<h4>Chapter 347: She Gave Me You</h4>


    <strong>Author’s Note:</strong>


    <i>Special thanks to Caly888 for the Magic Castle!</i>


    <strong>* * *</strong>


    <strong>Evaline:</strong>


    The doctors left with the samples. Their footsteps faded down the corridor until the ward grew quiet again, filled only with the faint hum of machines and the steady, rhythmic breaths of my newborn child.


    River had stepped out not long after, leaving me with Kieran once again. Oscar and Draven were nowhere to be seen, and the absence of my mates was starting to press on me like a strange kind of silence.


    But in that silence, there was peace too.


    I lowered my gaze to my son. His tiny body was curled beneath the soft nket the nurses had tucked around him. His breathing was even, the faint rise and fall of his chest a melody that both soothed and tightened something in me.


    He was so small. So fragile. Yet at the same time, his very existence felt like a miracle.


    I hadn’t realized I was smiling until I heard a quiet whisper fill the silence.


    "He’s so cute."


    My head turned almost instinctively, and there he was... Kieran. His gaze was fixed entirely on the sleeping pup, his eyes softened with a love so pure it made my throat ache. I had seen him being gentle before. I had seen him patient, kind, endlesslypassionate. But this was different. This was the rawest part of him, stripped bare, vulnerable and radiant all at once.


    The sight made my chest swell with something overwhelming, something dangerously close to tears.


    I bit my lip, smiling faintly, trying to hold myself together. I didn’t want to cry. I couldn’t let myself crumble, not now, not when I wanted to imprint every moment of this into my memory - the first time Kieran looked at our son like he was his whole world.


    For a long time, we sat in silence. Him staring at the pup, and me subconciously staring at him.


    And then, slowly, his attention shifted. His eyes lifted from the baby to me. He looked hesitant. His lips parted, but then pressed closed again, like the words tangled on his tongue. He was struggling internally, I could see it in the tension of his jaw, in the way he inhaled deeply as though searching for courage.


    Finally, he let it out.


    "Evaline..." His voice was quiet, almost fragile. "Are you... unhappy? At the possibility that Ethan isn’t your first mate... or the pup’s father?"


    For a heartbeat, my chest went hollow.


    I smiled. But it wasn’t one of those smiles that warmed from within. It was one of those fragile, broken little curvatures of lips, a reflex born out of years of learning how to hide pain or conflict. It didn’t reach my eyes, and I knew Kieran noticed. He always noticed.


    "No," I said softly. "I’m not unhappy."


    He just stared at me, as if waiting to hear more. So I drew in a breath, gathering the courage to peel open my heart in front of him.


    "There was a time," I admitted, "when Ethan was the most important person in my life."


    I saw it then - the stiffness appearing in his shoulders, the slight flinch he tried to disguise. He didn’t interrupt me, but I could feel his restraint like a rope pulled taut.


    "I thought I was in love with him," I continued, my words trembling even as I forced them out. "I clung to that belief because I wanted... no, needed... someone desperately to hold on to. Someone to prove I wasn’t alone. Back then, I thought having him made me less broken. Less... unwanted."


    Kieran’s eyes darkened, and I noticed pain flickering in their depths.


    "But now," I said firmly, my voice gaining strength, "I know better. Meeting the four of you taught me what love really is. Ethan was never love. He was a wound I mistook for healing. He was... desperation. And desperation isn’t love. It’s chains."


    I lifted my gaze and locked it with his, making sure he saw the truth etched in every word.


    "Ethan is my past. A dark past I both regret and hate. Knowing that my son might have nothing to do with him? That I might have never truly been tied to him at all?" I let out a shakyugh, tears threatening at the edges of my vision. "That doesn’t make me unhappy, Kieran. It makes me relieved. Delighted, even. If my son and I share nothing with Ethan ckwood... then I thank the Moon Goddess every single day for it."


    For a long moment, he just stared at me. Then, slowly, the rigidness in him eased. The corners of his mouth curved upward, hesitant at first, then blossoming into something radiant.


    <fnb381> Content originallyes from find~novel</fnb381>


    The kind of smile that looked like victory.


    The kind of smile that looked like hope.


    There was a gleam in his eyes now, as though my words had lifted a weight he had carried far too long.


    But then, just as quickly, hesitation returned. His smile faltered, reced by uncertainty once again.


    "Then...," he murmured, his voice unsteady, "would you ept me? As your mate? As your child’s father?"


    The world seemed to pause.


    There wasn’t even a single second of hesitation in me. No doubt. No question. No weighing of choices.


    "I will," I said firmly, my voice unwavering.


    His breath hitched, as though he hadn’t dared to believe I would answer so quickly.


    Before he could even ask, before he could even try to exin himself further, I pressed on, my words tumbling out with a force that surprised even me.


    "And before you think I’m saying this out of pity, or out of obligation, let me make something clear."


    His eyes widened, still locked on mine.


    "I could never have asked the Moon Goddess for anything better than this," I whispered, my voice trembling with emotion I could no longer contain. "If you are truly my mate... if you are truly the father of my child... then that’s the greatest gift I could ever receive. Do you understand that, Kieran? Do you understand what that means to me?"


    His lips parted, his breath shaky.


    "It means..." I smiled through the tears now streaming down my face, "...that on the night of my eighteenth birthday, when I prayed for the Moon Goddess to give me a bond that would save me, heal me, make me whole... she answered. And she gave me you."


    The silence between us broke under the weight of emotion.


    Kieran’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears, his lips trembling as though he wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words.


    And I didn’t need him to.


    Because in that moment, everything was already said.


    I reached out, slowly, deliberately, and this time he didn’t pull away. His fingers trembled as they met mine, his hand engulfing my smaller one with a warmth that seemed to seep straight into my soul.


    Our child stirred faintly in his sleep, as if sensing the unspoken promise binding his parents together.


    I looked at Kieran, and for the first time, there was no fear. No guilt. No doubt.


    Only truth.


    Only love.


    Only us.