Aria's Point of ViewThe baskets are full now, overflowing, really, with jeans, shirts, dresses, and two pairs of shoes each. I carry one and Griffen carries the other, and I can feel the weight in my arms as we make our way towards the last aisle we haven’t visited yet.The underwear aisle.We come to a stop in front of the section, and the moment we do, I hear Griffen suck in a sharp breath beside me. His posture stiffens, and he shifts his weight from one foot to the other like the ground just got a little too hot under his boots.I don’t look at him at first. I’m too busy pretending to browse, biting back a smirk. I can feel his discomfort like static in the air.Finally, I can’t help myself.I reach out and take a soft blue lace set from the rack, a delicate bra with thin straps and a matching pair of underwear, and turn towards him with feigned innocence. “What do you think of this one?”His reaction is immediate.A deep red blush creeps up his neck and spreads across his cheeks
Aria's Point of View The soft hum of overhead lights and the faint buzz of a radio playing an old pop song fill the little boutique as we step inside. The shop smells like lavender sachets and new fabric, and I immediately feel out of place in my wrinkled dress and tangled braid. But it’s quiet here, calm, and for now, that’s enough. Griffen grabs a wire basket from the stand near the entrance and waits patiently beside me as I take a slow look around. We drift towards a rack of jeans, and I start thumbing through them, tugging out a pair in a medium wash. I hold them up against myself for a moment, then glance at the tag. My size. Good enough. Without saying anything, I turn and drop them into the basket he’s holding. He doesn’t comment, just shifts the basket in his grip and follows me to the next rack. I find a plain white T-shirt with a soft neckline and a loose fit. It looks comfortable. That, too, goes into the basket. As we move towards a rack filled with summer dresses
Griffen's Point of ViewThe engine hums beneath us, steady and low as we pull out of the gravel driveway and head down the winding road towards town. The trees blur past us in shades of green, tall pines standing like sentinels on either side of the narrow road. The morning sun slants through the branches, catching in flashes across the windshield.Aria sits beside me in the passenger seat, her window rolled all the way down. The wind tosses strands of her braided hair around her face, and she doesn’t seem to mind. One arm rests along the edge of the door, her hand reaching into the open air, her fingers dancing through the wind in slow, lazy curves like she's tracing invisible lines in the sky. It’s such a small thing, but I can’t look away.There’s something peaceful about the way she moves, absent, thoughtful. For the first time since all this started, she doesn’t look like she’s bracing for war. There’s no sharp edge in her jaw, no challenge in her eyes. She just… exists in this m
Aria's Point of ViewWe finish our breakfast in the same quiet that has settled between us like a cautious truce. The food is simple, but it warms me from the inside out, and though I don’t say it out loud, I’m grateful for the effort Griffen put into making it. He moves now and then, standing to tend to the fire, making sure it doesn’t die out. Each time he does, I feel the flicker of something I’m not ready to name yet, something too close to comfort, to familiarity.The silence isn’t hostile anymore. It isn’t angry or painful. It’s careful. Like we’re both waiting to see which way the ground beneath us will shift next.When I finish the last sip of my coffee, I slide my empty mug towards the edge of the table, and Griffen takes it without a word. He gathers my plate too, his fingers brushing the edge of it as he lifts it from the wood. I glance up and catch his eyes for a second.“Thank you for breakfast,” I say, quiet but sincere.He gives me a small smile in return. “You’re welco
Griffen's Point of View The morning light creeps in through the thin curtains, soft and pale, but it does nothing to soften the tension knotting my chest. I stir awake, the ache in my body nothing compared to the chaos churning in my head. My eyes open slowly, heavy with a night of broken sleep and too many unanswered questions. I stare up at the wooden ceiling for a moment, trying to remember where I am, until the memories start to flood in like a punch to the gut. Aria. The firelight on her face. The feel of her soft lips pressed desperately to mine. The way she shoved me away from her. The look in her eyes when I said those words... When I told her she was just a werewolf. I sit up slowly, dragging a hand through my hair, while everything from last night replays like a brutal movie in my head. Her voice, shaking with anger and pain. The crack in it when she told me to reject her. The way I froze, because hearing those words nearly broke something in me I didn’t even
Aria's Point of ViewThe fire crackles softly in the hearth, but I barely hear it over the rush of blood pounding in my ears. I sit frozen in place, Griffen’s words replaying in my mind like a twisted story I never asked to be a part of.He tried to use me. I was supposed to be a pawn, just a tool in his plan to hurt my father.The weight of that thought settles like stone in my chest. My hands clench on my knees. My throat burns, but I don’t cry. I can’t cry. I won't, not now. Not in front of him.Griffen sits across from me, watching me, waiting, for what, I don’t know. Forgiveness? Understanding maybe?My pulse spikes, my body suddenly surging with heat, not from the fire but from the storm building inside of me. I stand up so fast the chair scrapes loudly against the wood floor, jarring the quiet.“Are you serious right now?” I snap, my voice sharp and louder than I intended. “You kidnapped me, Griffen!”He flinches, but I don’t stop.“You dragged me out of my life, away from my h