Stolen Moments and Growing Cracks

You think after everything I have risked I can still pretend I do not want you?

I stared at the empty training field, heart hammering as I waited for him. The floodlights were off. Just the moonlight and the distant hum of the city. My wolf paced inside my chest, restless and hungry. Jude had texted me at eleven. One word. “Field. Now.”

I had come. Even though I knew this was madness. Even though every instinct screamed that Jake was right and the clans would tear us apart.

Footsteps crunched on gravel. Jude stepped out from the shadows, black jacket zipped tight, crimson streaks in his hair catching the faint light. His eyes found mine instantly and something in my chest cracked wide open.

“You are late,” he said, voice rough with need.

“I was not late.” I stepped closer, closing the distance between us in two strides. “I have been waiting here like a fool for two hours.”

Jude’s mouth curved but there was no real smile. “Good. I needed you to suffer a little.”

I grabbed his jacket and yanked him against me. Our foreheads crashed together. “You have no idea what this does to me, do you? Every game I sit there thinking about this. About you. It makes me want to break the rules and then break you.”

He laughed low, but it came out shaky. “Then break me. I can take it.”

My hands slid down to his waist, fingers digging in. “No. I cannot break you. Not like this. Not when you are the only thing that makes the weight of being Alpha feel like nothing.”

Jude’s breath hitched. He reached up and cupped my face, thumbs brushing my cheekbones. “Then do not be Alpha right now. Be just Jax. The one who looked at me like he wanted to devour me on that balcony. The one who cannot sleep because of me.”

I kissed him before he could finish. Hard. Angry. Desperate. My mouth claimed his like I was trying to punish us both. Jude moaned into it and kissed me back just as fiercely. His tongue slid against mine, tasting like whiskey and smoke and everything I was not supposed to crave.

We broke apart gasping. Jude rested his forehead against mine. “Jake knows, does he not?”

“Yeah.” I pressed my lips to his jaw. “He found a message on my phone. Some random number. But he is not stupid. He knows it is you.”

Jude’s hands tightened in my shirt. “He will lose his mind. He loves you like a brother. But he is scared for you too.”

“I know.” My voice cracked. “I keep telling myself it is just sex. But it is not. It is more. God, Jude, it is so much more.”

He pulled back just enough to look at me. Those golden eyes with the vertical slits were wet. “Then stop lying to yourself. I am falling, Jax. Hard. And I am terrified because if the packs find out—”

“They will.” I interrupted, voice tight. “They will call me traitor. They will strip me of everything. But I cannot stop, Jude. I do not want to.”

Jude’s fingers traced my lower lip. “Then do not stop. Just be careful. Tonight I want you to forget everything else. I want you to be inside me and make me forget I am alone.”

The words hit me like a punch to the gut. My wolf surged forward. “You are not alone. Not with me.”

We moved fast after that. I drove us to a cheap motel on the edge of town, the kind no one would remember. Jude insisted on paying. I let him. Once inside the room the tension snapped.

I pinned him against the door the second it closed. “You have no idea what you do to me,” I growled, mouth on his neck. “Every time you fly over me I want to drag you down and never let go.”

Jude arched under me, hands fisting in my hair. “Then do not let go. Fuck me like you mean it.”

I did. We moved to the bed in a tangle of clothes and need. I stripped him slowly, kissing every inch of skin I uncovered. When I finally pushed inside him it was raw and desperate. Jude’s nails dug into my back. He whispered my name like a prayer and a curse at the same time.

“Jax… please… I need you.”

I gave him everything. Slow at first, then harder, faster, until the room filled with the sounds of skin on skin and ragged breathing. He came first, shaking beneath me, calling out my name until his voice broke. I followed right after, burying my face in his neck as pleasure crashed through me so hard it felt like pain.

Afterward we lay tangled together, sweaty and breathing hard. Jude traced the claw marks on my shoulder absently. “I have never felt like this with anyone.”

I pulled him closer, pressing my lips to his temple. “Neither have I. Not even close.”

We talked for hours. Soft words and heavier truths. Jude told me about growing up hiding from werewolf hunters. How lonely it felt watching other dragons shift and fly while he had to stay hidden. I told him about the night my grandfather died, about the guilt that never left me for not being able to save him.

“You are not alone anymore,” I said quietly. “Not while I am here.”

Jude’s hand found mine. “I am scared what this means for you. For us.”

“I know.” I squeezed his fingers. “But I am scared of not having this more. Of waking up one day and realizing I let you go.”

Jude rolled over to face me, eyes serious. “Then let me stay. Even if it costs us everything. I am in this with you, Jax. All the way.”

We kissed again, slower this time. No rush. Just tenderness mixed with the fire that refused to die. Hours later the sky outside started to lighten.

I finally pulled away reluctantly. “I have to go. Pack practice in the morning.”

Jude watched me dress, expression soft. “Come back to me soon. I cannot do this without you.”

“I will.” I leaned down and kissed him one last time. “Promise me you will be careful. With the warnings you are getting from your team.”

He nodded. “I am. But this? Us? This is worth every risk.”

I left him there in the hotel room, heart full and terrified at the same time. When I stepped outside the cold air hit my face like a slap. But inside I felt something warmer.

Something addictive.

Something that made me realize I was already too far gone to ever go back.

My phone buzzed the second I got in the car.

Unknown number again.

I opened it.

You left marks on me. I like them. Come back tomorrow. We need more.**

I stared at the screen, pulse racing.

This was not just sex anymore.

This was everything.

And I was already addicted.