CHAPTER 6: CROSSING A LINE (PART TWO)

PHILLIP'S POV 

Her lips still burned on mine.

The night air should have cooled me, sobered me, but it didn’t. My chest rose and fell too fast, like I’d just run a game into overtime. My hands, still trembling from where I’d gripped her waist, refused to unclench.

Elizabeth stood a few feet away, breathless, hair messy from the way I had dragged her closer without thinking. The look in her eyes was what undid me, wide, fierce, demanding answers I wasn’t ready to give.

“Phillip…” Her voice cracked.

I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t think. My wolf pressed against the edges of my mind, howling the word we both knew but I couldn’t say. Mate.

“No.” The word broke from me rough and too loud. I stepped back, as if the space would put out the fire I had just lit. “This… this can’t happen.”

She flinched, her lips parting. “Can’t happen?”

My jaw locked. “It was a mistake.”

Her breath hitched, and that hurt worse than anything. I had just kissed her like I’d been starving for her, and now I was tearing her apart with two words. My wolf snarled, furious at me, but I forced myself to hold the line.

Elizabeth’s shoulders squared. I’d expected her to cry, maybe turn away. Instead, she glared, fire sparking in her gaze. “You don’t get to call it that.”

I dragged a hand through my hair, pacing a step, then another. If I stayed still, I’d grab her again. “Elizabeth…”

“No!” she snapped, and I froze. “You think I don’t know what I felt? You think I don’t know what this is?”

Her words shook me, cut too close. My wolf clawed, desperate to answer her, desperate to claim.

I clenched my fists. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Her throat worked, her chest rising and falling with anger. “Stop treating me like a little girl, Phillip. I’m not a child anymore.”

The sentence slammed into me like a punch. I remembered the shy, wide-eyed girl who used to follow me and Reagan around, trailing in the snow with mittens too big for her hands. 

That girl was gone. In her place stood a young woman who looked at me like she could see straight into the places I kept locked away.

And God help me, I wanted her.

I looked away, fighting for control. “You should go back inside.”

She shook her head, stepping closer instead. “No. You kissed me.”

The wolf in me howled its triumph at that reminder. I had crossed the line, given in. Now there was no going back, no pretending she was just Reagan’s little sister.

Elizabeth’s eyes glistened, not with tears but with frustration. “Stop lying to yourself. Stop lying to me.”

I swallowed hard, the burn of guilt and longing mixing until I couldn’t tell which was worse. She was right. Every word. But what choice did I have?

I forced my voice low, harsh. “Even if there is something…” my throat locked around the word mate, so I pushed past it “...we can’t. I can’t. You know that.”

Her jaw trembled. “Because of Reagan.”

The name hung heavy in the space between us.

I nodded once, stiff. “Because of Reagan.”

The silence that followed felt endless. I couldn’t read the expression on her face, hurt, anger, maybe both. She finally turned, wrapping her arms around herself. For a second, I thought she might beg, or accuse, or demand. Instead, she whispered, 

“Coward.”

My chest split open at the word. I deserved it. I deserved worse.

Before I could speak, she slipped back inside, the door swinging shut behind her, muting the music and laughter until I was left with nothing but the sound of my ragged breathing.

I didn’t remember the drive home. My body moved on autopilot, steering through familiar streets, headlights carving pale lines across the empty road. The only thing alive inside me was the echo of her kiss, the taste of her still burning on my tongue.

When I finally stumbled into my house, I didn’t bother turning on the lights. I leaned against the door, fists pressed to the wood, trying to steady myself.

My wolf was relentless. Ours. Ours. Ours.

“Shut up,” I muttered aloud, dragging myself down the hallway. “You don’t know what you’re asking.”

But of course he did. Wolves didn’t lie. Instinct was truth, raw and merciless.

She was mine. My mate.

I slammed into my bedroom, falling back onto the mattress without bothering to strip off my jacket. The ceiling stared down at me, blank and merciless, while my mind spun.

Reagan’s face flashed in my memory. His grin after the game, the way he’d thrown his arm around me, calling me brother. He trusted me. He believed in me. He had no idea that his sister, the girl he still saw as off-limits, untouchable, was the one my soul had chosen.

I shoved both hands into my hair, yanking until my scalp burned. “I can’t do this,” I whispered into the dark.

But the truth was already lodged too deep. I couldn’t undo that kiss. I couldn’t erase the way her body had fit against mine, how natural, how right it had felt.

My wolf prowled just under the surface, restless, unsatisfied. He didn’t care about Reagan. He didn’t care about rules or consequences. He only cared about her.

Go to her, he urged. Claim her.

I rolled onto my side, staring at the faint outline of the window. The night stretched wide and endless outside, the moon hidden behind thick clouds.

My heart ached in a way I hadn’t felt before. Not like losing a game, not like failing a goal. This was deeper, crueler. Because no matter how many times I told myself to walk away, every part of me knew I wouldn’t be able to.

I had tasted her. And now I am ruined.

Elizabeth.

Her name was a drumbeat in my chest.

I swore aloud, punching the pillow beside me. The sound echoed too loud in the empty room.

I should have felt stronger. I should have been able to resist. But lying there, staring at the ceiling, all I could admit was the truth I would never say out loud…

I wasn’t going to stay away.

No matter how much I promised, no matter how much I told myself otherwise.

I was already hers.