CHAPTER 290: POSSESSIVE

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Chapter 290

~Valerie’s POV~

"Yeah. That’s what happens when you shift. I shifted."

Dristan’s eyes darkened, his brows pulling together in that way that said too much and yet nothing at all. He said nothing for a heartbeat. Then two.

"Do you always go for a midnight run while you’re in heat?" he asked, his tone sharp with something jagged—possessiveness, maybe.

I exhaled sharply, folding my arms under the hoodie. "I didn’t plan to go into heat right now, okay? It’s not exactly something I scheduled."

He stepped closer.

"So what, Xander just happened to be there?"

I looked away. "I didn’t go out looking for him."

"But he found you. Of course he did." His voice dipped lower, bitter, like a curse barely restrained. "And you let him see you. In that state."

"That state?" I repeated, a dry laugh escaping. "You mean my wolf form? That state?"

"The very same wolf form I literally begged you to go for a run in? The same wolf form that Soren wants to spend time with Astra in? And now you so casually let him see you in it."

I sighed, shaking my head. I sincerely did not wish to do this now.

"Dristan, it wasn’t like that."

"No. Then tell me what it’s like and why, until now, I have not been allowed to see your wolf. Why are you shy of me but not of him?"

I raked my hand through my head.

"If it’s my wolf form that’s the issue, then I apologise, but I just can’t yet, Dristan."

"No, Valerie. The shifting is one, but this state is another." His voice broke with frustration as his hand lifted and gestured toward me, toward the thin hoodie clinging to my flushed skin, barely hiding what needed hiding.

"Don’t pretend like you don’t know what you’re doing to me," he murmured, and I stilled.

Something in his voice had shifted.

I opened my mouth to retort, but he stepped closer, eliminating the distance between us in a breath.

His scent enveloped me like a drug, and the ache low in my belly bloomed with renewed force.

Dristan was doing things to me in more ways than I could count or think of.

"I don’t..." I began, but my voice cracked. "I didn’t mean to..."

"Don’t lie to me," he growled low. "You came in smelling like him. Like your heat worsened around him, you think I can’t tell?"

I felt the warmth flood my cheeks, but it was more than embarrassment. My skin was burning. The heat—my heat—was peaking again, and his closeness wasn’t helping.

His hand shot out, gripping my wrist, not roughly, but firmly enough to still me.

"Tell me you don’t want this," he whispered, his voice a rasp now, barely more than breath against my lips. "Tell me to stop."

I stared up at him. My heart was pounding like a war drum inside my chest.

He pulled me close, and I felt him all of him. Hard and ready, all pressed against me through his jeans.

The ache inside me pulsed so hard I almost moaned. But I clenched my jaw instead.

"Dristan," I breathed, trying to think—trying to speak past the fog invading my head. "It’s just the heat—"

Before I could finish, his lips crashed down on mine.

I gasped, but he didn’t give me the chance to pull away. His kiss was different from before.

It was fierce, territorial, wild, and I felt him devour me, his tongue tracing mine in a demanding and unrelenting manner. And stars help me, I kissed him back.

My hands found his chest, my fingers curling into the fabric of his shirt as his other arm looped around my waist and pulled me even closer. His thigh nudged between mine, and my body trembled from the contact.

Then his hand moved lower, sliding beneath the hem of my hoodie. My breath hitched as his fingers brushed the inside of my thigh, then higher.

"Dristan..." I gasped against his lips, but his touch sent shockwaves through me, pleasure bursting like firecrackers along my nerves.

"Tell me to stop," Dristan said again, but this time there was a pleading note under the command. "Say it, Valerie. Or I’m not going to."

His fingers slid up between my legs, parting me, and I moaned before I could stop it, my hips arching into his palm instinctively.

I felt him smirk against my skin. "That’s what I thought."

It was like I’d lost myself in him, in this heat. His lips were on my neck now, fangs brushing lightly, making me shiver.

His fingers kept teasing, stroking me just right, and my knees almost buckled.

But then, somewhere inside the haze, I remembered Xander. I remembered what I told myself, what I wanted.

This wasn’t love; this was instinct... heat.

"No," I breathed, forcing myself to grab his wrist. "No, stop."

Dristan froze.

"Valerie," he whispered in a hoarse voice. "Don’t... don’t pull away now."

"I have to." I stepped back, the air between us growing colder. "This isn’t real. This is just the heat talking."

His eyes searched mine, almost frantic. "You think I don’t want you when you’re not in heat?"

I bit my bottom lip. "I think right now... neither of us is thinking clearly."

He scoffed, his jaw tightening. "So what, Riven and Xander get a pass, and I get punished?"

"Xander did not kiss me before," I snapped.

Dristan didn’t believe anything I said, so I added, "And I stopped him, too!"

"Yeah, right before you came running back in a hoodie, smelling like him," he said, his voice low and bitter again.

"Stop it," I said, shaking my head. "Just stop, Dristan. You’re not being fair."

"No," he whispered, closing the gap one last time, brushing his forehead against mine. "What’s not fair is that you keep pretending this thing between us isn’t real."

I didn’t answer.

Because part of me wanted to believe him. And the other part knew... it wasn’t the right time.

"I need space," I said quietly. "Just until my heat passes."

He didn’t argue. But I saw the flicker of pain in his eyes as he stepped away and let me go.

"Fine," Dristan muttered. "Take all the space you need."

I turned and walked away, my knees barely steady, but my heart was an absolute mess and heat or not... I knew I had to find my necklace.