Chapter 305 - 306 Had all of it been a lie?

Chapter 305: Chapter 306 Had all of it been a lie?

Ethan’s POV

An older man caught me by the shoulder before my face met the tile.

There was a woman beside him too, looking at me with pity soft in her eyes. "She’s long gone, hon. It’s over. Don’t do this to yourself. Let her go."

"He’s right," the man sighed, shaking his head. "Plenty of fish out there, son. Girl like that, walking off with a man who looks at her like that? You never had a chance."

"She’s right. Why torture yourself? Plenty of other fish in the sea, son."

The man sighed and shook his head.

Every single one of them drove another crack straight through what was left of my pride.

"Get away from me. You don’t know a damn thing. Move. All of you, get out of my way—"

I shoved past the ring of bodies, stumbling, and by the time I made it out the front doors, Aria was already gone. No sign of her anywhere.

Store security came jogging up, alerted by the scene I’d made, and formed a wall in front of me.

"Sir, we’re going to need you to stop disrupting the peace. Otherwise we’ll have to involve the police."

I said nothing.

It was deep into the night before I finally dragged myself home, hollowed out, running on nothing.

The house was pitch black. It wasn’t even winter yet, but the air inside felt frozen enough to make my teeth chatter.

I had no strength left in me. Every injury on my body seemed to flare back to life at once, the pain crawling through my nerves inch by inch, feeding on me.

I sat down in Aria’s old bedroom. Spotless. Not a thing out of place. And yet I could see her everywhere, the ghost of her moving through the space, the way she used to.

Two months ago we were still a couple. At least, that’s what I let myself believe.

I was still waiting for her to come home.

How could it be. In the space of a single breath, she’d become another man’s wife.

Thinking of Aria calling that man husband in that soft voice, walking arm in arm with him through a grocery store like they’d done it a thousand times.

The hate rose in me like bile.

"Aria, why? Why would you be this cruel to me?"

I whispered it to the empty room.

There was no answer. And no matter how many times I turned it over, I couldn’t make sense of it.

How could a person’s heart change that fast. That completely. That mercilessly.

All those years she’d loved me, cared for me, defended me. Had all of it been a lie?

---

Aria’s POV

I’d thought the whole ugly scene with Ethan had rolled right off Damian’s back.

He’d seemed so calm in the parking lot, so unbothered, like the man kneeling on the grocery store floor had been nothing more than a stray leaf he’d stepped over on his way to the car.

I should have known better.

The second the door of my apartment clicked shut behind us, he had me. His hands, his mouth, the low growl vibrating in his chest that said everything.

"Fuck. Aria."

He pushed into me in one deep, claiming thrust.

I cried out, head falling back against the pillows. He was huge—stretching me, filling me so completely I could barely breathe.Then he fucked me hard, deep, possessive. Every stroke drove me up the bed until I had to brace a hand against the headboard.

"Look at me."

I did. His eyes had gone fully crimson at the edges, his wolf right there under the surface, watching me take him. His hand found my jaw, thumb dragging over my lower lip.

"You’re mine," he rasped. "Not his. Not anyone’s. Mine."

"I know—" The rest broke into a moan as he hit that spot inside me, relentless. "Damian—I’m yours—I’ve always—"

"Say it again."

"I’m yours."

He growled, low and satisfied, and his pace turned brutal.And he took me again. And again.

Every time I thought we were finished, his hands would find me again. My breast. The inside of my thigh. The slick, oversensitive place between my legs where I was already full of him.

He’d murmur something low and wrecked—*one more, baby, just one more*—and then he’d be inside me again, slower now, deeper, like he was trying to fuck the entire night out of his system using my body.

I lost count.

By the time he finally let me sleep, my whole body was wrung out, boneless, aching in the sweetest way. That man loved me until I couldn’t move.

Morning came slow and golden through the curtains, and when I finally blinked myself awake, Damian was already watching me.

Every inch of me ached in the best and worst way. My thighs, my hips, the deep sore place between my legs that still remembered every hour of the night before. I could feel him on my skin—his scent, his mouth, the faint bruise of his fingers on my waist.

"You’re up early." I stretched, my voice still thick with sleep. "Why not go back down for a bit?"

"Couldn’t sleep."

He said it low, his elbow propped on the mattress beside me, letting my messy hair drag across his forearm. I could tell it tickled a little, but he didn’t move away.

I opened my eyes wider, looking up at him, waiting for him to say more.

"Every time I remember you’re leaving me in four days," he murmured, "I don’t want to waste a single minute of it."

I was flying out next week. Just to see my grandfather, and only for a little while, but he was possessive down to the last hour, unwilling to spare even a moment of me to anyone else.

"Come on," I said, laughing softly. "It’s not like I’m never coming back—"

I didn’t get to finish. His thumb pressed gently against my lips, cutting me off.

"Don’t say that," he said. "I don’t want to hear it."

I blinked at him, and God help me, I thought he was adorable.

A face like his, the kind that could stop traffic and level a boardroom, and here he was acting like a pup that couldn’t bear to be away from its owner. How was that even fair?

I crooked a finger, pulling his head closer, and pressed my lips against the shell of his ear.

"So how long have you been watching me?"

I felt him shiver. The tip of his ear went red, trembling faintly under my breath.

"Since before the sun came up. All the way until it did."

He answered me honestly, no hesitation at all.

"Then why didn’t you..." I lowered my voice, teasing, deliberately breathy against his skin, "kiss me awake?"

His neck flushed instantly.

"...Didn’t have the heart to."

I froze. His words landed against my ear the same way mine had against his, and something in my chest went warm and liquid all at once.

His body was less patient than his mouth. The second the words left him, all the kissing he’d been holding back came scattering down, from behind my ear and lower, unhurried and reverent.

Then the doorbell rang.