NYRA

I avoided the main floor all day. Pretended I had too many orders to catch up on, kept the lights dim, the door locked, the curtains drawn. But nothing I did erased the heat still clinging to my fingers, the feel of his skin, the weight of his stare, the way my own body had betrayed me.

I wasn't feeling too well. Everything just wasn't.

I scrubbed my station twice. Rearranged the inks. Took apart a machine just to put it back together again. But even when my hands moved, my mind stayed stuck, looping back to him. That voice, low and rough. That heat, slow and crawling.

I told myself it meant nothing. That I was just touch-starved. Curious. A little too tired.

I hadn't heard from Jaxon in a long time and recalling our last conversation made my stomach twitch. Yeah, I was worried but all the same, everything was going to fall back to place.

*

By nightfall, my thoughts had spiraled too far, and the silence had grown teeth. I’d just begun to shut the place down when I heard it, the door creaking open.

I froze.

No footsteps. No voice. Just the low hum of presence behind me.

I didn’t turn. I already knew who it was.

“You shouldn’t be here, I closed.” I said quietly, still facing the wall.

Kade didn’t answer.

I turned slowly. He stood there like he always did, coat half open, snow melting at his collar, that wild look in his eyes like the world had never made sense.

“I’m busy,” I said again, sharper.

He stepped in further. Still no words. Just him, watching me, it felt like he had been stressed all day.

“I mean it,” I said, backing up slightly. “You can’t keep coming here like this.”

“I can,” he finally said. “And I will.”

I exhaled, annoyed. “You don’t even know me.”

He moved closer. “I don’t need to.”

I opened my mouth to say something but then closed it again, my stomach clenched when he said that. I hated how I felt and how the studio immediately felt too small for the both of us.

“You’re playing with something you shouldn’t,” I said. “This... this thing between us. It’s dangerous and I'm not someone who's…. really worth it.”

Kade’s gaze didn’t shift. “Good,” he said. “Danger’s the only thing that feels real anymore.”

This time, he was close, his breath against my skin. I shivered when he brought his mouth close to mine and it didn't take anymore second before I shoved him, hard, palms against his chest, like I could force the heat out of me and back into him.

He didn’t move far. Just caught himself and stepped forward again.

Then his hand wrapped around my wrist, firm. His breath hitched. Mine did too.

Something cracked open.

He kissed me.

Not soft nor slow. It was fast and rough and too much all at once. My back hit the wall, and my fingers dug into his coat before I could stop them.

The kiss burned. It Hot and sharp and messy like we’d been starving for it. For each other.

And I kissed him back.

Because in that second, nothing else mattered. Not what I feared. Not what I knew.

Just him and this.

The kiss turned hungry and more urgent.

I didn’t even think, I just moved.

One second his hands were on my waist, gripping hard like he didn’t know how to stop. The next, I had him backed into the wall. My fingers threaded into his hair, tugging. His teeth scraped my bottom lip. I gasped and he groaned.

We didn’t speak, we just… couldn’t.

It wasn’t soft and yet still desperate.

He spun us around, and suddenly we were crashing into the edge of the table. I felt him everywhere. My shirt came off, I didn’t remember when. My spine arched as his hand moved up my back, fingers warm, slow, reverent.

He traced the line of ink along my spine, his breath hot near my ear.

“You smell like wild things,” he murmured. “And ink.”

I couldn't speak, I just couldn't. For many moments, I felt wanted and most of all, myself again. My wolf kept reacting so fast and I couldn't stop myself.

I swore I’d imagined it. But then his mouth was on my neck, and the heat between us sparked, sharp and fast like a flint and something inside me stirred something I'd always kept buried.

The thing that curled and clawed when I wasn’t careful.

I clutched at him harder, needing to feel, needing to drown in something that wasn’t shame or silence or the past.

His palm slid down my waist and my legs trembled.

But then when I thought everything was going to be fine, something inside of me cracked, breaking into a billion pieces.

A flash of memory, jagged and cold, my father’s voice, harsh when he was dying and then another repair of eyes, one of the elders I couldn't even remember was on me. They were blank and judging.

My breath caught in panic and I broke the kiss immediately like I'd been immediately slapped.

I shoved back, my chest rising and falling and my skin too hot. He stares at me, dazed. Like he wanted me so badly but was confused about my sudden reaction.

I couldn’t look at him, my arms were crossed over my chest, holding myself.

“I’m sorry,” I said, voice small and shaking.

I grabbed my coat off the hook and fled barefoot into the snow outside.

I didn't even stop myself to look back, the cold bit into me fast but I badly needed it. I needed it to remind me that I was still me and I hadn't given in completely.

I was happy I had left the studio but also sad he hadn't followed me. I tried convincing myself he would soon turn out to be like everyone else.

“Don't trust anyone Nyra, they are all monsters.”

I gasped trying to catch my breath as I finally stopped walking.