Chapter 94: The Return of Evander

Soraya

I sat on my bed, staring at Evander, who looked like a different person. His hair had grown out longer and he looked even more breathtaking, but I still couldn’t move.

Maybe this was me hallucinating or something, but I sat still.

“Evander,” I said his name in a low voice.

He smiled at me. A tear dropped from my eyes. I stretched out my hands slowly, hoping that he was real. This wasn’t just the fiction of my imagination.

He held my hand. He didn’t say a word. He didn’t rush me.

“Are you real?”

He gave me a nod. “I am, baby.”

I burst out crying. He pulled me into his strong arms, cradling me tight like a child. I couldn’t stop crying.

He pulled back, wiping the tears from my eyes. His smile warmed my heart. He looked so amazing, and at the same time, I saw pain in his eyes.

He crashed his lips on mine, and I wrapped my arms around his neck. His kiss was gentle at the same time rough. It felt like he couldn’t speak.

The kiss told me everything he couldn’t bring himself to say.

I kissed him just as intensely. His lips were soft, gentle, sweet, just as I remembered.

His arms tightened around my waist as I pulled him even closer. I didn’t just want his mouth on mine. I wanted to feel him under me, inside of me, inside my skin.

He kissed me until I was breathless, and when he pulled back, I just stared at him, my hands slowly caressing his cheeks.

“Are you sure you’re real?” I asked again, because if this wasn’t happening and it was a dream, it would literally kill me.

He took his hand, resting it over mine where it lay on his cheeks. “I’m real, Soraya. Very real.”

I kissed him again. I felt his tongue in my mouth, his warmth, everything. Just being with him again filled up the emptiness I had been feeling inside me.

“Evander…” I said his name over and over again. “I missed you.”

“I missed you more.”

That was when a tear dropped from his eyes.

“I’m sorry I had to go.”

I shook my head immediately. “It was all my fault.”

He placed a finger over my lips. “None of it was your fault, okay? I love you so much.”

He kept his finger on my lips for a moment longer, like he was trying to stop every thought I had from escaping.

“I love you so much,” he repeated again, his voice softer, but I heard the crack in it.

My chest tightened so hard my entire body felt weak. It wasn’t just relief I felt. It felt like something inside of me that had been shattered was slowly healing in the best and worst way possible.

When he pulled his finger away from my lips, I spoke.

“I thought I had lost you.”

“You didn’t,” he said immediately. “I’m here, princess.”

Oh… hearing him call me princess—I missed it so much.

His hand didn’t leave my cheeks. He caressed them gently.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said softly, “and you have no idea how much I missed you.”

I didn’t speak. I just allowed him to talk.

“My beautiful Soraya… my mate… my love.”

As he spoke, I saw the pain in his eyes. He looked okay, but I knew he wasn’t okay. Neither of us were, but he looked more broken.

“What happened to you, Evander?”

That question hit him. I could see it.

He shook his head. “Nothing you need to worry about.”

“Evander, what did they do to you?”

“Baby, nothing.”

I knew he was lying to me. I didn’t need any bond to tell me that.

“You promised no more secrets. Evander, please, don’t do this. No more secrets, remember? What happened to you?”

He took both my hands in his.

“I’ll tell you everything at the right time. Okay?”

I nodded because I just wanted to enjoy this moment. I didn’t want anything to come in between us right now.

We stared at each other for almost five minutes.

“I thought you died,” I said quietly. I couldn’t feel you anymore, my voice cracking. “I thought—”

“That’s because our mate bond was severed.”

“What?”

He nodded. “I still don’t know how everything happened, but our mate bond was severed. I couldn’t feel you either, Soraya, and it was killing me.”

“How?” My voice shook. “How was it even possible that our mate bond… was?”

“A spell… he cut me off.”

What I said almost yelling. “Someone played a spell on us.”

He exhaled sharply. “It’s actually something I’ve seen before, but I never really dwelled on it. It’s like an incantation, not really a spell. And it can only be performed by werewolves.”

My brows furrowed.

“Only a werewolf has the ability to sever mate bonds. And a very powerful one.”

“But I can’t remember anything…” I whispered. “Or did something happen when I was in the underground?”

“You were in the what?”

He moved back suddenly, his eyes blazing red.

“The… underground.”

“The underground,” he repeated. He looked so angry. “Who sent you to the underground?” he asked slowly, like he was trying to suppress his own anger.

“Your… your father,” I stuttered.

He shook his head. “No. He wouldn’t dare.”

“He did.”

His hand clenched into a fist. I could see the veins in it.

“I’m fine.”

“No, you’re not,” he yelled—and I was pretty sure it wasn’t only me that could hear that sound.

“The underground has wolfsbane everywhere. Soraya, that could have killed you.”

Why didn’t Milo protect you? That was when I remembered how I had just yelled at Milo both up to an hour ago.

“He did.”

“I made him promise to protect you while I was gone. If he had done so, you would never have been sent to the underground.”

“Please… calm down.”

“I’ll handle this.”

He didn’t even wait for me to ask more questions because I really needed to know how he got into my room. But he stormed out of the door.