Raffyn Draven filled the corridor like a storm given flesh—broad shoulders, firelit eyes, a presence that made the air feel hotter, tighter, harder to breathe. The door clicked shut behind him, sealing us in shadow and silence.
I stepped back instinctively.
He noticed.
"Don't run," he said quietly. Not a command—yet still something inside me obeyed.
He approached with the measured stride of a predator who knew he didn't need to chase. Every inch of him radiated danger, but not the kind that threatened harm. It was the kind that threatened change.
"Why did you follow me?" I managed, though my voice wavered like candlelight.
One corner of his mouth lifted—not a smile, but something sharper. "You fled."
"I stepped out for air."
"From me?" he asked, leaning against the wall as if he owned it. "Or from what you felt when you danced with my brother?"
Heat rose to my cheeks. "I didn't feel anything—"
"Don't lie," he interrupted softly, golden eyes narrowing with a predatory gleam. "Not to me."
I swallowed hard. Raffyn didn't need to raise his voice to command a room. His presence alone was enough to unravel my composure. Up close, he was devastating—battle-scarred jaw, fire-warm skin, a scent of smoke and pine that felt too intimate for a stranger.
Except he didn't feel like a stranger.
And that terrified me.
"What do you want?" I whispered.
"You," he said simply.
My heart stopped.
His gaze dropped to my throat, where my pulse flared against my skin. "You walked into the ballroom tonight like a spark in dry grass. And everything inside me…" He exhaled slowly, jaw tightening. "Everything inside me reacted."
I stepped back, breath catching. "I don't understand."
"You don't have to," Raffyn murmured. "Instinct understands for you."
He stepped closer. My back brushed the cool stone wall, and his heat pressed toward me without touching. He didn't cage me in or command me closer. He just… waited. Tension coiled thick between us, like the pause before a storm breaks.
"Tell me your name again," he said.
My voice trembled. "Aureia."
The sound of it on my tongue made his eyes flare, bright as wildfire. "Aureia Vale," he said slowly, tasting each syllable as though memorizing them. "No wonder Talon couldn't walk away."
"I'm an omega," I whispered. "This attention doesn't make sense."
"It makes perfect sense," he countered. "You're not an omega. Not really."
The breath froze in my chest. "What do you—"
He shook his head. "Not here. Not now." His voice deepened—reluctant, strained. "I didn't follow you to frighten you."
"Then why?" I whispered.
His gaze softened, and for the first time I saw something vulnerable beneath the fire—something aching and conflicted.
"Because my brother is already looking at you the way men look at destiny," he said quietly. "And I needed to see why."
A shiver ran through me. Raffyn wasn't jealous—not exactly. But he was curious. Drawn. Challenged by something he couldn't name.
"What did you see?" I asked.
He stepped close enough that his breath grazed my cheek.
"A girl who doesn't know her own power," he murmured. "And that is the most dangerous thing in this room."
My pulse hammered so loudly I wondered if he could hear it. His eyes trailed over my face—slow, heated, searching. When his gaze drifted to my lips, I felt heat curl in my stomach.
"I should take you back," he said, voice thick with restraint. "Before Talon comes looking."
Before I could respond, footsteps echoed from the far end of the hall—quick, purposeful, approaching.
Raffyn's expression darkened. "Too late."
Talon appeared, a swirl of cool presence cutting through Raffyn's heat. His eyes narrowed the moment he saw how close we stood.
"Brother," Talon said, though the word carried no warmth. "You disappeared."
"And you followed," Raffyn replied, pushing off the wall with deliberate ease.
Talon's gaze flicked to me. "Aureia, are you alright?"
"Yes," I said softly. Too softly. Talon caught the waver in my voice, and something cold and fierce flashed in his eyes.
Raffyn smirked. "Relax. I didn't touch her."
"I didn't ask what you did," Talon said, stepping between us with an icy fluidity that made the air crackle.
Raffyn's jaw flexed. "Careful."
"Don't give me reason to be," Talon replied.
The tension between them vibrated like a drawn bowstring. Fire and water. Rage and restraint. Both staring at me as if seeing something neither wanted the other to claim first.
"I'm taking her back to the ballroom," Talon said, voice final.
Raffyn shrugged, but his gaze lingered on me—burning, unreadable. "Then we'll finish our conversation later."
A chill ran through me.
Because I knew he meant it.
Talon guided me toward the dance floor, though "guided" was too gentle a word. He stayed close—too close—his hand brushing my spine as if making sure Raffyn hadn't left a mark on me.
Once we reached the corner of the grand hall, Talon turned to me, expression sharp.
"Did he frighten you?" he asked.
"No," I said truthfully. "Not exactly."
His jaw tightened. "Raffyn is impulsive. He acts before thinking. Do not read meaning into everything he says."
I hesitated. "And what about you?"
Something flickered across his face—surprise, intrigue, something almost… possessive.
"What about me?" he asked, stepping closer.
"You followed him." My voice felt too small in the vast hall. "To find me."
Talon's eyes lowered, sweeping over my lavender gown, the rise and fall of my breath, the trembling of my fingers.
"Yes," he said. No excuse. No hesitation. Just truth.
"Why?"
His hand lifted as if to touch my cheek—but he stopped an inch away, breath hitching. His restraint felt more intimate than Raffyn's fire.
"Because you walked away," he whispered. "And I needed to understand why."
Before I could respond, a pair of advisers approached the twins' father. Whispered hisses rippled through the hall—fearful, urgent.
Something was wrong.
Talon stiffened next to me. Raffyn reappeared from the opposite side of the room, expression hardened into something dangerous.
A messenger arrived, breathless. "Alpha," he panted, bowing deeply, "scouts spotted Nightfall movement near the border. It may be a reconnaissance attempt."
Nightfall.
The kingdom ruled by Alpha Jarek Nightfall. The monster whispered about in fireside stories. The strongest pack in the region. Rumored to wage war without mercy.
The ballroom fractured into anxious murmurs.
Talon's body went tense. Raffyn's fire surged so strongly I could feel its heat from across the room.
Their father addressed the crowd with forced calm, but the tension did not ease.
And then—Talon turned back to me.
His ocean eyes darkened, swirling with warning.
"Aureia… go home. Now."
A tremor ran through me. "Talon, what's wrong?"
He didn't answer.
He didn't need to.
Because Raffyn stepped beside him, gaze fixed on me—not with desire this time, but with unmistakable fear.
"Aureia Vale," Raffyn said, v
oice low.
"They weren't scouting the border," Talon finished, eyes narrowing as they studied me like a puzzle snapping into place.
"They were looking for you."