"What part of gentleman did you not understand?" Cyan growls lowly. "Because from what just happened here, right now, you were a fucking animal!"Tamsin just screamed at me. She just told me to shut the hell up. She’s probably back inside the cabin, crying her eyes out because I was a colossal idiot. "Silas said gentleman, you moron! Gentleman! Not arguing! What the hell was that, Nox?""I dunno man, I just–""You're a collosal failure," he cuts me off.I feel so many things at once. There's the sting of her words, the unexpected pain of being yelled at. But beneath that, there's a surge of relief that she actually cares enough to yell, to be furious. There's a strange kind of joy, too, a perverse happiness that she’s so worried about me. And then there's the anger, a simmering frustration that she still won't just let me be there for her, completely.She's been too coddling lately, hovering around me like I’m made of glass. And while a part of me, the part that craves her attentio
The moment we get back to the cabin after the council hearing, a suffocating wave of anxiety slams into me. My skin itches with restlessness. I need to get away—from the tension, from the memories, from the weight of what just happened. I curl up on the bed and yank the covers over me like a shield. If I can’t escape in reality, maybe sleep will offer mercy.But it doesn’t.Instead of peace, the silence drags me under into a nightmare. I dream of Zara—her face twisted into something monstrous, a cruel sneer stretching her lips. She’s standing over Nox, the moonlight catching on the blade in her hand. Her eyes gleam with hatred as she plunges the knife into his chest. Over and over. Blood gushes with each brutal stab. Nox’s eyes are wide, locked on mine, silently begging.“If I can’t have him,” she hisses, voice cold as death, “no one else will.”The scent of blood chokes me. I scream, but no sound comes. I’m frozen, watching him die again and again.I bolt upright with a gasp, dre
I can still taste her. The salt of her skin, the sweetness of her mouth. The way her breath hitched when I touched her like I’d always dreamed I would. I should be focused on the path ahead of me, on the issues with the council, on the mess unraveling by the second—but all I can feel is her. Every nerve ending still hums with the memory, a ghost of her touch lingering on my skin.Our first time wasn’t what I imagined. Hell, I used to picture something… ceremonial. Flowers, candles, a bath already run. I thought I’d bring her roses, whisper things I meant to say months ago, and watch her smile like she didn’t have the weight of the world on her shoulders while I feed her grapes coated in honey. But no. Desire tore that plan to pieces. It was heat and breath and need. It was reckless and raw and real. And while she might try to pretend she regrets it—hell, she even said as much—I saw the way her body clung to mine, the way her wolf, reached for Cyan like she couldn’t stop it.She
I wake up to quiet. Just the soft rhythm of Nox’s breathing beside me and the too-loud sound of my own thoughts. Last night was… uneventful. Nox had stayed with me all through yesterday and overnight, his presence a warm anchor in the strange, unsettling familiarity of his old pack house room. I hoped, deep in my body, that he'd make a move since I forced us to sleep on the same bed – it's his room, after all, and I didn't want him taking the couch. I thought maybe we'd find a perfect distraction for the mess that I've found myself in, but he didn't do anything. It's almost like he's waiting for me to open up to him before he touches me again. I want to... but there's this voice at the back of my head that's telling me that it'll end the way Lior and I ended."How would you know if you won't even try?" Kira whispers, her voice a low hum. I can feel her calling out to him every second, a constant thrumming in my chest."You think I don't want to try?" I ask in return, my voice a s
The rain taps a relentless rhythm on the room windows, a dull, drumming accompaniment to the turmoil in my head. I’m curled by the fire, its warmth doing little to thaw the cold knot in my stomach. I'm Nox’s room in the pack house, and honestly, it's as good as a prison cell. They're holding me here until my hearing with the council, a convenient place for Selene and Zara to finish me off, I'm sure. At least Nox was able to convince them to let him stay with me, his presence a shaky shield against the fear gnawing at me.He’s across the room, going through his things. A duffel bag lies open on the floor, and he’s pulling clothes from his closet, folding them neatly. I know he plans to take them back to my cabin when this is all over, a silent promise of a future I’m terrified to believe in. He also pulls out a stack of old, leather-bound journals—his grandfather’s and father’s, I believe. Journals that, I recall him mentioning, have no mention of the omega curse his mother had
I shouldn't have done it. God, I wanted to—every part of me was aching for him, for that closeness, that heat—but now that the sun's gone down and reality isn't wrapped in his arms anymore, all I feel is this dull, gnawing guilt in my chest. My body still smells like him, even after a hot bath. I sink deeper into my bed, glaring at my closed room door, as I hear his footsteps on the other side.I remember the way he smiled before I left his room. I know he didn't regret a single second of it. That quiet, contented smile. It just made my own regret twist tighter. I tug my covers tighter around me, like that might squeeze the regret out of my bones, like it might rewind the day to just before I let myself get carried away.Because that’s what happened. I got carried away.I love him. That’s not the problem. I know it deep in my marrow, like a truth I didn’t choose but can’t un-know. But love isn’t enough—not after everything. Not after the way he used to look at me like I was a threa