Shattered Bonds A Second Chance Mate (by Yui) novel Chapter 266

Chapter 266

Chapter 266

(Go To Ellaine Point of View):

Something changed in me.

It wasn’t sudden, not a bolt of lightning or an echo of magic.

–

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It was quieter. A shift, a ripple, a whisper beneath my skin like something had turned inside me and was now waiting, listening.

At first I thought it was my imagination. Maybe nerves from the rogues attack. Maybe exhaustion. Maybe heartbreak lingering from Francesco’s collapse and recovery.

But then- ‘No, you’re right.

Mika’s voice slid into my mind like a cold fingertip pressed along my spine.

I froze mid–step. ‘Mika?‘

My wolf hadn’t spoken in days

—

not like this. Her voice carried weight, urgency, something she usually hid

from me so I wouldn’t worry.

My heart began to race. ‘What do you know? What are you not telling me?‘

For a heartbeat, she hesitated. Mika never hesitated. ‘Later,‘ she murmured. ‘Not now.

I swallowed hard. Later was never good.

The last two weeks had felt like living under a shadow that refused to name itself. I could still feel the echo of Francesco’s agony, the memory of his hands around my throat, the nightmare that had almost taken him from me. Even now, when he slept, I woke often- just to check if he was breathing.

But this–This was different.

This was not a threat from inside my mate.

This was something outside.

Watching.

Following.

Judging.

Red eyes. The kind older than curses. Older than moons.

I felt them again today.

At first I dismissed it as paranoia – the aftermath of the war, the stress of leading, the lingering fear of

Chapter 266.

Severine’s hatred. But every time I looked over my shoulder…

He was there.

Lord Drake.

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The vampire with the ancient gaze and the voice carved from shadowed marble. The one who had looked at me not with disgust… but with confusion. Curiosity. Pain.

The one who said the Lycaon line owed him a heart.

A heart stolen long ago.

His beloved.

His vengeance.

My breath trembled. ‘Is that why he’s here…? To take mine?‘

If he wanted it, he could have ripped it out the night he stood in the candlelit hall. He could have done it before I even sensed him. And a part of me- a selfish, exhausted, fragile part- almost wanted to let him, just to end all this suffering, just to repay whatever ancient debt I never chose to inherit.

But… Francesco.

The memory of his hands on my waist in the lake. His lips fever–warm against mine. His voice whispered ‘amore mio‘ like a man learning how to breathe again.

I couldn’t leave him.

Not after everything.

Not after he chose death over hurting me.

Not after he clawed his way back from Severine’s realm just because I whispered his name.

–

My heart wasn’t mine anymore — it belonged to him. If Drake wanted it, he couldn’t have it. If fate wanted to take it, it would fight a war to pull it from my chest.

But the fear still pressed on my ribs like a hand.

I needed air.

—

my sanctuary,

I walked out of my room, out of the stone corridors, and down the steps toward the garden the place where Francesco first found me tending flowers back in Florence, the place where blue roses grew as if shaped by memory and love.

The night was cold. Moonlight draped itself across the grass like frost. The wind smelled of rosemary and something colder… like iron.

I tugged the cloak closer around my shoulders and stepped deeper into the garden.

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Chapter 266

Then I felt it.

A shiver. A whisper. A presence.

Those red eyes again.

Hidden between shadows.

Watching.

Waiting.

I stopped. The hairs on my arms rose. “I know you’re there.”

My voice was steady. My hands were not.

Silence.

Only the rustle of leaves. Only my own breath condensing in the cold air.

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I turned slowly toward the edge of the garden, toward the darker trees where moonlight couldn’t reach.

Nothing moved.

But the air bent — just slightly

—

– the way it does when something ancient occupies space.

I inhaled sharply. ‘Yes. He was there.

Drake.

He didn’t speak. But his presence pulsed like a heartbeat in the dark.

‘Why won’t you leave me?‘ The question throbbed painfully in my mind.

Did he blame me for Totti’s sin?

Did he think killing Luna balanced the scales?

Did he want to watch the Lycaon line break from grief again?

My throat tightened. “Why… are you still watching me?”

The leaves rustled – not by wind, but by intention.

Still, he didn’t show himself.

Somewhere deep inside, Mika raised her head, bristling.

‘He isn’t here to kill us, she whispered.

But there was tension in her tone, a tremor of instinct I had never heard before. ‘He’s… uncertain. Torn.

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Chapter 266

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Something in you calls to him. Something he doesn’t understand.

‘Calls to him?‘ My stomach twisted. ‘What do you mean?‘

Mika didn’t answer.

The silence stretched, thick and suffocating.

And suddenly the world felt too small. Too tight. Like the air didn’t belong to me anymore.

I turned my gaze toward the heart of the garden -the old stone bench Francesco carved with his own claws during our first winter here. I sat down slowly, breathing through the rising panic.

‘Why won’t he leave me? Why won’t he stop?‘

What did he smell on me that made him linger?

What did he see?

And then–A flash of memory.

His words.

“Your mate… he wasn’t the first to wound you, was he?”

The way he said it. The way he looked at me then not with hunger, not with threat, but with recognition.

As if he had seen grief like mine before.

–

As if he had loved someone who walked with sorrow in her bones.

A sudden pressure pulsed inside my stomach, a tiny ache, small enough to ignore, but real enough to catch my breath.

What… was that?

My hand moved unconsciously to my abdomen.

A second pulse.

A flutter, quiet as a secret.

No.

No, it couldn’t be–Could it?

“Mika…?” My voice cracked, barely a whisper. “What is… happening to me?”

My wolf hesitated.

Hesitated.

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Chapter 266

Ellaine… something is growing inside us!

My heartbeat stumbled.

Cold.

Heat.

Cold.

“What… Do you mean?”

‘Not danger. Not poison. Something new.‘ Her voice softened–rare, delicate.

A life.’

My vision blurred.

A life.