Chapter 35: the confession in the dark
Rhianna POV:
I couldn’t sleep.
Not after the shouting. Not after the sound of hooves thundering away into the night.
The whole pack house had gone still again, but the quiet wasn’t peaceful — it was the kind of silence that pressed on your chest, heavy with things no one wanted to say out loud.
I tossed in bed for what felt like hours before finally giving up and throwing a cloak over my shoulders. The corridor outside my room was cold and dim, lit only by the pale moonlight spilling through the tall windows. Somewhere below, I could still hear faint murmurs — guards whispering, doors closing, the echo of something that felt like heartbreak.
I followed the sounds to the courtyard, where the night air smelled faintly of rain and burnt wood. The torches were still lit, flickering weakly against the wind. That was when I saw him — Hardin — standing alone near the gates, staring into the darkness like a man trying to find something he’d already lost.
“Hardin?” I called softly.
He turned at once. The moonlight hit his face, catching the sharp lines of his jaw, the exhaustion in his eyes, and something else… something raw.
“Rhianna,” he said quietly. “You shouldn’t be out here.”
“I heard noises,” I said, stepping closer. “What happened? Why is everyone so tense?”
He hesitated — and that hesitation told me enough.
“Evelyn left,” he said finally. “She took her people and left before dawn.”
My brows furrowed. “What? Why?”
Hardin exhaled, running a hand through his hair. “Because I turned her down.”
I blinked. “Turned her down for what?”
“She… confessed.” His voice was low, almost rough. “She said we could be good together. That we could strengthen the pack — that marrying her could secure my position as Alpha.”
I felt my chest tighten. “And you told her…?”
“That I didn’t love her,” he said simply.
I stared at him, caught between shock and disbelief. “Why would you tell her that, Hardin? You could’ve said anything — that you needed time, that it wasn’t right now, that—”
He stepped closer, cutting me off with the quiet intensity in his eyes. “Because I don’t love her, Rhianna. And lying about it would’ve been worse.”
I shook my head slowly. “Still, you could’ve handled it differently. She left humiliated, Hardin. Everyone’s talking.”
“I know,” he said softly. “But I won’t apologize for telling the truth.”
Something in his tone made me look up. He wasn’t angry — he was certain. Steady. Like this was something he’d carried for a long time and finally set down.
“Then what is the truth?” I asked, my voice barely above a whisper.
His gaze found mine — unwavering, dark, and full of something I wasn’t ready to name.
“You already know,” he said quietly. “You’ve always known.”
I swallowed hard. “Hardin—”
“You’re the only one I’ve ever loved, Rhianna.”
My breath caught. The world seemed to still around us. Even the night air stopped moving.
He took another step closer, and I could feel the heat radiating from him, the steady thrum of his heartbeat in the air between us. “I’ve tried to fight it. I’ve tried to ignore it. But it doesn’t fade. Even if the Moon Goddess had chosen someone else for me… it wouldn’t change this.”
“Don’t,” I whispered, shaking my head. “You can’t say things like that.”
“I just did,” he said, voice steady but thick with emotion. “And I’m not taking it back.”
My chest ached — not from fear, but from the storm brewing inside me. Everything he said, every word, was something I had wanted to hear and feared all at once.
“Hardin, please,” I began, but the words barely left my lips before he moved.
One second, I was searching for what to say — and the next, his hand was at my jaw, his lips finding mine in a kiss that stole the air from my lungs.
It wasn’t gentle. It wasn’t careful. It was everything he’d been holding back — months, maybe years, of restraint shattering in a single heartbeat.
I should’ve pulled away. I should’ve stopped him.
But I didn’t.
Because for the first time, nothing about that moment felt wrong. It felt inevitable.
When he finally pulled back, his breath was uneven, his hand still resting at the side of my face.
“Now you know,” he said softly. “And I don’t care what anyone says, or what the pack decides, or what fate thinks it’s already written. You’re it for me, Rhianna.”
The silence that followed was suffocating and sweet all at once. My thoughts tangled into a blur of what-ifs and should-nots, but all I could hear was the echo of his voice.
He started to step back, but I caught his wrist before he could move away. “Hardin…”
He looked down at me, waiting.
I wanted to tell him that this was madness. That I couldn’t do this. That I had a mate, a future, a duty.
But the words wouldn’t come.
Instead, I whispered, “You shouldn’t have said that.”
His eyes softened, and he leaned in close enough that his breath brushed my ear. “Maybe. But I meant every word.”
And then he was gone — disappearing into the shadows of the hall, leaving me in the moonlight, heart racing, lips trembling, and mind spinning with a truth I couldn’t unhear.