Too Late To Regret, My Alphas

Chapter 68: She Could Feel Her

Rosalie:

One moment Eiden was sitting across from me, and the next, he was standing right in front of me.

I didn’t even see him move.

One second his blue eyes were across the table, calm and unreadable, and the next they were right there - close enough that I could notice the tiny shifts in color hidden inside them.

My breath caught. But he still didn’t stop.

Before I could react, before my brain could catch up with what was happening, his hand reached out. Then another. And suddenly, I was being moved. My back touched the nearest wall with a soft sound, and warmth immediately followed.

His warmth.

My eyes widened immediately. Eiden stood close. Too close. One of his arms stayed around my waist - not tight, not trapping, but firm enough that I immediately realized I wasn’t walking away unless he wanted me to. And then he lowered his head.

I stopped breathing.

Because instead of speaking, instead of looking at me, he buried his face lightly into the crook of my neck.

A sound escaped me, one I definitely didn’t mean to make. My entire body reacted instantly. Every nerve, every breath, every thought, everything inside me became too aware. Of his body, his warmth, and the familiar faint scent of herbs and rain and something that was simply him.

His breath brushed my skin, and suddenly my skin felt wrong. It became too sensitive. Too alive.

My heart started beating so wildly that I became embarrassed for him to hear it. My breathing turned uneven. And my mind, it almost stopped working entirely. I didn’t know what to do. My hands had moved without permission. One was clutching his shirt. Then both. My fingers tightened against expensive silk and for one irrational second I worried I might wrinkle it.

My throat moved as I tried to speak, but nothing came out. Then finally, his name escaped.

"...Eiden..."

My voice sounded unfamiliar. It was small and breathless.

His shoulders shifted slightly as he leaned I to me further. And then, I felt it - his lips against my neck. It wasn’t a kiss, not really, but just a soft and warm lingering press.

And suddenly everything inside me exploded.

My eyes widened. My fingers tightened harder. And then something happened. Something impossible. Something that froze me more than Eiden pressing me against the wall ever could. Something moved inside me, or more specifically... someone.

Deep. Quiet. Sleeping.

And suddenly it wasn’t sleeping anymore.

My breath hitched. I knew that feeling. Or rather, I should have known it. But it had been so long. Way too long. Years of silence. Years of emptiness. Years of wondering if something inside me had simply died.

But now, I felt her.

My wolf.

Not fully. Not clearly. But it was present, alive and aware.

My eyes widened even further.

No.

No-

that wasn’t possible.

I stayed completely still, but she didn’t. There was movement, emotion, warmth. Something restless. Something curious. And something that made my chest feel full.

And just as I was trying to process my wolf’s sudden presence that I hadn’t felt in what felt like forever, I felt another brush against my neck. This time his lips lingered, and everything inside me reacted harder.

My eyes closed. Not because I wanted them to. But because suddenly, thinking became impossible. The world became smaller. All I felt was the cold wall at my back, his warmth, his breathing, him, and her.

For the first time in years, I could feel her. She no longer felt distant. She’s not sleeping. When I reached out for her, I didn’t feel emptiness. And what stunned me more was what she wanted.

Not freedom. Not running. Not the moon. Not the forest.

No.

She wanted... him.

The realization hit me so hard my eyes opened immediately. And beneath the embarrassment, beneath the panic, I felt something that almost made me emotional.

She was there. She was actually there. My wolf - who had barely existed for years - was reacting. She felt alive. Too alive. And somehow, she didn’t feel weak. Not at all.

I stared somewhere over Eiden’s shoulder. Unable to move. Unable to process. Unable to breathe normally. Because all these years, I thought she wasn’t enough. That she’s broken and wrong.

But right now, she felt... awake.

Then, Eiden finally moved. Slowly and carefully, he lifted his head and pulled back just enough that his face came into view, enough that our eyes met. His gaze stayed steady, like he had been waiting. Like he knew.

I stared at him. I simply stared.

My back was still pressed against the wall, my fingers still twisted in the front of Eiden’s shirt, and his hands - one at my waist and the other resting beside my head - had left me with nowhere to look except at him. His face was so close that I could feel the warmth of his breath against my skin. My neck still burned where his lips had touched me. Not from embarrassment. Not entirely. It felt deeper than that. Hotter. Like something had awakened beneath my skin and refused to go back to sleep.

And then there was... her. That presence. Not distant anymore, not silent, not absent. She wasn’t clear enough to hear words, but she was there. Alive. Awake. Watching. Waiting.

For four years I had spent every full moon feeling empty. Watching others shift while I stayed behind pretending it didn’t hurt. Listening to whispers - weak wolf, defective wolf, failed blessing. I had repeated those words to myself so many times that eventually they stopped sounding cruel and started sounding true.

But right now, something inside me was pressing against my chest so strongly it almost hurt.

She didn’t feel weak. She wasn’t gone. But present.

Eiden watched every shift in my expression with those impossibly calm blue eyes. Then his thumb moved once where it rested against my waist.

"Can you feel her?" he asked quietly. His voice was quiet, soft, and certain. "Do you still think..." His hand remained warm at my waist, and his eyes didn’t leave mine. "...that you have a weak wolf?"

And suddenly, I couldn’t answer. Because for the first time in years, I wasn’t sure anymore.