CHAPTER 8

MIRA’S POV

I had not even reached my room yet.

I was walking through the dimly lit hallway, still shaking from my conversation with Zara, when I saw Claudia step out from the shadows like she had been waiting for me. Her sharp eyes pierced through my skin and her mouth pressed into a disapproving line. She looked like she had been standing there for hours, just waiting for me to slip up.

“Mira,” she said coldly, her voice echoing through the silence like thunder. “Where have you been sneaking off to?”

My heart jumped into my throat, but I forced my face to remain calm and my voice to stay steady. “I was in the kitchens, Mother. I needed something to settle my stomach.”

She stared at me for a long moment, as she searched my face with her cold eyes for any crack in my lie. The silence stretched between us, heavy and becoming suffocating, then she stepped closer and grabbed my arm in a surprisingly strong grip for a woman her age, and shoved me into a dark corner where the faint corridor lights barely reached.

“If you know what is good for you,” she hissed with her breath hot against my face. “You will spend the night in Declan’s chambers and you will keep him company. You will think about producing an heir. Do you understand me, Mira? This pack needs a future. Declan needs a son, and you are running out of time.”

I opened my mouth to respond, but before I could, she turned and walked away, with her heels clicking against the stone floor angrily until the sound faded into the silence. I stood there for a moment, trying to catch my breath, as my heart pounded in my chest so loudly I was sure someone could hear it.

Then I tried to move.

But suddenly a hand came out from the darkness and grabbed my arm, pulling me deeper into the shadows before I could even scream.

I gasped in shock and looked up, positioning my hands to fight and ready to push whoever it was away.

And I saw his face.

Ronan.

He was so close to me that I could feel the heat radiating from his body, and could smell the familiar scent of cedar and rain that had haunted my memory since that night. His amber eyes locked into mine, intense and unreadable, and a slow dangerous smile spread across his face.

“Hey,” he said softly. His voice feeling like velvet to my ears. “Beautiful stranger.”

My breath caught in my throat and my body betrayed me instantly. I leaned closer to him before I could stop myself.

“So,” he continued, his voice low and smooth, “you are my friend’s mate.”

I swallowed hard and forced myself to look away from those eyes. “I did not know he was your friend. I did not know who you were at all. If I had known, I would have never….”

“Never have what?” He interrupted and tilted his head. “Never have approached me? Never have come to my table? Never have spent the night with me?”

I did not answer, because I could not.

He studied me intensely for a moment, then stepped even closer until there were barely any space between us and whispered, “Let us set aside the fact that you did not know I was his friend. What is the Luna doing at club at that time of the night? And how does a woman of your standing approach a stranger like that? Is that normal to you?”

I narrowed my eyes amd squared my shoulders, refusing to let him see how much his presence affected me. Then I hissed. “Mind your buisness.”

He smiled at that, in a slow and infuriating manner that made my stomach flip. “Actually, This has now become my buisness, because you approached my at a club and I found you very interesting. We had a rather…..stimulating night. Only for me to find out that you are not just my friend’s mate — you are the Luna. Which is very shocking, to say the least. No wonder you did not want to exchange names.”

I felt my cheeks turned red, but I fired back without thinking. “You are an Alpha, yet you allow a random woman to follow you to a hotel and spend the night with you. Which is so unlike a man of your standing. No wonder you did not want to exchange names either.”

He laughed in a low and genuine manner, and the sound of it sent a shiver down my spine. “Yeah, yeah. You caught me. But I am not married. Unlike you.”

I bit my lip because he was right, and the truth of it stung more than I wanted to admit. I looked away for a moment, feeling the intense heat rise up to my cheeks, and when I looked back at him, his eyes were still fixed on me, watching me like I was the most interesting thing he had ever seen.

I met his eyes again and said quietly, “My mate should not know about this. None of this. You understand, right?”

Ronan’s face became serious. He stepped closer until there was barely any space between us, and I could feel the heat of his body even through my dress. The air between us sparked with something electric and dangerous.

“Yeah,” he said, and dropped his voice lower. “Because apart from the fact that you are his mate and I am his friend, I have things to lose too. I do not want my name tarnished like that, like I slept with my friend’s mate. People would not understand that I did not know it was you. They would care about the details. They would just see the scandal.”

I looked up at him, and something flickered in his eyes. Something raw and hungry that made my breath catch in my throat.

“We both have something to lose,” I said quietly.

He nodded slowly, with his eyes still pinned on mine. “Yes. We do.”

We stood there in the darkness, staring at each other, and the silence between us was so thick with everything unsaid. The memory of last night came flooding back before I could clear my thoughts, and my mind quickly remembered the feel of his hands on my skin, his breath on my neck, his deep moans in the dark and the way he had called out to me with each thrust he made inside me. I tried to push the thought away, but it was too vivid, too real.

And from the way his eyes became glazed, from the way his breathing changed, I knew he was remembering it too.

The attraction between us was still there. Burning. Unforgettable. Like nothing had changed at all.

I could feel it in the way my heart raced. I could see it in the way his jaw clenched and I could sense it in the way his body leaned toward mine, as if he was fighting the urge to close the distance between us.

And I knew in that moment, that Zara was right.

I was in trouble.

Because this was not just going to go away. This was only the beginning.