The training yard was empty, save for the quiet echo of Eva’s boots hitting the stone. The sky above was overcast, matching the storm brewing in her chest. She had trained all morning, trying to exhaust the thoughts out of her head—but they clung like a second skin.
Max was waiting near the edge of the yard, arms crossed, jaw tense. He’d been watching her for over an hour, saying nothing. But now, as she walked past him for the fifth time, her temper snapped.
“Are you just going to stare at me?” she said sharply. “Or are you going to say what’s clearly sitting on your tongue?”
Max didn’t flinch. “You’ve been avoiding me since the council meeting.”
“I’ve been busy trying to keep this pack together,” she shot back. “Forgive me if I didn’t stop to talk about feelings.”
Max’s eyes darkened. “This isn’t just about feelings, Eva.”
She spun around to face him fully, eyes blazing. “Then what is it about, Max? Because you sure as hell didn’t speak up when it mattered. When I was falling into Valen’s lies. When I was trusting him with parts of me I should’ve saved.”
Max opened his mouth, but she cut him off.
“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” she yelled, her voice shaking. “Why did you just stand there and watch me give everything to someone else?”
He stepped toward her, his voice low but filled with emotion. “Because I thought you deserved better than a boy who loved you in silence.”
Eva stared at him, the words hitting her harder than she expected. For a moment, the anger drained from her face, replaced by something more raw. More vulnerable.
“I waited for you,” she whispered. “Every time you ignored me, I told myself I’d wait a little longer. That maybe one day you’d finally look at me like I wasn’t just some fragile girl.”
Max looked pained. “I did. I always did. But by the time I found the courage to say it, you had already looked away.”
Eva turned from him, hugging her arms around herself. “Well now I have a baby and a blood feud. Still want me?”
Her voice cracked at the end, and she hated that it did. She hated that part of her still longed for him to say yes.
Max stepped behind her, close enough that she could feel his warmth, but he didn’t touch her. His voice was steady, but full of something deep and true.
“I want you,” he said quietly. “And your chaos. And your hybrid vampire spawn.”
120
