Chapter 2
1084 Words
Damon's POV
Kai's words faded into a brief silence in the office.
I had no intention of answering that question. But my wolf, Rhein, stirred without warning, a low, pained whine crawling up from somewhere deep in his throat.
Mate! That's our mate's scent! She's close!
It took me a second to register the faint disturbance in the air—a trace of pine, buried under the hospital's harsh antiseptic bite.
Aria's scent.
But the corridor's draft carried it away almost as quickly, replaced again by the stronger, sterile sting of disinfectant. I looked away and pushed the unease back down.
I didn't want to give Aria more of my attention than she deserved, even if she was technically my fated mate.
Rhein wouldn't let it go. He paced, agitated, his claws scraping against my nerves.
Our mate is close! She's hurt! Can't you smell the blood?!
So what?
I clenched my fist in silence, forcing down the inexplicable panic rising from somewhere deep in my chest.
I couldn't afford to go soft. Aria would do anything to get what she wanted—she'd proven that when she schemed her way into this marriage. This was just another one of her tricks. She knew Claudia was back, and this was her way of clawing my attention toward herself.
"Damon?" Claudia's voice pulled me back, soft as ever. "What are you thinking about?"
"Nothing." I forced the last trace of that vanishing scent out of my mind. "I'll be here all day. Don't worry."
I stayed with Claudia until the nurses finished their rounds and she drifted off against the pillows.
Night had already fallen by the time I stepped outside. I hadn't forgotten what day it was.
Full moon.
Every month, on this night, as Alpha of the Silvermoon Pack, I was bound by duty to fulfill the mating the matebond demanded of me. It was the bond's curse, and my punishment—one I had no way of escaping.
Aria's POV
I came back to the cold, empty Alpha mansion alone that evening.
The moment I pushed open the door, my eyes landed on the cardboard box still sitting, untouched, on the table in the living room.
I'd carried it in myself, last month. Inside were all the tiny clothes I'd picked out with my own hands—the softest cotton I could find, simple cuts, pale colors. A little bear. A little calf. A duck with its wings spread wide, which looked absurd now, almost cruel, though I'd thought it was the sweetest thing in the world when I bought it.
Pack tradition said a pregnancy wasn't safe to announce until three months along. I'd carefully waited out all twelve weeks, folding those clothes into that box one by one, waiting for the right moment to tell Damon.
I had imagined his expression a thousand times. I only wanted one second of him being moved.
But now there was nothing left.
After my shower, I lay down, exhausted, the dull ache in my abdomen pulsing like something being stirred with a needle. Sleep wouldn't come. The day kept replaying behind my eyes, burned in.
I didn't know how long I'd been lying there when the bedroom door was shoved open, hard.
Damon Hawthorne. I knew that footstep too well—heavy, unhurried, carrying the natural weight of a dominant Alpha, as if the whole world was obligated to step aside for him.
But tonight, something else reached me first.
Perfume. Not mine.
My stomach turned violently.
"Aria." He strode into the room. I could feel his gaze sweep over me, something dark and violent flickering in his eyes.
Before I could stop myself, I lifted my head—obedient, submissive. I hated my own body for responding to that fated pull before my mind had time to catch up.
His collar hung open. His dark hair was slightly disheveled. And for one shameful second, he didn't look like the cold Alpha who ruled this entire pack. He looked like the man I used to imagine he could have been—someone who belonged only to me.
He crossed the room in two strides, seizing my wrist without room for refusal, dragging me hard against his chest. Before I could get a word out, his mouth crashed down on mine, rough and unyielding.
I shoved at his shoulders with everything I had. "Stop—Damon, stop!"
His grip on my hair tightened, forcing my head back, baring my throat. "Stop pretending, Aria." His eyes raked over me, and he let out a scornful laugh. "It's the full moon. Isn't this exactly what you were waiting here for?"
I froze, my fingers clawing into the sheets beneath me.
I forced my voice cold, turning my face away from his kiss. "Please. Just leave me alone. I don't feel well."
His eyes narrowed, and a chilling wave of hostility rolled off him. "Not feeling well? Don't forget what you are. Your family schemed and manipulated their way into this marriage from the very beginning—so lie there and do exactly what you're supposed to do. Play the Luna. Satisfy your Alpha."
A day ago, I might have craved this. Now I could only feel the last of my defenses crumbling—and beneath that collapse, the thing I despised most about myself: I still wanted him. My body still needed my mate. Tonight more than any other night, because it was the full moon, and that claiming heat had already caught like a lit fuse in my blood.
Weak as I was, I knew—an Alpha's touch could heal almost anything. Even the wound the miscarriage had left behind.
But I didn't want it. Not anymore. Not even a little.
I fought to twist away from him. In the chaos, I bit down—hard—on my own tongue.
"Damon, I said it again—get off me!"
The sharp, metallic taste of blood flooded both our mouths in an instant. Damon finally stilled, his body tensing above me, disbelief flickering across his face.
"You dare bite me?" He laughed coldly, and the shock in his eyes curdled fast into disgust. "Drop the act, Aria. Save it for someone stupid enough to fall for it."
He didn't believe me. He never had.
But I wasn't acting. I really was falling apart—I'd been in a car crash. I'd lost the baby.
And he had no idea.
I would never tell him.
- Writer
