Three
1908 Words
Class would start soon. I slid my books into my bag, shut off the study room light, and turned the lock — the librarian’s one rule. Lock the door. Keep the kids out. Keep the secrets in.
The hallway was dim, quiet except for the soft hum of the building. Then it hit me.
Cedar.
Stronger this time, thick in the air like smoke curling from a fire. My breath caught.
I hesitated at the top of the stairs. A shape sprawled across the couch below — someone sleeping. I crept forward, heart hammering, praying the floorboards wouldn’t creak. I just needed to make it to the stairs, slip past unnoticed—
A hand closed on my shoulder.
I froze. Slowly, I turned.
Aidan.
He was standing behind me, his hand still resting on me. His touch burned, a shock racing down my arm like lightning caught under my skin. My breath hitched.
I stared. He stared back.
“I, uh—” His voice cracked.
It was just Aidan. I’d known him all my life. I’d skinned knees with him, whispered secrets with him, laughed with him until our stomachs hurt. And yet… this was different. Being near him was suddenly unbearable, intoxicating, like something inside me was reaching out toward him, begging to close the space between us.
I wanted to touch his hand. His face. His mouth.
Heat rushed to my cheeks. I wrenched my gaze away, throat tight. Aidan pulled his hand back, shoving it into his pocket. Silence stretched, heavy and charged.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.
So I ran.
I bolted down the stairs, out the library doors, the cedar still clinging to my clothes, my hair, my skin.
---
Aidan didn’t move.
He stood there, staring at the empty staircase, his pulse roaring in his ears.
Plumeria.
It clung to her, the same way cedar wrapped around him. Sweet, soft, inescapable. Mari.
Mari.
His chest ached with the realization. He’d known her all his life — awkward smiles, scraped knees, Morgan’s laughter echoing between them. But never like this. Never with the pull in his veins, the fire in his chest, the certainty that split him open.
It hit him like a wrecking ball.
Mari was the one.
---
I made it through the day without seeing him again. Somehow. I ran from school the second my last class ended, taking the long way home to avoid the Main House drive.
Lucy was already waiting when I walked in. She sat at the dining room table with my mom, steam curling from their mugs of tea. They both looked up, smiling.
It had been over a year since I’d last seen her, and the sight of her made my chest loosen just a little. Lucy — all bright blonde hair, dark eyes, and perfectly pressed clothes — looked like she’d stepped out of a magazine. Exactly the kind of person I needed tonight.
“You didn’t tell me Lucy was coming over, honey,” Mom said, beaming.
“I just asked her this morning. She’s here to help me.”
Her smile widened. “I’m so glad you’re going to the party. Your father and I were worried you’d try to skip it.”
If only she knew how badly I wanted to. Especially after what had happened with Aidan in the library.
I escaped to my room, dropped my bag and jacket, and sat on the edge of my bed. My fingers twisted together, restless. The thought of the party made my stomach turn. Not because of the crowd, or the stares — I’d survived that before. But because of Aidan.
I didn’t understand what had happened. Why his touch had undone me. Why I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Why my heart was already racing at the thought of seeing him again tonight.
He had Sam. Everyone knew that. He loved her. Everyone expected her to be his mate.
A knock rattled my door.
“You ready for me?” Lucy’s voice was cheerful, her smile practically audible.
I sighed. “As ready as I’ll ever be.”
She pushed the door open — and dragged in a suitcase.
“What’s that?” I asked.
She grinned as she heaved it onto my bed and unzipped it. “I know your wardrobe, and trust me, nothing in it is going to work for tonight.”
She wasn’t wrong. I didn’t own much beyond jeans and sweaters, and the few dresses shoved in my closet hadn’t seen daylight in years.
She pulled out a stack of dresses, each one more beautiful than the last, and then held up the one.
Black. One shoulder. Fitted, stopping just above the knee. Elegant and daring and nothing like me.
“This is the one,” she said, eyes shining.
I swallowed. Morgan would have chosen something like this for me, too.
Lucy shoved it into my arms and steered me toward the bathroom. “Go. Try it on.”
The dress slid over me like water, snug and strange. I fumbled with the zipper, finally giving up and shuffling back into my room.
Lucy gasped.
I blushed, heat creeping up my neck. I wasn’t used to being looked at like that.
She zipped me up and spun me around, her eyes glowing. “I knew it. This is the dress.”
I smoothed my palms down the fabric, my reflection feeling like a stranger. The form-fitting cut, the bare legs — I felt exposed. But also… beautiful.
Lucy sat me on the bed and opened a bag that looked like a professional arsenal of makeup. I barely recognized half of it.
