Chapter 57 57
AESON'S POV
I raced back to the pack, a storm of conflicting emotions howling inside me. I wasn’t expecting to see her standing in my damn driveway when I got back. I saw the Gamma talking to her. Idiot. I couldn’t go through the front door.
I circled to the back of the house, to my bedroom window on the second floor. It was closed. I didn’t have time for finesse. I shifted just enough for the strength, coiled, and jumped. I hit the window shoulder-first, the glass shattering inward with an explosive crash. I landed in a roll on the carpet of my own bedroom, coming up in my human form amidst a shower of glittering shards.
I thought the noise would have scared the girl off, or at least made the Gamma send her away. But the fool had obviously done the opposite. I could still sense her presence in the house below. Stubborn.
Gritting my teeth against a fresh, stinging pain in my shoulder from a glass cut, I strode into the bathroom, stripping off the torn remains of my clothes as I slammed the door. I turned the shower on to near-scalding, hoping the punishing heat would scour away the scent of the woods, the adrenaline, and the terrifying, awakening knowing.
I stood under the blistering spray, my head bowed, water sluicing over the new scratch. That’s when Tyson started again, thinking, perhaps, that the crisis was over and we could now ‘talk.’
‘Why did you leave like that?” he whined, his mental voice like a disappointed child’s. “We should have talked to her. Claimed her!’
“Shut up!” I roared back in my mind, slamming a fist into the shower tiles. The crack echoed in the tiled room. I panted, the steam filling my lungs.
‘Our mate was almost harmed!’ he persisted, anger replacing the whine. ‘You should have killed that guy! Torn his throat out for daring to touch her!’
“ENOUGH, TY!” I bellowed, the sound echoing off the walls. “She is NOT our mate! She can’t be! Forget about her!”
‘No way!’ His refusal was a snarl, a force of nature pushing against my will. ‘You had me restrained for over eighteen years! We’ve been wallowing in loneliness and misery! I’ve been through hell, and you just busy yourself with work and cheap women to forget Serena…’
“STOP!” The name was a blade to an old, infected wound. I didn’t want to hear it. Not now.
‘The Goddess gave us a second chance! A gift! And you’re denying her?! I won’t let you push her away! I felt her! She’s ours!’
“Shut up. I won’t acknowledge her.” I breathed rapidly, running trembling fingers through my wet hair. I turned the water hotter, as if I could burn the truth away.
How could Arielle be my second chance mate? The daughter of the woman who had chosen another? What sort of cruel, ironic game was the Moon Goddess playing with me now?
‘No joke, Aeson,’ Tyson said, his voice dropping to a deadly serious rumble. ‘Arielle is our mate. It explains the strange feeling you’ve been having but ignoring. The pull. The need to watch her which you tag as revenge moves.’
I scowled, the memory surfacing against my will. The bar. I’d been deep in my cups, trying to drown another boring night in whiskey. Then I saw her. A spark in the gloom. I’d stared, not understanding why I couldn’t look away. And then she’d walked right up and kissed me. I should have backhanded her across the room for the audacity. But I didn’t. I’d stood there, frozen, and then… I’d kissed her back. I’d held her. It was inexplicable. I’d written it off as drunken stupidity, as shock and silly interest after coming to know who's daughter she was.
Those weird flickers of awareness every time I was near her since then—I’d ignored them, buried them under layers of annoyance and cold assessment.
“But… if she’s our mate… Why didn’t I feel the bond from the first sight?” I thought, the question slipping out to Tyson. A true mate bond was usually an instant, soul-deep recognition.
He answered immediately, his tone thoughtful. ‘Well, I couldn’t connect with her wolf, either. But I caught her scent. Stronger each time. It’s… muffled. Hidden.’
I pondered, the hot water beating down on me. Her scent had become more distinct to me, pungent even. But I felt no psychic tether, no surge of completed magic. And he couldn’t feel her wolf at all.
Something is off.
I shut my eyes, trying to find a center of calm. But behind my eyelids, her face flashed—not scared in the woods, but fierce in my foyer, angry at dinner, defiant in the college hallway. The image was irrevocable, seared into my mind. It sent waves of heat through me, a strange, aching warmth that had nothing to do with the shower.
I flicked my eyes open, gasping as I felt a hotter, tighter coil of desire deep in my abdomen. My skin felt hypersensitive.
Fuck, what’s happening to me?
‘Oooh boy,’ Tyson announced, a smug, knowing tone in his mental voice. ‘Your heat is emerging. I think our mate is around… and unknowingly pricking you with her presence.’
Damn it!
My eyes snapped toward the bathroom door. My vision sharpened, the edges tinged with the gold of my wolf’s sight. I could hear it now—faint, hesitant footsteps on the carpet in my bedroom. She was out here. She was in my room.
‘Oh, she’s melting you,’ Tyson purred. ‘That’s the connection starting. It’s not the full bond yet, but her proximity… it’s waking things up.’
“Shut up…” I trailed off, the command dying in my mind. I inhaled deeply, trying to regain control.
And I caught it.
Her scent. Not the jasmine and girl from the woods, but something deeper, more essential. It lingered in the steam, permissionless and devastating, weaving through my senses and short-circuiting my control. It was the smell of mine, and it was doing things to me.
I was getting hard. Not just a twitch, but a full, aching, undeniable arousal. It rose naturally, fiercely, a tide I hadn’t felt in… I couldn’t remember.
For years, physical need had been a mechanical thing, sated with casual, meaningless encounters or solitary visits to strip clubs where no one knew my name and hooking up. It was a function, a pressure release, a way to feel something other than the hollow ache.
‘And a way you could feel you’re still living, right?’ Tyson chirped, merciless. ‘Since Serena rejected you and shattered the bond…’
SHUT UP! I groaned aloud, the sound torn from me. I felt weak, my knees threatening to buckle. Her scent drew closer, seeping under the bathroom door.
Every nerve in my body was awakening, singing a song of pure, primal want.
My fist tightened on the shower handle, the metal groaning in protest. I lowered my gaze, the steam parting slightly.
My phallus was fully erect, thick and straining against my stomach, beaded with moisture that wasn’t from the shower.
Fuck.