Chapter 7

_Aria's POV_

I opened the door and before I could say a word, Ryan pushed past me and stumbled inside. His breath came hard. Snow flecked his hair. He looked like he had run all the way from wherever he had been. He grabbed my hands with both of his as if he could hold my attention that way.

“Please,” he said. “Please listen to me, Aria. Just listen.”

Every inch of me wanted to slam the door and shut him out. I had seen him in bed with Elena. I had seen them kiss. I had smelled the warmth of another body in his sheets. I had watched his face change from surprise to guilty and then blank. I had watched Elena smile like she had won something. That image lived under my skin.

I raised one hand slowly. “Two minutes,” I said. My voice sounded hard and small all at once. “Two minutes and not one second more. You do not deserve my time after what you did.”

He closed his mouth. He nodded like a boy being told off. “Two minutes. Thank you.”

I set my phone on the table and fumbled for the timer. My thumb pressed start. The little red numbers began to count down. I watched them like they were a judge.

Ryan stood there with wet snow on his shoulders. His eyes were red. “Aria, I swear on my life...” he began.

“Don’t swear on anything,” I snapped. “You are the one who cheated on me. You have no right to plead. You chose her.”

His face went white. He dropped his head for a moment. Then he looked at me again with everything raw in his eyes. “I didn’t choose her,” he said. “She chose me. She forced me.”

I laughed in a short and bitter sound. “You expect me to believe that? Come on, Ryan. That’s convenient.”

“No.” He said the word so hard it sounded like a stone. “Elena drugged me. She... she gave me something in my drink. I didn’t know. I was not myself.” He swallowed. “She trapped me, Aria. She told me she would ruin everything if I didn’t do it. I am telling you the truth.”

My chest tightened. My memory wanted to push his words away. But my mind kept flicking to the fear in his eyes when I first opened the bedroom door. There was shock there, yes. Then guilt. Then something like shame. Could shame come from being forced? Maybe.

“You really expect me to forget what I saw?” I asked. “You want me to believe you were drugged and not a coward?”

He stepped closer. “I would never hurt you,” he said. “I love you. I would never....”

“You loved me,” I said. “Past tense.”

“Aria.” His hands dropped to his sides. “Please. I would not have done it if I had known. She...Elena....she.....” He pressed his palm to his face. “She said things. She said she needed my help. She said Lucien would reward her.”

He said the name and my blood felt cold. Lucien. The man who had turned into a wolf. The man whose eyes had looked like midnight and a promise. The man my world had just split open for.

“You’re saying Elena worked for him?” I asked, voice thin. “You’re saying she is in with Lucien? Why would she do that?”

Ryan looked at me like he had been carrying an animal inside his chest. “Because he is dangerous. He uses people. Elena thought she could win by giving him what he wanted. She promised him I would help. She promised him you. She wanted to be close to power. She wanted him to see her.”

Anger rose inside of me like boiling water. Ryan was really going this far just to make himself look innocent. Blaming Elena wasn’t enough, now he was dragging Lucien into it too. Lucien had nothing to do with what happened that night. Ryan was the one in that bed. Ryan was the one who betrayed me.

“So she played me, used you, and made me the fool,” I said. “Of course she did.”

Ryan reached for me. “Aria, please. You need to stay away from Lucien. He is not what he seems. He saved you, yes, but he saved you because he needed you. He needs your bloodline. He plans to use you.”

“How dare you tell me who to be with,” I hissed. The timer ticked down. Three minutes left....no, two minutes and change. My patience thinned. “You don’t get to tell me where my life goes.”

“Then, at least listen,” Ryan begged. “If you go with him, if you let him make you part of his world, you will be trapped. You will be very far from free. Please, Aria. I know I hurt you but I am telling you the truth now.”

He sounded small and honest. His hands shook. My chest felt like it had been hit. My mind wanted to crumble. The part of me that had loved him all this time wanted to run to him and hold him and fix everything. The other part wanted to throw him into the snow and never look back.

A gentle small voice inside me whispered that maybe there was some truth in his words. But I could not afford to listen to whispers when my mind was a mess and Lucien’s face burned in my throat.

“You expect me to believe you,” I said again, softer this time. “You expect me to forgive you after catching you red-handed in bed with another woman.”

“I don’t expect anything,” he said. “I only want you to be safe.”

The phone on the table beeped. The timer ended with a tiny chirp. I pressed it off with a sharp movement.

“Time’s up,” I said. My voice trembled. “You can leave now.”

Ryan did not move. Instead, he fell to his knees and wrapped his arms around my legs. “Aria, please,” he said. “Please, I will not leave until you promise you’ll be careful.”

I pushed him away. My heel connected with his side. He gasped and slumped backward, blinking up at me. “Get out,” I said. “Get out of my house.”

He scrambled to his feet and stared at me like I wasn’t the same girl he knew. “Aria…” he tried again while reaching out toward me.

I didn’t let him finish.

I pushed him out of the doorway, hard enough that he stumbled into the snow. He caught himself. His breath formed sharp white clouds. For a moment he just stood there, shaken, then he backed away as I slammed the door and locked it.

From outside, his voice broke through the cold air. “Stay away from Lucien! He’s dangerous. Aria, please...”

He hit the door with both hands, then sank down on the doorstep, holding his head in his hands. I watched him through the curtain until his shape disappeared in the white blur of falling snow.

My legs felt weak. I went upstairs and closed my door. I slumped into the chair by my dressing table and stared at my own face in the mirror. My hands were shaking. My skin looked pale. I felt so tired.

Why did people always break me? Why did they choose to hurt the one who would forgive them? Maybe I looked like someone to be used. Maybe I looked weak.

The sudden phone call made me jump. It was an unknown number. I ignored it. The screen lit again with a message.

It was Lucien.

I want to speak with you, it said. I need to tell you the truth. Please meet me. I read the words and my chest tightened. My thumb moved on its own and I blocked him. I wanted to be away from him and his ocean blue eyes. I wanted to be safe.

I lay down for a nap but my sleep was anything except peaceful. I dreamed of a huge black wolf chasing me through a dark forest. It ran toward me, faster and faster, until I jerked awake with my heart pounding.

For the rest of the day, I couldn’t stop thinking about him. His voice, his scent, the way his hand had closed around my wrist...they stayed with me like shadows I couldn’t shake. Had he hurt me on purpose? Had he saved me because he wanted to claim me? Or had he been kind in a way I had never felt before?

I tried to push him away. I told myself to think of Ryan and the way he had betrayed me. I told myself to remember Elena’s laughing face. But at night, I found his face in my mind anyway. I could not tell if it was fear or something else twisting inside me.