Bella's POV:
The car ride was steeped in a thick, grumpy silence. He sat slumped in the passenger seat, radiating the energy of a scolded child who'd had his favorite toy taken away. I watched him from the backseat, unimpressed.
I had discovered that he was an undercover student all along. Now that he had finished his mission, he wouldn't be coming to the uni anymore. He was actually twenty-eight, seven years older than me. I was only twenty-one, barely a year into university, still learning who I was while he'd been living an entirely different life under our noses.
I had silently felt kind of sad. I wouldn't be seeing his ugly face for a while.
My attention, however, was firmly captured by the woman driving. His sister. She handled the powerful car with an easy, confident grace, her focus absolute. To be honest, she was kind of hot. And it was more than that, it was obvious she was an Alpha. The quiet command in her posture, the sharp intelligence in her eyes that flicked to the rear view mirror; it all screamed high-ranking predator.
A thought, clinical and instinctual, surfaced in my mind. Female Alphas of her caliber often pair with male Alphas. It's a strategic union, one that theory suggests can produce a particularly powerful offspring: an Enigma.
The potential in her bloodline was… fascinating.
The car glided to a smooth halt right at my curb. Not on my street, not near my house. At my house. A cold trickle of suspicion ran down my spine, cutting through my earlier… appreciation. I hadn't given her my address. The grumpy one in the passenger seat hadn't asked for it. We'd just gotten in, and she'd started driving with a purpose that suggested she knew exactly where she was going.
They both know.
I kept my face a mask of cool indifference as I unbuckled my seat belt. "Thanks for the ride," I said, my voice even.
But just as I moved to open my door, the passenger side clicked open, too. I froze, watching as Knox—the brooding, silent mountain of angst—unfolded himself from the seat and got out.
My eyebrows shot up. He stood there on the sidewalk, his hands shoved in his pockets, looking at everything but me. What was this? A chaperon? A guard?
I turned back to his sister, the Alpha. She offered a small, unreadable smile.
"Knox will see you to your door."
My eyes narrowed. This was no longer just a display of what they knew. This was a message. And I was suddenly very, very interested in what it meant.
I walked to my door, the weight of Knox's silent presence a tangible force at my back. The air crackled with unspoken questions. I could feel his gaze on me, a heavy, brooding pressure that made the hairs on my neck stand up.
I slid the key into the lock, the click echoing in the quiet night. A part of me was ready to slip inside and shut the door on this whole bizarre, unsettling evening.
But as I started to push the door open, a strong hand shot out and slammed it shut. Before I could even gasp, he spun me around.
His hands framed my face, rough and demanding, and his mouth crashed down on mine.
It wasn't a gentle kiss. It was a claiming. A searing, desperate, and furious kiss that stole the air from my lungs and the thoughts from my head. It was all the silence and grumpiness of the car ride distilled into a single, explosive act. I was too stunned to push him away, my hands frozen at my sides as he poured a lifetime of unspoken words into that one, devastating kiss.
He pulled away as suddenly as he had taken me, leaving me breathless and unsteady. My lips tingled, my mind was a roaring static.
He didn't say a word. He just looked at me, his eyes blazing with a dark, possessive fire that saw straight through my defenses and made my knees feel dangerously weak. It was a look that promised this wasn't over. A look that stated a claim I hadn't agreed to.
Then, without a sound, he turned, opened my door for me with a unsettling finality, and walked away, leaving me standing alone on my own porch, my heart hammering against my ribs and the ghost of his kiss burning on my lips.
He pulled away as suddenly as he had taken me, leaving me breathless and utterly unraveled. My lips tingled, my mind was a blissful blank, every thought scorched away by the fire he'd lit inside me.
He didn't say a word. He just looked at me, his eyes blazing with that familiar, ultramarine fire, a look that had once terrified me but now made my soul sing. It was the same possessive intensity he'd had in the club, in the storage room, but now it was an answer, not a threat. It was a claim I finally welcomed.
Then, without a sound, he turned, opened my door with a finality that felt like a new beginning, and walked away.
I stood frozen on the threshold, watching him go, my entire being humming. My bunny ears buzzed happily on my head, twitching with a joy I couldn't contain, while my snut throbbed in a relentless, excited rhythm against the fabric of my clothes. As the car pulled away, I didn't see the dangerous Don or the ruthless Panther. I only saw the man who had run through a storm for me.
The ghost of his touch was everywhere, but most intensely on the skin over my scent gland, where the mysterious, vine-like mark he'd given me lay hidden. It was pulsing with a warm, deep thrum, not with the searing pain of betrayal, but with a soothing, resonant energy. It felt… satisfied. It felt like his kiss had quieted a storm inside the mark itself, like his conscious claim had finally aligned with the primal one he'd accidentally placed upon me that first night.
I finally stumbled inside, closing the door and leaning against it, a slow, dazed smile spreading across my face. My fingers drifted to the mark on my neck, no longer a curse but a covenant.
He had marked me. First by accident, now by choice. And I had loved it. I loved him. The beast, the man, my anchor. And in that moment, with the scent of vanilla and safety still clinging to my skin, nothing else in the world mattered.