The Messenge (Iva and Nick) novel Chapter 438

Reasons To Frost Him–

+25 Points

Reasons To Trust Him

The words settled over Caleb like ice.

He looked down at Iva.

At the uncertainty in her eyes.

At the way her fingers twitched nervously beside her hips, as though she was trying to decide whether to push him away or demand an explanation.

And suddenly, he understood.

The amber stone had not simply opened a door.

It had brought him back.

Back to this place.

Back to this moment.

Back to the beginning.

He remembered the conversation they had been having before everything changed. He remembered his questions, his suspicion, and the way he had struggled to believe her when she finally confessed the truth.

She was the Messenger.

She was his fated mate.

The woman he had loved with every breath of his existence.

And now fate had placed him in front of her again, offering him something far more dangerous than a magical stone or a supernatural trial.

A second chance.

Caleb’s throat tightened.

He had spent so long wishing he could return to the past, wishing he could undo the mistakes that had torn them apart, wishing he could hold her one more time and tell her everything he had failed to say when it mattered.

He had never truly believed the universe would grant him that wish.

Yet here he was.

Standing beside the lake.

Holding the woman he loved.

With the opportunity to change everything.

“We have another chance,” Chaos whispered, his voice trembling with an emotion Caleb had rarely heard

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< Reasons To-Frust Him

from his fiercely proud wolf. “Do you understand what this means?”

Caleb swallowed hard.

“Yes.”

“Then don’t waste it.”

The words struck him with the force of a command.

Caleb had no intention of doing so.

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He would not repeat the same mistakes. He would not let suspicion paison every conversation or allow fear to turn him into a stranger to the woman who deserved his trust.

This time, he would listen.

He would be patient.

He would earn her trust, even if it took a lifetime.

And if the world tried to take her away from him again, it would have to fight a man who now knew exactly how much losing her could cost.

Caleb loosened his arms.

It took every ounce of restraint he possessed to release her, but he forced himself to step back before his desperation frightened her further.

Iva immediately drew in a breath, her hands moving instinctively to straighten her clothes. She looked up at him, her eyebrows drawn together, and for a moment he thought she might demand an explanation for his strange behaviour.

He couldn’t blame her.

He had just embraced her as though she were the answer to a prayer she had never heard.

“Caleb?” she asked cautiously.

Hearing his name in her voice nearly undid him.

He wanted to tell her everything.

He wanted to explain that he had crossed a realm of ancient magic to find her, that he had faced impossible trials, and that he had been prepared to sacrifice his own future if it meant giving her the chance to live hers. He wanted to tell her that he had seen a vision of her happy with another man and had accepted that possibility because her happiness mattered more than his own.

He wanted to tell her that he loved her.

That he had always loved her.

That somewhere beyond the boundaries of the life she remembered, she had been his wife, his home, and the mother of their child.

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<Reasons To-Frost Him.

Youssef.

The thought hit him so suddenly that his chest ached.

Their son.

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Was Youssef waiting somewhere in the future he had left behind? Had the amber stone taken Caleb into the past while leaving the life he had lived intact? Or had it rewritten time entirely, turning all those years of love and suffering into something that had never happened?

He had no answers.

The amber stone rested heavily in his hand, its golden light now subdued, as though it had completed whatever task it had set out to perform.

Caleb glanced down at it.

“Caleb?” Iva repeated, her confusion deepening. “Is all right?”

He looked at her again.

This was not the time to unravel the mysteries of time, magic, or the amber stone. Whatever had happened, he had been given a chance, and the first thing he needed to do was make sure he did not frighten the woman who stood before him.

So he did something he had almost forgotten how to do.

He smiled.

Not the cold, controlled smile he used when negotiating with enemies, nor the arrogant expression that had once concealed his fear of being vulnerable. This smile was quieter, gentler, and carefully restrained, though the emotions burning behind his eyes threatened to expose everything.

“I’m fine,” he assured her.

Iva gave him a doubtful look.

“You don’t look fine. One moment you’re asking me a hundred questions, and the next you’re hugging me like we’ve known each other for years.”

For a second, he almost laughed.

“If only you knew,” Chaos murmured.

Caleb kept his expression composed.

“I wanted to check whether there was any reaction to our bond.”

The excuse came more easily than he expected, perhaps because it contained a small measure of truth. Their bond was there, buried beneath the confusion and the forgotten memories, and he could feel its faint pulse inside his chest.

Iva blinked.

“Our bond?”

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المال العام الماله الا السلم واشره

<Reas

Trying to ignore me? –

He in That’s cute. But your bonus is still waiting. Claim before I send a second notification.

“You told me you’re my rated mate, remember?”

“Yes, I remember what I said.” She hesitated, still studying him as though searching for a hidden explanation. “But you seemed rather unconvinced a few minutes ago.”

“I was asking questions.”

“You were interrogating me.”

“Perhaps I was being thorough.”

“Perhaps you were being impossible.”

The words escaped her before she could stop them.

Caleb stared at her.

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