The Alpha and The Enforcer [TATE]

Chapter 15

Ellie's P.O.V

The rain began to fall, steady and soft, but the tree above us kept most of it at bay. The silence between us stretched for five long minutes, thick and weighty like the storm cloud overhead.

"I honestly don't understand how you could be cheery right now," I said at last, my voice low but steady.

He didn't answer right away. Just glanced at me, as if waiting to see if I'd say more.

Everyone expected Jacob to come back from Echo House differently. Colder. Distant. A broken Alpha-to-be with anger in his bones and tragedy hanging over his shoulders like a storm. But he was none of those things. He smiled. He helped others. He cracked jokes, even. And for the life of me, I couldn't understand it.

Not that I ever really knew him. Even though his parents, Alpha Brian and Luna Aubrey, treated me like family, I hardly ever saw their son. He trained with the Alpha most of the time, always with older wolves or off on solo missions. When I did catch a glimpse of him on the training grounds, he was never in my group, never near. Just a presence.

When I came back to the pack after seven months traveling with Mike, everyone whispered about what Jacob had been through. That he'd lost his mate. That he'd threatened the pack. But I never met her. Emily. I never even heard of her until I returned. The timelines didn't cross. I met my mate two months before Jacob met him, and he left for Echo House right after I got my title.

So I missed it all, the bond, the loss, the unraveling.

I felt his gaze on me, but I didn't look at him. I stared ahead, eyes tracing the ripples on the surface of the pond below the waterfall.

"You've lost so much more than me," I said. "You should be angry. You should be cold, distant. You lost your mate, Jacob. That pain...it should've consumed you. And yet... here you are. Smiling. Holding others up. Making people believe you're okay. Like you're healing."

I finally turned to face him, letting him see the rawness in my expression.

"I don't do that," I continued. "I smile so they'll leave me alone. So they'll stop looking at me like I'm broken, like I'm a breath away from shattering. I smile because I want them to back off and move on with their lives so they can stop sniffing around mine."

I exhaled, the weight in my chest pressing down like a boulder.

"And yeah, it makes me seem cold. Maybe even ungrateful. But when you push everyone away, there's no one left to pull you out of the dark. You're just... left behind."

I didn't flinch. I didn't look away. My voice didn't crack.

"But the thing is... if pain and darkness are so awful, then why do they feel like we're old friends?"

The words hung between us, heavy in the air. I wasn't looking for pity. I wasn't trying to be dramatic. It was just the truth, and I needed someone, anyone, to hear it and not look away.

Jacob didn't.

He met my eyes, the softness there grounding me. He didn't interrupt. Didn't try to fix me.

But his eyes glistened.

"The truth is...I smile because it's all I have left. Not because I'm healed, or okay. I smile because if I don't... I'll drown." he started.

He took a breath and stepped closer, his voice more vulnerable now.

"When Emily died, I was shattered. I screamed into pillows until my throat bled. I didn't eat. I couldn't sleep. I looked in the mirror and didn't recognize who I was anymore. I went to Echo House because I was scared of what I was becoming. And I stayed there until I could remember how to breathe again."