My Dearly Beloved Luna

Chapter 11

~ Sylvia ~

My fist hovered inches from the office door.

Father had asked me to meet him after dinner, so I’d come straight here, expecting another conversation about settling back into the Timberwolf Pack.

Instead, Elias’s voice reached me through the thick oak.

“…I don’t have time to babysit someone who can barely handle coming out of her room every day.”

I stopped breathing.

The words were slightly muffled, but there was no mistaking who they were about.

Me.

I stood perfectly still as more of his voice drifted through the doors.

“…too inexperienced…”

“…doesn’t belong in my department…”

“…find somewhere else for her…”

Each sentence landed a little harder than the last.

My raised hand slowly fell to my side.

A chill crept beneath my skin, starting at my fingertips before spreading through the rest of my body. It was ridiculous how quickly warmth could disappear.

I should leave.

I should pretend I’d never come.

Instead, I remained rooted outside the office, unable to convince my legs to move.

The hallway suddenly felt much too quiet.

Much too small.

I squeezed my hands together until my nails dug into my palms.

So this was how he really saw me.

Not as the awkward girl he’d once smiled at.

Not as the little sister who used to trail after him whenever he visited my wing of the house.

Just…

A burden.

My vision blurred for a second.

I blinked it away before the tears could gather.

No.

Not over this.

Not after everything I’d survived.

Memories I hadn’t thought about in years surfaced anyway.

A rainy afternoon when I’d slipped on the back steps, only for Elias to catch my arm before I fell.

The time my Mother had humiliated me during a family gathering and he’d quietly distracted everyone long enough for me to escape.

The novels he’d secretly left outside my bedroom because he’d overheard me telling Mother I loved reading.

They were tiny acts of kindness. Small enough that he probably didn’t even remember them.

But to a lonely girl desperate for someone to notice she existed, they had meant everything.

But maybe I’d imagined all of it.

Maybe I imagined him being kind because it had simply been easier than to imagine him being cruel.

Inside the office, Father’s voice answered, too low for me to make out.

Elias interrupted almost immediately.

“…I’m your second-in-command…”

A pause.

“…not her keeper.”

The words stole what little air remained in my lungs.

An unfamiliar ache tightened across my chest.

It wasn’t just embarrassment.

It was sharper.

Heavier.

Like something inside me had been wounded without leaving a mark.

I rubbed absentmindedly at the centre of my chest.

Why did it hurt this much?

I barely knew him anymore.

Years had changed us both.

This shouldn’t matter.

So why did it?

I closed my eyes.

Father had never mentioned a position at Headquarters.

I’d assumed he wanted to discuss easing me back into pack life before I started looking for work on my own.

Working with Elias had never crossed my mind.

If I’d known…

I might not have agreed to come back.

“…Fine.”

His voice cut through my thoughts.

“I’ll bring her in tomorrow.”

A knot settled in my stomach as footsteps started approaching fast

I tried to move buy my body refused to listen. Instead, I stood there as the handle turned.

When the door opened Elias stopped so abruptly that his shoulder nearly hit the frame.

For a second, neither of us spoke.

Shock flashed across his face.

Then came something else.

Regret.

It was there only briefly, but I caught it.

His grey eyes searched mine as though trying to measure how much I’d heard. And I'd heard enough.

I looked past him. Father was still behind his desk. And the moment our eyes met, his shoulders sank ever so slightly which meant he already knew.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly. “I wasn’t trying to listen.”

My voice sounded calm. Strangely calm.“You asked me to come after dinner.”

Father exhaled slowly.“I did.”

His expression tightened.“I lost track of the time.”

I managed a small smile that didn’t reach my eyes.“I noticed.”

Silence settled over the room.No one seemed willing to break it. Elias hadn’t moved from the doorway.

He was close enough that I could see the light stubble tracing his jaw and the small mark near his chin—the one he’d sworn was a birthmark when we were kids.

Up close, the reality of him hit me. He looked different now. Older. Broader. Like the boy I knew had completely vanished beneath a man.

Yet standing this close awakened the strangest sensation.

Every instinct whispered that the distance between us was too far. That I should step closer instead of away.

It made no sense. I’d just heard him argue against working with me.

I’d heard the frustration in every word. So why did every fibre of my being pull me toward him instead of away from him?

And the fact that I somehow couldn’t explain it frightened me more than anything he’d said.