Aidan.

I had finally retired to my chamber to rest, even though the word rest felt like a joke right now. My meal still hadn’t been delivered, but food was the last thing on my mind.

Hunger didn’t claw at me, heat did.

A slow-burning fire simmered under my skin, slithering into my bones, coiling low in my stomach. It was that time again.

That cursed, blessed, maddening time of the year.

The Alpha’s heat—raw, primal, merciless.

"Shittt," I hissed, dragging a rough palm over my face.

My wolf purred in my mind, stretching like a beast freshly woken, ready to prowl.

I couldn’t go to Vanessa, not yet. I hadn’t chosen a maiden for tonight. Hadn’t even sent for one.

My brothers, those overconfident idiots, had likely already prepared.

They always did.

But I... I’d lost track of everything tonight.

The heat rolled through me again, hotter this time, sharp and demanding.

Breathe. Focus.

"Anyone there?" I called out, my voice deeper than usual, roughened at the edges. It sounded like gravel dragged across stone.

Silence answered.

My hands trembled despite the iron control I tried to keep. A thin sheen of sweat clung to my neck, my forearms, everywhere.

I could feel my wolf pushing forward, claws scraping at the walls I’d built between us.

A low growl rumbled in my chest.

I needed to unleash him soon, or I would lose control entirely. My body bowed, tense from strain, and I gripped the carved bedpost to ground myself. Wood splintered beneath my fingers, but I held on, forcing my breathing to steady.

Just a little longer...

Then, suddenly, the soft click of a door latch, and the air shifted. My head snapped up, vision sharpening, breath freezing inside me.

And there she stood.

The light framed her in a warm halo as she crossed the threshold, small, delicate, yet carrying a scent so intoxicating it sliced through my restraint like a blade.

My wolf lunged forward in my chest and roared, shaking my mind.

"Mate."

The word boomed through me, not spoken aloud, but echoing so fiercely inside that I swayed.

"Calm down," I muttered under my breath, struggling to hold him back.

My wolf wasn’t listening, he was all instinct, all hunger, all need. Mine. Ours. Claim her.

I swallowed hard, my throat, dry. I tried to stand straighter, tried to compose myself, tried not to let the heat devour my good sense. But her scent, moonlit blossoms and rain-drenched earth, washed over me, and my control frayed to a thin thread.

She moved further into the room, unaware of the battle raging beneath my skin. With slow, careful motions, she placed the tray of food on the low table near my bed.

Her voice came soft, respectful, untouched by the urgency tearing through me.

"Alpha Aidan, your food is here."

She bowed her head, long lashes sweeping downward, throat exposed for a heartbeat. My wolf snarled in approval at the unintentional submission.

She turned to leave immediately, as if sensing nothing, as if she were just another servant delivering another meal. But she wasn’t.

She was everything.

Before I fully registered the decision, before logic or restraint could interfere, my body moved with wild instinct.

In a heartbeat, I crossed the room.

She gasped softly, barely turning before I reached her. My hand closed gently but firmly around her wrist, heat meeting heat.

I spun her toward me, not violently, but fast enough that she stumbled. She landed against my chest, soft, warm, heartbreakingly real.

Her breath caught.

Mine vanished entirely.

Her chest pressed against mine, her heartbeat thundering through both of us like a war drum. My fingers tightened around her wrist, unwilling to let go, unwilling to lose the contact now that I finally had it.

Up close her scent drowned me, wrapped around me, sank claws into every part of me. She looked up, eyes wide, startled, beautiful, and I knew without question that fate had brought her into my room at the worst and best possible moment.

My wolf purred, satisfied.

Mate.

I stood there, chest heaving, holding her against me, torn between sense and instinct, between letting her go and never releasing her again.

"Alpha Aidan!" she gasped, voice trembling between command and plea.

Her eyes, wide, startled, impossibly bright, locked onto mine with an intensity that only fueled the wildfire crawling beneath my skin.

"Can you loosen your grip? I have to serve Alpha..."

I didn’t let her finish.

