Her Chosen Mate

Part 54

(POV - Aiden)

Sitting so close to Aria, her small body trembling almost imperceptibly, Aiden had to curl his fingers into his palms to stop himself from reaching out to touch her. He wasn't sure if she was trembling from fear or anger, or maybe it was a mixture of both.

Maybe he didn't know her at all, and it was something completely different.

But he knew that he wanted to make things right. He had to. He'd done so many awful things that had hurt him, a very big part, had mourned at not having that memory for his own. At not having any of those memories.

He'd drowned in his wolf's urgency, willingly handing control over and letting his wolf do whatever he pleased. He hadn't dreamed that his wolf would ever go so far.

And he felt guilty for wishing he could have at least been able to remember giving her those bruises.

Or giving her the mating bite.

It was the single most important moment in a wolf's life, and it had happened to him in the middle of his rut, after he'd handed the reins over and fallen asleep in the back seat.

He had no recollection of the moment his teeth had broken her skin, no memory of the way his wolf and hers would have joined for a brief, stunning moment when the bond was being sealed. All he had was the emptiness ironically filling him, and the guilt that threatened to suffocate him.

It had only been a few hours since Aria had left his room.

She'd left the second his rut was over, startling and hurting him at the same time. But he was so consumed by the reality of what he'd done to her, of how he'd forced her into his bed, and then claimed her so brutally.

He'd never really felt like a senseless animal before, but when he slowly climbed out of his rut-induced haze and saw what he'd done, he understood that the wolf inside him was truly inhuman.

All he was left with were the memories of Aria that he had secretly nurtured in his heart for years.

He remembered seeing her shift into her wolf form, her slim jaws snapping at the book held high over her head. He had been a young wolf, even though he was a few years older than Aria, but seeing those wolves lunge at her, scaring her, had pushed him forward without his brain giving his body the order to do so.

He'd chased them off and grumbled about how immature they'd been, even going as far as making a mental note to speak to his father about it. He'd known his father would have just brushed it off as 'good natured pack dynamics', but Aiden had seen how close that one wolf had been to severing muscle from bone.

And it was while he shifted, bending down to pick up the tattered book from the grass and handing it back to her, that he felt it.

A tug.

The tiniest pull towards this young wolf with big eyes and rosy cheeks, something he felt more in his chest than in his gut. He recalled handing the book to her and almost jumping out of his skin when her fingers brushed over his.

Familiar, his wolf had rather unhelpfully supplied. You, me, ours.

Aiden, at the time, had no idea what to do with that little gem of knowledge, so he'd carelessly cast it aside and walked back into the forest where he'd been before sniffing the putrid scent of fear.

He'd been on his way to meet Meredith and didn't want to be late. He had planned to put the entire event behind him because it shouldn't have meant more than what it was on the surface. It was only supposed to be about him running a few bullies off when they'd been tormenting a smaller wolf.