Ellie POV

I wake up to musical laughter floating in the air.

Slowly peeling my eyelids open, I look around the guest room me and Zea had stayed in last night. The cream walls and the purple design feel so familiar to me. Scanning over the room, I don't know why this room is the one I recognized.

Then I see it.

Pushing myself off of the bed, I slowly walk over to the wall next to the bathroom door. I gently lift my fingers up, almost afraid to touch it. The indent on the wall is deeper than I remember, and I could still see the horrible job he made in trying to fix it with spackle.

This is the room I had stayed in after our biggest fight. Axton had punched the wall when I refused to listen and locked myself in the bathroom.

It's back when I first came to this pack. Axton and I were fighting about a rogue who had crossed the border. He thought he should be executed for breaking pack law and crossing the border. He thought the rogue was spying on the pack. I disagreed with him. I didn't want to have to sentence the poor kid to death. I was naïve.

It turns out Axton was right about that rogue. It was after I left here and was taken by the rogue Cortez, that I realized letting that rogue go was a mistake. It turned out that he was spying on the pack. He had been infiltrating packs for Cortez all over the country.

The sound of laughter pulls me away from my thoughts of the past and I drop my hand from the wall.

I quickly pulled on a change of clothes from the closet Axton seemed to have stocked. Grabbing a pair of skinny jeans and a warm sweater on, I pull a pair of combat boots onto my feet.

Moving to the bathroom, I do my routine and quickly run a comb through my hair, not bothering to do anything special, but just let the natural curls cascade down my back.

Feeling prepared, I walk out of the room and into the empty hallway. I almost keep walking, but the sight of the door across the way makes me pause.

Axton's room. Our room. Pushing all the memories down inside of me, I continue down the stairs and stand in the kitchen doorway as I take in the sight before me.

Walker is goofing around, and Sawyer scolds him. I see Reid sitting at the corner watching Zea closely. Zea sits at the counter laughing hysterically as she watches her father before her.

Axton is leaning over the counter as he places a plate of pancakes in front of Zea. His smile beams at her as I see adoration in his eyes. It's almost... I stop the thought immediately. I can't hope for anything until I see who he is. I just hope he isn't that same man who told me to leave.

As if he could feel me staring, he lifts his head slightly and connects his gaze to mine. It feels like I'm trapped. His eyes make me want to push away all of the past seven years and just run into his arms.

But luckily Zea pulls me away before I act on that impulse, "Mommy!"

Pulling my eyes away from Axton's, I start to walk over to my little girl, "Good morning, sweetheart. What do you have there?"

"It's pancakes! My favorite!" she yells as she starts digging into the food in front of her. I laugh slightly as I watch her make a mess of the syrup.

"You are making yourself all sticky," I laugh.

"That sounds like a good trade to me."

"Oh, it does?" I question, laughing at her ridiculousness.

"Mmhm," is the only reply she gives me as she shovels more of the syrupy pancakes into her mouth.

I catch Axton's eyes as he watches our exchange. He smiles at the goofiness that is his daughter, even if he doesn't believe it yet. For a split second, it is like this is normal, just any other day for our family, but then reality sets in.

Turning our attention completely to each other, my expression turns serious, "We need to talk."

Nodding his head, he nods to Sawyer, "Hey, can you clean off Zea when she is all finished."

"Of course."

"Thank you," he tells her before turning his attention back to me, "Come on."

I follow him out of the kitchen and upstairs. Walking back the way I came, only this time he opens the door across the one I left. Moving past him as he closes the door, I take a seat on the edge of the bed.

The room is the same as the day I left. The same sheets on the bed, the same pictures on the walls, even the desk holds the same papers. It's like seven years hadn't gone by in this one room. It's like I never left it.

"Ellie," Axton starts and I allow myself to look at him, truly look at him. He's the same, yet different. He is still muscled and tall and handsome, but there is an air around him that has changed. He isn't the same kid who is learning the role of alpha. He is the alpha now.

"I told you to stay away from her," I warn him.

"You know I won't do that. I won't stay away from either of you. Please Ellie, I don't want to fight with you," he pleads with me, "Please, just talk to me."

"Axton. I don't know what you want me to say," I tell him honestly.

"How about let's start with the day you left," he suggests.

"You know exactly what happened, Axton. Why bring it up?" I ask, looking at him and begging him not to make me relive it again.

"Because I don't," he says as he starts to walk forward before sitting down on the bed across from me, "I don't know what happened because it wasn't me."

"Axton," I breathe out, "I was there. You were there. What happened, it was definitely you."

"No, it wasn't. I don't know how, but who you saw that night, it wasn't me. You have to believe me," he says as he shifts closer, but it only makes me scooch back.

"No, I don't." But God do I want to, I think.

"Ellie, you know me. Since the moment we met, you have known exactly who I am," he says as he reaches out. His palm rests against my cheek as the familiar warmth and electricity I had thought I would never feel again, courses through my body by the simplest of touches.

"I thought I did, but I guess I was wrong," I say, my voice sounding almost defeated as I think about that day.

"You weren't wrong," Axton says as he moves closer to me, but this time I don't move back. It's like the constant electricity of his touch isn't allowing me to move at all, "Think about it, Ellie. Why would I ever want to destroy our bond?"

"I don't know, Axton. Your reasoning wasn't exactly the most important thing to me. You chose this. You wanted the life of a free man, and now you've got it," I say as I pull away and get up off the bed.

Maybe he's saying the truth, Raelynn tries to tell me.

"I never wanted you to leave, Ellie," Axton speaks as he stands up from the bed, "It wasn't me who said those things to you."

I scoff at the memories of me wanting to believe those exact words, "Really? You never wanted me to go? Then why would you want to mate with someone else?" I ask him, "Reid convinced me of that it wasn't you. He told me that you were a wreak and that you never would have rejected me to go sleep with other girls or that you mated me just to get the Alpha title. I believed all of it, only to come back and before I even cross the border, there you are. Ordering some rogue to try and kill me so you could mate with someone else," I say, my voice deflated from the anger and only carrying the pain I had felt when I saw him.

"I can't explain it. I don't know what you saw, but I know I never would have ever let you go," he growls as he steps closer to me and I take a step back.

"But you did," I say, "You rejected me, Axton. You chose to break our bond."

"But the bond isn't broken!" he yells as he walks closer to me, but there is nowhere left for me to go as I push myself into the wall. He towers over me as he places one hand on my waist and the other on my cheek. The sparks spread once again, "You feel it, don't you. If the bond is truly broken, we would be in pain upon touching. We wouldn't be feeling like fireworks," he says as he whispers the last part in my ear before pulling back and staring into my eyes.