Chapter 3:One Kiss Is All It Takes
841 Words
Chapter 3: One Kiss Is All It Takes
Warmth.
That’s the first thing I feel.
Not the stinging cold of the forest floor, not the echo of rejection or the ripping pain from the broken mate bond. Just warmth. Solid, silent, enveloping warmth.
My eyes flutter open and rest against the wooden ceiling. A low fire crackles in the hearth and the smell of pine and crushed herbs fills the room
“Where… am I?” I murmur.
Pain slices across my ribs the second I try to sit up. I hiss, flopping back onto thick, clean sheets.
The light outside’s soft (maybe morning) but in here, it’s almost too warm. Fireplace, probably.
I shift, propping myself on my elbows with a grunt. My body’s wrapped in bandages, and I’m in some oversized shirt that hangs past my thighs.
My feet touch the floor, but the second I try to stand, my center of gravity falters, forcing me to grab anything within reach if I fall. I have no idea where I am.
Just then, the door opens… and he walks right in.
The man from the woods.
Tall. Broad as a damn oak. Barefoot. A black shirt clings to his frame, and his sleeves are rolled up to his elbows, revealing ink trailing down his right forearm. There’s blood on the hem of his shirt, but I doubt it's his. Maybe mine. Maybe not.
And those silver eyes…
"You shouldn’t be up" he says, blunt as a hammer.
“Did you—”
“You were being hunted. I didn't have a choice"
“I could’ve handled it.”
“Didn't look that way to me” he answers.
A beat of silence lingers between us.
I want to ask who he is, what he wants, how he knows my name, but my voice feels stuck.
“If you're feeling skeptical, can the fact that I didn't do anything to you while you were unconscious at least prove my innocence?” He says. “If I wanted to hurt you, I would've done it already.”
I eye the fireplace, the cabin, the stitched wounds. “Saying it like that doesn't exactly help your cause.”
He shrugs and walks past me, tossing his shirt onto the bed and revealing his sculpted muscles. “You needed rest. And healing. You’d had a long night.”
Understatement of the year.
I study him again. The air’s thick, tense. He’s calm, a wall I can’t read, but there’s something dangerous about him, even standing still.
“You never gave me your name.”
He pauses, just slightly. “Kade”
“Kade,” I echo, testing it. Feels familiar, but I can’t place it.
“Mm-hmm.”
I narrow my eyes. “Why did you help me… Kade?”
He finally looks at me again. Long enough that I forget how to breathe.
“I saw what happened at the party.”
My jaw tightens.
“No one deserves to go through something like that. Especially not you. Not after all you've done. Not after all you've been through.”
I flinch. “You were… watching me?”
“I was watching everyone. You’re just the one who stood out.”
The tension between us coils tighter.
I shouldn’t be reacting to this stranger like this. I’m still bruised. Still humiliated. Still broken.
But his words hit a place I’d buried.
“I don’t need your pity,” I snap.
“Good. I wasn’t offering any.”
Another silence. He fiddles with the fire, tossing a log in. “You faced that rejection head-on, in front of the whole clan. That’s not pity. That’s guts.”
I glance away, breath catching.
“You think that makes me strong?”
“I know it does.”
I don’t know what to say. No one’s ever said that to me. Not without wanting something.
Then he steps closer, and the room feels hotter. Heavier.
“You’re not the monster they painted you to be,” he murmurs.
I meet those silver eyes, trapped.
“You’re more than what they see,” he adds. “And there's more to you than that stupid mask. If they’re too blind to recognize that… then maybe they don’t deserve to see you at all.”
I don’t know what happens next.
Maybe it’s the ache. Maybe it’s the fury. Maybe it’s the way his voice curls around my spine.
But I move. Or he does.
One second we’re staring at each other, the next, I’m in his arms, lips pressed against his mouth like we’re starving and there’s no tomorrow.
It’s desperate. Raw. And when his hands curl around my waist, pulling me closer, I don’t resist.
Because for the first time in years…
I feel seen, yet at the same time, I feel vulnerable.
I pull away, breathless.
And he whispers, “Are yo
u sure?”
I nod, heart pounding. “Don’t make me think.”
The firelight flickers, and we fall together… into the dark.
- Writer
