ログインAUTHORS NOTE: please don't read until you go two chapters back to the chapter titles "That just happened" then read forward. The repeat chapter would reflect a new chapter as well which you have to pay for again. Thanks.MICHAELA’S POVI miss having actual food. I miss sleeping in a bed. I miss all the times I didn’t smell like mud, sweat, and wet forest. I miss warm showers. I miss clean clothes. I miss Emory. I miss Georgia and Coby. I even miss Mason. Slightly. I miss Cole. And it’s only been two days. “Wait,” Damon says quietly, lifting a hand for me to stop. I halt immediately, eyes fixed on his back as he listens for something. Or someone. Apart from stopping briefly to rest and find food earlier, we haven’t stopped moving all day. The humid forest air clings heavily to my skin, thick with the scent of damp earth and moss. Birds shriek somewhere high overhead while insects buzz endlessly through the trees. For once, though, we are lucky. We haven’
DAMON’S POV We continue our trek through the woods in silence. An hour passes. Then another. Then another. There’s no exact way to measure how long we’ve been moving, but from the position of the sun overhead, I know we’re well past noon now. I keep close track of our direction as we move through the forest, making sure this detour doesn’t leave us hopelessly lost somewhere in the middle of nowhere three days from now. Behind me, Michaela follows carefully through the uneven terrain. Trying to hide the strain in her breathing. Trying to hide the way her ankle keeps slowing her down. Trying to hide the fact that her stomach has been audibly protesting starvation for the last five minutes. “We should rest,” I say finally, stopping and turning toward her. Michaela doesn’t argue. Doesn’t complain that resting means spending even more time trapped out here with me. She just lowers herself carefully against the base of a tree and takes a long drink from the water
“Goddess damn it,” I hiss.Above me, Damon stares down in absolute disbelief for half a second.Then he laughs.Actually laughs.The sound is roughened by leftover tension, low and breathless, but real enough that it sends a fresh wave of heat straight into my face.I ignore it.Completely.I glare up at Damon.“That was not funny.”He stops laughing abruptly, but stares down at me from the couch, his eyes flicking briefly to my ankle, entirely too calm for someone who just turned my entire nervous system against me.“I thought you said you wouldn’t touch me unless I wanted you to.”“Don’t you?” he asks lightly.The worst part is the confidence in his voice.Like he already knows the answer.“You were practically seducing me,” I accuse.“I never claimed moral superiority,” Damon replies without a trace of remorse.Then his gaze flicks downward.“That would’ve been dishonest.”My eyes follow his gaze automatically.Big mistake.Heat climbs straight into my face as I realize he is looki
“What are you doing?” I gasp as Damon’s hand slips beneath my shirt. His palm skims slowly across my stomach, fingertips brushing the underside of my breast just enough to send heat flashing through me. “What you asked for,” Damon says against my ear, voice dark and rough around the edges. “You wanted to see what happens when I stop controlling myself, remember?” “I didn’t mean—” The words break apart before I can finish them. Because I don’t entirely know what I meant. A quiet sound leaves him. Not laughter. Something lower. More dangerous. “Then you really shouldn’t have said that,” Damon murmurs, voice rough. “I was barely holding on before. Now Ruin thinks you meant it.” The name shifts something in the air between us. My breath catches. “Ruin?” His hand stills for half a second. Not gentle. Controlled. Like the name had stirred something dangerous beneath his skin. “My wolf,” he says, his mouth brushing the side of my neck like he can’t quite help h
MICHAELA’S POV I wake slowly to bright light behind my eyelids and warm breath against my neck. I open my eyes. For one disoriented second, I don’t recognize where I am. Panic flashes through me before memory catches up fast enough to stop it. The storm. The couch. Damon. Right. I immediately close my eyes again because it’s morning. Ugh. It’s morning. A morning which, judging by the journey ahead and my half-functioning ankle, is probably going to be deeply unpleasant. Cracking my eyes open again as sunlight streams into the rickety cabin, I try to move— and… can’t. Something is restricting me. An arm around my waist. And that's when I realize, I’m pressed against Damon. Completely. His hand rests low against my waist. Dangerously low. And my ass is— Goddess. I suck in a breath, my heart suddenly pounding too hard. His chest is solid against my back. Warm breath brushes faintly against my neck. I’ve never been a graceful sleeper. I must ha
DAMON’S POVMorning arrives quietly.There is no thunder like the storm had brought.Just light.Soft gold spills through the cabin windows in fractured beams, slipping between the thin gaps in the threadbare curtains and stretching lazily across the floorboards.The rain has finally stopped. Though traces of it still linger everywhere. Humidity clings faintly to the air. The forest outside smells damp and clean, carrying that sharp earthy scent that only comes after heavy storms.For a while, I stay completely still.Listening.The cabin creaks softly around us as wind brushes through the trees outside.Somewhere in the distance, water drips steadily from soaked branches.And beneath all of it—Michaela breathes quietly in my arms.At some point during the night, we shifted again.The careful distance she had tried to maintain before sleep no longer exists.Her back now rests against my chest, one arm of mine wrapped securely around her waist beneath the blankets.Like my body had re
Damon has never let a slight go unpunished. Which means I’m either already dead… or something is very, very wrong. By noon, Damon should have humiliated me. At least twice. He hadn’t even looked at me. I keep glancing over my shoulder, half convinced I woke up in some parallel universe w
I scrub my hands longer than necessary.The sink squeaks when I turn it off.I count to ten before I reach for his door.He hates when I knock before entering his room.I do it anyway.I wait a second before turning the knob and stepping inside.There’s a bottle of sanitizer on the table by his cot
What are you doing?Somewhere in the back of my mind, a small, rational voice tries to break through.My fingers grow bolder.They trace a slow path across his shoulder, up the side of his throat, along the sharp line of his jaw.His breathing changes.I hear it.Feel it.The low growl building in h
Something's wrong. It’s my first thought when I see the front door standing ajar beyond the short fence that surrounds our yard. I had just gotten back from school, and the scene before me was sure to give mum a heart attack if she saw it. She was really strict about security measures. Was she







