Elle’s POV
Ethan didn’t speak as he started the car. The soft hum of the engine filled the silence between us. I didn’t ask where we were going—I already knew. We were headed to his mother’s cottage. The place where she’d perform the fake marking ritual. The word fake echoed in my chest, but it didn’t feel fake. Not to me. Not when it was Ethan.
I watched the trees pass outside the window. We left the village behind, the roads growing narrower, quieter. Grass spilled over the edges of the gravel road, and sunbeams peeked through the canopy above, dancing across the windshield. Everything felt still out here. Calm. But inside me, a storm was brewing.
My stomach twisted with nerves. This whole thing—this plan to fake a bond to protect me—was bigger than I’d ever imagined. Bigger than I wa
