#Chapter 176: Date

ELENA I couldn’t stop talking about the date. Erin. Mason. The maids. Dawn. Even Chad. It was like my mouth had no filter anymore. Everything that usually kept me a little reserved—my instinct to be discreet, to keep things private, to protect the sacred things in my life—had been torched the second he said yes. I was going on a date. With him. The man from the hospital. The one with the silver-streaked hair and eyes that made my stomach do something indecent. The one Nox wouldn’t stop pacing about. The one who made my skin feel too tight, like I’d been dipped in electricity and sweetness at the same time. My fated mate. I hadn’t called him that out loud. But that’s what it was. The bond was undeniable. The way my body responded to his—like we were made of the same core materials and had just been broken apart and sent to opposite ends of the world to find our way back. And now we were here. And I had a date. “I mean,” I said to Erin as I rummaged through my close