Chapter 6 Six
Chapter 6 Six
Aria’s pov
He didn’t come back.
Not that night, not the next hour when the thunder stopped. The silence after him felt heavier than the storm, and I hated how much I kept waiting for his footsteps. My body still remembered his touch, the sound of his voice when it cracked between a growl and my name.
When the door finally opened, I thought I’d imagined it. Then he stepped inside.
His shirt was torn, streaked with mud and something darker. His eyes were the same color as before the change, but I saw what hid behind them, shadows that didn’t belong to any man.
“You shouldn’t be here,” I whispered.
He closed the door without answering. His breath came hard, chest rising and falling like he’d run miles.
“I told you to stay away,” he said. The edge in his voice wasn’t anger; it was fear.
“I tried.” My throat ached.“You didn’t come back.”
“I had to.” His hand dragged through his hair.“I needed distance before I, ”
He stopped, swallowing the word.
“Before you lost control?” I asked.
His gaze lifted.“You think that was control?”
The space between us pulsed. Every step he took felt like a question I didn’t know how to answer.
“I hurt people when I’m like that,” he said.“You don’t understand what I become.”
“Then show me.”
He froze. For a moment, there was only the sound of our breathing. Then he laughed, quiet, broken.“You wouldn’t survive it.”
“Try me.”
He moved faster than thought, one second across the room, the next his hand gripping the back of my neck. Not cruel. Just claiming. His forehead pressed to mine, voice rough.“You should fear me.”
“I do.” My voice shook.“But it’s not enough to make me leave.”
His eyes closed, his jaw tightening as if he was fighting the instinct to push me away or pull me closer.“You don’t understand what the moon does to me. What it wants.”
“What do you want?”
His breath hitched.“You. That’s the problem.”
My pulse jumped.“Then stop pretending it’s just the curse.”
He drew back an inch, eyes searching mine. Whatever he saw there cracked something in him. His hand slid to my cheek, thumb brushing the edge of my jaw.
“I told myself I wouldn’t touch you again,” he murmured.“But you keep walking straight into the fire.”
“Maybe I’m already burning.”
That made him still completely. The wolf in him surfaced just enough for me to feel the heat behind his gaze, not violent now, just raw need and something close to pain.
He stepped back first.“Leave, Aria. Please.”
“I can’t.”
He turned away, fists clenched.“If you stay, I’ll destroy everything that’s left of me trying not to destroy you.”
I went to him anyway, sliding my hand along his arm until his muscles loosened beneath my fingers.“Then let me be the one thing you don’t have to fight.”
He looked down at me, torn between hunger and horror.“You don’t know what you’re asking.”
“I think I do.”
The next breath he took sounded like surrender. He leaned down, lips brushing my temple, soft, trembling, restrained.“If I hurt you, ”
“You won’t.”
His hand came to rest against my heartbeat, steadying there.“You shouldn’t trust a monster.”
“Maybe you’re not the monster,” I said.“Maybe it’s the curse that’s afraid of you.”
For the first time, his expression broke, just for a second, the Alpha looked human.
He exhaled slowly.“You’re making it impossible to stay away.”
“Good,” I whispered.
He stepped back before he could change his mind, eyes burning like silver fire.“Thirty days,” he said.“That’s all you promised me. Don’t make me want forever.”
Then he left, the echo of his voice clinging to the air long after the door closed.
And I knew something had shifted. Whatever curse haunted him, it wasn’t the only thing breaking.
Kael POV
She left the room, but her scent didn’t.
It clung to the air like smoke after fire , soft, sweet, and impossible to forget. Every breath I took carried her name, and that was the real danger.
I’d told her to go, but the sound of her heartbeat still echoed in my head, steady, defiant. No one had ever looked at me the way she did. Not with pity. Not with fear disguised as obedience. She looked at me like she saw something worth saving.
And that was the first lie she’d ever told herself.
I moved to the window, watching the forest sway in the distance. The storm had passed, but the moon still hovered, pale and full, watching me like a curse that never sleeps. My reflection in the glass was a reminder of everything I hated, eyes too sharp, veins burning faintly with silver light, the mark of a bloodline I could never escape.
The beast was still close to the surface, prowling under my skin. I could feel it in every twitch of muscle, every pulse of heat.
When she’d stood that close to me, my control had started to crack. One touch from her and the wolf inside me stirred like it recognized her.
That couldn’t be. I didn’t believe in that bond. I refused to.
Fated mates were a story elders told their children so they wouldn’t fear love. My story was different. Love had cost me everything once.
And I’d sworn never to pay that price again.
Mrs. Blake’s voice pulled me from my thoughts.
“Sir?”
I turned. She stood by the door, her expression careful. She’d served me long enough to know when to tread softly.
“She’s asking for you,” she said.
Of course she was. Aria didn’t know how to stay away, and I didn’t know how to make her.
“She shouldn’t,” I said.
“She’s worried.”
“Worry will get her killed in this house,” I muttered, crossing the room.“Did you clean the west corridor?”
“Yes, sir. Everything’s gone.”
Gone. A polite word for the mess I’d made last night when the wolf broke through. The blood, the glass, the scent of violence , all erased by dawn.
“Good,” I said quietly.“No one should see that.”
Mrs. Blake hesitated.“She already did.”
I froze.
“She went looking for you this morning,” she continued softly.“I found her near the door.”
“Damn it.” My voice came out low, rough.“She doesn’t understand the risk.”
“No,” she said.“But she cares.”
That word landed heavier than I wanted it to. Care.
That’s how it always started, concern, then attachment, then ruin.
“She’ll forget soon enough,” I said.
Mrs. Blake’s eyes met mine.“You don’t actually believe that.”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t.