River:
The steam curled lazily over the surface of the pool, blurring the edges of her fra but never enough to dull the effect she had on .
Every little movent, every shift in her breathing, the way her fingers were fidgeting beneath the water... it was impossible for not to notice. My senses were too sharp, my focus too precise when it ca to her.
She was nervous. That much was obvious. The stiffness in her shoulders, the way her eyes kept darting between and so safe point on the wall, the way her breaths ca faster than they should for soone just standing waist-deep in warm water. She wanted to run. Hide. Retreat into the sanctuary of her room where she thought I couldn’t reach her... or, at least, wouldn’t try to reach her.
And yet, beneath that anxiety, there was sothing else. A current of anticipation.
Excitent.
If not for that - if not for the faint but undeniable spark of desire beneath her unease - I would have let her go. I would have abandoned the plan to draw her closer tonight, to show her the kind of bond we could share if she let in.
But she wanted this. Even if she hadn’t realized it yet.
The silence stretched between us, heavy but not suffocating. I found myself caught in it, lost in the sight of her.
Stars, she was beautiful.
Not just now, glowing with health, her skin luminous, her body softening and filling with life in ways that made my chest ache with primal satisfaction. No, I rembered the very first mont I saw her - dragged into the dungeon, dirty, malnourished, trembling. She should have been forgettable in that state, and yet... she hadn’t been.
I rembered stepping into that corridor, the dim torch flickering against damp stone wall, and seeing her for the first ti. My breath had stalled in my lungs. Even pale and weak, hair tangled, eyes hollow from hunger and fear - she had stood out.
There had been sothing about her presence that drew my gaze, sothing I couldn’t explain. I had told myself later it was nothing. But deep down, I knew the truth.
I had never been spellbound by a woman before Evaline Greystone.
And since that day, she had only grown more beautiful.
My gaze slipped lower before I could stop it. The water reached her waist, but her shirt... damn it. The thin white fabric clung to her like a second skin, transparent now, leaving very little to my imagination.
The dark green bikini underneath was outlining her curves perfectly - breasts fuller, waist softening slightly with the swell of her stomach. My throat went dry, heat coiling low in my body, sharp and unwelco.
I tore my gaze away before she could catch , clenching my jaw tight. Stars, I should have brought wine down here if I was going to survive this. She probably thought I was torturing her by dragging her into this pool. She couldn’t know... I was the one being tortured.
I forced my focus back to the water, tried to steady the wild beat of my heart.
Then her voice cut softly through the steam.
"...I’m sorry."
My head snapped toward her. She wasn’t looking at , her gaze cast downward, her voice so small I almost thought I imagined it.
"Sorry?" I asked, confusion breaking through my restraint.
Slowly, she lifted her eyes to mine. The sight hit like a blade. They were wide, vulnerable, threaded with sothing fragile I rarely saw from her these days. She sighed, the sound shaky, almost weighed down.
"I have been wanting to say this for a while," she whispered. "But I never knew how to start. So... I’ll just say it. I’m sorry. For what I said that night. When the bond ca alive."
My chest tightened.
Even before she spoke the words, I knew what was coming. And when she said it... the pain ca roaring back as if the wound had never dulled.
"That I would reject you."
Rejection.
The word alone was enough to make my wolf stir in anguish, a low groan echoing in the depths of . That evening, when she had said it so effortlessly, as if it were the most natural choice... her voice haunted still. My body rembered the tearing sensation of that single thought - the woman the Fate and Moon Goddess chose for wanted no part of .
My face must have betrayed the rawness of it, because she instantly moved closer. The water rippled around her as she stopped in front of . Her hand lifted, reaching for ... but she hesitated halfway and then her hand fell back uselessly into the pool.
"I’m sorry," she said again, her voice breaking just enough to scrape against my defenses. "I never should have said that. I know how much it hurts. I..." She swallowed hard. "I didn’t an it. I wasn’t trying to hurt you."
Her words tumbled out fast, unpolished, her usual composure gone. She was truly nervous, truly desperate for to understand.
"I was scared that night. I didn’t know what to do, what to say. And the first thought in my head was sothing so stupid I can’t believe I said it out loud."
Finally, her eyes locked with mine. Wide, pleading, begging to believe her.
And then she said the words that knocked the air clean out of .
"No matter what... I would have never rejected you. If you had refused, I wouldn’t have gone through with it. I was confused, afraid, stupid... but I would never have made that choice on my own."
Sothing inside shifted.
The pain that had lived under my skin since that night, and her confession... helped the gnawing, burning ache to ease. Diminish. My wolf had been restless for weeks, but it too quieted instantly.
She ant it. I could hear it in her voice, see it in her eyes.
For so long, I had carried that mont like a stone in my chest. But here she was, washing it away with her truth.
The tension in my jaw loosened. The tight grip I had on myself eased, and for the first ti since she uttered that cursed word, I let myself believe.
Believe that she didn’t want to leave.
Believe that maybe... just maybe... she wanted too.
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