What We Could Be
1975 Words
Rain slid off the edges of Kai’s hair as he stared down at her, his expression caught somewhere between fury and disbelief. The storm turned his clothes into a second skin, water tracing the lines of muscle beneath the soaked fabric.
He looked like judgment itself. Dark, unyielding, and far too controlled for how furious he was. His eyes, that usual cool blue, had hardened to steel. The rain dripped from his jaw, each drop a measure of restraint.
“What are you doing, Adalyn?” His voice cut through the downpour. The sound calm but colder than the wind tearing across the cliff.
Adalyn couldn't even look at him let alone answer.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t notice?” His tone sharpened. “The shutters, the screws, the letter opener”
Her throat tightened. He’d seen everything. Of course he had. He’d probably been waiting to see if she’d actually go through with it. Always one step ahead. Always watching.
When she stayed silent, his jaw flexed. “Did everything I said to you earlier go in one ear and out the other?”
Adalyn’s pulse jumped. He was angry? He was angry? The hypocrisy burned hotter than the rain was cold.
“You said I wasn’t a prisoner here,” she snapped, the words ripping free before she could stop them. “So I’m leaving. I don’t care about your family, your politics, or whatever the hell this is. I’m done being part of it.”
She started lowering herself down the slick roofline, boots scraping against the stone as the rain began to pelt harder.
Kai moved instantly, kneeling near the edge, his hair whipping into his eyes. “Whether you want it or not, it’s too late for that,” he said, voice dropping to something quieter. “I can’t protect you if you leave.”
Adalyn laughed bitterly over her shoulder. “I don’t need protection.”
The lightning flashed, lighting up the defiance in her eyes.
“I can take care of myself.”
The rain turned ruthless, slicing through the air as Adalyn’s boot skidded on the slick edge. She caught herself with a gasp, fingers scraping wet stone.
Kai froze. Instinct roared through him as his claws half-shifted against the tiles, ready to catch her if she fell. The sight of her drenched, trembling, and yet still trying to escape him sent something jagged through his chest.
“Adalyn...” His voice came out rough, more like plea than command.
She didn’t look back.
He drew in a sharp breath, rain streaming down his face as the storm raged around them. “Tell me what you’re running from” he said, voice low, the edge finally gone. “Because I don't think it's me.”
She hesitated, knuckles white against the stone. The wind tore at her hair, but she stayed silent.
Kai inched closer, every line of him tight with restraint. He wanted to reach for her. To drag her back from the edge and into him, but she looked ready to bolt, like a frightened bird poised to take flight. One wrong move and she’d fall. So he held himself still, voice low, careful.
“Has something changed since this morning?” he asked. “Because I thought we were finally on the same page.”
Her eyes flashed toward him, jaw tightening. “You thought wrong.”
“Adalyn”
“Don’t.” The warning was sharp, cutting through the rain. “Don’t talk to me like you understand what I want. Not once have you even asked me."
Her words landed flat and cold. For a second the fury in his face softened. What replaced it was surprise, then something heavier. Had he ever truly asked her what she wanted? Or had he just assumed he knew best because the bond told him he should? The thought cut sharper than her defiance.
He forced his voice steady. “Then tell me,” he shot back, frustration bleeding into his tone. “Because right now, you’re one bad step from falling, and I’m not letting that happen.”
“I don’t need you to let me do anything,” she snapped.
He reached out, hand steady despite the wind. “You’re going to get yourself killed without your wolf to anchor you. Let me help you.”
She slapped his hand away. The movement cost her balance and her boot slipped again, scraping for purchase.
“Damn it, Adalyn,” he hissed, steadying himself, ready to lunge if she fell. “You think I want to cage you? You think I like this?”
She met his gaze, rain dripping from her lashes. “You think I don’t see it? The way you look at me like I’m something to protect, or something you’re afraid of. You don’t trust me, Kai. You blindly trust the bond.”
“That’s not true.”
“Isn’t it?” she threw back, her voice trembling now, fury and fear tangled together. “You call it fate, but all I see is control. You talk about protection, but it feels like being owned. I won’t be a slave to something I never chose. How do I even know any of this is real?”
Lightning flashed behind her, splitting the sky, painting her silhouette in a bright white light.
Kai’s voice softened, the edges of anger slipping away. “Because it is real. I feel it every time you breathe, every time you pull away. It’s real enough to drive me insane trying not to touch you.”
Her throat bobbed. “That’s what I’m afraid of,” she said quietly. “You keep saying it’s real, but how do I know that? I don’t even know you, Kai. Not really. And if I give in to this, if I give in to you, what’s to stop you from using it against me? From making me believe I have a choice when I don’t?”
