Chapter437:

###Chapter 437 SOPHIA "From growing up on a farm territory," he said, smiling, and there was such warmth in his voice, such easy familiarity, that it settled something in me even as the moment with Ollie still sat unresolved in my chest. We'd known each other so long. Sixteen years old, both of us gangly and awkward, meeting at a joint pack gathering our parents had insisted on attending. I remembered the exact moment I'd known I wanted him—some stupid, unremarkable afternoon where he'd made me laugh so hard I'd nearly choked on lemonade, and he'd pounded my back with more alarm than the situation warranted, and something in his eyes had told me he'd have kept pounding forever if it meant I kept breathing. We weren't fated mates. I knew that, had always known it, the way you know a fact about yourself that used to matter more than it did now. There had been a stretch of years, right after we'd properly gotten together, where the absence of that particular bond had felt like a wound