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Chapter 290
~Valerie’s POV~
"Yeah. That’s what happens when you shift. I shifted."
Dristan’s eyes darkened, his brows pulling together in that way that said too much and yet nothing at all. He said nothing for a heartbeat. Then two.
"Do you always go for a midnight run while you’re in heat?" he asked, his tone sharp with sothing jagged—possessiveness, maybe.
I exhaled sharply, folding my arms under the hoodie. "I didn’t plan to go into heat right now, okay? It’s not exactly sothing I scheduled."
He stepped closer.
"So what, Xander just happened to be there?"
I looked away. "I didn’t go out looking for him."
"But he found you. Of course he did." His voice dipped lower, bitter, like a curse barely restrained. "And you let him see you. In that state."
"That state?" I repeated, a dry laugh escaping. "You an my wolf form? That state?"
"The very sa wolf form I literally begged you to go for a run in? The sa wolf form that Soren wants to spend ti with Astra in? And now you so casually let him see you in it."
I sighed, shaking my head. I sincerely did not wish to do this now.
"Dristan, it wasn’t like that."
"No. Then tell what it’s like and why, until now, I have not been allowed to see your wolf. Why are you shy of but not of him?"
I raked my hand through my head.
"If it’s my wolf form that’s the issue, then I apologise, but I just can’t yet, Dristan."
"No, Valerie. The shifting is one, but this state is another." His voice broke with frustration as his hand lifted and gestured toward , toward the thin hoodie clinging to my flushed skin, barely hiding what needed hiding.
"Don’t pretend like you don’t know what you’re doing to ," he murmured, and I stilled.
Sothing in his voice had shifted.
I opened my mouth to retort, but he stepped closer, eliminating the distance between us in a breath.
His scent enveloped like a drug, and the ache low in my belly blood with renewed force.
Dristan was doing things to in more ways than I could count or think of.
"I don’t..." I began, but my voice cracked. "I didn’t an to..."
"Don’t lie to ," he growled low. "You ca in slling like him. Like your heat worsened around him, you think I can’t tell?"
I felt the warmth flood my cheeks, but it was more than embarrassnt. My skin was burning. The heat—my heat—was peaking again, and his closeness wasn’t helping.
His hand shot out, gripping my wrist, not roughly, but firmly enough to still .
"Tell you don’t want this," he whispered, his voice a rasp now, barely more than breath against my lips. "Tell to stop."
I stared up at him. My heart was pounding like a war drum inside my chest.
He pulled close, and I felt him all of him. Hard and ready, all pressed against through his jeans.
The ache inside pulsed so hard I almost moaned. But I clenched my jaw instead.
"Dristan," I breathed, trying to think—trying to speak past the fog invading my head. "It’s just the heat—"
Before I could finish, his lips crashed down on mine.
I gasped, but he didn’t give the chance to pull away. His kiss was different from before.
It was fierce, territorial, wild, and I felt him devour , his tongue tracing mine in a demanding and unrelenting manner. And stars help , I kissed him back.
My hands found his chest, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt as his other arm looped around my waist and pulled even closer. His thigh nudged between mine, and my body trembled from the contact.
Then his hand moved lower, sliding beneath the hem of my hoodie. My breath hitched as his fingers brushed the inside of my thigh, then higher.
"Dristan..." I gasped against his lips, but his touch sent shockwaves through , pleasure bursting like firecrackers along my nerves.
"Tell to stop," Dristan said again, but this ti there was a pleading note under the command. "Say it, Valerie. Or I’m not going to."
His fingers slid up between my legs, parting , and I moaned before I could stop it, my hips arching into his palm instinctively.
I felt him smirk against my skin. "That’s what I thought."
It was like I’d lost myself in him, in this heat. His lips were on my neck now, fangs brushing lightly, making shiver.
His fingers kept teasing, stroking just right, and my knees almost buckled.
But then, sowhere inside the haze, I rembered Xander. I rembered what I told myself, what I wanted.
This wasn’t love; this was instinct... heat.
"No," I breathed, forcing myself to grab his wrist. "No, stop."
Dristan froze.
"Valerie," he whispered in a hoarse voice. "Don’t... don’t pull away now."
"I have to." I stepped back, the air between us growing colder. "This isn’t real. This is just the heat talking."
His eyes searched mine, almost frantic. "You think I don’t want you when you’re not in heat?"
I bit my bottom lip. "I think right now... neither of us is thinking clearly."
He scoffed, his jaw tightening. "So what, Riven and Xander get a pass, and I get punished?"
"Xander did not kiss before," I snapped.
Dristan didn’t believe anything I said, so I added, "And I stopped him, too!"
"Yeah, right before you ca running back in a hoodie, slling like him," he said, his voice low and bitter again.
"Stop it," I said, shaking my head. "Just stop, Dristan. You’re not being fair."
"No," he whispered, closing the gap one last ti, brushing his forehead against mine. "What’s not fair is that you keep pretending this thing between us isn’t real."
I didn’t answer.
Because part of wanted to believe him. And the other part knew... it wasn’t the right ti.
"I need space," I said quietly. "Just until my heat passes."
He didn’t argue. But I saw the flicker of pain in his eyes as he stepped away and let go.
"Fine," Dristan muttered. "Take all the space you need."
I turned and walked away, my knees barely steady, but my heart was an absolute ss and heat or not... I knew I had to find my necklace.
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