Verveville's Curse

Chapter33

Willow’s pov

The meeting dragged until the last of the voices died and footsteps retreated down the long corridor. I had almost made it to the door after Axel’s confrontation when his hand clamped around my wrist.

Kael didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. The mere weight of his grip told me what was coming. He yanked me back, hard enough that the air left my lungs, and before I could blink I was being hauled across the chamber. His pace was merciless, his body radiating a heat that seeped through my skin.

The door slammed shut with a brutal crack, rattling against its frame. My back hit the wood a moment later, his arm pressed across me, pinning me there.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” His voice was a growl, low, dangerous, with control that was already fraying.

I tilted my chin up, faking wide eyed confusion. “Doing?” I asked softly, lashes lowering as if I hadn’t the faintest idea what he meant.

The muscle in his jaw jumped. He leaned closer, so close I felt the brush of his breath against my cheek. “Don’t play stupid with me, Lylah. Not after what just happened.”

My lips parted in a slow, careful breath. “You’ll have to be more specific, Alpha. I wouldn’t want to answer for the wrong crime.”

The words were meant to cut, and they did. His eyes blazed, dark, and for a second I thought he might actually shake me. Instead, his hand found my waist, gripping tight enough to make me gasp. He dragged me closer until there wasn’t any space between us, until his chest pressed against mine and I could feel the hammer of his heart through the thin wall of fabric.

“You think this is a game?” His voice was rougher now, half fury, half something else. “Parading yourself in front of my pack, in front of me…”

“Parading?” I interrupted, letting my tone drip with feigned innocence. “I dressed for a meeting. Surely you don’t expect me to sit at your table in rags.”

His eyes dropped, just for a second, to the neckline of my dress. The flicker there was all I needed to know I had struck the right vein. He caught himself too late, but I saw it..the hunger he tried to bury.

His grip tightened. “You’re testing me.”

“Am I?” My voice was a whisper now, deliberate, with the mockery of innocence. I tilted my head, letting my hair brush his arm. “I only spoke my mind. If that unsettles you, perhaps the problem is not me.”

His hand slammed against the wood beside my head, caging me in fully. The sound echoed through the chamber, sharp and final. I should have flinched, but I didn’t. I held his gaze, daring him to push further.

“Careful,” he rasped, his mouth hovering just a breath away from mine. “You don’t know the line you’re walking.”

“I know exactly where I’m walking,” I said, though my voice trembled not from fear, but from the rush coursing through me. My pulse thundered, from what had nothing to do with danger and everything to do with him.

For a long moment, neither of us moved. His breath was fire against my lips. His eyes locked on mine, searching, punishing and wanting.

Then, suddenly, he seized my chin, tilting my face up to his. His thumb brushed the corner of my mouth, rough and unyielding, and my lips parted without permission. His expression twisted, as though he hated himself for touching me, yet couldn’t stop.

“This..” his voice broke, ragged, “..this is madness.”

“Then let it be madness,” I whispered.

The words were out before I could stop them, a dare, a plea, a confession. His eyes flared, and for a heartbeat I thought he would finally close the distance, claim the kiss that pulsed like a second heartbeat between us.

But he didn’t. He froze, caught between desire and control, his body rigid against mine.

“You don’t understand,” he hissed, pulling back just enough to drag air into his lungs. “You have no idea what you’re playing with.”

I swallowed hard, forcing my voice to steady. “Then explain it to me. Because all I see is you, trembling like I’m the one holding power here.”

His nostrils flared. “You think I want this? You think I haven’t fought every day to keep it chained?” His hand still gripped my waist, thumb pressing into the fabric of my dress, dangerously close to bare skin. “You don’t know what happens when I break.”

I leaned into him, reckless, closing the last inch between our mouths until I could feel the heat of him. My whisper brushed his lips. “Then break.”

The sound he made was half snarl, half groan. His forehead pressed to mine, hard enough to sting. His breath was ragged, his body shuddering with the force of holding back.

He could snap them with one choice, one movement. And part of me wanted it…wanted to see what he became when control finally shattered.

His fingers dug into my side, the grip bruising now. My heart raced. Every nerve in me burned alive under his touch.

“You’re not innocent,” he whispered finally, voice a rasp against my mouth. “You wear it like a mask, but I see through it. You want this as much as I do.”

I didn’t deny it. Couldn’t. The silence between us was admission enough.

When his mouth finally brushed mine.,.just barely, a ghost of contact…I thought I might collapse. But just as quickly, he tore himself back, spinning away as though burned. His hands raked through his hair, his chest heaving.

“Damn you, Lylah,” he growled, his back to me. “Damn you for making me want what I can’t have.”

The words hit harder than his grip ever could. I stood there, pressed against the door, my pulse racing, lips tingling from the touch that wasn’t quite a kiss.

And I smiled….small, secret and dangerous.

Because I knew now. He could deny it all he wanted, bury himself under duty. But he wanted me. And that want was a weapon I would use.