Chapter 159 Hundred And Fifty Nine

• ARIELS POV.
• It had been three weeks since the hospital incident, yet everything still felt off between Ryan and me. Three whole weeks of pretending everything was fine when deep down, I knew it wasn’t. He was there but not there. Present, yet distant. Acting more like some sort of carefully programmed machine than my mate, my Alpha.
• We did the basics together the things expected of us. We ate at the same table. We exchanged a few polite words in the mornings and before bed. We took slow walks through the pack grounds, hand in hand, making sure the members saw us as the perfect pair. And yes, when there were gatherings, he made sure I was by his side, smiling like nothing was wrong. But beyond that, there was nothing. No warmth. No lingering touches. No late-night conversations that stretched into dawn. And definitely no cuddling, no intimacy, no sense of us .