𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐍✔️

THIRTEEN|YOURS

  I AWOKE TO the scent of pine.

  Kaden.

  My beast purred at the arm draped over my midsection, pulling me flush against his bare chest, sparks danced through my body from where my shirt had ridden up slightly, my skin meeting his. It was strange... I felt peaceful.

  Like I was no longer at war with the world. I could relax. I rolled over but blanched back when my eyes met Kaden's brilliant blue ones, stunning yet slightly unnerving.

  "Good morning." He smirked, pulling me closer to him. I nuzzled my face into his chest, a slight groan escaping from my lips before I could stop it.

I just wanted to forget. To forget all the terrible things that had happened. And Kaden helped me do that, when I was with him, I almost felt sane again, if only for a moment. Almost.

Kaden unknowingly helped me to believe that it was all in the past, that he would protect me. Except he didn't know the dangers that he protected me from, but nonetheless he became my only sanctity. He could never know.

But he helped me to forget. It was all in the past, or so I had begun to tell myself.

"Arden?"

I mumbled an incoherent response, to which Kaden sighed and ran his fingers through my honeysuckle hair.

"You're beautiful, you know that right?"

My wolf yipped and I didn't respond for fear of what I might say, but my hands instinctively found their way to his taut stomach, fingers absentmindedly tracing the outlines of his abdomen.

Kaden let out a low rumble of approval that sent shivers down my spine and made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. A slight smile tugged at the corners of my lips at the effect I had on him and the knowledge that he enjoyed my presence, almost as much as I enjoyed his.

His fingers traced slight circles on my back through my shirt.

And I found myself wishing that there were no clothes to separate us. I wanted to feel his skin on mine, electrifying and brilliant and sinful in every way.

But even the sweetest dreams could not last forever, no matter how hard I willed them to. Kaden would no doubt have Alpha duties to attend to at some point during the day and would have to leave me. It was not fair for me to expect him to stay forever.

"Do you have to go today?" I asked.

Kaden sighed and dragged himself from the bed, leaving me feeling cold and empty at the lack of his touch. He stretched out, and my eyes couldn't help but cling to his movements, and the way every muscle in his body seemed to tense like a coiled spring before releasing.

I looked at his smirking face when I heard him scoff, he knew I had been watching him, and he took pleasure in that knowledge.

"No need to be bashful. Look all you want."

His words triggered something within me. The most primal parts within me came screaming to the surface, begging to be released from their cages. They wanted him. I wanted him.

"Mine." The word left my lips before I could hesitate to think about what I was saying. I sat up on the bed, letting the silk covers fall away. Kaden walked over and sat down beside me, the bed dipping slightly under his weight. His eyes flickered over my face but focused on my lips.

" — Yours." That was all he said before crashing his lips against mine. After all, not that I'd known it then, but he had always been a firm believer that actions spoke louder than words.

I was unresponsive for a moment, shock rendering me numb, before the sparks pushed through, coursing through my veins like fire and I met him with a hunger that only he could satisfy.

His lips brushed against mine so gently it was as though he was scared I would break, like a fragile glass that would shatter into a thousand pieces under the wrong touch.

The kiss was gentle and sweet, his tongue brushed my lower lip, asking for entrance that I immediately granted. I came alive beneath his touch, everything within me surging forward to take control.

Once slow and sweet, the kiss soon turned into one of hunger and desperation. I pushed myself up, moving to straddle him and I could feel his need pressing against me, firm and hard. My shirt had ridden up to my hips so that my lace panties underneath were exposed, but I didn't care.

I wanted him to me; all of me.

I moaned against his lips, my hands finding their way to his hair, pulling on the soft strands as he growled against my lips, canines skinning my flesh.

One hand grasping my hip, the other cupping my cheek he was guiding me and I followed his lead, taking everything that he gave to me and still pleading for more. It felt good, so good, I never knew that things like this could ever make me feel this way.

I pulled away, gasping for air which was thick and saturated scent of our arousal. It hung heavy in the air, like a suffocating. Loud that I never wanted to surface from.

"Arden..." He breathed. "That was..."

" — Perfect," I finished for him in between my own laboured breaths and buried my head in his shoulder, draping my arms around his neck.

We sat there for what felt like hours, talking about meaningless things that somehow found meaning with Kaden, before we broke apart and he stood up to leave.

"I have to go." He rumbled, his voice like liquid gold to my ears, he placed a lingering kiss on my forehead before moving to leave. But then he lingered by the doorway, not looking at all like he wanted to go. "I have a meeting with the Alpha of the Red Stone pack, but if you need anything — anything at all, just come get me."

I nodded with a smile. But it was only once the door had closed that the realisation struck me dumb.

The Red Stone pack. Alpha Xavier, of the Red Stone pack...

My brother.