Chapter 2: The Nights That Were Ours
851 Words
Two Years Ago
The moon hung low, swollen and golden, casting shadows across the forest floor. The air was thick with summer heat and something more dangerous—something they weren’t allowed to name.
Kade pinned her against the tree with his body, not rough, but desperate. Like if he let go, the world might split in half.
Aria’s breath hitched as his hands slid up her waist. “Someone will see us,” she whispered, though she made no move to push him away.
His lips brushed her ear. “Then let them.”
Her fingers tangled in his shirt. “Your father will exile me. Or worse. You’re the next Alpha—”
“And you’re everything I’m not supposed to want,” he murmured. “But I do. Gods, Aria, I do.”
Their mouths met like a clash of thunder—fierce, hungry, aching. Kade kissed her like she was the only air he could breathe, and Aria kissed him back like she’d waited lifetimes just to taste him again.
When he pulled back, his forehead rested against hers.
“Tell me to stop,” he begged. “And I will. Just say the word.”
But Aria’s voice trembled. “I can’t.”
Because she knew this was wrong. He was the future Alpha. She was just the healer’s apprentice, promised to no one, bound to duty.
Yet none of that mattered in the quiet dark when he held her like this. In his arms, she wasn’t forbidden. She was wanted.
“I dreamed of this,” she confessed. “Of you. Every night since you left for training.”
His thumb brushed her cheek. “And I dreamed of you under a different moon… with no rules, no pack, no Alpha bond to tear us apart.”
She swallowed. “But fate doesn’t care what we want.”
“I don’t care about fate.”
“You will,” she whispered. “Someday.”
Kade silenced her with a kiss more gentle than any warrior should know how to give. It was a promise he couldn’t keep. A vow made on borrowed time.
Because neither of them knew what waited in the future.
A forced bond.
A child.
A betrayal neither would ever fully understand.
But that night, under the gold moon, they didn’t care.
For a few stolen hours, Kade and Aria forgot the rules.
And simply loved.
~
The storm rolled in just after midnight.
It came like a warning—low thunder in the distance, wind whispering secrets between the trees—but neither of them cared. The cabin on the edge of the lake had become their sanctuary, a place hidden from judgment, from fate.
From him.
Aria lay back against the tangled sheets, her skin warm, flushed, marked by the trail of Kade’s lips. The fire crackled beside them, but the heat between their bodies was hotter.
Kade hovered over her, eyes dark with longing, muscles taut with restraint. One hand pressed into the mattress beside her head, the other tracing slow, reverent circles along her thigh.
“Tell me this isn’t just a dream,” he murmured, voice rough.
Aria’s fingers curled into his shoulder, nails digging in. “If it is, don’t let me wake.”
Their mouths met again—this time slower, deeper. It wasn’t the rush of desperation. It was the slow burn of two souls pretending the world beyond these walls didn’t exist.
He kissed her like he was memorizing her—every sigh, every arch of her back, every whispered plea.
“Kade,” she gasped as he slid lower, worshipping her with his mouth like she was sacred.
Her hips trembled beneath his touch. She threaded her fingers through his hair, anchoring herself as waves of heat built inside her, threatening to drown out reason.
“I shouldn’t love you,” she whispered, breathless, broken. “But I do.”
Kade stilled for half a heartbeat, then surged up to kiss her again—urgent now, almost angry.
“I would burn this entire pack to the ground if it meant keeping you,” he growled against her lips.
She cried out softly as he joined their bodies again, their rhythm raw, tender, perfect. He moved inside her like a man chasing fate, like this was the only place he belonged.
It was.
Each night, they returned to each other. In the shadows. In secret. They carved a world of whispered promises and stolen kisses. He brought her wildflowers. She drew symbols on his chest with healing oils. He’d fall asleep with her head on his heart, dreaming of a future where she wore his mark instead of another’s.
But time was running out.
The night of the Blood Moon was coming.
The night Lucan would choose his mate.
The night everything would break.
And neither of them knew how to stop the storm when it came.
But for now, in the firelight, in the soft rise and fall of breath after love, they let themselves believe.
That love could be enough.
- Writer
