Moon Marked

5| Mark of Tension

Aurelia

A pure and blinding ache filled me from the inside out as I walked away from him. The dark strands of desire making a home inside of me, following me with every step I took and holding me down against everything I had so wilfully done.

A moment in his presence had weakened my resolve significantly, the consequence of it binding me together like strands of silver doused in the wickedness of wolfsbane.

It was the agonising result of my lapse in judgement, to look upon an unmated Alpha without the express permission of the power that had saved me for someone else. The moon had taken account of my transgressions as it watched me from over my shoulder, noting the change of my breathing and the itch to become one with him—and now it was going to make me suffer my punishment.

But the moon's punishment was useless when I knew I couldn't have walked away from him any sooner even if I had tried. Still, it was scorning me for my disobedience, and as I disappeared from the view of them both, all I had left was this magnetic pull and a delirious ache in the pit of my stomach for a man that was not meant for me.

The clouds covered the light from the night sky as I walked back to the heart of the sanctuary, trying my best not to get caught as I dragged my hands along the familiar white stone walls. I knew this journey by exact memory, having ventured out of this place in the cover of night to seek peace from the vicious whispers of my sanctuary sisters as they slept.

This time, instead of peace—I had coveted something much worse.

The claiming ceremony was in the morning and if I didn't find my mate this time, I would only have myself to blame.

The image of him was a stagnant thought in my mind even as I tried to force him out of it, but as I reached my room I couldn't help the way my body was reacting to the memory of the way he had devoured me with such unapologetic conviction.

He had looked at me like I was the only thing worth looking at.

His towering form was sculpted with precision and perfection, I knew this even as he had stood in front of me fully clothed. The moon showered him with its light like it was his right to receive all its blessings—and all I could do was bask in the shadow of him. His body was much bigger than mine in all aspects, but it did not scare me as it should have. Instead, it enticed me in every way, luring me to him.

If Meena could hear my thoughts now she would have already smacked some sense into me. Still, I didn't care—I was enthralled by much more than just his body, even as he had destroyed the distance between us and even as he had touched me.

There was a desperation in his gaze that I knew all too well, and an ache that mirrored in my own soul. It held such a familiarity that when he had recognised my mark, I was so sure that he was going to tell me that I was his— that nothing in this world had made any sense to him until he had laid his eyes on me.

It looked like the words were on the tip of his tongue as I begged him to recite them, but then he had decided against it—retracting them and withdrawing from me.

I should have made him show me his mark in retaliation, but the pain of his rejection had already hurt harder than any I had received before, and I didn't think I could suffer the blow of it a second time in front of him.

I pulled my wet clothes from my skin, and they hit the floor with a heavy thud as a dense feeling sprouted at the base of my joints, floundering with the calamity of everything I was so suddenly feeling.

I wouldn't be able to wash until the morning, but the thought of sleeping with the water of the celestial spring melded to my skin wasn't the worst of my worries.