Chapter 14 Aiden's Jealousy
Malia's POV
The room is stifling with tension.
I’ve been back for not even ten minutes, and already I can feel Aiden’s mood like a weight on me.
And here are the keystrokes — sharp, aggressive and echoing in the silence — as he sits at his desk, typing. I attempt to concentrate on my reading, but the mood is too distracting.
Finally, he speaks.
"So." His voice is cold. "Rowan’s new charity project."
I slowly look up. "Excuse me?"
“You heard me.” He still doesn’t turn around. "How long until you move on to Cian? Collect the whole set?"
Heat flushes in my face. "What are you talking about?"
“Don’t act so dumb, Malia. It’s clear what you’re up to.”
I slam my book shut. "And what, exactly, have I done?"
"Using my brothers." At last she turns, and her blue eyes are ice cold. "Getting near them for protection. For status. To use the family name on the Moonfall line."
I'm too stunned to reply for a moment.
Then the shock is replaced by a hot and sharp anger.
“You think I’m using them?” I stand, hands clenched into fists. "You really think that? "
“What else would you call it? A nobody hybrid with no status who’s suddenly hanging out with the most powerful wolves on campus—”
“Maybe they're just being kind!” I wave my hands in protest as I try to keep my voice down. “Who knows? Maybe not everyone has your icy, calculating nature!”
Aiden's jaw clenches. "This is Mooncrest. Nobody ever does anything here without having an agenda."
"That's the most heartbreaking thing I have ever heard."
"It's the reality."
“No.” I move closer, rage lending me bravery I didn’t know I had. "It's your reality. Because you can't comprehend someone desiring connection without manipulation. You can’t imagine kindness without strings attached.”
"You don’t know—anything about me.”
“I know you treat me like dirt!” The words explode out of me. "I've just learned that you have made my life here intolerable from day one. I know you go out of your way to tell me I’m not one of you!”
“Because you don’t!” he retorts, briefly with true feeling. “You are a hybrid in a pureblood academy. You're a scholarship kid in a world of inherited wealth. You're—"
"I'm what, Aiden?" I’m trembling now, all the pain and irritation of the last fortnight spilling out. "Say it. I'm weak? I'm worthless? I’m below you?"
"That's not—” He brushes his hair
back, frustrated. “That’s not what I meant.”
"Then what did you mean? Since getting here, all you've done is make me feel like dirt!"
“I was trying to protect you!”
The words hang in the air between us.
I stop dead in my tracks. “What?”
Aiden immediately appears to regret saying so. His face shutters, walls slamming back into place.
“Nothing. Forget it.”
“No." I lean in, looking at his face. "What did you say?"
"I said forget about it"
"You know you were trying to protect me. Protect me from what?"
His jaw clenches. "To not get hurt."
"By tormenting me?”
"Keep away." He loses his calm and starts screaming. "So that you wouldn’t get attached? So I wouldn’t get—"
He breaks off prematurely.
My heart hammers. "Didn't what?"
"Nothing." He shook his head.
"Aiden!"
"Drop it, Malia."
But I can't.
Because all of a sudden things are starting to make sense—the public shields disguised as not caring, the rage whenever his brothers extended me any kindness, the way he looked at me on the stairs that day.
“You’re jealous,” I say softly. “Am I right?”
His eyes flash dangerously. “I’m not—”
“You are. You’re jealous of Rowan. Of Cian. You’re jealous because they can be close to me and you— ”
“What?” He takes a step toward me, and all of a sudden the distance between us seems too close. "You don't know what you're talking about."
“Then explain it to me." I challenge
“I can't."
“Why not?”
"Because—" He's almost here, perilously close, and I can smell him—pine and cold air and something uniquely Aiden that makes my wolf stir restlessly. “Because you make everything so complicated.”
“I make it more complicated—“ I laugh bitterly. "I never said I wanted any of this. I never asked to be your roommate. I wasn’t begging for your brothers’ friendship. I did not ask for you—"
“Do you think I could ask for this too?” His voice dips lower, almost a growl. "Do you think I wanted to feel—"
He stops again, jaw clenched so tight I can see the muscle jumping. The air between us hissed with something electric and dangerous.
