Soul Lines (Completed)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Chapter Thirty-Five
Elle POV
*Two months later*

The trees howled in the wind, and the long, wide branches danced. The canopy knitted together to cast shadows across the forest floor, and it reminded me of Kaden. The howling, the forest, everything. It was so familiar, except it wasn't. Everything had changed. I could no longer call it my sanctuary. And no matter how hard I tried, it was hard to remember that it was the same land I had spent my childhood exploring.

He was Kaden. Kaden Delossa. He wasn't a nobody, at least not like I was. The soon-to-be alpha of the Vermiculo pack. The biggest pack on the continent and the fourth in the world. Everyone knew he was brilliant, kind, and gorgeous, but was it enough? Was it enough to hide the fact that I was a nobody, someone who didn't deserve the man described? Had the goddess laughed as she had bonded our souls, shook her head with pity? Had she forgotten us as soon as she had forged our soul-line, an unforgettable love that was never destined to go anywhere? Was this our end?

Kaden deserved better.

'You know, if you wait long enough, the forest might reach out for you.'

I snorted, squinting through the sun to Jacobi, 'I might have turned to dust by that point.'

A sad smile tilted his lips, and he settled down beside me. I wasn't surprised that he was here. I hadn't gone a day without seeing him, without him needing to see for himself that I was okay. 'That's a possibility.'

'I could do the maths for you if you'd like. By the time that forest,' I jabbed a finger in the direction of the trees, 'gets to me, I'll be long gone.'

'Well then, I guess the only solution is to go to it.'

I couldn't look at him. His eyes were always too careful, too guarded, holding back words as if I were made of glass. 'And what if that scares me?'

He sighed, his shoulders narrowing as he curled inward. 'The trees have never harmed you.'

I nodded solemnly. 'You're right, but the boy within them has.'

I could see the lines of Jacobi's face from the corner of my eye. The worry, the fear, and the inadequacy washed upon his face like an artwork that should only be viewed by the artist. 'He didn't mean to.'

'I know.' I picked a loose thread on my sleeve, wondering how far I could pull it before it pulled free. 'But that doesn't mean it didn't hurt.'

His hand hovered mid-air, his chest risen, mid-breath, but he had learnt early on that I didn't like touch, and since then, he hadn't cared to rediscover if that had changed. It had been the same with everyone. Ever since I had broken down at the funeral, when I had held onto Kaden with all the fibres of my soul, people had realised touch made me nervous.

But it had been over two months without touch, which could make even the loneliest person crave a physical connection.

'We miss you, you know.'

I rubbed the thread between my fingers. 'I haven't gone anywhere.'

'It feels like you have.'

I tucked my hands under my arms and rested my chin against my knee. 'I don't feel so sad anymore.'

'That's good,' but his brow still furrowed, and he turned away, his words almost lost in the wind. 'He asks about you.'

'Don't.' I flung myself to my feet, almost tripping down the stairs. 'Stop pressuring me to talk to him. Whenever someone tells me I should, I feel like I shouldn't, and it isn't supposed to be like that. I'm supposed to want to be with him because I want to, not because everyone else is telling me to.'