Chapter 8

Aria didn’t know when she had stopped fighting.

One moment, she had been resisting, thrashing, clawing for distance, for air, for anything that wasn’t him—and the next, she was drowning. Drowning in his warmth, in the taste of him, in the way his mouth moved against hers like he had always known her, like he had been waiting for this, like she was meant to be here.

A terrible, awful truth settled deep in her bones, so heavy it nearly broke her:

She had never stood a chance.

Not against him.

Not against this.

Darius kissed her like a storm, like a force of nature, like something inevitable. His hands—so large, so strong, so unbearably steady—framed her face, tilting her up, holding her still even as she trembled beneath the weight of him. He wasn’t forcing her. He wasn’t taking. But gods, he was consuming.

Her fingers clutched at his shirt, clung to him, her mind screaming at her to shove him away, to fight, to do something—

But her body—

Her body melted.

Betrayed her in the worst way possible.

Because the moment his tongue brushed against the seam of her lips, the moment his grip tightened ever so slightly, the moment he made a low, dangerous sound in the back of his throat—she opened for him.

Like she was his.

Like she had always been his.

Heat roared through her, setting her veins on fire, sending shivers down her spine as he took what she had unwittingly offered. His mouth was demanding, his lips rough yet controlled, every movement precise. There was no hesitation, no uncertainty—just power, just claiming.

It was too much.

It was everything.

And that was what shattered her.

That was what made her snap.

A sharp gasp tore from her lips as reality crashed back in, as panic surged through her veins, as the horrifying realization of what she was doing, what she was allowing, what she was becoming—slammed into her chest like a blade.

She ripped herself away.

The force of it sent her stumbling, nearly falling, her breath ragged, her hands trembling violently.

Darius let her go.

That was the worst part.

He let her go too easily.

Like he knew.

Like he had already won.

Her chest rose and fell in quick, shallow bursts, her lips swollen, tingling, aching from his kiss. The taste of him still lingered on her tongue, something dark and intoxicating and dangerous.

Aria’s hands curled into fists, her nails digging into her palms so hard she nearly broke the skin. She had let him in. She had let herself feel.

She had made the most dangerous mistake of all.

Darius’s golden eyes watched her with an intensity that made her feel bare. Stripped. Exposed. His expression was unreadable, but there was something behind it—something dark, something smug, something that made her burn with rage.

“You—” Her voice cracked. She clenched her jaw, forcing herself to breathe. To think. To not fall apart. “You don’t get to do that.”

Darius lifted a brow, his lips twitching in something that wasn’t quite a smirk but was too close to one.

“Do what?” His voice was calm. Infuriatingly calm.

Aria’s vision blurred with fury. “You know what.”

His gaze darkened, just slightly. “Do you?”

The question sent a sharp pulse through her chest, something she refused to name, something she couldn’t name.

She shook her head frantically. “No. No, no, no. This isn’t—this isn’t real. This isn’t happening.”

Darius exhaled softly, his expression unreadable as he took a single step forward.

She stumbled back.

He stilled.

And then he said, so softly, so simply:

“You felt it.”

The world tilted.

Aria sucked in a breath, her heart hammering. “No.”

Darius’s gaze dropped to her lips, then slowly, slowly, back to her eyes. “Liar.”

Her knees nearly buckled.

A sharp, violent ache twisted through her, something too big, too raw, too real to ignore.

No.

She wouldn’t let this happen.

She couldn’t.

A sharp gust of wind tore through the trees, rustling the leaves, sending shadows dancing across the forest floor. The scent of rain hung thick in the air, a storm brewing on the horizon, a storm that felt like it had started inside her.

She needed to leave.

Now.

Before she did something she couldn’t undo.

Before she let herself become something she swore she would never be.

Aria swallowed hard, forcing her voice to be steady, forcing herself to hold his gaze even when it felt like she was drowning in it.

“This doesn’t mean anything,” she said.

Darius’s golden eyes gleamed. “Doesn’t it?”

Her jaw clenched. “I will never be yours.”

Silence stretched between them, thick and unbearable.

And then—

Darius smiled.

Slow. Dark. Knowing.

“You already are.”

A sharp, panicked breath tore from her lungs. “I hate you.”

Darius tilted his head, studying her. “Do you?”

Aria hated how the question unraveled her.

Hated how his voice wrapped around her.

Hated how her body ached for something it should not want.

A sound tore from her throat—frustration, rage, despair—and she turned.

She ran.

Again.

But she knew—gods, she knew.

She wasn’t really running from him.

She was running from herself.

The sound of her own ragged breathing filled the forest as Aria sprinted through the dense trees, branches clawing at her skin like desperate hands trying to hold her back. The ground was uneven, covered in fallen leaves and twisted roots, but she didn’t care. She pushed forward, ignoring the sting of the cuts on her arms, ignoring the way her legs burned with exhaustion.

Because stopping meant thinking.

And thinking meant remembering.

The heat of his touch. The taste of his kiss. The way his voice wrapped around her like chains, tightening, pulling, claiming.

No.

No, no, no.

She couldn’t let him win.

The thought sent another surge of energy through her, forcing her to move faster, to push harder. The trees blurred past her, dark and endless, the wind whipping against her face, the cool night air doing nothing to cool the fire burning beneath her skin.

How had she let this happen?

How had she let herself slip?

Darius was everything she had sworn to fight against. A ruthless, arrogant Alpha who thought he could take whatever he wanted, who thought he could bend the world—bend her—to his will.

And yet…

She had kissed him back.

Not just kissed him back—she had melted into him.

She had let herself forget, even for a moment, who she was.

What she was.

A sharp burst of frustration tore from her throat, an almost inhuman sound, as she stumbled forward, her fingers scraping against the rough bark of a tree to steady herself.

This wasn’t who she was.

She wasn’t weak.

She wasn’t his.

The forest stretched on, endless and vast, but she barely noticed the path she was taking. Her instincts guided her—away, away, away. Away from the man who threatened to unravel her. Away from the pull.

But no matter how far she ran, she couldn’t outrun the truth.

The bond was there.

It was undeniable.

And that realization terrified her more than anything.

She had always known that being a rogue meant danger. That sooner or later, she would be caught, that she would have to face the consequences of living a life outside the laws of the packs. But she had never expected this.

Never expected him.

Darius wasn’t just another Alpha.

He was something else entirely.

Something that made her pulse quicken in ways that had nothing to do with fear.

And that was the most dangerous thing of all.

Her breathing was sharp and shallow as she finally slowed, her body screaming for rest. She pressed a hand to the rough bark of a tree, her fingers trembling, her mind spinning. The air around her was thick with the scent of damp earth and pine, the night alive with the distant sounds of the forest.

She needed to think.

She needed a plan.

Because running wouldn’t be enough. Not forever.

Darius would find her.

He would always find her.

A shiver crawled down her spine at the thought, a mixture of fear and something else she refused to name.

She forced herself to breathe, to steady her racing heart. She had survived this long. She would survive this, too.

Even if the bond was real, even if the moon itself had decided to betray her by tying her to him, she wouldn’t accept it.

She refused.

Fate wasn’t absolute.

She would find a way to break the bond.

She had to.

Because if she didn’t…

If she let herself fall any further…

She would lose herself.

And that was something she could never allow.