Chapter 48

Aria

The whole place felt a little… personal, like some kind of romantic date setting. Only I was with Darren, my boss, who was leading me toward a table overlooking the city.

He slid off his coat, handing it to the attendant, before taking mine too. His hands brushed my shoulders as he slid my jacket off for me, and I was glad to have my back turned so he couldn’t see the flush in my cheeks. Then, he pulled out my chair for me.

“Thank you,” I murmured, trying not to seem too awkward as he sat across from me.

“I thought you might appreciate the view.”

And he was right—the city lights stretched out below, and in that moment I realized that I’d never actually seen the city from this angle. It was… beautiful.

But the view just made my heart pound even more. Because I still didn’t know why he had taken me here.

Before I could ask why we’d come here, the waiter returned with a rather expensive-looking bottle of wine, which he uncorked and poured into two glasses in front of us. We placed our food orders and the waiter left, leaving us sipping our wine in silence for a few moments.

Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Are you… going to tell me why we’re here?”

He nodded. Then, with a deep breath, he reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper. He unfolded it and handed it to me.

A high school photo. My own high school photo.

I looked back up at him, feeling both confused and a little sick. “Where did you get this?”

“I did some digging. I needed to be sure.”

“Sure… of what?”

Darren sighed and rubbed a hand over his jaw. He had a bit of a five o’clock shadow today, which was unusual for him. Although after the events of the past few days, I couldn’t blame him. “Aria… for years, Sarah had me convinced that she was the girl who helped me when I was younger.”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember finding a puppy on the side of the road as a child?” he asked.

A chill ran through me instantly. The puppy I’d found all those years ago… its fur matted with blood, its eyes glazed over as if it had just barely survived some sort of wild animal attack. Tending to it for months in the abandoned barn behind my parents’ property.

Its mismatched eyes glinting in the shaft of sunlight, no, glowing, as it protected me from Sarah.

My mind began to put two and two together, and I felt like I might throw up.

“Why are you asking about that?” I whispered, my voice trembling.

“Because that was me, Aria,” he said quietly. “That puppy you helped, the one you nursed back to health? That was me. Sarah… she led me to believe it was her, that she was the one who found me and saved my life. And I believed her, stupidly. But now I know it was you.”

I opened my mouth, but the words didn’t come. It didn’t make sense, and yet, as I looked at him, really looked at him…

“How?” I finally managed to croak out.

“I was traveling with my parents,” he explained, his eyes dropping to the pristine white tablecloth between us. “We got attacked by rogues on the road. My mother was killed, my father injured. The rogues dragged me away… toying with me. They had just left me for dead when you found me.”

The world spun around me as I gripped the edge of the table.

“I don’t… I don’t understand…”

“The attack left me stuck in my pup form,” Darren continued. “My injuries were so great that my wolf took over to protect me, but it wasn’t enough. It was only thanks to you that I survived.”

Darren swallowed hard and looked away, shaking his head. “When you showed the scar on your thigh, I knew it was you. I remember seeing that scar one day, when you were wearing shorts, and I remember thinking how angry I was that you’d gotten hurt at any point.”

I remained silent, unable to speak. But Darren wasn’t finished anyway. “And then you mentioned the scar that Sarah had from being attacked by a dog that was protecting you, and everything made sense.

“I went back to your house, fifteen years after it happened,” he continued quietly. “I wanted to make it up to you—thank you for saving me. I told your adoptive parents that you had rescued my dog. Sarah took the credit.”

There was a long, tense silence before he finished, “For years, I was falsely led to believe that it was Sarah who had cared for me. You two share a similar eye color, and it was so long ago, I didn’t realize.”

After he spoke, all I could do was stare at him incredulously. It wasn’t that I was upset that he’d been tricked—Sarah was a master of lies and manipulation—but it was just… difficult to wrap my head around it.

Finally, I closed my eyes, my throat bobbing. “I… I knew it was you,” I whispered.

“You did?”

I nodded. When I opened my eyes, he was staring at me with shock written across his face.

“I did,” I said. “I think I knew from the moment I saw your eyes—one brown, one blue. And when they glowed in the tent, when you kissed me… I didn’t want to believe it, but deep down, I knew it was you.”

Darren blinked at me, stunned, for several long moments. Then, he murmured, “I’m sorry, Aria. If I had known, if I had just realized instead of being so blind, I could have saved you a lot of trouble these past few weeks. Hell, I could have saved myself three years of trouble.”

“You couldn’t have known, Darren. I didn’t know either.”

He shook his head. “It’s no excuse. I just wanted to find you, thank you for saving me. For years, I tried to track you down, but… I guess you’d already left by the time I came looking.”

I let out a shaky breath. “Well, I guess we found each other in the end, didn’t we?”

Darren smiled faintly. “I guess so. Even if you stepped back into my life like a tornado that night at the club.”

My cheeks flushed at the memory of our kiss and the accidental mating mark. I wondered if the mate bond had shoved us together that night. Maybe it had done the same all those years ago, too.

After all, when I found him as a pup, I wasn’t supposed to be there that day. I was supposed to be in school, but I had missed the bus and was taking a shortcut.

“One thing is on my mind, though,” I said softly. “You have a white spot on your chest that wasn’t there before.”

His expression grew pained. “My twin sister died… a few years back. That mark appeared after she passed.” He swallowed, looking away. “Part of me wonders if it was her way of leaving a piece of herself with me.”

“Oh.” My eyes widened. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to reopen old wounds.”

He shook his head. “No. I’m sorry. For everything. For believing Sarah, for not realizing it was you sooner. You saved my life, Aria, and I just…”

“Hey,” I suddenly reached across the table again and squeezed his hand without thinking. “It’s okay. Really. You’ve done more than enough to make up for it.”

He looked down at our joined hands, his expression softening. “What do you mean?”

“Well… you’ve saved me too, haven’t you?” I said. “You saved me that day in the barn, when Sarah—”

“I’d do it all over again,” he interrupted, his gaze dark and intense as he looked back up at me.

We sat there in silence, the quiet hum of the restaurant around us, and for once, I didn’t feel like I had to keep my guard up. I felt seen, and safe, in a way I hadn’t felt in years.

The rest of dinner passed quietly, with only a few scattered conversations and quiet glances exchanged. I barely tasted the food, my mind too busy whirling around those old memories.

Finally, Darren offered to drive me home. The evening air was cold, making me shiver, as we pulled up to my apartment and headed up the front steps.

“Thank you for tonight,” I said softly, turning to face him.

He nodded, his expression softer than I’d seen before as he looked at me. “Really, Aria, if there’s anything I can do to make it up to you—”

“No. You’ve done enough. All I want is… your friendship. I’m not asking for anything more.”

For a moment, he seemed to hesitate, his gaze dropping to my lips before he looked away. He gave me a small, almost pained smile, but nodded.

“Very well. Goodnight, then,” he murmured, stepping back.

But before he could go, he paused at the bottom of the steps, his whole body going rigid. And then, just as I thought he was leaving, he turned back.

And before I knew it, he was striding back toward me, two steps at a time, with a purpose in his eyes that I’d seen once before—in the tent.

“Aria…”

Those mismatched eyes glowed as he leaned in… and tried to kiss me.