Chapter 2

Finally making it through dinner, Grandfather said.

"Kieran and Aria should stay here tonight. The rooms are all ready."

Staying here meant I'd have to watch them inseparable all night, loving and sweet.

I shot up from my chair, the legs scraping against the floor with a harsh screech.

"Grandfather, I just remembered there's some urgent business at the pack I need to handle. I have to go back."

Without waiting for their response, I practically fled.

Not until the night wind hit my face did I realize it was raining outside.

Heavy rain was pouring down.

Just as I gripped the car door handle, Kieran's voice caught up with me.

Through the sound of rushing rain, his voice carried a few notes of urgency.

"Aria!"

My heart jumped violently, and I turned around almost in panic.

I despised myself even as my heart pounded uncontrollably.

Through the rain mist, he stood on the estate steps holding a black umbrella.

But his gaze didn't land on me at all.

He looked at Scarlett beside him with concern and worry, his tone carrying indescribable anxiety.

"Scarlett isn't feeling well. I need to take her to the healing center first."

So it wasn't to keep me here.

He came for the car.

Scarlett let out a perfectly timed weak moan.

"Kieran, I'm so dizzy."

But her eyes glanced at me over his shoulder, her mouth curving in a triumphant smile.

Kieran was already walking over.

He reached out and pulled open the car door, rainwater streaming down the watch on his wrist.

It was the one I'd given him for his twentieth birthday.

Even though the face was cracked, he'd never thrown it away.

He used to be so careful with that watch, let alone getting it rained on - he wouldn't even let it get wet washing his hands.

Now he could let rainwater seep through the crack.

My nose stung, and I turned away awkwardly.

Before leaving, he pulled out his phone and tapped it a few times.

"I transferred fifty thousand to you. Take a taxi yourself."

But he'd forgotten - the estate was in the mountains. No taxis came here.

Even if he remembered, he probably wouldn't care. He'd just tell me to shift into wolf form and run back myself.

I watched the red taillights blur into a smudge in the rain curtain and smiled bitterly.

Aria, you really are pathetically cheap.

I turned and plunged into the overwhelming curtain of rain, the icy water instantly soaking me through.

The fabric clung to my skin, cold enough to pierce my bones.

The car I'd arrived in was still broken down three kilometers away on the mountain road. My phone screen flickered in my palm before dying completely.

I could have gone back to borrow an umbrella, or even swallowed my pride and asked the butler for a car.

But I didn't want to. I didn't even want to shift - I just wanted to walk the mountain road in human form.

The rainwater hit my face, stinging.

I suddenly remembered that summer when I was fifteen.

The same stormy night, the same broken-down car.

I'd just gotten my acceptance letter to the Royal Healer Academy, and I insisted Kieran take me to the mountaintop to watch the meteor shower.

Halfway there, the car died.

I was only fifteen then, wearing new canvas shoes, stomping my feet and refusing to step in the mud.

He'd stopped and looked at me thoughtfully.

Kieran was twenty-five then, had already established his own pack and was a powerful Alpha, yet he was still willing to play such childish games with me.

"Let Uncle take you to see it."

Then right there in the rain, he shifted.

His clothes tore away as his body expanded and changed, dark fur sprouting as he transformed into a massive black wolf.

The mountain path was dark, cicada songs scattered by the rain.

I climbed onto his broad back, my fingers tangling in his thick fur.

He moved steadily through the darkness, his powerful muscles rippling beneath me with each step.

Even with me on his back, he had energy to spare, occasionally shaking slightly when I started to slide.

You're heavier, his voice came through our mental link, warm with amusement. No more stealing my chocolate.

I deliberately let rainwater drip from my hair onto his ears. Are you going to throw me off then?

He suddenly crouched down as if to shake me off.

In panic, I grabbed fistfuls of his fur, and I heard his rumbling laugh in my mind.

Who would dare drop our Aria? Besides, if a certain little crybaby really started crying, I'd be the one hurting.

My heart raced like a startled deer.

I secretly leaned forward to press my face against his neck.

It felt like all the stars in the sky had fallen into his dark eyes when he turned to look at me.

Later I fell asleep on his back.

When I woke up, I was in my own bed.

Dawn light leaked through the curtain gaps, and he sat on the carpet beside my bed, arms folded as a pillow, sleeping deeply in his human form again.

I reached out, my fingertips tracing the pale shape of his lips.

The rain suddenly grew fiercer.

I stumbled and caught myself against a roadside tree.

The rough bark scraped across the wounds on my palm, making me gasp from the pain.

Looking up through blurred, teary eyes, I realized this road wasn't even the way home.

Unconsciously, I'd walked toward the apartment where the man who once carried me through endless nights used to live.