Chapter 155: A Matter of Trust

Adeline’s POV~

I turned around so fast that my hair whipped across my face, and there he was, standing close enough that I could instantly feel the heavy, stifling heat radiating off his body.

"Blake??" I gasped out, my voice catching sharply in my throat.

He took one slow, deliberate step toward me, closing the remaining distance between us. His dark eyes were burning with an unreadable intensity, and his nostrils flared as he inhaled a deep, slow breath, almost as if he were meticulously analyzing every single inch of my hoodie where Adrian’s scent had lingered.

"Why the fuck do you smell like another alpha, Adeline?" he asked, his voice dropping into a low, dangerous rumble.

I forced myself to keep my posture relaxed and my voice completely casual, knowing that if I allowed even a single drop of fear or panic to show on my face, he would only press me harder into a corner.

"I just went out for a short walk with Sierra to get some fresh air," I said smoothly, looking him straight in the eyes without flinching.

"I already informed Dowager Luna Gwen about it before I even stepped foot outside the estate, so you really don’t need to stand there and interrogate me like I did something wrong."

Blake nodded his head slowly, taking in my words, but his dark expression didn’t lighten for a second. Instead, a small, subtle smile touched the corners of his lips, a smile that held no real warmth at all.

His hand slowly rose between us, and his long fingers slid gently into my hair, caressing the strands with a tenderness that felt far more like a quiet threat than a comfort.

"I absolutely hate this," he murmured softly, his thumb tracing a slow circle near my ear as his gaze locked onto mine. "I hate the suffocating scent of another male wolf clinging to your clothes and skin when you should be completely wrapped in us. In our lycan scent. In nothing else in this entire world."

I shifted my eyes down to the base of his throat, completely unable to hold his intense, suffocating gaze any longer. I watched the slight movement of his neck as he swallowed, trying desperately to keep my breathing steady.

"You don’t trust us, do you, Adeline?" he asked quietly.

My heart did a violent, sudden leap inside my chest. "Why... why on earth would you say something like that to me?"

His thumb brushed slowly along my temple, his touch infuriatingly soft while his voice remained calm.

"Because instead of staying safe right here inside these walls with us, you chose to sneak out into the dark just to meet up with your friend," he said softly, his dark eyes searching my face for any sign of hesitation.

"Do you have any idea how that makes us feel? We explicitly told you to stay close and stay safe, yet you still walked right out of those iron gates the moment you got the chance."

"No, that is not what this was at all," I replied, shaking my head as I tried to explain myself before he drew the wrong conclusions.

"I just needed a few minutes alone to clear my head. You know better than anyone how much heavy, overwhelming stuff has been happening to me lately. Everything is crashing down on me all at once, and it takes time for me to process it all. I just needed space to breathe, Blake. That is literally all it was."

Before I could take a step back, his other arm slid smoothly around my waist, his fingers gripping my side as he pulled me gently, firmly against his chest. The intense warmth of his body flooded through my clothes, and my heart began racing completely out of my control before my brain could even stop it.

"You’re talking about the mate bond, aren’t you?" he murmured, leaning his head down slightly.

"It’s not just the mate bond," I said, my voice coming out much smaller and more vulnerable than I intended it to be.

"It’s the pain-binding curse, and the original curse I’ve been forced to carry ever since the day I was born, and now this massive mate bond piled on top of everything else. It honestly feels like I am standing defenseless in the very middle of a violent storm, and no matter which direction I turn, another hit is just waiting to crush me."

A low, quiet chuckle vibrated through his chest, and I could feel the gentle rumble against my own ribs as he looked down at me.

"You really overthink every little thing, don’t you, crackhead?" he whispered, his tone shifting into something softer.

"Yeah, maybe I do overthink everything," I admitted, letting out a long, exhausted sigh as my shoulders finally slumped under the weight of it all.

"But I overthink because my gut instincts have been proven right every single time in my life. My heart tries so hard to deny things and refuse to believe them, but then my brain starts running non-stop in the middle of the night. It builds answer after answer, and they are always the exact brutal truths I never wanted to face. I tell myself over and over that I won’t accept them, and then those exact fears come true anyway. So tell me, how am I supposed to just stop overthinking when my mind has been right all along?"

Blake tilted his head down and pressed a slow, warm kiss directly against my cheek. My entire body froze on the spot, completely caught off guard by the sudden, tender gesture.

"You really are a complete crackhead, Adeline," he murmured, a genuine, soft smile resting against my skin.

"Don’t call me that!" I snapped softly, raising my hands to push against his hard chest, but there was zero real strength behind my movement, and we both knew it.

His smile slowly faded away into something far deeper and more serious.

"Listen to me very carefully, Adeline," Blake murmured, his voice steady and grounding as he forced me to hold his gaze in the dim light of the bedroom. "It is not nearly as complicated or hopeless as your overthinking mind is trying to make it out to be."