My Sister Stole My Mate, And I Let Her Chapter 537 AFTER (BONUS CHPTER 4)

SERAPHINA’S POV

The irony wasn’t lost on me: the last island we’d visited had belonged to Catherine.

It had smelled of blood and corruption and evil. It had been the place where friends nearly died, where impossible choices had been forced upon us, where my future and the future of those I loved had balanced on the edge of a knife.

This island couldn’t have been more different if the Goddess herself had designed it as an apology.

Here, mornings began not with alarms or urgent knocks on the bedroom door or looming responsibilities, but with sunlight spilling lazily through linen curtains while waves whispered against the shore below the villa.

Kieran and I slept later than either of us ever had back at Nightfang, with nowhere to be except beside each other.

Unhurried by schedules, responsibilities, or the weight of an entire pack depending on us, I’d become the one thing I’d never associated myself with before: idle.

Frankly, I blamed Kieran.

He had somehow become even more insufferably affectionate once we found ourselves completely alone, and every morning began the same way—soft, sleepy lovemaking, lingering caresses, and lazy conversations that drifted from one meaningless topic to the next.

By the time we finally wandered downstairs, the sun would already be high enough to bathe the kitchen in warm gold.

Not that I was ever allowed to do anything once we got there.

After spending half the journey to the island hopelessly seasick, Kieran had apparently decided I was made of glass.

The very first morning, I’d wandered toward the counter with every intention of making coffee, only to find myself unceremoniously lifted away from the counter and deposited on a kitchen stool like an unruly child.

From that moment on, I was under strict orders to remain exactly where I’d been placed while he insisted on preparing every meal himself.

I’d protested, but then he’d leaned forward, cupped my face between his large, warm hands and said softly, “You’ve spent most of our lives taking care of me. It’s my turn.”

I promptly melted into a useless puddle and let him have his way.

And he proved, much to my annoyance, that there wasn’t anything Kieran couldn’t excel at if he put his mind to it.

Every meal somehow tasted like something from a five-star restaurant despite the fact that he insisted he was "just following recipes."

“I refuse to believe this is your first attempt,” I informed him over breakfast one morning after taking a bite of fluffy lemon ricotta pancakes.

“It isn’t.”

“Aha!”

“I’ve been practicing.”

“When?”

Kieran busied himself with cutting into his own pancakes, though I caught the faint flush creeping up the back of his neck.

“After I discovered we were mates.”

My fork stilled.

“I figured...” He let out a quiet breath, a sheepish smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. “If I was going to convince you to give me another chance, I’d better have more to offer than apologies.”

He shrugged, almost embarrassed by the admission. “So every time I came across a recipe that looked like something you’d enjoy, I learned how to make it.”

He glanced around the sunlit kitchen before his gaze returned to me, warm and tender enough to steal the breath from my lungs.

“I kept imagining mornings like this,” he continued. “The two of us eating breakfast together and just enjoying the comfort and peace of each other’s company.”

My chest tightened so much it hurt.

While I’d been doing everything I could to forget him, he’d been quietly teaching himself how to make my favorite breakfasts, hoping that one day we’d have a kitchen to share.

“You’re unbelievable,” I whispered.

Kieran’s smile softened as he reached out and pulled my stool closer to his. He placed a tender kiss on my forehead.

“I was in love.”

***

Afternoons belonged to the island.

Kieran was determined to show me every hidden corner he’d loved since childhood, places I’d never reached when I’d last visited.

We wandered shaded forest trails where ancient trees arched overhead like cathedral ceilings.

He showed me cliffs where the ocean stretched endlessly toward the horizon, wildflowers blooming stubbornly from cracks in the stone.

There were tiny coves accessible only by narrow paths carved into the rock, tide pools shimmering with tiny fish and prismatic shells, and stretches of untouched beach where our footprints were the only ones in the sand.

It felt like discovering new pieces of Kieran, and I fell in love with each one.

“This was where I shifted for the first time,” Kieran said one afternoon as we stood atop a rocky bluff overlooking the endless stretch of ocean.

I turned to him, surprised. “Here?”

