Nyra’s POV
Kieran eyes flashed at my words, “You’re not.”
But words weren’t enough tonight. They felt empty and hollow. A love he was ashamed of could not be real. But then why would he hold on for four years?
“Then when will you tell them?” I asked, and my voice shook with how badly I needed the answer. “When will you stop pretending I’m a stranger?”
Kieran went still.
I watched the weight settle on him.
Then he cupped my face and looked straight into my eyes like he meant it.
“Soon,” he said. “I promise. Soon.”
The word hit me like warmth.
Like healing.
Like the Moon finally turning her face toward me.
I wanted to doubt him.
I wanted to be smarter.
But I’d been starving for so long, and he was the only thing that ever felt like food.
So I nodded.
I believed him.
And in that belief, my body softened the way it always did when he spoke to me like I mattered.
Kieran stood and pulled me up carefully, as if I were glass. He guided me to the bed, sat behind me, and drew me into his arms.
I melted into him instantly, the way I always did. The way I hated myself for.
His hand slid over my hair in slow strokes that made my eyes sting.
“We’ll have our own place,” he murmured. “Not out there. Not like this. A real home. Somewhere no one can touch you.”
I closed my eyes. “And my mother?”
“She comes with us,” he said without hesitation. “If she wants. If you want.”
My chest tightened.
“You say that now,” I whispered.
“I mean it.” His mouth brushed my ear. “We’ll make our own pack if we have to.”
I let out a shaky breath. “You talk like you can just… leave.”
Kieran’s arms tightened. “When I become Alpha, everything changes.”
There it was.
The future.
The later that kept me in shadows.
“When I become alpha and they don’t accept you. I will force them if I have to,”
He kissed my shoulder softly. “Tell me you believe me.”
I turned slightly, my bruised ribs protesting, and looked up at him.
“You’ve had four years,” I whispered.
His face tightened. “I know.”
“And still no one knows. Not even Charles and he is your best friend, your beta,”
“I know.” He lifted my hand and pressed it to his chest. “But I’m not letting you go. Never.”
My pulse stuttered.
He shifted closer, his lips finding mine properly, slow at first, then deeper, hungrier, like he was trying to pour everything he couldn’t say in daylight into that kiss.
I kissed him back like I couldn’t afford pride.
Like love was the only thing keeping me alive.
His hands slid to my waist, holding me as if my bones might come apart. He pulled me onto his lap, careful of my bruises, and I curled against him, trembling.
He kissed my cheek, my jaw, my throat, each touch a promise.
Each touch a lie I wanted to believe.
“I want children with you,” he whispered suddenly.
I froze, breath catching. “Kieran…”
He smiled faintly, and it was so soft it wrecked me.
“Our daughter,” he said, like it was already real. “I want her to look like you.”
Tears stung my eyes. I tried to laugh. “She’d be bullied.”
“No,” he said fiercely, and the Alpha in him flashed. “Not my daughter. Not you. Never again.”
His fingers brushed my cheek, catching the tear that slipped free.
“And our son,” he went on, voice quieter now, almost dreamlike. “He’ll have your eyes. He’ll be stubborn like you.”
I swallowed hard. “You make it sound easy.”
“It will be,” he said. “When I claim you. When I stop hiding us.” He kissed my forehead. “You won’t be in the shadows anymore. I swear it.”
My heart cracked open, wide and aching.
I nodded because I wanted to live in that world.
I wanted to be the girl who got chosen loudly.
We spent most of the night like that, talking in whispers, curled together in the cabin, his hands never far from me. When I flinched from pain, he soothed me. When my voice trembled, he kissed my lips steady.
And somewhere between his warmth and the darkness outside, I almost forgot the pack existed.
Almost forgot I was the girl they didn’t claim.
Kieran kissed me again, slower this time, and I dissolved into him.
“I’ll always love you,” he murmured against my mouth. “I’ll always look out for you.”
I believed him.
Because I needed to.
Then his arms tightened, and his voice turned serious, too serious.
“Promise me something,” he said.
I blinked. “What?”
“Promise me you’ll never leave me,” he whispered.
My chest tightened.
“Kieran, ”
“Promise,” he insisted, eyes burning into mine. “No matter what happens. No matter what you hear. No matter what anyone says. You don’t leave me.”
A chill slid down my spine.
It was such a strange thing to ask.
Such a desperate thing.
But his hands were warm on my face, and his mouth had just been on mine, and he looked at me like I was the only thing keeping him human.
So I nodded.
“I promise,” I whispered.
Only then did his shoulders drop, like he’d been holding his breath for years.
