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“I’m not going anywhere. Neither is Noah. I will not let you manipulate me into relinquishing custody of our son. Because you know that’s what will happen, Rowan. You want to hide me away like a dirty secret? You want to keep me tucked away in a creepy little love den where I can pop out your heirs as your poor little rejected Mate?”

“God, Alina, I would never—”

“You think I’m stupid, don’t you? Even if we did go with you to this hypothetical safe space on Greenbriar land, you know that Noah would need you, eventually. When he starts shifting. When the others learn that your heir is ready to start formal training. He’ll have to leave my side, and then it will just be me alone in that prison you’re trying to sell to me as a good deal.”

I step forward, unable to handle the weight of her accusations. She’s so…incorrect. She doesn’t understand.

She has no idea how much love there is inside me, how much of it belongs to her.

“Alina,” I whisper, taking another step to close the distance between us. Her scent overwhelms me, setting my skin on fire. Lilacs in full bloom on a misty summer morning. Spiced cloves, bitter yet rich, tingling on my tongue. It’s intoxicating. It’s everything.

She starts to jerk away from me, but the touch of my hand on her bare arm halts her. Time stops and the rejected bond howls mournfully between us.

Her eyelashes flutter. She can feel it, too.

Then, against all odds, she leans into me.

I can’t hold myself back anymore. I’ve been choking down the needgnawing at me for days, and to see her swaying toward me just the slightest bit, as if she is also on the verge of losing control…it shatters any sense of propriety I might have otherwise maintained.

I reach for her, pulling her to me, and press my lips to hers in a blazing, incandescent kiss.

Chapter 11

Alina

The second his lips collide with mine, something inside me shatters.

It’s overwhelming and incredible, the way I melt into the ferocious pressure of his mouth on mine. His lips are warm, almost feverish, and they turn my blood into liquid fire. There is no gentleness in the way he captures me in this kiss, and I can’t help but respond to him with the same degree of desperation.

Or maybe shatter isn’t the right word, because I’ve already been broken beyond repair for ten years now. It’s more like something unravels, unspools, untethers itself from the tangle of knots that I’ve woven inside myself. Knots made of anxiety and desperation and heartbreak.

With one kiss, Rowan undoes all of that.

At least, it feels like he does.

Deep down, I know that I’m still a mess. But, in this moment, I’ve never felt more perfectly whole.

The kiss is fierce and forceful, the tender fury of an Alpha unable to resist his instincts tinging it with something ravenous. It’s the opposite of the first time we kissed, which was gentle and shy…until it wasn’t. Until we were overcome with a frenzy that made us forget reason and logic.

I don’t think about the past, though.

All I can focus on is him, right now, right here.

The worst part, though, is that I don’t even hesitate to kiss him back. My body responds automatically to his touch, echoing his passion with such fervor that it’s almost like I’d been expecting him to do this from the moment I opened the door and saw him standing at the threshold.

The wolf inside me comes alive under his touch, causing me to claw at him like I can’t get close enough. I am no longer a person with rational thoughts, but a ravenous creature that wants to be free and wild with him.

Rowan backs me into the counter, pressing his hips against mine. I cling to his shoulders, digging my fingernails into his skin through the thin cotton of his T-shirt. I want to claw at it, to shred it to pieces so that I can taste the smooth flesh underneath, but there’s a voice in the back of my head that screams just loudly enough for me to remember that our son is just upstairs. Now is not the time to rip Rowan’s clothes off.

He groans into my mouth, the sound so low and primal that it sends my heart skittering into an uneven beat.

The bond shimmers, tattered threads stretching and expanding.

I need to stop this. I need to remember why he’s here, and why I swore I’d hate him for as long as I live.

Instead, I roll my hips against his, feeling the firm press of his erection through the fabric of his jeans. It takes no time at all for him to be rock hard and ready for his Mate, rejected bond be damned.

Rowan tilts his head, slipping his tongue between my lips and deepening the kiss. At the taste of him, I can’t hold back a breathy whimper. The sound of it does something to him. His muscles tense, and his grip on my waist tightens toward the boundary between pleasure and pain.