Chapter Three: Jealousy at Dawn
1212 Words
(Tristan POV)
The fire in my private chambers burned low, casting flickering shadows across the stone walls. I stood by the window, staring out at the dark surface of Crystal Lake, my mind still buzzing from the confrontation with Aurora. Her defiance, her fire, the way her electric blue eyes had challenged me without fear it had stirred something deep and dangerous inside me. Something I hadn't felt in a very long time. Something I wasn't entirely sure I could control.
The door opened behind me. I didn't need to turn to know who it was.
Jayden stepped inside and closed the door with a quiet click. The air between us immediately thickened. I could feel his presence like a live wire familiar, charged, and currently filled with barely contained frustration. Fifteen years of history lived in that silence. Fifteen years of loyalty, sacrifice, and a bond that ran deeper than pack law or duty.
"You wanted to talk," he said, his voice rough.
I turned slowly. Jayden stood near the center of the room, arms crossed, golden-amber eyes locked on me. The broken chain tattoo on his neck seemed darker in the firelight, the ink almost alive against his skin. He looked every bit the powerful Beta he had become broad-shouldered, battle-hardened, unshakable but I could see the storm brewing beneath his calm exterior. I had always been able to read him better than anyone.
"About Aurora," I said simply.
Jayden's jaw tightened. "What about her? You made it very clear tonight that you intend to claim her. In front of the entire pack. While I stand there and watch."
I walked toward him slowly, stopping just close enough that I could feel the heat radiating from his body. "I told you from the beginning. I will not choose. The pact demands I take her as my mate. The pack needs the alliance. And I…" I paused, letting the weight of the words settle. "I want her."
Jayden let out a bitter laugh, the sound hollow and sharp. "You want her. Just like that. After fifteen years apart, after everything we've been through, after everything we've built together you look at her once and decide you need us both?"
I reached out and gripped his chin, forcing him to meet my eyes. "Do not twist this, Jayden. You know what this is. The bond between us has never faded. You are mine. You have always been mine. But the pact is binding, and Aurora is part of that now. Whether either of us planned for it or not."
His golden eyes flashed with raw jealousy. "And what am I supposed to do? Stand beside you while you mark her? Watch you knot her under the full moon while the packs cheer her name? Pretend it doesn't tear me apart inside?"
The pain in his voice was real. It hit me harder than I expected. I had known this would be difficult for him had braced myself for his anger but hearing it spoken aloud, stripped of pride and pretense, stirred something deeply protective inside me. And something fiercely possessive.
I pulled him closer, my hand sliding to the back of his neck. "You will stand there as my Beta. You will watch. And afterward, when we are alone, I will remind you exactly who you belong to."
Jayden's breathing grew heavier. He didn't pull away, but his body remained tense beneath my grip, coiled like a spring ready to snap. "And what about her? She is not some toy, Tristan. She lost her father. She buried him less than a week ago. She is Luna of her own pack, and she carries that weight alone. She deserves better than being dragged into whatever this is between us."
Something shifted in my chest at his words. I hadn't expected him to defend her. I hadn't expected the small flicker of respect it kindled in me.
I tightened my grip on his neck, just enough to make him feel it. "She is stronger than you think. Stronger than she even knows herself. And the pull between the three of us… it is not normal, Jayden. It is not coincidence. You feel it too. I see the way you look at her when you think I'm not watching."
Jayden's eyes darkened. "I look at her with resentment. She is threatening everything we have."
"Is that all it is?" I asked, my voice dropping lower. "Resentment? Or is there something else hiding underneath it?"
He didn't answer immediately. The silence stretched between us, thick with unspoken truth. I could see the conflict warring behind his eyes loyalty to me, jealousy toward her, and something newer, rawer. Something that looked dangerously like desire.
I leaned in until our foreheads almost touched, close enough to feel his breath against my lips. "Tell me the truth, Jayden. When you look at her, do you only see a threat? Or do you see a woman who makes your blood run hot the same way I do?"
A long, trembling pause.
Then his hands came up and gripped my shirt. "I hate how much I want to know what she tastes like," he admitted through gritted teeth. "I hate how much I want to watch you take her while I stand there. I hate that I don't know anymore where the resentment ends and something else begins. This is f****d up, Tristan. All of it."
The confession sent a surge of heat through me, fierce and immediate. I crushed my mouth to his in a brutal kiss, swallowing the rest of his words. Jayden kissed me back fiercely, his hands fisting in my shirt as though he wanted to tear it clean from my body. The kiss was angry, possessive, filled with the weight of fifteen years of history and the raw new complication of Aurora threading herself between us without even trying.
I broke the kiss and pressed my forehead to his, both of us breathing hard. "We will figure this out. The three of us together. The bond is pulling us toward her whether we want it or not. Fighting it will only make it worse."
Jayden pulled back slightly, his golden eyes searching mine with an intensity that few men could have held. "And if she never accepts it? If she fights us every step of the way? She is not exactly the yielding type."
A slow smile pulled at my mouth. "No. She is not."
"Then we will convince her," I said, my voice dropping dark and certain. "Slowly. Thoroughly. Until she understands exactly where she belongs and stops running from it."
Jayden let out a shaky breath, something between a laugh and a surrender. "You're playing a dangerous game."
I pressed my lips briefly to his. "I always do."
We stayed like that for a long moment, bodies close, the fire crackling low in the background, the lake dark and still beyond the window. The tension between us was far from resolved it would not be resolved until Aurora herself stood in this room and the three of us faced whatever this bond truly was.
But for now, it was enough.
Tomorrow, the real test would begin.
And I was ready for whatever came next.
- Writer
