LOGINBella's POV The carriage ride back to the packhouse was the longest ride of my life. I sat in the corner with my arms wrapped around myself and my face turned toward the window. Julie sat across from me and watched me with that careful expression she wore when she was trying to decide whether to ask a question or let it go. She let it go. I was grateful for that. I could still feel his mouth on mine. I pressed my fingers to my lips and felt the ghost of him there. The warmth of his lips, the pressure of them, the way they had moved against mine like he was trying to consume me. I could still feel his hand on my back, his palm flat against my bare skin, the waist chain pressing into my flesh where he had gripped me. I could still hear the sound he had made when I kissed his neck, that low rough groan that had vibrated through his chest and into mine. And then the way he had told me to leave. Please, Arabell. The word please had cracked something open in my chest and I was still
Ethan's POV That was the hardest thing I had ever done in my thirty-five years of life. Sending Arabell away. I stood in the middle of my room with my back to the door and listened to her footsteps retreating down the corridor. Each one was softer than the last, fading, moving further from me, and I had to lock my jaw to keep myself from turning around and calling her back. The sound of the door clicking shut behind her was the worst part. That finality. That small sound that meant she was gone and I had been the one to make her go. My hands were still tingling from the feel of her skin. I could still feel the warmth of her under my palms, the smooth silk of the dress and the heat of her body beneath it. The way her waist had curved into my hands like it had been made for them, the specific give of her flesh under my fingers when I had gripped her and pulled her closer. I had felt the waist chain against my palm, the delicate metal warm from her skin, and I had wanted to trace ev
Bella’s POV.The rain was still falling outside, heavy and constant, the sound of it filling the room like a rhythm that matched the beat of my heart. Water streamed down the windows in thick rivulets, blurring the world outside into something soft and indistinct. The storm had been building all afternoon and now it was here, pouring down, washing everything clean.He was still kissing me, still claiming my mouth like he was never going to stop, and I was fighting for air because he was not letting go. His tongue was in my mouth, his hand was on my breast, his body was pressing me into the mattress and I was drowning in him.I did not want him to stop.I broke the kiss because I needed to breathe, I needed to feel his mouth on other parts of me. I was burning up from the inside and I needed him to put out the fire. I traced wet open-mouthed kisses along his jaw, over the sharp line of his cheekbone, down his neck to where his pulse was beating fast against my lips. The skin there was
Bella's POV Ethan was completely still. My eyes were closed and I just kept kissing him because I had already started, pulling away now would mean admitting I had made a mistake, and the warmth of his lips against mine was the only thing I could feel and I did not want to lose it. I explored his mouth the way I had been wanting to explore it for weeks. Slow and careful. Tasting him. Feeling the shape of his lips under mine, the slight roughness of his lower lip where he had bitten it at some point, the warmth of his breath mixing with mine. My tongue traced the seam of his lips and I felt the faint tremor that ran through him, barely there, almost imperceptible. But he was not responding. He was not kissing me back. He was just sitting there, completely still, letting me kiss him like he was waiting for me to realize something, like he was giving me the space to make my own mistake so he would not have to be the one to stop me. Uncertainty started running through me like cold wa
Bella’s POV.He came over and sat in the chair beside the bed, close enough that I could smell the mint and rain of his scent, close enough that I could see the lines of tension in his jaw. He took my arm and found the vein with practiced efficiency and connected the line, and then he did the same to himself, and the blood began to move through the tubes between us.The familiar pull started almost immediately, that strange sensation of something leaving my body and entering his, the specific quality of connection that came from the tether. I lay back on the bed and stared at the ceiling and let the feeling wash over me."The physician is not coming," I said again, and this time my voice was softer, less composed. "Are you sure?""I am sure, Arabell."He did not elaborate. He just sat there in his chair, his arm extended, his eyes on my face, and I felt the warmth of his attention on my skin even through the distance.The last thing I remembered was the warmth of his hand on my arm an
Bella's POV It was not surprising seeing Andrew already planning the wedding even though I had said it could only take place when the baby bump becomes visible. He had been moving through the packhouse all week with that specific energy of a man who believed he had won something, his shoulders looser, his jaw softer, the particular quality of relief that came from thinking the hard part was over. He did not know that the hard part had not even started. It had been a week. Seven days of watching Hailey perform pregnancy with increasing confidence, her hand resting on her stomach at every meal, her back arched just slightly when she walked, her voice softening when she talked about the baby that did not exist. Seven days of watching Andrew believe every single second of it. And today I was going to see the king for another blood therapy session. I stood in front of my mirror while Julie moved around me, her hands efficient and careful as she adjusted the fabric of my dress. The sil
Bella's POV.I finally walked out of the wardrobe and saw him already back in the room, standing by the window with his back to me. He turned when he heard my footsteps and his eyes moved over every detail of my body, from the red dress to the heels to the way my hair was still damp from the shower
Bella's POVI had never wanted any man in my life before like this.Not Andrew, not anyone I had ever looked at and thought maybe, possibly, if the circumstances were different. This was different. This was not wanting. This was hunger, desperate and consuming and so big that I could not fit it ins
Ethan's POVSlade wanted out. And for the first time in years… I wasn’t sure I was going to stop him.He had been pacing inside me for hours, scratching at the walls of my chest like a caged animal, groaning and howling and calling for our mate in that desperate way that made my head throb and my h
Bella's POVI was standing there in the darkness with my forehead still pressed against the cold iron of the gate and my whole body burning from the inside out, trying to decide whether I should run back home or try to climb the fence, when the gate suddenly opened.I stumbled back a step and pulle







