All Chapters of They Both Wanted Me: Chapter 1 - Chapter 10

160 Chapters

Chapter 1: The Alley

The night air smelled like rain and regret.I pulled my worn cardigan tighter around my shoulders, cursing myself for staying so late at the library again. Six hours of reshelving, three argument with the microfilm machine, and exactly zero human interactions that meant anything. Just another Tuesday.My apartment was a twenty-minute walk through the older part of the city, where streetlights flickered like dying stars and the sidewalks cracked into puzzle pieces no one bothered to solve. Most of my coworkers had cars. Most of my coworkers also had lives, boyfriends, dinner plans that didn't involve instant noodles and a cat I couldn't afford.I was halfway down Birch Street when I felt it.A prickle at the back of my neck. That ancient, animal instinct that screams someone's watching even when there's no one there.I walked faster.The sound came first. A low growl, so deep I felt it in my chest rather than heard it with my ears. Then the shadows at the end of the alley to my left mo

Chapter 2: The Scent of Ash and Rain

I didn't sleep.That's not entirely true. I tried to sleep. I lay in my bed for hours, staring at the water stain on my ceiling that looked vaguely like a map of South America, replaying every second of that alley in my mind until the images blurred together into something that felt less like memory and more like hallucination.Wolves that turned into men. A vampire with eyes like dying embers. The cold press of his fingers against my skin.By 4 AM, I gave up.My apartment was small—one bedroom, a kitchen the size of a closet, a living room that doubled as a dining room because I couldn't afford a dining room. I'd lived here for three years, ever since I aged out of the foster system with a garbage bag full of clothes and exactly zero people to call family. It wasn't much, but it was mine.I made coffee I didn't want and sat at my tiny kitchen table, watching the sky turn from black to gray through the window. My arm throbbed where the wolf had scratched me. I'd cleaned it last night—

Chapter 3: The Space Between Heartbeats

The pendant burned against my chest.Not painfully—more like a reminder, a pulse of warmth that synchronized with my heartbeat. You're alive, it seemed to say. You're here. You're more than you know.Kael hadn't moved. He stood in the center of my tiny apartment, taking up all the air, all the space, all the sanity I had left. His eyes hadn't quite returned to human—that gold still flickered at the edges, like embers waiting for wind."The vampire," I said. My voice came out steadier than I felt. "He's watching us."Kael turned. Looked out the door. When he faced me again, his expression had hardened. "He's been watching since last night. I felt him the moment I crossed into the city. He's waiting.""For what?""For you to choose." Kael's jaw tightened. "Or for me to make a mistake. With vampires, it's hard to tell. They think in centuries. We're just moments to them."I thought of Caspian's eyes—ancient, tired, lit from within by something I couldn't name. He hadn't looked at me like

Chapter 4: The First Taste of Power

I dreamed of fire.Not destructive fire—something older. The kind of flame that lived in candles and hearths and the hearts of stars. It burned behind my eyes, warm and golden, and in its center stood the woman from before. The Moon Priestess. Kael's mother.She looked different this time. Less ethereal, more real. I could see the lines around her eyes, the silver in her hair, the way her hands bore the scars of a life fully lived. She smiled at me like a mother welcoming a child home.You're fighting it, she said. The awakening. I can feel you pushing it away."I don't know what that means."Yes, you do. You feel it stirring—that warmth in your chest, that pull toward the moon, that hunger that isn't quite hunger. You've felt it your whole life and called it something else. Intuition. Luck. That strange sense that you didn't quite belong in your own skin.I wanted to deny it. But she was right. I'd always felt... wrong. Too sensitive to crowds, too aware of emotions that weren't mine

Chapter 5: The Weight of Blood

The photograph trembled in my hands.My grandmother. The oldest living vampire in existence. The woman who'd sent wolves to kill me before I even knew I was worth killing."I don't understand," I whispered. "If she's my grandmother, if she's family—why does she want me dead?"Kael's expression was agonized. "Because you're not just her granddaughter. You're also the daughter of the woman who betrayed her. Your mother—Elena—she was Seraphine's only child. A pureblood vampire princess. And she fell in love with a werewolf."My mind reeled. "A werewolf? But I thought—the Moon Priestess—""Was my mother." Kael's voice cracked. "Your mother, Elena, was a vampire princess. My mother, Selene, was the Moon Priestess of the Northern Pack. They were best friends. Sisters in all but blood. And they both fell in love with the same man.""The same—" I stopped. Looked at the photograph again. At the two men flanking my mother. "No. No, that's not—""Your father was a human." Kael said it gently, li

