Chapter 164 - 0164
Lorelei POV
I just sat there, frozen, letting her confession linger between us, hanging heavily in the cool night air.
I didn’t know what to say.
The truth was, it wasn’t entirely unexpected.
After she kissed me that day, the thought had crossed my mind.
But with the nightmare of being kidnapped, dragged into this estate, forced to fight for my survival, and somewhere along the way, falling for Kaelen, trying to figure out what Raven’s kiss had meant had become the last thing on my mind.
What was I supposed to say?
How was I supposed to respond without hurting her?
"You’re an incredible person, Raven," I said quietly after what felt like an eternity. "You risked everything to find me. You never gave up on me. You literally saved my life, and I’ll never be able to thank you enough for that. I’ll always be grateful to you."
I took a slow, unsteady breath before meeting her eyes again.
"But... I don’t feel the same way."
The very next second, Raven slowly leaned back against the bench and tipped her head toward the night sky as she let out a long, shaky breath, blinking rapidly as tears gathered in her eyes.
"Fuck..." she muttered with a weak, pained laugh. "That... really stung."
The sight of her sitting there, so heartbroken and vulnerable, made my chest ache.
Every part of me wanted to take that pain away.
But I couldn’t.
Giving her false hope would only hurt her even more in the end.
I reached out slowly and gently cupped her face, brushing away the tear that had slipped down her cheek with my thumb.
"You still mean so much to me," I whispered, looking into her tear-filled blue eyes. "Nala was right earlier. Calling you just a friend doesn’t feel like enough anymore. You’re so much more than that to me, Raven. You’ll always have a place in my heart."
Raven let out a quiet, broken laugh, and her hands came up to gently wrap around my wrists, holding them there as she searched my face.
"But I can’t have all of you..." she whispered.
It wasn’t really a question.
The words made me lower my eyes for a moment before I slowly shook my head.
"No."
Another tear rolled down her cheek, but this time she didn’t wipe it away.
Instead, her gaze drifted to my lips before slowly lifting to meet my eyes again.
"Can I..." she whispered, her voice trembling. "Just... one last time?"
Before I could fully understand what she meant, Raven leaned toward me.
My body instantly stiffened as the realization hit me a heartbeat later, every instinct screaming at me to pull away.
I should have.
But when I looked into her tear-filled eyes and thought about the months she’d spent searching for me, everything she’d sacrificed just to bring me home, I couldn’t bring myself to reject her in that moment.
Guilt rooted me to the bench.
She closed the last inch of distance between us, tilted her head, and crashed her lips against mine.
The kiss wasn’t passionate.
It wasn’t meant to change my mind.
It felt like goodbye.
There was sadness in it.
Grief.
It was as messy and broken as she was. Desperate, like she was trying to pour every sleepless night she’d spent searching for me, every word she’d never gotten the chance to say, and every ounce of her heartbreak into one final, fleeting moment.
Her hand slid up to cradle the back of my neck, holding me so tightly it was as though she believed letting go would make me disappear all over again.
When her lips parted against mine, I didn’t pull away.
I couldn’t.
Instead, a deep ache settled in my chest, followed by a bittersweet wave of sympathy that nearly stole my breath. Before I even realized what I was doing, I found myself kissing her back. It was the only language I had left. The only way I knew how to comfort someone who had dragged herself through hell just to find me.
We melted into each other on the cold stone bench, the kiss clumsy and desperate, broken only by shaky breaths and tears that carried the faint taste of salt.
Her fingers tightened in my hair as her lips moved against mine with quiet desperation, searching for the version of me she’d spent months chasing, the version that no longer existed. I let her. I returned every kiss she gave me, offering whatever comfort I still could until my chest ached and my lungs begged for air.
When she finally pulled away, we were both left breathless.
Raven struggled to catch her breath, her forehead resting against mine for the briefest moment before she buried her face in the crook of my neck. Her arms wrapped tightly around my shoulders, holding on with trembling strength.
To my surprise, the silence that followed wasn’t awkward.
Instead, it felt peaceful.
A strange sense of relief settled over me, as though a weight I’d been carrying for far too long had finally slipped from my shoulders. Raven still looked heartbroken, and sadness still lingered in her eyes, but the tears had stopped.
The frantic desperation that had consumed her moments ago had faded, replaced by a quiet acceptance.
"Now that I’ve finally uncovered the trafficking ring... I might be leaving soon," Raven murmured, her gaze fixed on the dark horizon beyond the garden.
My eyes widened, and I turned to her so quickly my neck almost hurt.
"What?" I blurted out. "But you’ve barely been here for a day."
She let out a long, tired sigh.
"I know. Believe me, I’d love to stay longer. But... this place isn’t just about you anymore," she said quietly before hesitating, her voice dropping to a whisper. "Jaxen and my father are here too."
The moment those names left her mouth, every muscle in my body went rigid.
It felt as though ice had been poured straight into my veins.
Even so, I forced myself to stay perfectly still, refusing to let the panic that exploded inside me show on my face.
"You... don’t seem surprised," she commented, watching me carefully, forcing me to lower my eyes to my lap while my fingernails dug so deeply into my palms.
"I ran into my mother here once," I admitted quietly, earning a soft gasp from her. "So I already started wondering if the rest of them might be here too."
Even as the words left my mouth, Nala’s words, telling me I couldn’t run from my past, echoed in my head.
Raven shifted on the bench until she was facing me completely.
"So... what are you going to do?"
"What do you mean?" I replied, caught off guard.
She reached over and gently covered my hand with hers, stopping my nails from digging any deeper into my skin.
"Lorelei," she said softly, "you have the Alpha King on your side now. As much as it hurts to admit it, I know that with him, they can’t hurt you."
A sad smile crossed her face before fading.
"But that also means you can’t avoid them any longer," she went on, squeezing my hand gently before adding, "So I’m asking you... are you really ready to face them? If you’re not, you can always leave with me."