Evaline:
Oscar.
I stared at him like I was seeing a ghost... except ghosts didn’t breathe heavy in the moonlight. They didn’t hold your gaze with dark green eyes full of wild tension. They didn’t sll like fire and pine and sothing dangerous that lived in the back of your throat and heart.
But he did.
He was real.
And he was naked.
I instinctively took a step back. My heart was slamming so hard that it hurt. The weight of the mate bond flared up between us like it had just rembered its purpose. A golden string pulled tight in my chest, vibrating, burning.
He didn’t move at first. His gaze was locked on mine, unreadable.
He was the sa man who kept telling to stay away. Who hadn’t even looked at since our last eting when my world tilted and my heart betrayed by accepting him despite everything.
He had rejected that bond. Rejected . Even if not directly, his words that day were enough for to know that he didn’t want the bond, or .
But his wolf?
His wolf had done the exact opposite.
"I didn’t know," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "I didn’t know it was you."
His jaw twitched. Still, he didn’t speak.
The tension thickened between us. It was like a pressure that was pushing against my skin like the heat before a storm. I should have left. I should have turned and walked straight to the door. But I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
Because sothing in his eyes had changed.
There was no cold dismissal there. No contempt. Just intensity. Heat. Hunger. And sothing far more terrifying... need.
"I told you to stay away." His voice was low and raw, breaking the silence. "So why are you here?"
My lips parted in disbelief. "You think I followed you? It’s the other way around for your kind information."
He took one slow step toward and the air shifted.
"You are in the library. Alone. On a full moon night."
"It’s my Academy, too!" I shot back, feeling slightly frustrated. "And if anyone’s to bla for this situation, it’s your wolf, not !"
His expression faltered.
Just for a second.
And that second was all I needed.
"Your wolf ca here," I said, quieter now, almost breathless. "He found . He waited for . He didn’t hurt . He didn’t leave."
His hands clenched at his sides. "He’s... not ."
"Yes, he is," I whispered. "He’s the part of you that you try to bury. The part that doesn’t lie."
I saw it in his eyes then - that war. That push and pull inside him. The Alpha and the man. The wolf and the stubborn fool who didn’t want this bond.
But tonight?
Tonight, he wasn’t the one making decisions.
I stepped back, slowly, until I reached one of the lounge chairs by the window. I didn’t sit. I couldn’t. My legs were trembling too much. My heart was caught between fear and sothing dangerously close to longing.
"Are you going to tell to stay away again?" I asked softly. "Even now?"
He didn’t answer.
Instead, he crossed the space between us in three big strides.
He didn’t touch .
But Goddess, he almost did.
His presence towered over mine. The heat rolling off his body was wild and electric. The bond between us was screaming louder now, coiling around my ribs like vines with thorns.
"I shouldn’t be here," he muttered, more to himself than to .
"But you are."
I looked up into his face. His lips were parted and his breath was uneven. The edge of his control was so thin I could feel it cracking. The full moon had done sothing to him. Not just to his wolf. But to him.
"I fought this," he said suddenly in a harsh voice. "From the mont I scented you, I fought it. Because I didn’t want this - you - to destroy what’s left of my brothers."
"I never asked to be your mate," I shot back and lifted my chin. "You think this bond doesn’t terrify , too? That I want to be tied to soone who looks at like I’m poison?"
His face twisted, but I didn’t back down.
"I hate this," I admitted with a shaking breath. "I hate how it feels when you look at . How my chest aches when you ignore . How your wolf shows up and makes feel like I matter, and then you disappear like I don’t."
His hand moved.
Just a flicker of movent, like he was about to reach for ... and then stopped.
But it was enough.
My resolve cracked. And before I could think it through, before my fear could remind how wrong this was... I stepped forward.
The bond between us flared at the closeness.
I was standing so close now, causing our breaths to mingle. I stared at his lips. At the sharp line of his jaw. At the brokenness he tried to hide but couldn’t anymore.
"I don’t know what you want from ," I whispered.
But he didn’t reply. Instead, he did the last thing I was expecting.
He leaned down... slowly, so carefully... and rested his forehead against mine.
The touch was light. Barely there. But it felt like being struck by lightning.
"You drive insane," he murmured in a hoarse voice. "I hate how you make feel. How he..." he thumped his chest, "... how he won’t stop wanting you."
"Then don’t fight him." The words escaped before I could stop them, and his breath hitched.
"Don’t tempt ," he growled.
But I already had.
And I didn’t pull away.
Not even when he gently, almost reluctantly, pressed his palm to my waist. Not even when his nose brushed along my jaw in the softest, most reverent way, like he was scenting .
Because so twisted, desperate part of wanted it.
Wanted him.
Even after everything.
"I can’t give you what you want, Evaline," he said, his voice breaking. "But tonight... I just need to stay close."
I nodded, chest burning. "Then stay."
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