Chapter 16: Another Pull

ROWAN’S POV

The first thing they don’t tell you about finding your mate is how much it hurts to watch them from a distance.

It’s not a clean ache—it’s raw, alive, crawling under your skin and gnawing at your bones like your own body is trying to drag you toward them.

And tonight, that ache had been building all day. Aurora Hayes. Sixteen today.

For her, probably just another birthday. For me? The day the bond between us sharpened into something so clear, so cutting, I couldn’t breathe without feeling it.

I’d been keeping my distance since the moment I got here. Not because I didn’t want her—hell, I wanted her so much my wolf, Kael, could barely keep still—but because I didn’t want to ruin this before she even knew who I was to her.

And because Zander Blake had already been hovering. Zander and I… we’ve been enemies long enough to know that any shared interest was going to be a war.

But the Moon Goddess hadn’t just given us a shared interest. She’d given us her. Two Alphas. One mate.

It was rare enough to be a legend. And legends about it never ended in peace.

I’d already seen the way he looked at her at school—like he wanted to rip apart anyone who so much as breathed in her direction.

I’d seen him fight the pull, too, using cruelty as a shield. But now… now she was sixteen. The bond would be tearing into him as violently as it was tearing into me.

So when I walked into the club and smelled his scent near hers, thick with frustration and desire, my wolf growled low in my chest.

I’d missed whatever had just happened between them. All I knew was that he was gone—storming out the back like a man running from his own shadow—and she was still here.

The club’s lighting cut through the haze in slow sweeps—red, purple, deep blue—turning everything into heat and shadow. The bass was low, steady, like a second heartbeat.

Aurora stood near the edge of the dance floor with Ember, her cheeks flushed, her hands twisting around the hem of her red dress like she wasn’t sure whether she belonged here.

That dress clung to her curves in ways she probably didn’t realize, the fabric catching every flicker of light. She looked… untouched.

Pure in a way that made Kael push harder at my control, wanting to be the one to change that.

Ember said something to her, tugging her toward the center of the crowd. Aurora laughed soft, hesitant and followed, her hair spilling down her back in loose waves. My chest tightened at the sound. I followed.

Not through the most direct path. I took my time, watching her body start to loosen in the music. Watching her hips sway with the beat.

The mate bond thrummed between us like a taut wire, pulling me closer with each step. She didn’t see me at first. She was facing Ember, moving just enough to match the rhythm, her movements tentative.

Then she turned. And her eyes locked on mine. It hit her—I saw it. That same rush I felt the first time our gazes met.

Her movements slowed, her lips parted. The space between us seemed to shrink even before I moved. Kael surged.

Weaving through the crowd, I didn’t take my eyes off her. Every step was deliberate. I wasn’t Zander—I didn’t shove people aside to get what I wanted. People stepped out of my way without realizing why.

When I reached her, I didn’t say a word. I just stepped behind her, close enough that my chest brushed her back. She didn’t step away.

The first touch was accidental—or at least I let her think it was. My chest to her back, light enough to be nothing, heavy enough to be everything.

Sparks.

Not static. Not imagination. The real thing. The mate bond’s fire racing from the point of contact and flooding both of us.

She gasped. Quiet. Almost swallowed by the music. I heard it.

I felt the subtle shift in her breathing, the way her body’s tension eased and then tensed again, like she couldn’t decide whether to melt into me or run.

I lowered my head, lips close enough to brush the curve of her ear without touching. Her scent filled me—wildflowers, rain, and something warm, something dangerous that was uniquely her.

“Happy birthday,” I murmured. My voice came out rougher than I meant, Kael’s presence bleeding into every syllable. Her shiver was instant.

She didn’t answer. Didn’t move away. Just kept swaying to the beat, slower now, deliberate. Testing me.

I let my hands hover at her sides, my thumbs brushing the curve of her waist without fully holding her. The restraint it took to keep from pulling her back into me was enough to make my jaw ache.

The song shifted—deeper bass, slower tempo. The air seemed thicker, warmer. The crowd pressed in around us, but the world had narrowed to just her.

I slid my palm to the small of her back. The heat there nearly burned me. Sparks shot up my arm, hot and wild, Kael rumbling his approval.

Aurora’s body reacted instantly, arching the smallest fraction into my touch.

She turned her head toward me, her hair brushing my jaw. Her lips were a breath from my cheek, close enough to feel the heat of her words.

“What is that?” she whispered.

I smiled faintly. “You’ll understand soon.”

Her eyes searched mine like she wanted to pull the answer straight out of me. But not yet. She wasn’t ready. If I told her everything now, she’d panic.

And I wasn’t about to give Zander the advantage of being the first to explain.

The music wrapped around us, slow and sensual. I adjusted my stance, closing the distance so my front pressed lightly to her back.

Her movements faltered for a heartbeat, then matched mine, our bodies moving together like they’d done it before. Kael pushed harder. Claim her.

Not yet.

Instead, I let my breath skim along her temple, watching the goosebumps rise on her skin.

My hands rested lightly on her hips now, not gripping, but guiding her into the rhythm. When she let her head tip back just enough to rest against my shoulder, satisfaction rolled through me.

I dipped my head until my lips brushed the shell of her ear. “You feel it too,” I murmured. She didn’t deny it. Her silence was its own confession.

The crowd around us blurred into shadow and heat. I moved with her, matching the subtle sway of her hips, letting the bond hum between us, teasing the line between control and surrender.

Her fingers brushed mine at her hips, tentative, curious. The moment our skin connected, another surge of sparks ignited—hotter this time, dizzying.

She gasped again.

Kael was practically purring now, but I kept my touch steady. Slow. Controlled. I wanted her to feel every second of it.

“You’re mine, Aurora,” I said quietly, just for her. “You just don’t know it yet.”

I felt her stiffen slightly—not in rejection, but in confusion. Her pulse fluttered under my fingertips.

She opened her mouth like she was about to ask something—maybe to demand an explanation—but the song shifted again, the tempo breaking.

I stepped back just enough to let her turn if she wanted to. But she didn’t. She stayed right there, her body still angled toward mine, her eyes uncertain but locked on me.

And I knew then that whatever Zander had told her earlier in the night, whatever bond he’d made her feel…

This bond was just as strong. Just as real. And I wasn’t letting her go.