Chapter Two

Killian POV

The bond doesn't hit me slow, like a calm tide; it crashes into me full force, blinding and suffocating. One breath was all it took. One step too close.

The scent wraps around me like smoke and storm. It's thick, wild and impossible to ignore. It slides down my throat and burns my lungs, it's sharp, sweet and undeniably hers.

My wolf rips forward so fast that my vision blurs, and I brace a hand against the wall behind her to keep myself from falling.

This shouldn’t be happening.

She's standing here in front of me in nothing but a thin nightdress. Her chest is rising and falling too fast, and her eyes are so wide and stunned but shining with confusion and something else she doesn't say out loud.

But I know, and my wolf also knows. He's chanting the same word over and over.

Mate.

The word echoes through every bone in my body, loud, final and absolute.

Every part of me wants to fight it, and I should right? But the scent, Veil, the scent is like nothing I've ever experienced. It calls to me on a level I can't seem to control or reason with. My muscles tense as I breathe her in, slower this time and deeper, like my body already understands that it might never be enough.

She smells like heat and the first rain of the summer, something sacred that I'm not meant to touch.

Yet I do.

My hand moves to her waist again without thinking, and the moment my fingers press against her skin through the thin fabric, heat explodes within me.

I step closer, and she's got no where to go, her back is already pressed against the wall. My body covers hers, towering over her like a shield and a threat all at once.

"Killian," she whispers.

My chest brushes against hers, and I feel her breath hitch.

The bond is live right now, awakened between us like a second heartbeat. I can feel the exact place that our souls are tied together, it's invisible, but unbreakable and humming just beneath my skin. The longer I stay this close, the more it draws me in, closer, tighter and deeper. It's like it wants me to close the space between us, like it's craving more.

Lowering my head, I press my nose to the soft skin just below her neck and inhale like I'm dying of thirst. Her scent fills every part of my body.

“I shouldn’t be this close,” I whisper, but I don’t step back. Instead, my lips hover near her throat. Her skin is warm, and trembling from the heat of my breath.

“I shouldn’t want this,” I say, quieter this time. I can barely hear my voice over the rush of my blood through my ears.

"Killian, we need to stop," she whispers.

I do want this, despite how forbidden it is.

God, I do.

I want her more than I've ever wanted anything in my life. Not just to touch her, or taste her, but I want to drag her to the ground and bury myself inside of her. I want to stay there until the bond settles and the hunger stops clawing at me.

My hands itch to rip away the thin cotton clinging to her body, I want to bite where her neck curves to her shoulder and mark her until every other scent disappears.

The idea fills me with equal parts need and shame because Aurora is not just a girl from my pack, she's my wife's daughter.

That brings clarity back to me, and I grit my teeth, pressing my forehead to the wall beside her head. I don't move away yet, I can't. My hand tightens at her waist, filled with possessiveness and restraint.

“I should walk away,” I breathe, trying to convince myself to walk away more than her. “I should tell your mother… I should tell the elders…”

The words taste like ash and burn my throat.

"Then walk," she gasps.

I don't want to speak of it, I don't want to tell anyone at all. Every rational thought I have is being drowned out by instinct. It's drowned out by the pull of the bond that's wrapped around us, tugging us closer like a chain.

My wolf doesn’t want to run, at least not away from her; he wants to stay and claim her.

The worst part is, I do as well.

My fingers slip along her hip and trace the line of her waist with a reverence that I can't control. Her pulse flutters beneath my mouth as I brush my lips against her neck.

I’ve never heard a sound more tempting than the soft gasp she makes when I press my lips against the place where I’d mark her if I were free to.

I don't bite or mark her, but I want to.

“Do you feel it?” I whisper, so quietly I’m not sure if she hears me. “This bond… this madness… do you feel it too?”

"I..." she stops, and stares at me.

We both feel it in the air between us. Her wolf is awake, and she's trembling with need. She hasn't pushed me away, that's exactly how I know she feels all of this with me.

My mouth trails along her throat, lips never touching with pressure, just tracing and tasting a future that I can never have.

“I wish I could take you right now,” I say against her skin. “I wish I could pull you to the floor and bury myself so deep inside you that the bond would never let us part.”

Her breath catches, sharp and broken, the sound almost undoes me entirely.

“I want to drown in your scent,” I confess. “I want to claim you until no one remembers you were ever meant for anyone else.”

My hand slides to the small of her back, and I pull her closer, pressing her to me until her body molds to mine. Her softness, heat, and breathless silence, all of it, threaten to destroy every ounce of control I'm trying to cling to.

I don't move further, I just stay pressed against her, inhaling her and dying with every second that I don't give in.

I can't give in, not now, not ever. The bond doesn't care that I'm her mother's husband, that I bit and claim her! The world will, and as much as my wolf howls for her, I know what this means if anyone finds out.

So I do the only thing that I can, I tear myself away and turn so I'm no longer facing her.

The moment that I break contact, my body screams for her. My wolf rages, furious with me for putting distance between us, and I turn away from her before I lose my mind entirely.

“Don’t tell anyone,” I say, trying to steady my voice. “Not your mother. Not Caelan, not a damn soul.”

She doesn't answer, and I don't turn to look at her. I can't look into her eyes because if I catch even a hint of her scent again, I don't know if I'll survive walking away again.

By the time I reach my bedroom, I’m no longer sure if I’m breathing properly or just pretending to. I close the door behind me, but even with that and four walls surrounding me, I can still feel her.