CHAPTER 4 It Really Is Him

Evelyn's POV

It felt like I was staring at a ghost.

My heart thudded so loudly I could hear it in my ears, drowning out every other sound. I wasn't mistaken.

The man standing in front of me was Nathan.

The person who had made me feel like I was suffocating.

The man who hadn't let me or my wolf, Ava, breathe just moments ago.

He had taken my breath away seven years ago, and now, he was doing it all over again.

"It can't be," I whispered, as I stood there in shock.

Seven years. Seven long, excruciating years. He was dead, he died. He was supposed to be dead. And yet, here he was.

My mind was restless, trying so hard to rationalize what I was seeing.

"No, no, no…" I mumbled, shaking my head as if I could wake myself up.

This had to be a dream—a cruel, vivid dream. Just recently, I had dreamed of him, so maybe I wasn't fully awake yet.

I closed my eyes, muttering again, "No, no, no!"

When I opened them, he was still there. Nathan. Right in front of me.

And he was looking at me. He didn't change a bit except for the fact that his long hair was now short and curly.

But something about the way he stared made me feel really strange.

There was no recognition, no warmth—nothing of the man I once knew.

"Nathan…" I began. "You're… You're…"

"I'm alive," he said, cutting me off.

His voice. Oh, God!

His voice. It hadn't changed—not a single note of it.

I couldn't believe I was hearing his voice again after this long. Not in my wildest dreams did I think I would ever hear them again.

But something was off. His tone—it was cold. Detached. Like the Nathan I had loved was buried under ice.

I wanted to reach for him, to touch him, to feel the warmth of his skin against mine, to know he was truly alive.

But my hands wouldn't move. My whole body trembled, still locked in shock.

"Oh my God! It's Nathan!" Sophia shouted as she approached.

Her reaction was the confirmation I needed. If she saw him too, then this wasn't a dream. Nathan wasn't a ghost.

He was alive.

My Nathan was alive.

"Oh my God! You're alive!" Sophia exclaimed.

Relief, confusion, anger, joy, hurt—everything tangled into a knot I couldn't untie.

I wanted to speak, to ask him a thousand questions, but no words would come.

I wanted to hug him. To kiss him. To hold him so tightly he'd never leave me again. But I couldn't move.

"Nathan…" I finally managed, my lips were trembling as if I had been standing under the rain. "Where… What… How…"

Sophia stepped in when my words failed.

"How did you survive? What happened on the battlefield?"

But Nathan said nothing. He didn't move, didn't react, didn't offer a single word.

"Nathan…" I whispered again, trying to reach him, to break through whatever mountain he had built. "It's me. It's Evelyn."

"I know who you are. You're Evelyn, Alpha Sebastian Miller's daughter and the only heir to the pack."

My Nathan sounded cold, he was so cold, distant—like I was a stranger to him. Like I was nothing.

Like nothing ever existed between us seven years ago.

This wasn't the Nathan I knew.

This wasn't my Nathan.

A single tear escaped and slid down my cheek before I could stop it.

"I... I know it's been seven years, but… but you owe us an explanation. You owe me an explanation."

He owed me that much. He couldn't just vanish for seven years, leave us thinking he was dead, and then return as if nothing had happened.

Worse, he was acting like I didn't matter. Like I hadn't mattered at all.

"I don't owe anyone an explanation, Evelyn."

I flinched as if his words had struck me.

"What do you mean you don't owe her an explanation?" Sophia stepped in, "Evelyn mourned you for—"

"Do you both care for anything?" Nathan changed the topic instantly. "I came here for a cup of coffee."

I stared at him, my mouth dropped open instantly.

Was this really happening?

The man I had grieved for, the man who had occupied my thoughts and haunted my dreams, was standing here, alive and breathing, treating me like I was a stranger.

"Nathan, it's been seven years!" I said, my voice rising as I tried to contain my frustration. "Seven whole years since we all thought you…"

"I didn't die, Evelyn." He cut me off again. "As you can see, I'm alive. Fully alive."

"Then what happened?!" I demanded, my voice shaking with a whole lot of emotions.

"What happened on the battlefield? How did you survive? Where have you been for seven years?!"

But he didn't answer. Instead, he turned away from me, walking back to the counter.

"Yes, I'll get two cups of dark chocolate," he said to the barista. "Without…"

"Without any sugar," I finished for him.

Nathan turned slightly, glancing at me.

Seven years had passed, but some things didn't change.

Dark chocolate, no sugar—that was Nathan. It was always Nathan.

Those were his regulars, the same ones I used to sneak into his room with Eliza's help when no one was watching.

I knew him like the back of my hand.

"Some things don't change, do they?" I said softly.

"Actually…" His voice was flat as he turned back to the barista. "I take sugar now. Two sugars."

He was lying. He was definitely lying.

Nathan hated sugar. He never took it, and I knew it.

He was saying it to push me away, but I couldn't understand why.

"You're allergic to raw sugar," I reminded him gently, stepping closer. "You always used honey instead."

He didn't turn around this time. He stood there, his back to me, as if hearing the truth from me was too much for him to bear.

I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't stand this distance between us, the cold wall he'd built around us.

Seven years was too long.

Too much had been lost already. I needed to touch him, to feel him, to know he was real.

I stepped forward, my arms aching to wrap around him, to hold him tightly and never let go.

But before I could, a voice shattered the moment.

"Nathan, darling."

My heart slumped.

And Ava, my wolf, felt it too.