For a heartbeat, even the storm seemed to hold its breath. The thunder rolled farther out to sea, leaving only the sound of rain between them.
Kai looked at her, a mixture of rain and tears streaking down her face, and his heart twisted.
So that’s what she was afraid of. What she was running from. Not the bond itself, but him.
He’d meant to protect her from the danger outside. He just hadn’t realized she saw him as part of it.
The storm swallowed her sobs.
Adalyn’s strength was bleeding out with every breath, every tear that mixed with the rain. Her arms trembled as she clung to the slick stone, her body shaking with cold and fury. Then her fingers slipped.
“Adalyn!” Kai called out desperately as he lunged, grabbing her arm before she dropped. His palm burned where their skin met, her pulse wild beneath his grip.
“Let go of me!” she shouted, thrashing, half-blind through the rain.
“Don’t be ridiculous! Give me your other hand or you’ll fall!” He braced his bare foot against the edge, his claws struggling to give the purchase he needed to pull her up without slipping. His muscles strained as her shoe skidded off and vanished into the crashing waves below.
“I said let go!” she cried, clawing at his arm hard enough to draw blood.
Pain flared, but Kai didn’t loosen his hold.
“Adalyn, please!” his voice broke, the sound almost lost to the wind. “Stop fighting me. I’m not your enemy!”
“I don’t want your help!” she screamed back. The words cracked through the rain like thunder. “I don’t want this, any of it!”
He felt it then. The bond pulling tight and frantic. The echo of her fear reverberating through his chest. He could feel her heart hammering like his own. She wasn’t just fighting him. She was fighting what they were.
“Give me your hand!” His Alpha command slipped through instinctively, rough with dominance. “Now!”
But it didn’t work. Why wasn't it working? She met his golden-flecked gaze with defiance and screamed, “No!”
And then her grip started to slide. His palm, slick with rainwater, shifted against her skin. For a split second, he felt her slipping away. Not just from his grasp, but from him entirely.
“Stop Adalyn, stop!” Panic cracked through his control, his voice raw now, stripped of authority. “Do you want to die?!”
Her breath came in ragged bursts, and for one terrible second, he saw the decision in her eyes. She’d rather fall than surrender to him.
“Then let me go!”
The sound that tore from his throat wasn’t human. “Do you really think I don’t care about you?” he shouted over the rain, his voice shaking. “That I don’t feel this?”
The storm howled, but he didn’t stop. The words ripped out of him like a confession.
“All of this, every damn choice I’ve made! It had NOTHING to do with me and EVERYTHING to do with you!”
His grip tightened until his knuckles whitened. “You think this is something I can turn off? That I could just walk away?” His breath came rough, trembling. “I’ve been watching you for over a year, wishing you’d notice me. Forcing myself to stay away when every part of me was screaming to go to you.”
Lightning struck the sea below, illuminating his face. His expression was wild and desperate.
“You haunted every thought I had,” he said, voice cracking. “Every patrol I changed, every night I told myself it was a coincidence when I saw you in the city, it wasn’t. It was me lying to myself, pretending I wasn’t already yours.”
Rain ran down his throat. His voice dropped low, almost a growl. “I can’t breathe when you’re gone. I can’t think when you’re near. You’ve rewired everything I am.”
He swallowed hard. “You talk about freedom like I’m taking it from you, but you don’t see it, Adalyn. You are mine, just like I am yours.”
He looked at her. His crystal blue eyes like a mirror. “I’m not asking you to understand it. Just stop running from it. From us. Because whether you stay or go, this bond… it’s already in you. You feel it too.”
He drew a breath, the storm catching on his voice. “I know it’s terrifying. I know trusting this feels like falling. But don’t throw it away because you’re afraid of what it could be.” His gaze locked with hers, fierce and unwavering. “Because it could be everything, Adalyn. If you give us a chance."
The thunder rolled, the wind howled, and for a moment the world seemed to collapse into the sound of rain and their hearts.
He took a ragged breath. “So please,” he whispered. His voice breaking. “Give me your hand.”
Her tears mingled with the rain. Something in her chest broke at his declaration. The sincerity in his eyes. And at that moment, the fear, the doubt, the anger. She could feel it starting to dissolve under the power of his words.
Slowly, trembling, she reached her other hand up for him.
Kai seized it instantly before she could change her mind and hauled her up with a guttural sound, dragging her against him.
They collapsed together on the roof, breathless and soaked, the storm pounding around them like applause.
For a long time, neither spoke. Only the sound of rain and their ragged breaths, the steady thrum of two hearts finally syncing through the noise.
- Writer
