Chapter 8
Suddenly, Riven’s expression shifted-his aura pulsed, and a flicker of shadow crossed hi usually calm features. His jaw tightened, and he stepped back, dropping his hands from my
waist.
“Avelyn,” he growled, his voice deep and laced with restrained Alpha authority. “Am I reall someone you’re ashamed to be seen with?”
The air between us thickened. I could feel the tension radiating from his wolf, barely suppressed beneath his skin.
“I’m not Darius Nightbane,” he went on, his voice colder now. “I won you through my own merit Through patience, through restraint, through years of watching you love someone who never deserved you. Why should I sneak around like I’ve done something wrong?”
His eyes blazed-not with fury, but something more raw. Wounded pride.
“My family has strict values. Our bloodline runs pure, our word is sacred. When I choose a mate, I don’t change my mind. A secret mating bond?” He shook his head. “Never.”
I stared at him, my heart thudding painfully in my chest. I could feel the storm rising inside him- his wolf snarling beneath the surface. It wasn’t anger aimed at me, not truly. It was pain.
He thought I didn’t want to be claimed.
He took another step back, assuming I was still unsure. But my body moved before my mind could catch up. I reached forward and wrapped my arms around his waist, holding tight.
“Riven, is that how little you trust me?” I whispered.
His body stilled.
“In your eyes, am I really the kind of woman who would two-time a man? Is that what you think of me?”
I looked up at him, my voice trembling slightly but firm.
“Are you degrading me… or doubting your own judgment?”
I knew what kind of man Riven Ashton was. His name alone was enough to silence Alphas twice his age. In the business world, in the Council, in the ancient werewolf bloodlines-his word was
law.
No one dared speak to him this way.
No one except me.
And I didn’t regret it.
He stared at me, unblinking, torn between pride and pain. “Then what exactly are you saying?” he demanded. “We’ll get married, but you don’t want it public? How is that any different from an affair?”
His voice cracked on the last word. I saw it then-the storm behind his eyes. The frustration. The ache.
Instead of answering, I tilted my head and gave him a small, provocative smile. It was a little cruel, but I couldn’t help myself.
Chapter 8
32
8:57 pm DDG M.
“Then what about the past three years?” I said, softly. “Every time I had a business negotiation or formal gala, you’d send me a gift-always under a different excuse. What was that supposed to be?”
I raised a brow.
“A side guy’s peace offering?”
He went rigid. His wolf surged forward, visible for a flicker in the golden flash of his irises.
“How did you know those gifts were from me?” he asked, his voice now suddenly low-almost vulnerable.
I looked up into his eyes-so gold they glowed like molten sunlight beneath the moonlight filtering through the windows-and said simply:
“Because no one else in this world remembers my birthday, or any other important occasion, or anything about me at all…”
There was a silence that followed-heavy, soul-deep.
Back when I was just the maid’s daughter in the Moonveil Pack, the staff told me birthdays were luxuries reserved for heirs, not for servants’ blood. My wolf hadn’t even awakened yet. I wasn’t worth celebrating.
When I returned as the lost daughter of the Moonveil line, I thought things would change. But my birthday fell on the same day as Lexie’s-and the Moonveils only ever celebrated hers. As if acknowledging mine would unravel the lie they built around her.
But Riven… he remembered.
Every single year.
For three years straight, he sent a gift. Sometimes it was rare chocolate from the northern regions. Sometimes a leather-bound book of ancient wolf legends. Sometimes a single lily tucked in silver wrapping. Always anonymous. But it is always perfect.
He said nothing, but I saw the shift in his expression. He realized it then.
I had known all along.
His feelings hadn’t gone unnoticed.
Still, there was a question he couldn’t swallow.
“If you knew how I felt,” he said slowly, “then why did you choose Alpha Darius three years ago? What does he have… that I don’t?”
I lowered my gaze, a bitter smile tugging at my lips.
“Nothing,” I whispered. “He’s not better than you in any way.”
My throat tightened. The memory came like a phantom-cold, painful.
“When I was fifteen… I was wrongly accused of breaking a ceremonial vase in the Moonveil Pack. As punishment, they made me kneel in the snow. Three days and three nights. No food. No water. My wolf hadn’t even awakened. They left me to die.”
I paused.
‘Just as I was about to faint, someone lifted me out of the cold. Carried me in their arms. Wrapped me in their coat. Took me to safety.”
Chapter 8
8:57 pm D
I looked up at him.
“And when I woke up… Darius was the one sitting beside my hospital bed, taking care of me Back then, he was the only light I saw in the darkness.”
Riven’s breath caught. His eyes narrowed, glinting with something deeper.
“Who told you…” he said slowly, his voice now dangerously low, “that he was the one who save you?”
Before I could even process the question, Riven pushed me back-not hard, but enough to create distance. The frustration in his eyes was sharp… but beneath it, I saw something else.
Betrayal.
My chest tightened. I didn’t know what part of my words triggered him, but I still answered honestly.
“When I woke up in the hospital, he was there. Everyone said it was him. I thought-”
Riven let out a bitter laugh.
“Avelyn, I remember you being clever. Who would’ve thought you’d grow up not even recognizing the wolf who saved your life?”
His words slammed into me.
I froze, my knees buckled.
“Wha- what do you mean?” I asked, breathless. “I got it wrong? Then… then why was he there? Why would he stay?”
This time, Riven’s face hardened.
“Avelyn,” he said, his tone like stone, “listen to me very carefully.”
He stepped forward, and I instinctively stepped back-until I was pressed against the cold wall behind me.
He braced one hand on either side of me, boxing me in-not with aggression, but certainty.
“The one who found you in the snow,” he said, voice quiet but firm, “was me.”
My eyes widened.
“There was a crisis with my family at the time-I had to leave that same night. I didn’t want to leave you unattended, so I asked Darius to stay at your side until I could return.
“I was the one who carried you out of the storm. I paid for your hospital treatment. I even gave the Moonveils a high-tier trading contract in exchange for their silence-and even paid Darius, for his help.”
I couldn’t speak. The words wouldn’t form. My heart was racing, my head spinning.
I had given my heart to Darius… because of a memory that didn’t even belong to him.
Riven leaned in, just slightly-his voice a whisper, but it cut through me like claws through flesh.
“If the only reason you ever loved Darius was because of that moment, of that memory…” he said, his breath warm against my cheek, “then I’m telling you now, Avelyn- You gave your heart to the wrong wolf.”
My mind went completely blank.