“Feel what?” I murmur.
His gaze is fixed upon me, with a breath-stealing intensity. His eyes aren’t cold anymore—they’re fiery, tumultuous, brimming with something I can’t put my finger on.
"This," he says gruffly. “Whatever this is. This pull that won’t go away no matter how hard I try. This constant consciousness of where you are and what you’re doing and who you’re with—”
My breath catches.
“You drive me crazy,” he says, his voice rough. "Your scent in this room. Your voice. The way you don’t retreat even when you know you should. The way my brothers look at you like—”
He interrupts himself again, turning away sharply.
But I’ve heard enough.
"Like what?" I press, my own voice trembling.
“Like you’re theirs to protect. Like you matter” He laughs, the sound bitter. "The worst part is you do matter. To them. To—"
“To you?”
Silence. The longest, heaviest silence.
Then, so quietly I almost miss it: “Yes.”
The confession, it lingers between us.
I should say something. But I’m frozen, heart racing, trying to process what just happened.
Aiden Moonfall—cold, hostile, untouchable Aiden—has just told me that I hold some sort of significance for him. Before I can respond, he snatches up his coat from the chair.
"That was wrong," he murmurs, going to the door.
"Aiden, wait—"
“Stay away from my brothers, Malia.” His hand is on the doorknob. "I mean it."
"You can't just—"
But he’s already gone, the door slams with a soft finish that is beating a loud worse to my ears.
I stand in the empty room, trembling. What just happened?
My wolf is agitated, I think, shocked by the emotional whiplash. One minute Aiden was cruel.
The next, vulnerable. Then angry.
Then…… something else altogether.
Something old-time confessionish, that sort of thing. I slide onto my bed, doing my best to slow down my heart.
—---
An hour goes by, then two.
Aiden doesn’t come back. I should be relieved.
Instead I’m rattled, going through the fight again and again.
You complicate everything…This pull that won’t go away…You matter…What does it mean?
And why did he run?
Eventually, fatigue wins and I get ready for bed.
I’m brushing my teeth when I hear it-a faint noise at the door. Not a knock.
Something sliding under the gap at the bottom.
I rinse quickly and walk over. A folded piece of paper lies on the floor.
I unfold it with shaking hands.
The handwriting is harsh and angular, definitely Aiden's: Stay away from my brothers.
That's it.
No signature, no explanation. Just a command.
I read it three times, unable between anger and hurt.
After everything he just admitted to—the pull, the jealousy, the fact that I matter—he’s back on this?
Bossing me around like I’m some kind of problem that needs addressing?
I ball the note in my fist.
Fine. If he wants to play that game, fine.
I will avoid him. I'll keep my distance.
I’m going to act like his admission didn’t make something snap inside of me.
But I won’t keep away from Rowan and Cian.
Theyâ ve been nothing but kind to me. None of them have gone kind.
And I won’t let Aiden’s complicated feelings decide my friendships. I ball the note up and toss it in the garbage and then I climb into bed.
But she’s not sleeping.
Because all of it adds up to just the impossibility of reality, the cruelty, the hostility, the— you know.
My wolf is always coming back to three little words: You matter to me.
And I hate that those words came from the person that’s trying the hardest to push me away.
—---
Somewhere on the other side of campus, Aiden is standing in the training room, hands wrapped, punching a bag with methodical force.
Every punch resounds in the emptiness.
He keeps punching until his knuckles bleed. Estranged until his hands hurt as much as his chest ached.
To the point where he could almost forget the way Malia had looked at him. As if she was looking through every wall he’d built up.
Perhaps she really knows. He’s hitting the bag harder, because understanding is risky.
Connection is risky.
And Malia Hart -- with her quiet strength and those eyes that see too much -- is the most dangerous thing he’s ever come up against.
More dangerous than any enemy, more dangerous than any test. Because she makes him want things he can never have.
Feel things he's not supposed to feel and if he slips up, she’ll burn everything he’s spent a lifetime trying to protect..So he’ll push her away.
He’ll be cruel, he’ll build the walls higher.
Even if it kills him…