Ellie POV

The tension could probably be felt a mile out. It's so thick, I could cut it with a butter knife. We both stand still, waiting on the other to make the first move. He knows the pain I had gone through when he rejected me. Now it is as if he had completely forgotten about all of it.

I don't know how long we stand like that, but neither one of us is willing to make a sound. He eyes me up and down as I do the same with him.

He hasn't changed much in the last seven years, except for getting even more muscle than before if that is even possible. His hair is still tossed around in the same manner he used to wear it in. His eyes hold me the most though.

For a split second, I think I actually see pain flash through his eyes. But the emotion is gone so fast, it must have been a trick of the eyes. He doesn't feel pain for what he did. If he had, he wouldn't have rejected me in the first place.

But I can't stop the hope that I feel about the idea of him actually regretting what he did. If only it was true.

I am so engrossed in him, I don't hear Reid come back out onto the porch.

"Luna," his voice snaps me out of the ravine of thoughts Axton had placed me into. I nod my head slightly, afraid to break eye contact with Axton, "Zea is with Luna Layla."

"Thank you, Reid," I tell him, watching as Axton shakes with a slight anger.

"Ellie, you should leave-" he starts, but is immediately stopped by Axton.

"She is not going anywhere," he says in a defiant tone.

"We do not belong here, Axton. Not anymore," I reply, my voice breaking slightly above a whisper as I continue, "You saw to that."

He thinks for a second, seeming to be deep in thought, "I will not allow you to disappear again. You are staying and that is final."

"You can't keep us here."

He's in front of me within a millisecond that I never even saw him move. He lifts his hand ever so slightly. I hold my breath, waiting for the emptiness to take over my body when he touches me.

I know what it will feel like from the stories of others have told about what happens when rejected mates touch again. It is like a black hole is swallowing your heart. All you feel is the emptiness and loss of the rejection. It is like you relive every ounce of pain you have ever gone through. For me, that is a large mountain to endure again.

I watch him as he looks over my face, as if memorizing the changes that had occurred over the years. I wait as his fingers twitch forward ever so slightly, the tips gently touching my cheek.

I prepare for the pain, but what I don't prepare for is the electricity running from his fingertips. The sparks explode upon the gentle touch, spreading through my body. They run from my cheek all the way to the ends of my toes.

The shock of feeling the tingles and sparks once more causes me to gasp upon my mate's touch.

The mate bond, how can we still feel it? I ask Raelynn.

I do not know. He rejected us. Both of them did. I don't know how the bond is still intact, she replies.

He leans in closer to me. He softly caresses my face with the smallest of touches as he whispers back to me, "You will find that I can."

*****

After Axton had declared that I'm staying, he drags me into the pack house. We are currently sitting across from each other in the living room as we both just stare at one another. Again, both waiting for the other to break the silence.

He shifts slightly before apparently manning up and going first, "Are you going to tell me why you left?"

I let out a humorless laugh at his act, "Seriously? You want to play it that way?"

"I don't want to play at all, Ellie," his voice rising a tiny bit, "I want to know what happened."

"What happened?" I stare at him, "Since you want to pretend like you don't have a single clue about the reason I left, I guess I get to say it. You happened Axton."

"What did I-" his question is cut off by the sudden pounding coming down the stairs. The stampede of shoes hitting the oak floors shakes the frames around on the wall.

All I see is a sudden blur before I am being pulled into a bear hug, "Ellie!"

I laugh slightly as I realize who exactly is squeezing the life out of me. I pull back so I can look her in the eyes, "It's good to see you, Sawyer."

She is just as beautiful as she was when I first met her. She is only a few inches taller than me with curly brown hair. Her brown eyes light up as she takes in me actually being here.

She is Walker's mate, so when I first met Axton, she had immediately glued a friendship with me. She was always making me laugh and we both loved to play pranks on the boys when they annoyed us. She had been my first friend when I had come to this pack.

"I thought you were dead," she breaks as silent tears start to fall onto her face.

"We all did," Walker says as he walks in the room and takes Sawyer into his arms to comfort her.

I watch how they act together. It reminds me of how Axton used to never want to let go of me. He had wanted to always keep me in his arms.

Key word: had.

"Yeah well, I'm harder to kill than you would think, right Axton?" I turn towards him.

"Ellie, I have no clue what you are talking about."

"Of course you don't," I snap, "You can't have your pack know that you want your own mate dead."

He freezes, "What?"

"You want to continue this 'I didn't reject you' thing all you want Axton," I tell him, my anger over the last seven years bubbling to the surface, "I don't know if you are faking it or you actually forgot destroying everything we had, but I will not let you do this to me again."

"Ellie, I never-"

"I don't want to hear again how you didn't do anything. We were both standing right about here as you looked me in the eye and broke our mate bond. You forced me to leave," I try to keep my face neutral, but the memory of what happened that night and over the next couple months just keeps replaying in my mind, "Well this time, you don't have to reject me to make me leave. I'll do it on my own."