SECRETS AND BITTER TRUTHS

DAYA’S POV

I looked away, swallowing down the emotions swirling inside me. Talk about tenacity—he had plenty of it. He hadn’t stopped asking me the same question since I returned, since his grandfather died.

“And you still haven’t answered.”

A small voice of reason, the one that always carried the guilt I had nursed all these years, whispered in my head.

I had promised I wouldn’t tell him. No matter the reason behind my leaving, I swore I would never reveal it—not even if it destroyed me, destroyd what we had between us.

But at this rate, with the way he tweaked and rubbed me in all the right places, I just might spill everything unkowingly.

His persistent torment every time I was around him was beginning to work and my resolve to protect the secrets and bitter truths I had carried was starting to dissolve slowly.

“I need to go,” I pushed at his chest, attempting to get up, but his grip held me in place.

“Let me go, Night,” I turned back, looking at him with all seriousness, trying to mask the urgency rising in my voice.

He cradled my cheek with one hand while keeping my body trapped against him with the other—the sheer power of a hybrid wrapping around me like chains.

“No,” he whispered, his lips tracing a slow path down my neck. “I’ll decide when you can go. And for now… I need you here,”

His hand made quick work of my buttons, exposing my bra, which barely held my breasts in place.

“Mine,” he murmured possessively, nuzzling into the curve of my breasts.

“All mine,” His gaze lifted to mine as he kissed one swollen mound, then the other, his eyes never breaking contact.

With expert ease, he unclasped my bra from behind, his eyes rapt as my breasts sprang free, nipples hard and needy.

He dove in, feasting on them with controlled precision, his lips and tongue worshiping every inch as his hand tightened around me, pulling me even closer. His mouth suckled and licked, teasing each sensitive peak.

I moaned, feeling every bit of my resistance melt into liquid heat.

Then he released my breast temporarily, trailing slow kisses up my neck.

His breath was warm against my skin as he whispered into my ear, “Give me a name,” punctuating his demand with a gentle bite on my earlobe.

“I… I… ahhhh!” My hips began to move on their own accord, my mind spiraling as the words on my tongue scattered like dust.

“Tell me,” His voice turned more demanding, his hands and mouth growing more insistent.

“I had no choice,” I gasped, my fingers tangling in his hair as I lost all sense of restraint.

“Give me a name,” he breathed again.

“It was Ja—”

Mate?! My wolf's voice cut sharply into my mind, snapping me out of the haze he'd pulled around me.

Not mate, I shot back mentally, forcing myself out of his lap and moving swiftly towards the door.

“You’re one stubborn bitch, aren’t you?” he smirked, reclining back into the bed, propped on his elbows, watching me with amusement.

“Your tricks are getting old,” I replied blandly, masking my disgust—directed not at him, but at myself—as I quickly buttoned my shirt, surprised to find my clothes still mostly intact.

He lifted his fingers, pinching them together, “Just a little more… and I would have gotten the answer I wanted.”

“But you didn’t,” I shrugged, keeping my tone casual.

“Who are you trying so hard to protect?” His voice lowered, eyes narrowing with something between suspicion and frustration.

You. I screamed the word in my mind but kept my face blank, wearing my indifference like armor.

He stared at me for a long moment, his eyes gleaming an unusual shade of green from the bed’s shadows.

“You know I would have been out the door before you could catch me,” I said coolly, reading his mind. We had grown up together as siblings — I knew him, and he knew me, sometimes too well.

He smiled faintly. “Ever the smart one, hmm.”

“I have unfinished work to attend to, if you don’t mind… Alpha.” I added the last word with deliberate formality.

He frowned at my tone shift, but quickly shrugged it off. I silently exhaled in relief.

“Do whatever you want. For now.” He rose from the bed, sauntering naked toward his closet, completely at ease in his skin.

I had just reached the door, hand on the knob, when his voice drifted to me once more.

“Nice art, by the way. Is he still alive?”

I glanced at my hand, where dried blood ringed my wrist. Nothing escaped his notice.

“Healer’s tending to him. Healthy enough,” I answered, meeting his gaze briefly.

He nodded, lost in thought, before murmuring, “You’re growing soft, Daya.” His voice carried an undertone I couldn’t quite decipher.

I scanned his aura instinctively—it was getting darker. He needed to release the pressure building inside before it turned black. I made a mental note to visit the healer’s building for his potion.

“He didn’t harm me. I saw no reason to end him,” I said brusquely, closing the door behind me.

I had to make sure he wouldn’t target the foolish wolf I’d spared earlier, while masking any hint that I cared.

The tension drained from my body the moment I stepped into the open, my legs automatically moving toward the healer’s building. I silently berated myself for how poorly I handled things earlier.

How could I tell him that the only person he knew as a parent — the one man he trusted — was the very reason I had to leave? His grandfather.

Even though the old man never explained fully, no matter how much I begged to stay, I saw it in his eyes. He had discovered our love, heard the whispers about the forbidden desires between the Blackclaw siblings.

But more than the rumors, it was Night’s obsession with me that terrified him. 

The looming fear that Night might someday consume me — me, his last hope of a cure.