“Keep it simple,” I begged. “You know I don’t—”
She rolled her eyes, already at work.
To distract myself, I asked, “Luce, how did you know Jade was the one?”
Her face softened, her hands stilling for a moment. “I knew the moment she smiled at me. But when she touched me—” She shook her head, a grin tugging at her lips. “It was like an electric shock, all over. Intense. Overwhelming. It’s not something you mistake. You’ll know when you know.”
Her eyes flicked down to me, knowingly.
And I did know.
It was Aidan.
The night of the party arrived faster than I wanted.
By the time Lucy finished my makeup and hair, I barely recognized the girl staring back from the mirror. She looked older, bolder, like someone who belonged at a party in the Main House instead of hiding in the library’s shadows.
But underneath the glamour, I was still me. Nervous. Uneasy. Terrified.
The Main House was alive when we arrived. Lights spilled from every window, music pulsed through the walls, laughter and chatter tangled with the crisp night air. Wolves — our classmates, neighbors, packmates — crowded the lawn and spilled into the house, already buzzing with energy.
And somewhere inside was Aidan.
Lucy squeezed my hand before pulling me into the crowd. “You’ll be fine. Just breathe.”
I tried. But the second I stepped through the door, my chest tightened. My eyes found him instantly, like my body already knew where he was.
Aidan stood near the stairs, tall and broad, his dark eyes searching the crowd. When they locked on me, the air between us changed. His expression faltered, like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
The cedar hit me. Stronger. Overpowering.
And then the truth I’d been denying all day settled like stone in my chest.
This was the bond.
He was my mate.
The realization lit me up from the inside out — a fire that was both terrifying and undeniable. My pulse thundered in my ears as he moved toward me.
“Mari,” he breathed when he reached me, his voice low, raw.
I couldn’t speak. Could only stare.
But then his jaw tightened. His eyes darted toward the corner of the room, where Sam stood, her perfect smile faltering as she watched us.
“I can’t,” he whispered. His voice cracked with the weight of it. “I can’t be with you.”
The words shattered me.
Before he could say anything else, I turned and pushed through the crowd, ignoring the confused voices calling after me. My heart felt like it was tearing in half.
I ran all the way home.
---
By the next morning, I knew what I had to do.
I couldn’t stay here. Not with him so close, not with Sam glaring daggers, not with this bond clawing at my insides. I packed a bag quietly, shoving clothes into it with shaking hands. My plan was simple: I’d go to my cousin’s house a few towns over. Put distance between us. Maybe then I’d be able to breathe again.
But the woods had other plans.
I was almost to the edge of town when a shadow stepped into my path. A stranger. Tall, sharp features, dark hair falling into his eyes.
“Going somewhere?” His voice was smooth, dangerous.
I froze.
“My name’s Justin,” he said. His smile didn’t reach his eyes. “And you’re not supposed to leave.”
Before I could answer, a growl split the air.
Aidan.
He stepped out of the trees, his chest heaving, his eyes blazing as he looked from Justin to me.
“Come back with me, Mari,” he demanded. His voice was rough, commanding, threaded with something feral.
Justin’s expression darkened. “She doesn’t belong to you, Aidan. She never did. You know Sam was meant for me.”
The words hit me like ice. Sam. Justin. Me. Aidan. The pieces of a puzzle I didn’t understand.
The tension snapped.
Aidan lunged, colliding with Justin. The forest erupted in snarls and the crash of bodies slamming against trees. I stumbled back, my breath ragged, torn between running and staying, between fear and something deeper — a pull toward Aidan I couldn’t fight.
At last, Aidan pinned Justin to the ground, his teeth bared, his chest heaving.
“She’s mine,” he growled, his voice shaking with fury and something that sounded like desperation.
Justin’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Aidan. He smirked. “We’ll see.”
And then he was gone, melting into the shadows of the trees.
Aidan turned to me, his expression hard.
“You’re coming with me.”
“I’m not—”
“You are,” he snapped. “You don’t get it, Mari. You’re my responsibility now.”
He grabbed my arm, not roughly, but firmly enough that I knew resistance was pointless. My stomach twisted as he pulled me deeper into the woods, away from town, away from everything I knew.
We stopped at a cabin I’d never seen before — tucked away, hidden, private.
“This is where you’ll stay,” he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. “For the foreseeable future.”
My chest tightened. “I’m not living here.”
His gaze softened, just for a second. Then hardened again. “You have to. You’re not safe otherwise. I have to keep you here. With me.”
His words should have comforted me, but they didn’t.
Because even as he claimed me, even as he insisted I was his responsibility, his eyes still flickered with guilt.
Because he wasn’t done with Sam.
- Writer