The thread of restraint I’d been holding snapped clean in two. I leaned down and claimed her lips, swallowing the last word before it could leave her trembling mouth.

Her breath hitched sharply, then melted into a soft, involuntary moan that vibrated through me like a spark to dry tinder.

I kissed her as if I had been starved of her for years, because in a way, I had. My wolf howled its triumph, claws digging forward. Mate. Ours. Take her.

Her lips parted beneath mine, sweet, warm, addictive. I poured every aching, burning, unbearable desire straight into that kiss, groaning when she responded even for that fleeting second.

My free hand slid up her side, fingers skimming fabric until they slipped beneath it, reaching hot skin. Her body tensed against me instantly, rigid, startled, but gods, that only made me want more.

"Alpha Aid..."

Again, I cut her words off with my mouth.

I could feel her trying to speak, trying to reason, trying to drag sense into a room where none existed anymore, but I couldn’t let her. Not when every second she resisted made my wolf claw harder at the surface.

I deepened the kiss, tasting her gasp, her hesitation, her breath. Her fingers fisted at my chest, pushing weakly, then gripping as though torn between fleeing or pulling me closer.

My hand traveled lower, past her waist, over her hip, halfway down to where I needed her most. Heat pulsed through me as I touched new skin, hot and soft under my palm.

And then, finally, she reacted.

Her body wriggled, resisting more firmly now, trying to twist away from my roaming hands. She bit the corner of my lip, not hard, but sharp enough to jolt me.

Pain, pleasure, her taste, everything blurred.

She didn’t want this.

But gods, she did.

Her wolf recognized mine, just as fiercely, just as helplessly.

The more she resisted, the more my instincts surged, demanding, to claim her. Mark her. Take what’s yours.

My grip tightened, my mouth slanted harder over hers, devouring every protest.

My hand slid the rest of the way, curling fully beneath her dress, fingers brushing the smooth skin of her thigh and further still. She gasped, a loud, broken moan, her back arching against me involuntarily.

Surrender.

I felt it the moment she gave in, not fully, not consciously, but her body betrayed her. Her shaking hand clutched the back of my neck, her lips molding perfectly to mine as though she had been waiting for this moment just as painfully as I had.

"She bloody loves this," my wolf snickered darkly.

And for a moment, I believed it too.

Why pretend she didn’t feel the same fire licking at her veins?

In a swift motion, acting on nothing but instinct and need, I swept her off her feet, lifting her effortlessly as she gasped again, and carried her toward the bed.

She weighed nothing, yet holding her grounded me, centered me, called to every ruthless instinct inside me.

I laid her down gently but firmly, pinning her place with nothing but the heat of my stare.

Gods, she was beautiful.

Flushed cheeks, swollen lips, chest rising and falling like she’d run a mile. Her hair spilled across my sheets, wild and disheveled, and her golden eyes burned with something dangerously close to lust.

Why hadn’t I seen her like this before?

Why had fate waited until tonight to rip the blindfold from my eyes? 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Hovering over her, breathing in her scent, I let my gaze roam her face, memorizing every detail.

"Are you ready for me?" I murmured, voice low, rough, and laced with hunger.

A smirk tugged at my lips, not arrogant, just unable to contain the raw desire blazing through me.

Her lips parted, just barely, but enough for my pulse to roar. She was about to speak, I could feel it in the way her breath trembled against my skin.

Maybe she would whisper yes, giving voice to the wildfire burning between us.

Or maybe she would tell me to stop, to slow down, to remember the world that existed outside this moment.

I never found out.

Because the universe, cruel, mocking, and inexplicably fond of bad timing, decided that was the perfect moment to hurl a brick wall straight into my fantasy.

The door crashed open with a jarring thud that echoed through the room.

"Aidan!" Vanessa’s voice whipped through the air like an icy storm wind, slicing through the heated haze wrapped around us. "What’s going on here?"

I froze, mid-breath, mid-motion, hovering over my mate. The world didn’t just stop; it collapsed, loud and unforgiving, around us in a single heartbeat.