When star falls

TENDERNESS

CHAPTER ELEVEN-

The water was still steaming as Maya stepped out of the shower, her skin flushed from the heat. She wrapped herself in a towel and padded barefoot down the hallway, her mind a storm of questions. The way Kieran looked at her. The way Leo didn’t answer his phone. The way everything felt like it was closing in.

But nothing could’ve prepared her for the figure waiting in the corner of her bedroom shadowed, unmoving.

She gasped, heart lurching, until the scent hit her.

“Leo.”

He stepped into the light. His eyes were glowing glowing gold and fierce, like something ancient had cracked open inside him. His chest rose and fell like he’d run miles to get to her.

“I saw you with him,” he said, voice rough, thick with something deeper than jealousy.

Maya didn’t move. “You were watching me?”

“I’ve been watching all day,” he admitted. “Trying to keep control. Trying to be good. But then I saw you smile at him. Heard you laugh. I nearly lost it.”

He took two steps toward her.

“I have lost it.”

And then he was on her.

The towel dropped, forgotten. His hands gripped her hips as his mouth found hers hungry, desperate, possessive. The kiss wasn’t gentle. It was a claim, a need that had been building for days. She felt him shake against her, every muscle taut with restraint barely holding.

Maya gasped into his mouth as his lips moved down her neck, grazing the spot just above her collarbone the place where her pulse thundered.

“You smell like wild things,” he growled, teeth grazing her skin. “Like moonlight and danger.”

“Leo—”

“I’ve been waiting to taste you,” he whispered, lifting her like she weighed nothing and carrying her to the bed.

His hands explored her body like he was memorizing her, trailing fire across her skin. Everywhere he touched, she felt her senses spark to life—like the shift inside her wanted him closer, deeper, now.

Her hands tangled in his hair as he kissed down her stomach, slow and reverent now, like worship. When he came back up to meet her eyes, his voice was low, trembling.

“Tell me to stop.”

She didn’t. Instead, she pulled him in again, lips crashing into his. His body pressed fully against hers, heat and tension blending into a rhythm that belonged to creatures older than either of them. And just when it felt like they were falling apart together—

Leo froze. His entire body stiffened, breath hitching as his head lifted. His eyes flashed gold again, but this time with fear.

“What is it?” she whispered, breathless.

“I can hear heartbeats, a couple of them.”

Leo’s head was tilted, nostrils flaring, as he listened for the heartbeats but Maya pulled him back with a force that stunned him more than any sound.

“Don’t stop, they are my family’s” she whispered, breath ragged against his lips. “Please, Leo.”

Her voice cracked something inside him. A low growl rumbled from his chest, primal and unfiltered, as his body pressed back into hers with a desperate intensity. His mouth was on her again claiming, adoring, teeth brushing the edge of her shoulder where her skin had started to hum with the heat of her awakening. She felt like fire and moonlight beneath him, her back arching, her fingers digging into his shoulders like she didn’t want to let go.

“I want all of you,” he breathed against her skin, his voice rough and strained, “but you have no idea what you do to me.”

She shivered beneath him. “Then show me.”

He growled again, deeper this time, the sound vibrating through her bones and he obeyed. His hands roamed, lips trailing down her body, kissing the space between her breasts, foddling her breast, her stomach, her hip, only to rise back up and meet her mouth with a hungry need that burned like wildfire. Her body welcomed him, instinct and want crashing together, the line between human and wolf blurring beneath the moonlight filtering through her window.

But then—

He stopped. Just like that. His breathing was heavy against her cheek. His forehead pressed to hers. His fingers shook against her waist.

“Leo?” she whispered.

His hands slid up to cradle her face, gently now, reverently. “If I don’t stop, I’ll take more than I should,” he murmured. “And I want you, not just this. Not just tonight.”

She blinked up at him, lips parted, eyes soft and dazed.

“I love you, Maya,” he whispered, voice breaking as he pressed a kiss to her temple. “God, I love you. You undo me.”

She didn’t answer.

She was already asleep.

Her breathing deepened, her hand still resting on his chest, fingers curled into the shape of him like she was holding onto a dream.

Leo smiled, heart aching in his chest. He held her there, long after her breathing evened out, long after the room dimmed and the scent of her settled in his skin.

Leo lay next to her in the quiet of the night, the only sound the soft rhythm of her breathing as she slept in his arms. He could feel the warmth of her skin, the steady rise and fall of her chest against his. The moonlight spilled through the window, casting everything in a pale, silver glow but it wasn’t enough to make him forget.

He let out a soft sigh, his thumb grazing her cheek as he gently brushed her hair back from her face. He should’ve left sooner. The longer he stayed, the more tangled their fates became but it was harder to walk away from her with each passing moment. Harder to keep the secrets that could tear them apart.

His voice was barely above a whisper, but it was enough to break the silence.

“I didn’t mean to fall for you, Maya,” he murmured. “I never meant to feel this way. I had my reasons for staying away for keeping distance. But you… You’ve always been different. Since the moment I saw you. You don’t even know what you do to me.”

He swallowed hard, turning his head toward the ceiling as memories flashed in his mind. His family, the past he ran from, the truth he had buried deep.

“My family…” He paused, then exhaled slowly, as though the weight of his words might break him. “They were supposed to keep me safe. But they didn’t. They thought I was some kind of weapon—a tool to be used. They taught me how to fight, how to control hunger. But all they ever gave me was control without love.”

His fingers tightened around hers for a moment before he continued.

“I had to leave. I couldn’t be the thing they wanted me to be. I couldn’t kill on command. So I ran. I tried to outrun the person I was supposed to be.”

He looked down at her, his chest tightening with emotion.

“I thought I could stay away from you. That it would be safer, for both of us. But here I am… letting myself fall. And I’d do it again, Maya. I’d do it a thousand times over if it means having just one more moment with you.”

He gently kissed her forehead, his lips lingering for a second longer than usual.

“I love you. I don’t know if I can explain how, but I do. I wish I could be more than what I am for you. I wish I could be the kind of man who deserves you.”

Maya stirred in her sleep, her lips curling into a small smile as she shifted against him. Her heart rate slowed, and Leo’s chest tightened with something that almost felt like grief.

“You’re everything, Maya. And I don’t know how I’m supposed to keep going if you’re not beside me.”

He fell silent, waiting for a response that never came. Slowly, his own exhaustion crept in, his eyes fluttering shut as the pull of sleep began to claim him. But before he drifted off, he kissed her again soft, lingering, as though saying goodbye.

And, for the first time in years, Leo let himself rest