He nodded, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond the horizon, as though he could still see the frightened thirteen-year-old boy he’d once been.

“My father brought me here the night of my first shift. He said if I was going to meet my wolf, it should be somewhere neither of us would ever forget.”

I smiled softly, threading my fingers through his.

“Were you scared?”

A quiet laugh escaped him. “Terrified.”

I glanced up at him, trying—and failing—to picture Kieran Blackthorne as anything other than unshakable.

“Hard to believe.”

“Believe it,” he said with a smile. “Ashar was the one who taught me how to be brave.”

‘Not quite,’ Ashar’s deep voice rumbled through our bond. ‘He was already brave. He simply hadn’t realized it yet.’

Kieran chuckled softly. “That might have been the first time he’s ever complimented me.”

I laughed, leaning my head against his shoulder as the breeze tangled my hair.

***

The ocean, however, remained another matter entirely.

I wasn’t afraid to admit that I still distrusted it.

It was too vast, too deep, and all the psychic and silver power in the world was nothing against a gigantic wave determined to pull me under.

Standing at the shoreline with the waves curling around my ankles was one thing. Venturing farther out felt like tempting fate.

’Hey, look! I survived Catherine and the Dark Lord. Want a shot?’

Somehow though, Kieran still managed to coax me into the water. Not by teasing or arguing, but simply by offering me his hand and never once letting it go.

By the time the water reached my waist, I’d all but attached myself to him, both arms wrapped securely around his shoulders while he laughed under his breath and held me effortlessly above the gentle swell.

There was something profoundly reassuring about knowing that no matter how uncertain I felt, he’d be there to steady me before I could fall.

The ocean still intimidated me, but somehow it seemed a little less frightening when I faced it from the safety of his embrace.

I never once doubted that if the sea tried to steal me away, Kieran would follow without hesitation.

And I knew, with the same certainty as my own heartbeat, that he would always find his way back to me.

At night, beneath a moon only beginning to wane, Ashar and Alina ran together along the shoreline.

The cool surf splashed around our paws while moonlight turned our silver and gold coats into living shadows racing across the sand.

***

The days blurred together in the most wonderful way, and every beautiful corner of the island became part of us.

We lingered wherever the scenery invited us to stay, stealing moments of passion beneath swaying palms, watching sunsets paint the sky in stunning shades of amber and violet, or simply sitting shoulder to shoulder while the tide breathed in and out along the shore.

Kieran confessed things he’d once believed he would carry to his grave.

How he’d imagined bringing me here long before I’d forgiven him.

How he’d memorized every place he wanted to show me in case the impossible ever happened and I chose him again.

How he’d dreamed about growing old enough that our greatest arguments would revolve around whether Daniel visited often enough.

"I used to think wanting ordinary things made me weak," he admitted one evening as we watched the sun disappear beneath the horizon.

I rested against his bare chest while he lazily traced circles along my back, neither of us making any effort to retrieve the clothes we’d abandoned in the sand.

"What ordinary things?"

He pressed his lips against my forehead. “Happiness. Peace. Everything I’ve found with you and our family.”

I leaned forward and buried my face in his neck.

"I think," I whispered against his throat, "ordinary might actually be the bravest thing we’ve ever fought for."

When the week finally came to an end, and Ashar’s Pride carried us away from the island, I stood at the stern watching the villa disappear into the distance until it became nothing more than a pale shape against emerald cliffs.

“Missing it already?” Kieran said, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist.

I leaned into the steady warmth of his chest. “We couldn’t stay forever. And I miss Daniel and our home.”

He nodded and pressed a kiss to my shoulder. “We’ll always have this, waiting for whenever we want to come back.”

There was a strange warmth lingering deep inside me that refused to fade, softer than the feverish blaze of my heat, but somehow more enduring.

Maybe it was simply the afterglow of the happiest week of my life.

Or maybe...

My hand drifted to rest over Kieran’s, where it lay against my stomach, and that curious, inexplicable warmth fluttered through me.

Maybe the island had given me a gift I just hadn’t unwrapped yet.