Darken Moon University

Trauma: Aelira

I scrambled backward, my heels digging into the mattress, until my spine collided hard with the headboard. The impact jolted through me, but I barely felt the physical pain over the chaos tearing me apart.

“Don’t touch me!” I screamed, the words shredding my throat.

Kaiden recoiled as if I’d slapped him, his hands hovering in the space between us, his face a mask of confusion and hurt. “I’m not.. I won’t. I promise.”

“I can’t,” I sobbed, the air burning in my lungs. “It feels like.. it feels like him.”

Kaiden froze, the blood draining from his face. “Who?”

” I..I..” I stutter not feeling like I could talk.

“I don't know what you need if you won’t talk” he said concerned.

“The Alpha from my old pack,” I choked out, the words tasting like ash and bitterness. I hadn’t spoken about him in years. Hadn’t let myself think about that night in the cellar. “I was fifteen. He.. He said I needed punishment. He said it was his obligation.”

The memories crashed over me like a tidal wave, dragging me back to the damp, suffocating darkness of that cellar. The smell of lust, the heavy weight of a body I couldn't fight off, the pain—the tearing, agonizing pain that had ripped my innocence away.

“Every part of my body said no,” I gasped, my fingernails clawing at the wood of the headboard, splinters digging into my skin. “I didn't fight him, but I knew he was too strong. He was the Alpha, and he said it was his duty and ordered my my father for him to perform a punishment worthy. He said it was what I was made for and his duty.”

I looked at Kaiden, but I didn't see him. I saw a predator. I saw teeth and fury and a male who could take whatever he wanted.

“I was a child,” I whispered, the confession tearing from my throat, jagged and raw. “He had me bend over and he took it. He took everything. And he said.. he said I should be grateful it could have been worse.”

Kaiden’s face had gone pale, the color drained completely away. The horror in his eyes was so deep, so visceral, that for a second, it cut through the haze of my panic. He looked sick. He looked like he wanted to kill someone.

But then the heat surged again, a violent, suffocating tide that drowned out everything else.

The scent of Kaiden’s fear was sharp, cutting through the haze for a fleeting second, but it was quickly swallowed by the relentless inferno inside me. My body was no longer my own; it was a traitor, throbbing and aching with a need that made me want to claw my skin off.

Cool air hit my skin and I realized with a jolt of humiliation that my hands were moving on their own. I was tugging at the hem of my t-shirt, desperate to get it off, to rid myself of the friction that was driving me insane. The heat was getting worse. What is going on?

“No,” I sobbed, hating myself, hating the way my fingers trembled as they stripped the fabric away. “Make it stop. Kaiden, please, make it stop.”

I threw the shirt to the floor, my breath coming in ragged, shallow gasps. The air in the room was suffocating, thick with the scent of my own distress and the heavy, intoxicating musk of the Alpha kneeling beside the bed.

My skin was on fire. A deep, hollow ache had settled in my lower belly, twisting and demanding attention that terrified me. I didn't want this. I didn't want *him* to touch me, not like *that*. Not like the other one.

But my body was screaming for relief.

"I’m burning up," I cried out, curling inward as another wave of pain seared through my veins. "Kaiden, please help me."

He was trembling, his hands clenched into fists at his sides as if he was physically holding himself back. "I don't want to push you to do something your not ready for. I can't... I can't be him."

"You're not him," I gasped, the truth of it piercing through the fever. I looked at him, really looked at him, through the haze of tears and lust. He was terrified. He was looking at me like I was something precious, not something to be taken and broken. "You're Kaiden. You're safe. Please."

The words seemed to break something inside him. He let out a ragged breath, his eyes squeezing shut as he fought a war against his own instincts.

"Safe," he whispered, like a prayer. Then he opened his eyes, and the devastation there was replaced by a fierce, protective determination. "Okay. Okay, I’m here. I’ve got you."

He didn't move onto the bed. Instead, he stayed on his knees, reaching out slowly, giving me every chance to pull away. When I didn't—when I couldn't, because the pain was spiking again—he gently rested his hand on my ankle.

His touch was cool against my feverish skin, a lifeline in the storm. He didn't grab or demand; he simply held my ankle, his thumb stroking the bone there in a rhythmic, grounding motion.

"Does this hurt?" he asked, his voice rough.

"No," I gasped, the pressure of his hand somehow dulling the sharp edges of the cramp. "Don't stop."

He didn't.

His hand remained a steady anchor on my ankle, the coolness of his skin seeping into mine, leeching away just enough of the fire to let me breathe. But the relief was fleeting. The emptiness inside me was growing, an aching void that demanded to be filled.

"I need..." I gasped, tears leaking from the corners of my eyes. I hated this. I hated the weakness, the way my body was betraying the trauma I’d carried for three years. "Kaiden, it hurts."

"I know," he said, his voice straining with the effort to remain gentle. "I can smell it. Your heat... it's triggering early."

He shifted closer, his hand sliding up my calf slowly, testing my boundaries. Every inch he touched seemed to quell the burning under my skin, replacing the agony with a desperate sort of anticipation that terrified me just as much as the pain.

"I can't take it away completely, without sealing our bond," he murmured, his eyes locked on mine, searching for any sign of revulsion. "But I can help take the edge off. I can make the fever break. If you let me."

I stared at him, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird. The heat was a living thing inside me now, a demanding, insistent pulse that was rapidly eroding my defenses. It screamed for me to bridge the gap between us, to let him climb onto the bed and end this suffering.

But my mind was still back in that cellar.

"I'm scared," I whispered, the admission tearing at my pride.

“I know,” he said again, his voice cracking. “I’m scared too. Not of hurting you, but of failing you. But I promise you, little wolf, I will stop the second you tell me to. I will stop before you even have to tell me if I see a hint of fear in your eyes. This isn’t about me taking something. It’s about me giving you relief.”

He squeezed my calf gently, his eyes never leaving mine. “We don’t have to do.. Everything. I can help you without going all the way. I can take the edge off so you can breathe again.”

The heat twisted violently inside me, a reminder that I didn’t have the luxury of overthinking this. The pain was becoming unbearable, a sharp, knitting needle of agony that felt like it was tearing me apart from the inside out.

The ache in my belly twisted into a sharp, blinding knot that made me cry out. It wasn't just pain anymore; it was a terrifying emptiness, a hollow space inside me that felt like it was sucking the air right out of the room.

My body moved before my mind could catch up.

I reached out, my fingers fisting in the front of Kaiden’s shirt, and I yanked him toward me.