Chapter 13: The Alpha's Shadow (Part 2 - The Night of the Moonstone)
The moon hung high over the cottage, casting long, silver fingers through the windows. The fire in the hearth crackled, its orange glow dancing against the stone walls. Outside, the forest whispered, but inside, the silence was heavy with a different kind of electricity.
I stood by the window, my back to the room, still wearing my black dress shirt from the Academy. The "Husband Mode" from the courtyard hadn't fully faded. I could still feel the phantom heat of my rage against Bianca, the protective instinct still thrumming in my veins like a live wire.
I heard the soft click of the door. Wolfie had emerged from the bath, wrapped in a soft, cream-colored robe that made her skin look like toasted honey. She looked at me, her eyes tentative, a lingering trace of the day's guilt still clouding her expression.
"Drayan?" she whispered. "The school... what you did today... I didn't know you could be like that."
I turned slowly. My eyes were still dark, the vampire intensity lingering. I walked toward her, my footsteps silent on the rug, until I stood directly in her path. I didn't touch her—not yet. I just let her feel the weight of my gaze.
"You tried to leave me, Wolfie," I said, my voice a low, gravelly vibration. "You tried to tell me I'd be happier with a ghost from the city. You looked at the bond we signed in blood and you thought you could just... walk away."
Wolfie bit her lip, looking down at her feet. "I thought I was doing what was best for you. I thought—"
"That's your mistake," I interrupted, stepping into her space until she was forced to look up at me. I reached out, my fingers tracing the line of her jaw, my touch possessive and firm. "You don't get to decide what's best for my heart. Only I do. And because you doubted me, because you made me chase you through the mud while my soul was screaming... I think a punishment is in order."
Wolfie's breath hitched. Her amber eyes widened, not with fear, but with a sudden, answering heat. "A punishment?"
"Yes," I murmured, leaning down until my lips were brushing against her ear. "For the rest of the night, you aren't allowed to move. You aren't allowed to think about the city, or Bianca, or the Academy. You are only allowed to feel how much I belong to you."
I swept her up into my arms, the movement sudden and effortless. She let out a small gasp, her hands instinctively clutching my shoulders, her nails—the ones that had drawn my blood in the woods—now digging into my shirt for a different reason.
I carried her to the large, fur-lined bed near the fire. As I laid her down, I didn't let go of her hand. I held it against my chest, right over my heart, which beat only for her.
"You are my wife," I said, my voice thick with a century's worth of longing. "In every world, in every life. If you ever try to 'set me free' again, I will hunt you down and remind you like this every single time."
I leaned over her, my hair falling forward, shadowing us from the rest of the world. I kissed her—not the desperate, forced claim of the forest, but a slow, deep, and devastatingly romantic promise. It was a kiss that tasted of forever. It was the kiss of a husband who had finally claimed his kingdom and found his queen.
Every time she tried to speak, to apologize again, I silenced her with my lips. I traced every scar she had earned for the pack, every inch of the "wildness" she thought I hated, worshiping her with a devotion that left her breathless. In the quiet of the night, the "City Boy" was gone. There was only the Man and the Wolf, their souls finally knitting together so tightly that no lie could ever tear them apart again.
"I love you, Drayan," she whispered against my neck, her voice breaking with the sheer weight of her happiness.
"I am yours," I replied, my fangs grazing her skin in a gentle, final claim. "Always."
The fire eventually burned down to embers, but the warmth in the cottage remained. The misunderstanding was buried. The intruder was gone. And as the moon moved across the sky, Drayan and Wolfie finally found the peace they had fought so hard to win.