Luna's breath caught as Javrian turned away, and she felt her heart fracture—not from fear, but from the devastating realization that history was about to repeat itself.
The overwhelming surge of emotions she'd been desperately trying to suppress burst forth like a dam breaking, threatening to drown her all over again.
Not this time. On that day three months ago, she had surrendered to her emotions completely, let them control her body and her choices. But this time would be different.
This time, she would be the one in control, even as her heart hammered against her ribs. She couldn't lose him again. She wouldn't watch him walk away and disappear into that hollow shell of himself.
"Did you just say children?" His voice was barely above a whisper, each word carefully measured as if he were afraid of breaking something fragile between them.
'At least he heard me.'
Luna's hands trembled violently at her sides, and she quickly turned her back to him, pressing her palms against her burning cheeks. She couldn't let him see the tears threatening to spill—tears she'd sworn she was finished shedding.
She had learned that drowning in emotions led to wrong decisions and hurt the people she loved most.
Better to let them flow when she chose, not when they chose to control her.
But now? Now she needed to weaponize those emotions against this stubborn alpha who had yet to understand what a woman could truly do.
"Why does it matter to you?" The words came out sharper than intended, her voice cracking on the last syllable. She wrapped her arms around herself, a pathetically inadequate shield. "Just go away."
She heard his footsteps on the grass behind her—slow, hesitant steps that made her shoulders tense with each soft sound. He was approaching like she was a wounded animal that might bolt.
"Luna, I don't understand—" Javrian's voice was closer now, and she could feel the heat radiating from his large frame even though he hadn't dared touch her.
"Of course you don't understand!" The words exploded from her lips before she could cage them, and she spun around to face him, her crimson eyes blazing with months of suppressed pain and fury.
Javrian instinctively stepped backward, his silver eyes widening at the raw devastation written across her face.
"After all, why would the great Javrian care about any of us?" Luna continued, her voice growing steadier but no less cutting. She stepped toward him, chin lifted in defiance even as her hands shook like leaves. "Yes, it was my fault that I slapped you. But you—" Her voice broke. "You harmed yourself, thinking it would somehow make me feel better."
Javrian's jaw clenched, and she could see the muscle jumping beneath his scarred skin. "I didn't mean—you said I hurt you. That I was no better than—"
"Do you really think," Luna interrupted, her voice dropping to a dangerous whisper as she moved closer, close enough that she had to tilt her head back to maintain eye contact, "that I would have fallen in love with you if you weren't better than every single person I've ever met?"
The words hit him like a physical blow. Javrian went completely still, his breathing becoming shallow as he stared down at her with stunned disbelief.
'She was hurt... because of what I did to myself?' The realization crashed over him like a wave. Those tears he'd seen in her eyes that day—they hadn't been because he'd hurt her directly, but because she'd been devastated seeing his condition, seeing what he'd done to himself.
He had made a terrible mistake.
'There it is', Luna thought with grim satisfaction as she watched understanding dawn in his silver eyes. 'Finally.'
She could see his throat working as he swallowed hard, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides as if he wanted to reach for her but didn't dare risk it.
"But I..." he started, his voice rough with emotion.
"Not 'I,'" Luna corrected firmly, though something deep in her chest twisted at the broken expression on his face. "We. There is no 'I' anymore, Javrian. There hasn't been since that night."
She watched her words sink in, watched as his silver eyes filled with a pain so profound it made her own heart ache in response.
His scarred face crumpled slightly, and she could see him struggling to form words around the emotion choking him.
"I'm sorry," he whispered finally, the words torn from somewhere deep in his chest. "Luna, I'm so sorry. I thought I had hurt you that night... in the water. I thought..."
Yes! Triumph flooded through her, swift and fierce. You finally understand.
But even as satisfaction bloomed in her chest, Luna felt something else stirring—an unexpected tenderness, a softness that threatened to undermine her carefully calculated approach.
Something about seeing her powerful alpha this vulnerable made her manipulative resolve waver.
Slowly, as if moving through honey, she raised her hand to cup his scarred cheek. His skin was warm beneath her palm, and she felt the slight tremor that ran through his entire body at her touch.
"Why are you the one apologizing?" she murmured, her voice so soft he had to lean down to catch her words. Her thumb traced the line of his scar with infinite gentleness. "Shouldn't it be me?"
Javrian's eyes fluttered closed at her touch, and she watched confusion replace the pain in his expression.
When he opened his eyes again, they were filled with something that looked dangerously close to hope.
Perfect, Luna thought as she watched him struggle to understand this sudden shift. Now he'll feel guilty for making me apologize, and we can finally move past this mess.
Even though her mind was orchestrating this carefully, her heart seemed to believe that this moment was real, that what she was doing now wouldn't lead to the future she'd foreseen.
So she rose up on her toes to kiss him.
But he retreated.
Her heart stopped.
"Wait, Luna, I don't—" Javrian's body had reacted reflexively, pulling back before his mind could catch up.
He tried to explain, but was met with narrowed eyes and pursed lips that promised an explosion.
"No, it's fine... I understand." Luna's voice was deadly quiet.
She realized that while the events of three months ago had become easier for her to process because of her awakened memories, for him there was still that hollow hesitation buried deep in his body language, that instinctive withdrawal.
But she didn't need to heal everything in a single day.
She looked at his face, slowly loosened her hand from his cheek, and tilted her head as tears brimmed in her crimson eyes.
The tears were calculated—after all, the mess she'd created needed to be cleaned up.
In a genuinely wounded tone, she said, "After all, I really don't deserve to be loved, do I?"
"What? Luna, what are you saying?" Javrian blinked rapidly, trying to understand why she suddenly seemed so hard, so defeated, why this woman who deserved all the love in the world was looking down on herself.
"It's fine if you want to go live with your new wife," Luna said, the words tasting like ash in her mouth even though she knew they were necessary manipulation, "but I will..."
"You will what?" Javrian's voice was sharp with sudden panic.
"You really want to know?" She met his eyes directly, her crimson gaze locking with his silver one.
It instantly recalled that day when this woman had boldly demanded he kill those two people, had asked for something completely illogical when he'd asked her name.
Even now she seemed about to make another impossible demand, and he found himself waiting with held breath.
Luna placed both hands on his face, gripping firmly, rising up on her toes to compensate for his height. She moved slowly, deliberately, until her lips were a breath away from his.
"I'll prove to you," she whispered against his mouth, "that no one will ever love you the way I do... my Beast."
And then she sealed her promise with a kiss that tasted of tears, determination, and desperate love.
"Mmmphhh—"