Chapter 29 Thinking
Lira's POV
The door slammed shut behind us with such force that the walls shook. Before I could even catch my breath, Alpha Kael’s fingers released my arm, letting go a bit harder than necessary. I stumbled back, barely managing to grab the edge of the table to steady myself. My heart raced, not just from the sudden jolt but from the intense, sharp anger radiating off him like heat from a burning flame.
I shouldn’t have found that look in his eyes attractive. I shouldn’t have felt that familiar heat pooling in my stomach whenever he was like this, but my body didn’t bother asking for my permission. It reacted to him as if it had its own language, one I couldn’t understand or control.
He turned to face me slowly, as if he were barely holding onto his temper by a thread. His jaw was clenched tight, muscles twitching. He looked like he was on the verge of breaking something. Or someone.
“What,” he breathed, his voice rough, “were you trying to do?”
His tone wasn’t just loud; it was something worse. It was low, controlled, and dangerously calm. The kind of voice someone uses right before they lose it. It thickened the air and made my skin prickle, as if every part of me had suddenly come alive. I blinked, trying to steady my breath. I forced myself to look composed, even though my knees felt like they were about to give out.
“Nothing,” I replied, my voice sounding small even to me. “Beta Daniel just wanted to ask me a few questions. And when I tried to open the door, I realized it was locked from the outside. That’s all.”
His eyes narrowed, and his jaw clenched even tighter. “So you decided to seduce him, huh?”
“What?” My eyes went wide with shock. “No! Why would you even think that?”
He stepped closer, just one step, but it felt like the walls were closing in on us. It was as if the very room was shrinking with him. “Because,” he said, his voice sharp and tinged with jealousy, “when I’m not giving you attention, you just run to another guy for it?”
Heat rushed up my neck and spread through my chest, a mix of anger, confusion, and something else I didn’t want to acknowledge. My fingers balled into fists at my sides. “I didn’t do anything,” I shot back. “I literally—”
He cut me off with a scoff, as if my words were nothing more than dust floating in the air. My thoughts took me back to the night he found me in Rowan’s room. Perhaps that was the reason for his anger.
I shook my head immediately. There was no excuse for the way he was speaking to me.
“You always need someone watching you, don’t you?” he muttered, almost under his breath but loud enough for me to hear. “Always craving someone’s gaze. Anyone’s.”
My mouth went dry. The anger in his voice was messy, filled with jealousy and something possessive and raw. It made my heart race even as it infuriated me. It made me feel seen in a way I didn’t know how to handle.
“Alpha Kael,” I said through gritted teeth, “I don’t know who you think I am, but I don’t—”
“And don’t pretend like you didn’t know exactly what you were doing,” he continued, his eyes blazing. “Biting your lip, giggling too much, leaning in like—”
The slap landed before I even had a moment to process it. My hand moved quicker than my brain could keep up. The sound sliced through the air between us, a sharp, jarring crack that felt like it tore the moment apart.
His head turned slightly from the impact, and my palm throbbed.
I froze.
He froze.
His breath came slow and deep, almost menacing, as if he was holding back a part of himself. My chest was rising and falling too fast, guilt and defiance battling within me. He turned to look at me, his gaze intense and piercing.
Before I could even catch my breath, he grabbed both my wrists and pinned them against the wall above my head. My back hit the cold surface behind me, and his body loomed just inches away, close enough for me to feel the heat radiating off him.
“Don’t ever do that again,” he said, his voice low and rough, sending a shiver down my spine. It wasn’t a yell; it was a command, a warning.
My breath hitched. My pulse raced, feeling like it might burst through my skin. “You can’t talk to me like that,” I shot back, even though my voice trembled more than I wanted it to. “You don’t get to accuse me of things I didn’t do and then act like—”
I stopped, not because I wanted to, but because his gaze had shifted from my eyes to my mouth. Everything inside me froze. My breath caught in my throat.
He wasn’t thinking about what I had said.
He wasn’t thinking about his anger.
He was thinking about kissing me.
And suddenly, the room felt like it tilted, my heart thudded so loudly I was sure he could hear it. His grip on my wrists held me in place, but it was his intense stare that truly ensnared me.
I swallowed hard, the sound echoing in my ears. “Alpha Kael,” I breathed, barely louder than a thought. Honestly, I didn’t know what I was trying to say. His name just tumbled out.
He looked at me then, and I swear I saw a storm break loose in his eyes. Anger, want, frustration, longing, so much he never dared put into words. I leaned in, just a little, close enough that my breath brushed his lips.“Do you want to kiss me?” My voice came out soft.
He didn’t answer.
He didn’t need to.
He kissed me.
Everything else vanished. His mouth crashed into mine like he’d been holding this back for years, and now he just couldn’t anymore. There was nothing gentle about it. Heat, anger, hunger. he poured all of it into that kiss. His hands pinned mine above my head, his body pressed into me, and the way his lips moved against mine left me dizzy.
I kissed him back before my brain could even process what was happening. My body knew what it wanted, maybe before I did. I was scared and thrilled all at once, like I’d been waiting for this and dreading it at the same time. He tasted wild, tense, dangerous, like every reckless thought I’d ever tried to ignore.
My fingers twisted uselessly in his grip. I just wanted to touch him, to pull him closer, to hang on and not get swept away.
He growled low against my lips, deep and rough, and it sent a jolt right through me. The kiss turned messy, desperate. When he finally pulled back, we were both out of breath. He didn’t go far, though, his forehead pressed to mine, like he still needed that touch even as he was struggling to let go.
Then as a surprise he lowered his head so he was staring at me, at eye level. His voice was raw and quiet, like he had to drag the words out from somewhere dark inside him.
“Turn around.”
I stared, my breath caught. “W-what?”
“Turn around,” he said again, voice rougher now. “You crossed a line today.”