Aria couldn't stop shaking.
It wasn't fear. Not exactly.
It was heat. An unfamiliar, deep twisting kind of heat, like something inside her had been triggered. Her skin burned for no reason. Her thoughts couldn't untangle from him.
That man Kade.
If that was even his real name.
She didn't know how she knew it, but the name pulsed in her mind like it had always belonged there. Kade. It sounded like smoke. Like sin.
After her second encounter with him, the woods felt alive in ways they never had before. She kept catching shadows out of the corner of her eye. Hints of motion that vanished the second she turned. The scent of pine and ash lingered in her clothes after every walk near the trail.
But it wasn't just the forest.
It was him.
He was everywhere.
She was at the diner where she worked, wiping down a table, when it hit her again, that creeping sensation crawling up the back of her neck. Like being watched.
She glanced toward the window.
Nothing.
But her skin still prickled.
"Salina" barked Liza, the owner. "You good? Table three needs refills."
"Yeah, sorry." Aria grabbed the coffee pot and tried to focus, but the heat inside her kept rising, like her blood was boiling just under the surface.
It wasn't just physical. It was emotional. Obsessive. A pull.
Like she was being claimed.
~~~~
Hours later, as twilight fell again, Salina stepped out of the diner into the cool breeze, rubbing her arms. Her shift had ended, but she didn't want to go home not yet. Her little cabin felt too small lately. Suffocating.
And she knew exactly where she was going.
Back into the woods.
She told herself she was just going for a walk. to get some air. And to clear her mind.
But she knew the truth.
She was hoping to see him.
~~~
She didn't have to wait long.
Ten minutes into the trail, she felt it again that presence.
And then, like he stepped from the shadows of her own thoughts, Kade emerged from the trees, silent and watching her.
"You came back," he said.
"You always sneak around like that?" she asked, fighting the racing of her heart.
"I'm not sneaking," he said, stepping closer. "I'm protecting."
"From what?"
"Things that want you." His voice dropped to a near growl. "Things that aren't me."
She laughed nervously. "So you're saying you don't want me?"
The look he gave her stole the breath from her lungs.
"I didn't say that."
He stopped a foot in front of her, and the heat between them felt tangible. The way his eyes scanned her face made her shiver, even though the night air was cold.
"I don't understand what's happening to me," she whispered.
"You're feeling the bond," he said simply.
"The what?"
"The pull. Between you and me." His voice was husky. "You feel it. I know you do. It's ancient. Instinctive and dangerous."
"You sound like you've done this before."
His jaw tensed. "Never. You're… different."
Salina swallowed hard. Her skin buzzed beneath his gaze, like it could ignite at any second. She wanted to touch him, to reach out and run her fingers along the lines of his jaw, to find out if his mouth tasted like smoke and secrets.
But she didn't. Not yet.
Instead, she asked, "Are you going to tell me what you really are?"
He looked away for the first time. "You already know."
"I want to hear you say it."
He stepped back into the shadows, but his voice carried through the night. "You're not ready."
"Try me."
Kade's eyes glowed faintly. "I'm a monster, Salina. A beast. And once I let it out, there's no going back."
Salina wondered how he got to know her name.
"I don't think you're a monster."
"You should."
His voice sounded so broken that it made her chest ache.
She stepped forward. "If I'm not ready… why can't I stop thinking about you?"
He turned, his eyes locking on hers. The air thickened between them, charged like lightning about to strike.
"Because I've already marked you," he said, almost in pain. "Not physically, not yet. But my scent, my presence… your soul already remembers mine. Even if your body doesn't understand it yet."
She couldn't breathe.
"Kade…"
"Say my name again," he said, almost like a command.
"Kade."
His eyes flared gold.
And then he was gone he moved so fast she didn't even see it. One blink and he disappeared into the night.
But the echo of his heat stayed on her skin like a brand.
~~~
Back at her cabin, Salina slammed the door behind her and leaned against it, her chest rising and falling. Her entire body trembled, not from fear but from something else.
She undressed slowly, slipping out of her shirt, her jeans, until she stood in just her underwear in the moonlight streaming through the bedroom window.
She looked at herself in the mirror.
There was something new in her eyes. Wild. Hungry.
And she whispered his name again.
"Kade."
~~~~
Miles away, deep in the forest, Kade shifted in the dark, hunched over, gripping a tree trunk as his body convulsed with barely restrained power.
He could hear her voice, even from here. Whispering his name like a spell.
He dug his claws into the bark.
He was losing control.
His wolf was howling for her.
And if he got any closer, he wouldn't stop.