The Snow Wolf's Mate

Interrupted Fire:

[POV: Aria]

I had never felt like this before. Not once in my life.

Not when Cole had smiled at me for the first time. Not during the festival dances or the awkward brush of hands with anyone who’d ever dared to try to flirt with me.

Not even during those lonely, quiet nights when I dared to wonder what it might be like to be wanted.

But this? This was a wildfire.

Hayden’s hands on my body. His voice in my ear. His lips barely grazing mine. Every touch, every word, every breath between us had lit something inside me that I couldn’t put out.

My skin still burned from the places he’d claimed. My legs barely held me upright. My heart was in my throat.

And I wanted it. I really wanted him.

The way he looked at me, like I belonged to him already. The way he said my name like it was something dangerous and sacred. The way his hands gripped me, his mouth hovered at my neck, like he was on the edge of losing control.

I would’ve let him. Goddess, I wanted to let him. But it all shattered the moment he turned, distracted by a noise in the trees.

And then… time froze. My eyes locked with Piper’s.

She stood at the edge of the clearing, arms crossed, her mouth tight with disapproval. At her feet lay what looked like a large, jagged rock—clearly the object she had just hurled at Hayden’s back.

My stomach dropped.

“Esteemed Alpha,” she said, her voice flat as steel, “if you wouldn’t mind removing your mouth and hands from my trainee, she’s due back at the packhouse for patrol.”

Hayden stiffened. I did, too.

Piper wasn’t done. “And you have a letter waiting—the one you specifically said you wanted the moment it arrived.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. Then, gently—carefully—I pushed against Hayden’s chest.

He let me go. Slowly.

My skin still tingled where he’d touched it, my lips still buzzing where his breath had lingered. I took a shaky step away from him, straightened my shirt, and turned toward Piper.

“I’m sorry,” I managed to say. “I didn’t mean to be late.”

Piper raised a brow. “Then I suggest you run.”

I didn’t need to be told twice.

I shifted mid-step, white fur replacing skin, and bolted through the woods back toward the packhouse.

Leaves and dirt flew beneath my paws, the wind cold against my face, but nothing could cool the heat still coiling in my stomach.

“What just happened?” Inside my head, Yoka was already pacing. “You should’ve stayed.”

“Don’t start,” I growled through our shared link.

“He wanted you. You wanted him. We wanted it. What’s wrong?”

I grumbled. “It wasn’t supposed to go like that. I didn’t even plan to talk to him tonight, let alone—”

“Let him lick your neck?” Yoka teased. “Or let him pin you to a tree and make you moan?”

“Shut up!”

“Oh, now you’re shy?” She laughed. “After the way your legs went weak when he touched your waist?”

“It wasn’t like that,” I muttered.

“It was exactly like that. You melted, Aria.”

“It got out of control!”

“It got perfect,” Yoka corrected.

I let out a growl as I ducked under a low branch, trying to outrun both the conversation and the blush still burning under my fur.

“What exactly did you expect me to do, Yoka? Tell Piper to leave? Ask for ten more minutes so the Alpha could finish kissing me? That’s insane.”

“You could’ve told him how you felt,” she said, softer now.

“I don’t know how I feel!” I shot back. “That’s the problem. It’s not just attraction. It’s not just a heat. It’s… him.”

And he terrified me.

Because Hayden wasn’t just some reckless warrior. He was the Alpha. Power incarnate. Wild and dangerous and haunted. And for some unfathomable reason, he looked at me like I was the thing he couldn’t tame.

And I liked it. Goddess help me, I loved it.

I slowed as the trees thinned, breath coming faster now from confusion more than the run. His touch had been too much. Not enough. Everything.

And it scared me.

Because I knew that if he pulled me into his arms again, whispered my name in that gravel-coated voice of his, and asked—not demanded—I would say yes.

I would fall. Not just into his bed. Into him. And there might be no climbing back out.