Chapter 6: The Reckoning

Midnight approached like a held breath.I'd spent the entire day cleaning my apartment—not because I cared what they thought, but because I needed something to do with my hands. Something to distract from the churning in my stomach and the weight of what was about to happen.Elinor seemed to sense my nerves. She'd taken up residence on the back of the couch, watching the door with the intensity of a tiny, judgmental sentinel.At 11:47, I felt him first.Caspian. A cold brush against my consciousness, a whisper of presence just outside my window. I turned, and there he was—perched on my fire escape like some kind of gothic gargoyle, red eyes gleaming in the darkness."The door was unlocked," he said through the glass."It's always unlocked for you, apparently."He almost smiled. It was becoming a thing between us, those almost-smiles. I didn't hate it.He slipped inside with that impossible grace, landing silently on my thrift store rug. He'd dressed differently tonight—still black, bu

Chapter 7: The Confession

Noon arrived with the weight of a verdict.I'd spent the morning pacing my apartment, rehearsing speeches, discarding them, starting over. Elinor watched from her perch on the bookshelf, her expression clearly communicating that she thought I was an idiot."You're probably right," I told her. "But here we are."At 11:30, I walked to the park.It was a small one—the kind that existed in every city, tucked between apartment buildings and coffee shops, used by dog walkers and elderly couples and parents with strollers. I'd passed it a thousand times without really seeing it. Today, every bench, every tree, every patch of grass felt significant.I chose a bench near the fountain. Central. Visible. Neutral.Then I waited.Kael arrived first, at 11:52. He'd made an effort—nice jeans, a dark shirt that stretched across his shoulders, his hair slightly tamed. He looked like he was going on a date. The thought made my stomach flip."You're early," I said."You're worth being early for." He sat

Chapter 8: The Attack

Three weeks dissolved into a whirlwind of discovery.Every day, I met them in the park. We talked—about their worlds, my heritage, the power blossoming within me like a second heartbeat. Caspian taught me to fortify my mind against intrusion, to feel the bond without being consumed by it. Kael showed me how to ground myself, to draw strength from the earth, to heed the whispers of my hybrid blood.And every night, I dreamed of my mother.She appeared in fragments—a smile here, a warning there, always fading before I could reach her. But each time, I felt her love like a comforting embrace. Each time, I woke stronger.The pendant never ceased to warm my chest."You're progressing faster than anticipated," Caspian observed one afternoon. We sat on our usual bench, Kael having gone to get coffee for me and... well, nothing for them. Vampires didn't drink coffee, and Kael claimed mine was "offensive" to his wolf palate."Is that good or bad?""Both." His red eyes studied me with that anci

Chapter 9: The Gathering Storm

Three days.That's how long it took to build an army.Three days of phone calls, shadow meetings, and alliances that should have been impossible. Three days of watching Kael swallow his alpha pride and Caspian bury his vampire arrogance, all in service of a single goal: keeping me alive long enough to face Seraphine.The pack came first.Kael's territory stretched across the northern part of the state—thousands of acres of forest, mountains, and small towns where wolves lived disguised as humans. His second-in-command, a fierce woman named Rika, arrived within hours of his call. She took one look at me, sniffed once, and nodded."She smells like the priestess," Rika said. "The pack will follow."And they did. By nightfall, two hundred wolves had gathered on the outskirts of the city, hidden in an abandoned warehouse district, waiting for orders.The vampires were harder.Caspian had been isolated since his escape from the silver coffin. Ten years of solitude, of rebuilding his strengt

Chapter 10: The Heart of Darkness

The Carpathian Mountains rose against the night sky like the teeth of some ancient beast.I stood at the edge of the forest, wrapped in shadows and the warmth of my pendant, and stared at the fortress that held my grandmother. It was everything Caspian had described—massive, ancient, carved from the mountain itself, its towers piercing the clouds like accusations."Two thousand years," I whispered. "She's been here for two thousand years.""And she'll be here for two thousand more if we don't stop her." Kael's hand found mine, squeezed once. "You ready?""No. But I'm going anyway."Beside me, Caspian was utterly still—the stillness of a predator, of centuries of patience, of a man about to face his greatest fear. "The passage is east, hidden in the cliff face. We'll have to climb.""I'm a librarian," I pointed out. "I climb ladders. Sometimes stools. This is different."Kael grinned despite everything. "Good thing you have two supernatural idiots to catch you if you fall.""That's...

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