Chapter 13
“Let me go, Tyler.” My voice was sharp, edged with steel.
But he didn’t release me. His fingers still wrapped around my wrist, firm but not painful, his golden eyes locked onto mine with something unreadable.
Something dangerous.
“You’re shaking,” he murmured, his voice low, almost taunting.
I yanked my arm back, hard. This time, he let go. I took two steps back, putting space between us, forcing air into my lungs. “I’m not shaking,” I snapped. “I just don’t want you near me.”
Tyler exhaled slowly, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “You keep saying that.” He tilted his head slightly. “But I wonder… are you trying to convince me, or yourself?”
I laughed, a cold, bitter sound. “Oh, don’t flatter yourself.”
His gaze darkened. “I don’t need to. Your body speaks for you.”
Fury ignited in my chest. My palm stung before I even realized I had slapped him.
A hush fell between us.
Tyler didn’t move, didn’t react. The only sign I had even touched him was the slow way his jaw tensed, the flicker of something wild in his eyes.
“You don’t get to touch me,” I hissed, my fingers curling into fists. “Not after everything.”
“Everything?” His voice was eerily calm. “You mean rejecting you?”
The words sliced through me, even after all these years.
I refused to let him see it.
“That’s exactly what I mean,” I said, lifting my chin. “You made your choice, Tyler. You can’t just—”
“And yet, you’re still here.”
I stiffened.
His lips curled slightly. “If you really hated me, if you really didn’t care, you would have left the second you had the chance.”
“I stayed for my mother.”
“Of course you did.”
The way he said it, the way his eyes flickered with something smug, made my blood boil.
“You arrogant bastard,” I spat. “You think I stayed because of you?”
Tyler took a step closer. I took one back.
“I think,” he said, voice dangerously smooth, “you still feel it. The bond. No matter how much you fight it.”
My heart pounded, but I refused to show weakness.
“The bond means nothing,” I lied.
He took another step. “Then why are you still trembling?”
I hated him.
I hated how he could get under my skin so easily. How he could make me feel like that same stupid girl who once believed he was my forever.
I hated that he still knew me better than anyone else.
“You can’t fix this,” I whispered. “You can’t undo what you did to me.”
For a moment, I thought I saw regret flicker in his eyes. But just as quickly as it appeared, it was gone.
“Maybe not,” he said. “But I can make you remember.”
Before I could process what he meant, he moved.
Fast.
His hands gripped my face, rough and desperate, and then—his lips crashed against mine.
Heat exploded through my veins, raw and violent.
I gasped, my body betraying me for a split second—just enough time for him to deepen the kiss, for his fingers to tangle in my hair, for the taste of him to send me spiraling back into memories I never wanted to relive.
But then reality slammed into me.
I shoved him. Hard.
Tyler stumbled back a step, his chest rising and falling, lips parted.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand, my skin burning.
“You don’t get to do that!” I screamed, my voice shaking with rage.
Tyler smirked, slow and wicked. “And yet, you kissed me back.”
My stomach twisted, humiliation mixing with fury. “I-I need to go, my mother needs me.”
I wanted to claw that smug look off his face.
“You’ll be mine again,” he murmured, voice like a dark promise. “One way or another.”
