The kissing Game
1363 Words
Word travelled faster than wildfire.
Not just that I’d shifted but how I’d done it.
Powerfully. Clean. Like my wolf had been waiting just beneath the surface, born ready to burn the world down.
And then the second wave of gossip hit the one that made every hallway I walked feel like a battlefield.
The triplets.
Alphas-to-be.
My mates.
At least one of them had been at my side since that night. Subtle, quiet, but there. Jace’s watchful eyes during lunch. Rowan’s silent presence in the halls. Luca’s shadow trailing just behind me in class. They rotated like a well-oiled machine, and whether I admitted it or no, it made me feel safe.
And it made everyone else lose their minds.
The females glared like I’d stolen something that belonged to them. Like the goddess made a mistake. As if I’d tricked fate into giving me what they’d spent their lives dreaming of.
They didn’t know me.
Didn’t want to.
They just saw a sharp-tongued city girl with walls higher than the packhouse and secrets too dark to see through.
They didn’t see the scars.
Or the blood.
Or the fight I’d had to make just to breathe most mornings.
Only the result.
The triplets.
And the wolf.
The worst part?
The males were just as bad.
Their stares lingered longer than before. Bolder. Hungrier.
Because I hadn’t been marked.
Not yet.
In their eyes, that meant I was still… available. A loophole. An opening.
A challenge.
It made Kali growl low under my skin.
Let them look, she snarled. Let them try. They'll see how fast we bite.
But I wasn’t flattered.
I was annoyed. Exhausted.
I didn’t want their attention.
I didn’t even know if I wanted the triplets’.
Not because I didn’t feel the bond.
I did. In every part of me.
But because I still felt like I was dragging chains behind me that no one else could see.
The triplets looked at me like I was their future.
But I still felt like I was clawing free of my past.
So I walked the halls with my head high and a smirk that dared anyone to speak. Sharp eyes. Cold shoulders.
But beneath it all, I was thinking of one thing.
The mark.
Not when it would happen.
But if I would let it.
Because once I did… there’d be no hiding anymore.
No more mask.
No more running.
And I wasn’t sure I was ready to be seen without my armour.
Not even by them.
It was late. The school was nearly empty.
Detention had been a joke, and some teacher’s excuse to force me to “reflect” on my attitude. What they didn’t realize was that silence was my natural state. Reflection? I lived in it.
I stepped outside, the air crisp, the parking lot dimly lit. I was halfway to the woods when I felt it.
The heat behind me.
The presence.
Luca.
He didn’t speak.
Just walked beside me, hands in his pockets, too calm for the fire he always radiated.
“Stalking me now?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
He shrugged. “You don’t make it easy to leave you alone.”
“I don’t want your babysitting.”
“I’m not here to babysit.” His voice dropped. “I’m here because I can’t not be.”
There was a pause. Thick. Loaded.
Then, he added, “You know you’re driving us insane, right?”
I turned to him, irritation rising. “Because I haven’t rolled over and let one of you claim me?”
“No.” He took a step forward, eyes burning. “Because you act like you don’t feel it too.”
The bond.
That damned bond.
It sang between us, electric, humming through the night air.
I hated how much I felt it. How much I wanted it.
But I didn’t get the chance to argue.
Because in one breath, he stepped forward
and kissed me.
Hard.
Hot.
Unforgiving.
His hands caught my jaw, his body pulling me into him like gravity had finally won. My breath caught. My thoughts shattered. It wasn’t soft. It wasn’t sweet. It was desperate. Burning. A kiss that said I see you, all of you, and I want you anyway."
It said: I’m not afraid of your darkness.
And damn me, I kissed him back.
My fingers gripped his jacket, lips matching his fire with my own, like I’d been waiting to feel something real for too long. And now that I had it, I was starving.
When he finally pulled back, we were both panting.
He didn’t ask questions.
He didn’t demand explanations.
He just looked at me like I was already his.
And said, “You can fight this all you want. But I’m not going anywhere.”
Then he turned and walked away.
Just like that.
Leaving me standing in the dark
Lips tingling.
Heart racing.
Mask cracked.
And for the first time in too long… I want more.
Rowan I’d followed her.
Not out of control.
Out of instinct.
My wolf had been pacing for hours, unsettled. The pull to her had gotten worse every day since her shift, and tonight, it was unbearable.
So I waited.
Watched.
I didn’t expect Luca to make his move first.
But I saw it. Every damn second of it.
The kiss.
Our kiss.
And my chest burned.
Not from jealousy.
From rage.
From need.
From the soul-deep ache of watching someone else take what your very cells are screaming belongs to you.
She didn’t even stop him.
Didn’t push him away.
She melted into him.
And that kiss hell, that kiss wasn’t just a spark. It was an explosion. And it felt like a betrayal to everything we’d been holding back.
The second Luca disappeared into the trees, I stepped out.
Savannah spun like she felt me before she saw me.
Her lips were swollen.
Her eyes wide.
She froze.
“Rowan,” she said cautiously.
I didn’t stop.
I walked straight up to her and grabbed her hand tight enough to make her feel it.
“You let him kiss you.”
She flinched at my tone but didn’t back down. “I didn’t hear a rule about taking turns.”
“You didn’t even look for me,” I snapped.
“And what would I find?” she bit back. “Another wolf too scared to admit he wants me?”
That hit like a punch to the gut.
I stared at her.
Her fire.
Her defiance.
Her pain underneath it all.
I didn’t speak.
I just kissed her.
Fast.
Hard.
Possessive.
My hand slid to the back of her neck, pulling her in as my lips crashed against hers. It wasn’t romantic. It was war. The kiss of someone who was done waiting. It tasted like anger and hunger and heat.
She gasped, her hands slamming against my chest not to push me away but to hold on.
And I felt it.
The bond flare.
Explode.
And just like that, she kissed me back.
A second flame lit.
And the wildfire doubled.
When I pulled back, we were both breathing hard, foreheads pressed together.
“No more hiding,” I said lowly. “Not from me.”
She didn’t respond.
She didn’t have to.
Jace’s POV
The scent hit me like a bullet.
Not just one kiss.
Two.
My brothers had both kissed her.
And I hadn’t.
My wolf went feral, snarling inside me like he’d been cheated, denied what we were owed.
I punched the nearest tree splintering bark, my breath heavy.
They didn’t wait.
They knew how hard I’d been holding myself back. Waiting for the right moment. For her trust. For her to look at me not with suspicion but with want.
And now?
Now I was the one on the outside.
The one pacing.
The one unravelling.
I didn’t care about some damn rotation.
I cared about her.
And they’d crossed a line.
Now I had to decide if I was going to burn everything down…
…or make damn sure that the next time she kissed anyone
it would be me.
- Writer
