All Chapters of Miss Me With Your Best Shot: Chapter 11 - Chapter 20

He felt the damp heat of her tears through his shirt, a sensation that carved a canyon through the center of him. His arms, already holding her, tightened just enough to be a shelter. He bent his head, his lips a breath away from the crown of her hair, the scent of pine and frost and her flooding his senses. His voice, when it came, was the softest rumble, a vibration meant for her skin alone. “I will build you a world so safe, Aria Vance, that the only sound you’ll remember is peace.”It wasn’t an Alpha’s decree. It was a craftsman’s vow, laid stone by stone in the dark. He felt her breath hitch against him, a tiny fracture in her armor.A twig snapped in the forest behind them.Kade didn’t startle. His body went still, the protective instinct shifting from embrace to perimeter. Over Aria’s head, his golden eyes lifted, scanning the tree line. They found Silas standing twenty paces off, a grizzled silhouette against the deep green. The elder wasn’t intruding. He was waiting, his wise

The cottage door clicked shut behind them, sealing out the night. The silence inside was thicker than the dark, broken only by Lily’s muffled sobs against Aria’s neck and the ragged sound of Kade’s breathing. He stood just inside, his back against the heavy wood, his bare chest rising and falling in the lamplight. Blood streaked his ribs from the wolf’s claws. His hands were clenched at his sides, trembling not from exertion, but from a fury so deep it had frozen his voice.Aria moved on instinct. She crossed to the worn sofa, sinking into its cushions, and began rocking her daughter. “Shh, my heart. It’s gone. The bad thing is gone.” Her own hands shook as she smoothed Lily’s curls. The knife she’d held on the porch lay on the floorboards where she’d dropped it, glinting dully.Kade didn’t move from the door. His golden eyes were fixed on Lily, on the way her small fists clutched Aria’s shirt. The feral light from the fight was still in them, a banked fire. “They came for her,” he sa

The cottage smelled of old woodsmoke and damp wool. A single lamp cast deep shadows across the rough-hewn floorboards, and the air was cold enough to raise goosebumps on bare skin. Aria stood in the doorway to her bedroom, watching Kade settle onto the pull-out couch. He moved stiffly, favoring the claw marks on his side. The silence between them was a living thing, thick with everything said and unsaid.She should turn. Go to her room. Close the door. The tactical allowance had been made; he was staying for safety, for wounds, nothing more. Her hand rested on the doorframe, the wood grain rough under her fingertips.Kade didn’t lie down. He sat on the edge of the thin mattress, elbows on his knees, staring at the floor. The lamp light carved the severe lines of his profile, the set of his jaw. He looked carved from the same stone as the mountains outside.“You should rest,” Aria said. Her voice was too quiet in the hushed space.“I will.”He didn’t look up. His broad shoulders were a

The clearing was silent except for the slow drip of water from the pines. Aria stood beside Kade, her shoulder not quite touching his, the space between them charged with the decision they’d made in the woods. Silas waited before them, his expression unreadable, the other elders a solemn half-circle at his back.Kade spoke first. His voice didn’t boom. It settled, a final weight. “The formal mating ceremony won’t be happening.”A ripple went through the elders. Silas’s grip tightened on his walking stick. “Alpha Thorne. The law is clear. The threat is at our border. This is not a request.”“It is now,” Aria said. Her tone was winter-calm. She felt Kade’s attention shift to her, a warmth against her side. “We’ve made our choice. We face Cyrus together. As partners. Not because a law forced our hand.”“Child, this is not about sentiment,” an elder named Mara said, her voice thin with strain. “It’s about survival. A claim in blood and bond is the only thing that will void his legal maneu

The border was a scar in the earth, a line of trampled ferns and ancient, claw-marked stones that separated the deep green of Aria’s pack lands from the dark, dense pines of the Ridge Peak territory. Kade stood at the center of the line, his back to her, a statue of coiled tension. The cedar and night scent of him was sharp, cutting through the damp forest air. Aria stopped ten paces behind him, her own pine-and-frost scent a quiet counterpoint. She didn’t speak. She watched the way his shoulders blocked the weak afternoon light, the absolute stillness of a predator waiting for the hunt to come to him.Silas shifted beside her, his walking stick sinking into the soft loam. “He’ll cross at sundown,” the elder said, his voice a low gravel. “Cyrus. He doesn’t send scouts for a challenge like this. He comes himself. For the spectacle.”Kade didn’t turn. “Let him.”The two words were not a boast. They were a fact, simple and cold as the coming night. Aria felt them in her bones. This was t