut her up. I could feel Zach’s anger boiling as his Alpha power increased throughout the room.

Zach took a deep breath. “Fifteen years? You’re telling me the two of you lived with an unresolved bond for fifteen years?”

Elizabeth shrugged and frowned. “Hypothetically.”

“How is that even possible? The stress something like that would put on both you and your wolf is unimaginable. Lesser men have gone mad, literally had to be put down for far less. That can’t be right, hypothetically or not. I don’t know about the she-wolf, but the male wolf, especially one as strong as Cole’s, could not withstand such a thing, Elizabeth.”

No one spoke for a while as we all considered it. She looked at me with sorrow in her eyes.Was it really as bad as he makes it out to be?

I shrugged.I survived. I’d have waited ten lifetimes for you if I had to.I could feel her trying to seek out the memories in my head.Sweetheart, don’t.

I knew the moment I thought of it, the loneliness, the physical pain, the suicidal thoughts, the drinking, the drugs, the women—I couldn’t stop it and she was privy to every sordid detail. She stared in horror as she started to cry.

“Don’t cry,” I said, moving to sit beside her and pulling her into my lap to cradle her against my chest. “It wasn’t that bad,” I tried to tell her, but it was too late, because she knew everything.

“Not that bad? You tried to kill yourself, more than once Cole.”

I stroked her hair and tried to comfort her. “I told you not to go looking for that. It was a long time ago. I haven’t been that person for years.”

“Tell me it was just the one time,” Zach asked, practically begging us.

“It wasn’t,” Elizabeth blurted out.

Are you trying to get me killed?I asked her.

“Dad, you’re not going to kill him for something that happened a lifetime ago.” She rolled her eyes in exaggeration.

“I’m not going to kill you. Because if what you’re saying is true, you’ve suffered enough, son. Not to mention, I’d be killing you both if what we suspect here is true, and well, we aren’t going to be trialing that theory anytime soon.”

Despite the awkward situation, I laughed, and so did Zach. Cora still sat there, unusually quiet.

“What happens at the trials?” Cora asked, looking pale.

“Nothing. There won’t be any. Cole and I already discussed that, and I’ve informed the Grand Council. They gave no pushback. Fifteen years of longing for a mate was bad enough. Fifteen years of an unsealed bond is sheer torture. There will be no mating challenges or trials for the two of them,” Zach assured us all, and the entire room let out a collective breath of relief.

“Thank you,” I told him for the both of us.

Zach nodded, helped Cora up and they left without another word. “I know you’re tired. I’m feeling it too, but we should try to eat first.”

Elizabeth was quiet as she picked at her food.

“Okay, what is it?” I asked. “I can feel what you feel, you know?” I finally said. “Why are you so sad?”

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