Awakening The Silver Wolf

RAVENNA POV 

"Hand-to-hand combat?" I asked, my heart racing.

If I won, was I really going to let him go? Was I going to ignore this ache in my heart, this pull that I felt towards him? 

During the drive here I had gone through everything he said and I believed him. That pain in his eyes was real. The raw emotions were real. 

So why was I still going on with this?

But this was the way it was supposed to be from the beginning. This Darius' stupid game. In the last fight, if I could injure him deeply, he would let me go. And if he also injured me he would kill me. 

But I could see it in Darius' eyes, in his pained face and tensed posture that he wasn't going to kill me. And I knew deep down that I wasn't going to leave him. 

"Yes," Darius answered, his voice low but unwavering. 

I nodded, trying to steady my racing heart. Every muscle in my body was taut, coiled tight as if preparing for a battle I didn't want to fight.

The night around us seemed to hold its breath. The wind howled, and thunder rumbled in the distance, adding weight to the moment.

The full moon loomed above, its pale light bathing the clearing in silver, and yet all I could see was him. Darius.

The air crackled, the tension unbearable.

And then, without warning, Darius moved.

He lunged toward me with a speed I could barely track, and for a moment, my breath caught in my throat. 

I barely dodged his first punch, the force of it whipping past my face, so close I could feel the heat of his skin. 

I retaliated, driving my knee into his ribs. He grunted, stumbling back, but before I could follow through, he was back on me, his hands like steel, grabbing for my arms, trying to pin me down.

I twisted, and fought, but he was relentless. His body pressed against mine, and every time we collided, the heat between us only grew. My chest tightened, a strange pull deep in my gut that made it harder to focus.

I ducked under a punch, narrowly avoiding the blow, and slammed my fist into his jaw. The sound of bone hitting bone made the world feel too loud, too real, but it didn't stop him. He barely flinched, eyes burning with an intensity that left me breathless.

He's not going to kill me. I saw it in his eyes. That pain, that anguish that was so raw it bled through every word he spoke. He didn't want this.

And I didn't want to lose him either.

The raindrop fell, followed by another, and then it quickly turned into a torrential downpour that soaked us both to the bone. The earth beneath our feet became slick with mud, and with each move, I felt my strength slipping. 

We circled each other, the rain pelting down, our bodies slick and slippery, each strike landing with the force of thunder. 

My lungs burned, and my limbs screamed in protest, but the heat in my chest—that scar—it burned hotter with every blow. I could feel it, deep in my bones, like a fire that would never die.

I twisted, but his hand shot out, grabbing my wrist, and pulling me toward him. The sudden movement threw me off balance, and before I knew it, I was on the ground, my back hitting the wet earth with a thud.

Darius was on top of me in an instant, pinning me down with a strength that should've terrified me, but instead, all I felt was the heat of his body against mine. 

The weight of him, pressing me into the mud, the rain mixing with sweat, the air thick with everything we wanted to say. 

His face was inches from mine, and for a moment, everything stopped. His breath was ragged, his eyes wild with something I couldn't name—desperation, regret, longing. My own heart pounded in my chest, as if it, too, could barely hold on.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.

I wasn't sure which one of us moved first, but suddenly, his lips were on mine. The kiss was raw, desperate, and yet, it felt like something more—something I couldn't name, something that made my heart ache in a way that cut deeper than the wounds we'd inflicted on each other.

His hands were trembling against my skin as if he couldn't believe this was happening, as if this was the last thing he'd ever wanted to lose. I kissed him back, not out of obligation, but because I needed to because it felt like I would die if I didn't. Every part of me was drawn to him, like a flame to the wind.

The scar on my chest pulsed, a sharp tingle of heat that spread through my blood, down my arms, and into my fingertips. It was like fire, burning brighter, hotter, every time we touched. The strength I felt—the power—I didn't understand it, but it was undeniable.

Darius' lips broke away from mine for a moment, his breath hot against my skin, his chest heaving. His eyes were wild with pain, the kind of pain that bled from a place deeper than anything I could comprehend. His voice cracked when he spoke.

"You feel this too," he whispered, his words barely audible over the sound of the storm. He didn't say it as a question: it was a statement. 

I could barely hear him, but I felt it. His words sliced through me like a blade. "I do," I whispered back.

He took my hand and placed it on his chest, where his heart was beating wildly. "This is what you do to me. Tell me you feel it too, Ravenna. Tell me you feel this ache that I feel in my chest. Tell me you feel this pull that I feel in my soul. Tell me you're madly in love with me as I am with you, Ravenna. Please tell me." 

I tried to blink the tears and rain away from my eyes, my whole body trembling but not with the cold. "I do, Darius. God, I love you so damn much." 

His lips slammed to mine again and this time the kiss was hard, like a promise, like a challenge.

Darius rose from the ground, carrying me with him before he walked to the car and placed me on the hood, all the while never breaking the kiss. 

His hand squeezed my backside, kneading it. His tongue slipped inside my mouth and sucked on my tongue.

I gasped into his mouth, aching my back as he ground his body on mine. 

The rain faded, and the world blurred. Everything but this man disappeared.

The ache in my chest became fierce, consuming me until my whole body buzzed.

"Darius," I moaned against his lips.

"You feel it too, don't you?" he asked as he broke away from my lips and kissed my jaw. "You feel this buzz? It's spreading all over your body, isn't it?"

"Yes," I moaned as he sucked on my neck. 

His hand moved to my breast, circling my nipples. "You feel this burning desire, too. This needs to claim me, to make me yours."

I moaned loudly as he pinched my nipple. "Oh, god! Yes! God, yes, I feel it too."

"Don't you know what this is, my love? Haven't you figured it out yet?"

I couldn't hear what he was saying anyhow as his mouth left my neck and fell down to my nipples, sucking it even with my clothes on. 

"Darius. Oh... " I moaned, his hand twitching my other nipple with his mouth sucking another.

"I want to fuck you here, Ravenna," he growled, his big body trembling. "I want you to scream so that the whole world would know who you belong to. I want to mark you, mate with you."

Even with the cloud in my head, I could still hear what he said. "Mate with me?"

"Yes, baby," he rasped. "Mate with you."

"But you can only mate with—" My words were cut off as lightning flashed and the scar in my chest burned.

I screamed as the heat consumed my body.