HIDDEN FATE & FRAGILE HEART.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE.

Every word she had spoken echoed in his head. I'm dying. There's no cure. No miracle.

His fists clenched, his teeth grinding. There was a miracle. There was a cure. But it wasn't something she could accept yet.

He could save her. He could give her his strength, bind her to him, make her his mate, and her fragile human heart would no longer fail her.

But she didn't know. And if he told her too soon, she would run, he couldn't risk it and he also couldn't watch her drown in pain.

His wolf snarled beneath his skin, restless, furious that she spoke of dying while the answer stood in front of her. But Damian held the leash tight. Not yet.

He turned back toward her sleeping form, his chest heavy. The seer's words still haunted him. Her time is slipping. If you wait too long, even you won't be able to save her.

And yet he waited, because forcing her into his world too quickly would destroy her.

"Soon," he murmured into the quiet.

ELYSIAN POV:
Three months had passed since the night William's anger had shattered the balance of her life.

Three months since Elysian had felt his words burn against her skin, leaving cracks she didn't know how to fix.

And in that time, she had found herself leaning to someone else entirely.

Damian.

He wasn't supposed to matter. He was supposed to be her client, her boss in a way, someone she worked with, nothing more. But slowly and somehow, without warning, he had become the voice she answered late at night, the presence she didn't mind lingering after meetings, the man who listened without judgment, she found herself at peace and comfortable with him.

She didn't tell William that. She didn't tell William much of anything anymore.

"Elysian, why do you need a new assistant manager?" the agency rep asked, pen scratching over a contract.

"Because I do," she said simply, adjusting the papers in front of her.

"But William has done a good job...."

"He's done enough." Her voice was sharper than intended, but she didn't take it back. "I need a change, make it quick too if you can."

The rep looked at her, curious, but didn't push. Names were offered, interviews were lined up. Women this time, very professional, polite, and efficient.

But none of them fit.

That didn't stop William from hearing about it.

The next time they crossed paths at a shoot, his eyes followed her across the room, dark, accusing.

"You're replacing me now?" he muttered when he cornered her by the dressing room.

She met his glare with cool indifference. "I'm considering options."

"Options," he repeated, jaw tight. "For what? Someone to manage your life? Or just to keep me out of it?"

She didn't answer, she couldn't. Because deep down, he wasn't wrong at all. So instead, she walked away, avoiding him, and the discussion.

With Damian, it was different.....

"Do you ever smile?" she asked one evening in his office, perched on the edge of his desk as he signed off on documents.

He didn't look up. "I smile."

"No, you don't," she teased, leaning forward, chin resting on her hand. "You smirk. Occasionally. That's not the same."

His pen paused. Slowly, he lifted his gaze to hers. "And what would make me smile, Elysian?"

Her breath caught at the way he said her name. "Maybe if you weren't trying so hard to look intimidating all the time."

A shadow of something almost like amusement flickered across his face. "You think I try?"

"I know you do," she countered, grinning. "It's exhausting just watching you. Don't you ever get tired of being... broody?"

For a second, silence hung between them. Then, to her shock, the corner of his mouth curved, faint but real, an actual smile.

Her chest warmed. "There it is. Actual proof."

His voice dropped, steady and quiet. "That's because it's you."

Her teasing faltered, her smile fading into something softer. She looked away before he could see too much in her eyes.